The Shift: Biden says he’s ‘outraged’ over killing of aid workers . . . and moves to send Israel more weapons

This week an Israel airstrike killed seven people who had been working with the World Central Kitchen in the Gaza Strip. The NGO had been providing meals to Palestinians.

The region is on the verge of a man-made famine as humanitarian aid is being blocked and Israel is actively trying to destroy the UN’s Gaza aid agency.

Since October, the Biden administration has attempted to con the American public with a cynical shell game, insisting that it’s pushing Israel to obey the rule of law while it provides the country with an unceasing supply of weaponry.

We learn about a fresh round of viciousness every week, but when something exceptionally egregious occurs, Biden’s mouthpieces are burdened with the unmanageable task of expressing deep sympathy amid the usual defenses of Israel’s every action.

This is one of those situations, and Tuesday’s press briefing was predictably reprehensible.

White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby was hit with a number of good questions about Israel’s latest war crime.

Has the Pentagon been able to figure out what happened?,” asked a reporter. After all, the aid workers were in a marked vehicle in a “safe zone.”

Kirby: Yeah.  It’s really — I mean, it’s devastating to — to see these images and to hear these early reports about the steps that they tried to take to protect themselves.  But the Israelis — look, they’ve already said this was on them and they’re doing this investigation. 

We obviously want to — want to make sure that that investigation gets completed and is as transparent as possible and, as I said in my opening statement, that there’s accountability to be — to be held here.

So, we have yet another situation where Israel is investigating itself.

If you’re reading this newsletter you probably pay close to this issue, but don’t blame yourself if you’ve started to lose track of these supposed probes. On Twitter, The Intercept’s Prem Thakker points out that Israel has allegedly been investigating the killing of 6-year-old Hind Rajab, and the medics who attempted to save her life, for nearly 70 days.

Thakker asked State Department spokesman Matthew Miller for an update on the situation.

“So I think that question is appropriately directed to the Government of Israel,” said Miller. “I will say, on behalf of the United States, we have made clear to them that we want that incident to be investigated. They have told us they are investigating it. It’s our understanding that investigation is not yet complete. You should direct questions to them about where it stands. But we want to see it completed as soon as possible, and as I said from this podium several days ago, if accountability is appropriate, we want to be – we want to see accountability put in place.”

In other words, there is no update. Nothing’s being done and the U.S. is not demanding that anything happen. Standard operating procedure.

Watching the Biden administration, Democratic lawmakers, and liberal groups like J Street embrace an IDF investigation for the aid worker killing reminded me of a brief exchange between the AP’s Matt Lee and former State Department spokesman Ned Price from a couple years ago.

At the time, Lee was asking about Israel’s investigation into the killing of Al Jazeera journalist (and American citizen) Shireen Abu Akleh:

Lee: Okay. But I mean, do you want the Palestinians to be involved in the investigation?

Price: The IDF has announced an investigation.

Lee: Okay, that’s the IDF.

Price: Correct.

Lee: “I” standing for Israel.

Price: That is correct.

You might recall that the Israeli military eventually released a report on that killing, in which it admitted that there was a “high possibility” that the bullet came from an IDF soldier, but that it wouldn’t be pressing charges because it was probably an accident.

Back to the Kirby press conference.

He was also asked about conditioning aid to Israel. Was there any kind of red line that would result in military assistance being cut off? Here’s his response:

You know, we’ve had this — we’ve had this discussion, you and me, quite a bit from up here.  They’re still under a viable threat of Hamas.  We’re still going to make sure that they can defend themselves and that the 7th of October doesn’t happen again.

That doesn’t mean that it’s a free pass, that — that we look the other way when something like this happens or that we aren’t — and haven’t since the beginning of the conflict — urge the Israelis to be more precise, to be more careful, and, quite frankly, to increase the nu- — the amount of humanitarian assistance that gets in.

On the same day as Kirby’s press conference, President Biden released a statement saying he was “outraged and heartbroken” over the killing of the World Central Kitchen workers. The statement’s release almost directly coincided with a New York Times story on the administration pressing Congress for an $18 billion sale of fighter jets for Israel.

Sure sounds like a free pass to me.

Uncommitted Vote

Another round of presidential primaries, another strong showing for the Uncommitted movement.

We’re seeing a large number of Democratic voters refusing to pull the lever for Biden in state’s where there hasn’t even been much of a movement. For example, there was very little organizing around this issue in Rhode Island and the Uncommitted vote is currently hovering around 15%. Nearly 30% of Providence voted Uncommitted.

Nearly 50,000 voters in Wisconsin checked the box for “uninstructed” in their primary, the state’s version of Uncommitted.

