“How long will it be okay for Israel to bomb Lebanon?” Biden was asked this Friday at a press conference. The American president smiled and, without answering, ended his appearance. Shortly after, the Israeli Army began another round of intense bombing of Beirut.
The figures provided this Saturday by the United Nations raise the number of Lebanese deaths to 2,000, including more than a hundred boys and girls and more than a hundred humanitarian workers. In addition, at least one million people have been forced to leave their homes. As happened with Gaza, Israel claims that its invasion of Lebanon is an “incursion” and “a limited operation,” but the facts contradict this. The number of fatalities exceeds, in less time, that of the 2006 invasion, which lasted 33 days.
Dozens dead in a single night in Gaza
The aggression against Lebanese territory has not stopped Israeli attacks in Palestine. In recent hours, the Israeli Army has killed dozens of people in Gaza, including several children and eighteen refugees in a mosque in Deir Al-Balah. The early hours of this Sunday have been especially hard, with bombings and more fatalities, among them the young journalist Hassan Hamad, whose last tweet, at 4:38, said the following: “Attack on a house near Terence Junction in the Jabalia field, north of the Gaza Strip. According to the first information, there are 6 dead, among them a newly married groom.”
Since October 2023, the bombings against the Strip have caused more than 41,000 deaths, including at least 15,000 children and adolescents. To that official figure we must add the missing not counted under the rubble and people who died from indirect causes, such as malnutrition, hunger or diseases caused by the Israeli blockade on the entry of necessary humanitarian aid. According to conservative calculations by several public health experts, the total number would exceed 186,000 fatalities.
99 health professionals who have worked in Gaza establish a figure of 118,908 deaths
In a letter addressed to Biden and Kamala Harris, published this week, 99 health professionals who have worked in Gaza establish a figure of 118,908 deaths and affirm that “all of us who treat in emergencies, intensive care or in a surgical center treat pre-adolescent children. who were shot in the head or chest on a regular or even daily basis.”
US military, political and economic aid to Israel
Despite the magnitude of the massacres against the Palestinian population, US support and protection for Israel has been constant this year. To the 3.6 billion dollars annually that Washington has provided to Tel Aviv for decades – the largest fixed annual amount that the US grants to a country – several additional packages must be added in these months. The last of them, worth 8.7 billion dollars, received the green light a few days ago.
In addition, the Biden Administration has increased the US military presence in the region, sending more planes, ships and soldiers, and strengthening intelligence support. At the diplomatic level, he has vetoed several United Nations resolutions calling for a ceasefire in Gaza or the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people.
American neocolonialism uses the Israeli colonial project
All this makes it clear that the US has promoted the escalation of war. If it had wanted to avoid it, it would have suspended its military support and its political and diplomatic protection of Tel Aviv. But he didn’t do it. Israel is an important piece for Washington to maintain – and, eventually, extend – its ability to influence in the region. American neocolonialism uses the Israeli colonial project.
This week it became known that, as early as October 2023, the Biden Government received internal reports from officials and the Red Cross that warned of possible Israeli war crimes. It has also been revealed that two US government agencies denounced Israel’s deliberate blocking of humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. Despite this, the US Administration maintained its closed support for Tel Aviv.
Biden’s words from two days ago, in line with past statements, express it like this: “No Administration [de EEUU] He has helped Israel more than I have; none, none, none.” His support is undoubted, although his predecessors were not far behind. All Democratic and Republican governments have sponsored Israel as it extended its illegal occupation and apartheid system against the Palestinian population.
The US has contributed to the escalation. If it had wanted to avoid it, it would have suspended its military support and political protection for Israel months ago.
The risk of losing votes for supporting Israel
The Israeli war escalation is affecting the US electoral campaign, with usually Democratic voters very dissatisfied with Biden and Harris’ policy towards Tel Aviv. In January and February of this year the Uncompromising National Movement, which calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and an arms embargo on Israel, obtained more than 700,000 votes in the Democratic Party primaries.
Subsequently, after the announcement of Kamala Harris’ candidacy, the members of that group, as well as Jewish peace associations and members of the American Arab and Muslim community, asked the vice president to change her position, to no avail. Last August, the National Congress of the Democratic Party offered space on its stage to representatives of all minorities, except the Palestinians. He also denied participation to the Uncommitted National Movement.
According to polls, Harris loses Arab voters but continues to do nothing to try to win them back
This week a new poll shows that Kamala Harris is losing a significant percentage of Arab voters, but her campaign is still doing nothing to try to win them back. The pressure from pro-Israel lobbies, which contribute large amounts of money to the two major parties, as well as the fear of losing Zionist voters, keeps the Democratic candidate paralyzed.
Added to this are his own convictions and his political career, always in line with Israel. In April, Harris helped rally support in Congress for another $17 billion shipment of military aid to Tel Aviv. Previously, in 2017, he campaigned against a UN resolution condemning illegal Israeli settlements, and co-sponsored an initiative in the Senate against UN intervention in the Palestinian issue. In addition, he opposes investigations by the International Criminal Court into Israeli crimes.
Harris doesn’t talk much about the Middle East. When he does so it is to make clear his firm support for Israel. He celebrated the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, which he described as “a measure of justice,” and insisted on his “unwavering commitment to Israel security” and their “right to defend themselves.” He supports Biden’s legacy and has not distanced himself from his policies in this regard.
There is a pro-Israel international war front that defends the extension of global impunity
The international war front
The US Defense budget exceeds $900 billion annually, and increases between 2 and 3 percent each year. War is itself a driver for the American economy. Only in its bombings against Yemen in recent months, Washington has spent between 1,800 and 4,000 million dollars. With the invasion of Lebanon and Israel’s announcement of a “serious and significant” attack on Iran, spending continues and arms companies have risen again on the stock market.
The US’s direct and tangible support for Israel is joined by some countries that continue to send weapons to Tel Aviv, as well as business and political groups. Among the latter is an important part of the European extreme right. All of them make up an international war front that defends Israel’s commitment to permanent war and the escalation of global impunity. His position seriously weakens international law and threatens to leave us more unprotected before the law of the strongest. They are the same ones who, at the beginning of this century, supported the so-called war on terror and the illegal invasion of Iraq.
Among them was already Benjamin Netanyahu himself, who in 2002, before the US Congress, assured that a US operation to overthrow Saddam Hussein “will have, I guarantee, enormous positive repercussions in the region.” That war generated an increase in militarization in the world, provoked other conflicts in the area and established dynamics of greater impunity and warmongering that continue to this day. Twenty-two years later, the Middle East is once again suffering another shock.
Source: www.eldiario.es
