President Biden vowed on Monday to veto a House Republican bill that would provide $17.6 billion in aid to Israel, calling it a “cynical political maneuver” intended to hurt the chances of passage for broader legislation that would provide money for Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan and the U.S. border.
House Republicans fiercely oppose the larger bill, which was unveiled by a small, bipartisan group of senators over the weekend. It calls for $118.3 billion in spending and would overhaul some of the nation’s immigration laws to deal with recent surges of migrants at the southern border.
Also Gaza is NOT a war while Ukraine is, Gaza is a genocide.
In Ukraine organized military forces clash over territory with both sides fielding artillery, tanks, aircraft and other sophisticated military systems. Russia is seeking to control Ukraine and annex most of it, but it literally has to roll tanks all the way through contested territory to do this.
Israel already controls and surrounds all of Gaza, it controls all administrative and infrastructural aspects of Gaza so much so that Israel was able to build a wall straight through the heart of Gaza just to fuck with Palestinians. There is no ground war in Gaza with infantry divisions fighting over territory, there is just Israel repeatedly dropping an absolutely absurd amount of bombs (dropping in several weeks on the tiny footprint of Gaza what the bomb happy US only managed to drop in a year in the Iraq War) on a civilian population that has no means to leave even if they wanted to.
You don’t need to fight a war when you can just shut the water, lights and internet off to an entire city, you can shutter the hospitals with a lift of a finger. If there was a war, it was over long ago and what people call a “war” now is mere symbolic violent resistance meant to attract the attention of someone powerful enough to help (or stop). The thing that should make every one of us want to scream is the only problems the Israeli government sees with cut off water and let ‘em starve solution is that 1. it doesn’t kill Palestinians fast enough to sweep under the rug out of international scrutiny and 2. it doesn’t magically bulldoze the houses of the Palestinians killed and erased like a bomb does all in one go.
Hamas is not a terrorist organization because it chose to be one instead of a traditional army, it is a terrorist organization because a war with large armies is simply impossible for Hamas to even begin to fight against the combined military industrial complex of the U.S. and Israel. I say “begin” specifically because in order to fight a war with a military you have to first bring together all your soldiers and the minute Hamas did that Israel would carpet bomb the map square of that gathering place out of existence. War over before it even started.
I am not defending Hamas (I am so tired of saying this, of course they are awful) but simply pointing out Israel’s main justification for their genocide is that Hamas chooses to be a terrorist organization because they are evil and not because it is an organization of people who feel armed resistance is necessary (a sentiment Israeli’s should understand) and terrorism is literally the only armed resistance option on the table. It’s not like Hamas makes tunnels because they love digging and just don’t feel like fielding columns upon columns of 120mm main battle tanks they have in storage…
What is happening in Gaza is collective punishment for the actions of a few, it is genocide, it is horrific slaughter and land theft, it is a disgusting rightwing fantasy of violence but It is NOT a war that makes the IDF look way too honorable here. Gaza is what happens after a war ends and one side has complete power over the other. It is closer to soldiers raping and pillaging a civilian population en masse in the wake of an invasion than a war.
Well said.