Biden Finally Reacts as Gaza War Arrives at Starvation
Tens of thousands dead, little concern for the living. A recap at the six-month mark.
In a sudden turnabout, as the war reached the half-year mark, Israel has withdrawn its forces from the southern end of the Gaza Strip and ceasefire talks have resumed in Cairo. Warnings of famine from several organizations, and the killing of seven members of World Central Kitchens, a charity that had brought a shipload of food for the starving population, finally was enough for U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to end months of feckless pleading by issuing an implicit threat that aid to Israel might be in jeopardy:
"Right now there is no higher priority in Gaza than protecting civilians, surging humanitarian assistance, and insuring the security of those who provide it. Israel must meet this moment...If we don't see the changes that we need to see, there'll be changes in our own policy."
Whether the president would actually follow through on that veiled threat is questionable. Having immediately after the Hamas atrocities declared U.S. support of Israel to be "ironclad", he has since had to confront what he called Israel's "over the top" killing of Palestinian civilians and worry about a critical percentage of voters in the battleground state primaries who protested his inaction by marking their ballots "uncommitted".
But the threat was enough to cause Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu to finally back down after months of defying Biden. Of paramount importance, hundreds of trucks, in numbers close to the 500 a day that Gaza customarily needs, have been entering Gaza in recent days.
Calling Netanyahu's approach to the war "a mistake", Biden said after a phone call with Netanyahu that "He agreed to do several things that related to, number one, getting more aid, both food and medicine, into Gaza" and to reducing significantly civilian casualties.
With the Palestinian health ministry saying that over 36,000 are dead, It took far too long for Biden to reach this point.
UPDATE
It's been four months since our "Gaza Made Uninhabitable as Uprooted Population Becomes Refugees". The devastations of the war have only gotten worse. It is difficult to keep up with day-to-day reports. For now, a recap is more revealing about where this war has been and where it is going… Continue reading
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