“We more than DOUBLED our goal!” wrote the activist group Listen to Wisconsin on Facebook. “Our elections are so close, that showing we have the margin of victory to swing this election is exactly the leverage we need to push this administration to policy change on Gaza!”

The Uncommitted vote got above 14% in Connecticut. 12% of New York voters left their ballots blank.

You’d think this would strike Democratic leadership as cause for concern, but there’s little evidence that strategy is shifting in any major way.

This is the beginning of Alex Ward’s latest piece in Politico:

The Biden administration has no plans to change its policy toward Israel after the ally’s forces killed seven humanitarian aid workers.

President Joe Biden was privately enraged by the deadly strike and in a public statement upbraided Israel for it, calling for “accountability” to those responsible and demanding more humanitarian assistance be allowed into Gaza. But two senior administration officials said that is as far as he and the White House will go for now.

“That’s all we have planned,” said one of the officials, who like others was granted anonymity to speak candidly about administration planning or internal reactions.

Again, this is the blueprint. Expression of anger and sadness, but nothing in way of policy changes.

Anything substantial in way of voter outreach?

This week six Muslim American leaders who attended a meeting with Biden, VP Kamala Harris and senior White House officials. The sit-down was supposed to be larger, but many people declined the invite over the administration’s Gaza policy.

NBC has a good write-up of the event, which includes this amazing moment:

Just five minutes into a meeting with President Joe Biden, a Palestinian American doctor who has treated gravely injured patients in Gaza couldn’t bear to stay, so he left. 

Dr. Thaer Ahmad, who specializes in emergency medicine, recalled getting emotional when talking about the many Palestinians he cared for, describing the scale of death in the six months since the war began. 

“The decision to leave was a personal one,” he told NBC News in a phone interview, explaining he wanted to show the White House that “it was important to recognize the pain and the mourning that my community was in.” 

…Another doctor who attended was taken aback when she showed Biden prints of photos of malnourished children and women in Gaza — to which Biden responded that he had seen those images before. The problem, the doctor said, was that she had printed the photos from her own iPhone.

Odds & Ends

🇺🇸 GOP Congress member suggests nuclear bomb be dropped on Gaza

🇵🇸 Zionists have tried to silence me through doxing and intimidation. They won’t succeed

🇮🇱 Biden ‘quietly’ gives massive bombs to Israel — even as establishment voices say, Stop the genocide

🗳️ John Broadhurst, a businessman running in the Democratic congressional primary for Pennsylvania’s 10th district is the only candidate of six Dems to make criticism of U.S. support for Israel a central part of his campaign.

He has slammed the Democratic Party for supporting Israel’s bombing campaign that has made Gaza look “like the surface of the moon” and said this could cost Biden election in November.

At a March 25 candidates forum Broadhurst bragged that he called for a ceasefire months ago—“not yesterday”– and he demands an end to U.S. military aid to Israel. “I’m now calling on President Biden to end the war. To use all our powers. If we are a superpower, to bring the war to an end.”

He has criticized frontrunner Mike O’Brien, a Marine veteran, for taking money from AIPAC. “No foreign lobby should be allowed to intervene in American electoral politics. AIPAC targets progressive Democrats in order to preserve the status quo…Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territories.”

Broadhurst said that he gained the support of “thousands” of African-Americans and Muslims in the district for his stances. O’Brien sought to have him removed from the ballot over signatures issues, and failed.

👀 Senator Coons (D-DE) tells CNN that there should be conditions on military aid to Israel.

🐘 Trump on Gaza from a recent interview: “What I said very plainly is get it over with, and let’s get back to peace and stop killing people.”

“I’m not sure that I’m loving the way they’re doing it…”

“Israel is absolutely losing the PR war… They are losing it big.”

“They’re releasing the most heinous, most horrible tapes of buildings falling down.. I guess it makes them look tough. But to me, it doesn’t make them look tough.”

The “Donald the Dove” nonsense has always been laughable, but the guy clearly knows which way the wind is blowing.

📰 Counterpunch: Washington Post Believes U.S. & Israel “Can Get Back on the Same Page”

❓ Truthout: Why Is the Stop Asian Hate Movement Following the Lead of Zionists and Police?

💰 Jewish Insider: NY pro-Israel group launches PAC targeting far-left Assembly candidates

 🗣️ IfNotNow national spokesperson Eva Borgwardt on Israel’s killing of several aid workers:

“We are horrified by the Israeli military’s massacre of several aid workers in Gaza, including an American citizen. It is a result of Israel’s indiscriminate bombing that has killed over 30,000 Palestinians.

Statements of sorrow from politicians who voted for billions in unconditional weapons funding for Israel are no different than expressions of ‘thoughts and prayers’ from NRA allies in response to mass shootings.

