Tag

Biden Administration

Browsing
Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) during hearing on the Department of Agriculture Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2020 at the Rayburn House Office Building, in Washington, D.C., April 9, 2019. (USDA photo by Preston Keres)

Israel’s declaration of six leading Palestinian human rights and civil society groups as “terrorist” organizations continues to have reverberations in Washington. Rep. Betty McCollum has introduced a resolution calling on the U.S. House of Representatives to condemn Israel’s announcement, and specifically called for the Biden administration to “publicly condemn this authoritarian and antidemocratic act of repression by the Government of Israel against prominent Palestinian civil society organizations.”

The new Israeli government this week moved forward on plans to build 3000 more settlement units in the West Bank; and yesterday the State Department issued its strongest opposition to the plans since Joe Biden took office, calling the plans “unacceptable.” The State Department spokesperson said yesterday the U.S. “strongly” opposes the expansion of settlements.

Israeli Minister of Defense Benny Gantz speaks to the press during a joint press conference with Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III at the Ministry of Defense in HaKirya, Israel, April 11, 2021. (DoD Photo by U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Jack Sanders).

Israel is facing widespread backlash for its dangerous decision to label six Palestinian human rights groups as terrorist organizations. “Supporters of Israel often say to critics, ‘Stop singling out Israel. Stop picking on Israel. Treat Israel like any other country,'” Mehdi Hasan said on his MSNBC news program. “Well, okay then. Let’s condemn them for doing this then because when our other allies, like Turkey or Saudi Arabia or Egypt, crack down on human rights groups, we condemn them for it. We criticize them. So why give Israel a pass?”

A senior Israeli official told Axios that Joe Biden assured Naftali Bennett that the U.S. will continue providing cover for Israel’s not-so-secret nuclear arsenal.

Ever since the United States began its withdrawal from Afghanistan, the mainstream media has implemented a full-court press in support of continued occupation.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden on Election Day - November 6, 2012. (Photo: Christopher Dilts for Obama for America/Flickr)

A month after Osama bin Laden was killed Barack Obama declared that the United States was reaching its goals in Afghanistan and that he’d begin withdrawing troops. By 2016 he went back on that promise. Joe Biden’s speech defending the U.S. withdrawal was a terrible exercise in imperial hubris, but it reflected an attitude that has been consistent across the U.S. political class since 9/11.