Are the tectonic plates under US foreign policy shifting a little?
JVL Introduction
In an important speech delivered in front of the symbolically signficant Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where state troopers beat US civil rights marchers nearly six decades ago, US Vice-President Kamala Harris has called for an immediate ceasefire.
Does it herald a shift in US policy towards Israel, or is it just shabby electioneering?
We’ve learnt to be cautious, and yet it does seem to indicate that the pressure is finally getting through to Joe Biden, his love and uncritical support for Israel tempered by a dawning realisation of its possible electoral cost in November.
Let us allow ourselves to hope, just a little…
RK
This article was originally published by the Guardian on Mon 4 Mar 2024. Read the original here.
Kamala Harris issues sharp rebuke of Israel over ‘humanitarian catastrophe’ in Gaza
Vice-president calls for ceasefire and immediate hostage release, in comments that appear to be strongest yet by a US leader on Gaza
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“US vice-president Kamala Harris has bluntly called out Israel for not doing enough to ease a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza as the Biden administration faces increasing pressure to rein in its close ally while it wages war with Hamas militants”
If the the American governments really serious about a ceasefire, they should go further then just calling for one, and actually stop support for Israels military.
There are shifts this side of the Atlantic on the political scene, so it would be interesting to hear JVL’s take on them – what do JVL make of Galloways win, and how did they feel about Sunaks speech regarding it ?
I wonder whether anyone’s done the Maths as I’ve done over the much-publicised US emergency food drop of 38,000 meals into Gaza?
Assuming every pallet of food went to the right place – which we know hasn’t happened – it would take 605 FOOD DROPS by the USA EVERY SINGLE DAY to provide just ONE MEAL every 24 hours for the 2.3 million Gazans starving as a result of the Israeli blockade.
One meal a day for 38,000 people is better than nothing – but how stomach-churningly inadequate this gesture is!
Aid like this can’t be upscaled much either. No air force in the world – not even the huge US air force – has enough planes, crew or military budget to fly in the amount of food and water needed to help 2.3 million Gazans survive. Neither would there be enough air space for enough planes over the tiny enclave of Gaza to allow significant amounts of aid to be delivered.
At least the VP and White House officials now have personal experience of what Americans think is necessary. The cheers rang out loud and long for Harris at Selma when she spoke of the need for an immediate ceasefire and about the inhumanity of this “war”. Harris immediately lost her audience when she added that the ceasefire might only be temporary.
They could stop it with one phone call
Spend billions of citizens’ dollars enthusiastically facilitating the heavy bombing of hospitals, schools, apartment blocks and refugee camps and suddenly start dropping ‘humanitarian aid’ for starving refugees!
I am sorry, but this is all well beyond human comprehension, even when we are fully familiar with the concept of ‘shabby electioneering’.
Would have felt more confident had she has she should be the democratic nominee for president
“Let’s get a ceasefire. Let’s reunite the hostages with their families. And let’s provide immediate relief to the people of Gaza”.
Using starvation as part of the negotiations.
Sounds like: free the hostages and we’ll feed the starving – before starting to murder them again.
Oh, how I would love to feel real hope Richard. Unfortunately, cynical old me believes this is nothing more than a panicked public relations exercise – just like the totally inadequate air drop of food while allowing their beloved Israeli allies to stop the massive truckloads of aid that is really needed. Not to mention the cutting off of millions of dollars to UNWRA and then talking about “hungry and desperate people”. Chutzpah indeed.
world leaders should hold a peace-seeking conference…in Gaza
This could just be one of the those gestures neoliberal politicans make when an election is pending? After which its back to business as usual!
More empty and hollow calls for a ceasefire. Unless Britain and the US stop enabling Israel by giving them military support, which some are saying involves boots on the ground, Bibi will continue.
America and Britain have blood on their hands.
What is missing, glaringly, from Kamala Harris’s remarks is recognition that Israel is responsible for the suffering she is asking them to relieve. Nor is she even hinting at any consequences for failure to “significantly increase the flow of aid.” Her words – “our common humanity compels us to act” – have no meaningful content. .
Like many Countries around the World, the majority of their citizens are against Israel’s Genocide, when an election is getting closer, Politicians, that have said and done nothing for months, start making speeches in line with the electorate sentiment.
Calling Hamas “Militants” was a bit of a give away, Hamas, was reacting to years of murdered Palestinians, Land theft, 7000+ prisoners, 160 of them children, many without even being charged, Hamas’ aim was to capture as many Israelis, including military personnel as possible, to give themselves maximum bargaining leverage to get as many prisoners as possible out of Israel’s prisons, including all the children, that isn’t a militant action, it’s a small amount of retaliation.
This statement from the Marx Engels Lenin Institute sums things up accurately;
“Israel’s power lies in the fact that it plays a crucial role for US imperialism and indeed the entirety of the western block. Without Israel and the Arab compradors who are also tools of the US, then the US and British ability to exert influence over the region would be severely damaged. Netanyahu knows this very well. He knows how important Israel is to US imperialism, and thus, he has always conducted himself with a degree of arrogance. He knows that presidents come and go, but the interests of US imperialism are constant, and he acts accordingly. Why are all of the US and its allied block of nations going all in to protect Israel now? The answer is that if Israel collapses, which it will in the end, then the interests of all of them are fatally damaged. The long derailed project towards Arab unity may well be reborn if Israel goes down and the comprador regimes follow it. This can lead to people mistaking Israel as being the tail that wags the US dog. This is a mistake. The genocide that is going on right now is one that is directly in defence of the interests of US imperialism and their allies. Biden could stop it inside an hour if he wanted to, but if they stopped, it would lead to an internal implosion within the zionist state, and that would be fatal for US imperialism. Biden has to pretend that he’s in favour of a ceasefire for electoral purposes now, but the survival of the Israeli colonial regime is what matters to the US ruling class far more than any individual politician This is about Israe’s purpose, and it retains the same purpose that the British assigned to it when they backed the zionist movement with the Balfour Declaration. Israel’s purpose remains to stop the development of a unified Arab state that can effectively develop the region and move it firmly out of the period of colonial and neo-colonial domination. That was and remains Israel’s purpose and so the US has to back it or lose everything it has in the region”