It’s long past time for broken hearts or calls for restraint. President Biden must halt weapons transfers to Israel and to push for an immediate and lasting ceasefire that includes a hostage exchange and surge of humanitarian aid.”

📊 Truthout: The Majority of Americans Now Disapprove of Israel’s Genocide, Polling Finds

 🇺🇸 Al Jazeera: In Washington, DC: Celebrating Ramadan, protesting Israel’s siege of Gaza

💰 DMFI PAC endorsed Wesley Bell and George Latimer in their primaries against Reps. Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman.

🏫 Pitzer College has closed its study abroad program at the University of Haifa following a lengthy BDS campaign.

JVP: Pitzer College of the Claremont Colleges officially closed its study abroad program with the University of Haifa based on its nonalignment with Pitzer’s Core Values of “social responsibility” and “intercultural understanding”. The closure follows a long-term campaign at Pitzer in support of the Palestinian-led call for U.S. colleges and universities to support Palestinian freedom, including academic freedom, by suspending institutional relations with Israeli universities, due to their complicity in Israel’s military occupation, apartheid regime and, now, as the International Court of Justice has ruled, a plausible genocide against Palestinians.

This historic Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) victory follows the democratic will of Pitzer’s shared governance system. In February of this year, Pitzer’s Student Senate voted nearly unanimously (34-1) to suspend all institutional ties with Israeli universities. This win comes after 6 years of steadfast student and faculty organizing for an academic boycott of Israeli institutions in pursuit of Palestinian liberation. In the fall of 2018, the Faculty of the College voted 20-3 for a similar motion. The following semester, spring of 2019, Pitzer’s most inclusive governance body, the College Council, composed of the faculty, students, and staff representatives voted 67-28 for this policy. 

🇩🇰 Over 50,000 Danish citizens have signed a petition calling on Denmark to work actively to prevent genocide against the Palestinian people. The effort spearheaded by the group Stop Folkedrab. “Although Israel’s bombardments are in immediate response to Hamas’s October 7 attacks, it is Israel’s sovereign choice to respond by violating the rules of war, to disregard all consideration for Palestinian civilians, and to intensify 75 years of systematic efforts to make the living conditions of Palestinians in the area so impossible,” said Jonathan Ofir, of the group.

📺 National Security Council aide and former Condoleezza Rice speechwriter Elise Jordan on MSNBC:

I am so sick of hearing how President Biden is. The buck stops with him; if he wants to stop the arms sales and the bombs that are killing civilians, he can. He has the power. We don’t need his aides going to reporters and talking about how upset they are.

What happened yesterday is still going to happen…we don’t need to be getting any more arms or money, and it needs to stop and be conditional. It’s ridiculous, it’s going on unchecked and unfettered, and we are sitting around and talking about how upset we are while we hemorrhage billions of dollars.

Former Colin Powell aide Richard Haass on the same show, asked whether Netanyahu cares about what Biden says:

He doesn’t. He is positioning himself, saying you may not like me, and you may think I made a mistake on October 7th, but I am all that stands between you and the American pressure.

What would he care about? He would care about damaging the relationship with Israel’s most important benefactor. That would mean the United States. I’m sorry it’s come to this. We have to have some sanctioning of what Israel did. Not just stuff in the UN. It’s got to be conditioning arms deliveries and I would I would think there have to be trade sanctions against goods coming out of West Bank settlements. Why should they be able to come here without tariffs or other economic penalty?

We can’t have a policy based on persuading Israel. We have to have an increasingly independent policy that reflects our interests and values.

🇮🇱 The New Yorker’s Isaac Chotiner interviewed Aaron David Miller. Some amazing stuff in here:

Chotiner: Well, wait, wait, hold on, hold on. I am curious, then, why this country that we consider an ally and consider part of our shared democratic values would be in favor broadly, as you say, both the population and the government, of intentionally starving people to an even worse degree than what’s happening now.

Miller: If you want an explanation as to why I think the Israelis won’t do more to facilitate aid, it has everything to do with internal pressures. The Israeli public is convinced that Hamas is diverting aid, the Israeli media is not presenting to the Israeli public how appalling the situation is in Gaza, and most Israelis would say, “Why should we aid the Palestinians?”

It’s the most extreme right-wing government in the history of the state of Israel. They’re not terribly sensitive, to say the least, to the humanitarian situation. The Port of Ashdod, which is twenty miles north of Gaza, is equipped with the kinds of screening facilities that could allow the Israelis to probably ramp up support to five hundred trucks a day. But they’re not doing that.

Here’s Miller’s response to question about Biden’s feeling on situation: “Oh, if you’re asking me: Do I think that Joe Biden has the same depth of feeling and empathy for the Palestinians of Gaza as he does for the Israelis? No, he doesn’t, nor does he convey it. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that.”