It's been one year since Israel invaded Gaza in its campaign to destroy Hamas in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks. Since then, the Biden Administration has given Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government everything it wanted and has posed little resistance as the Israeli military has killed more than 42,000 people, mostly civilians, destroyed most of the buildings and infrastructure,, and created one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent memory. The word "ceasefire" is increasingly absent from Biden's public remarks or the White House briefing room.
A new video, produced by the Quincy Institute, puts these grim statistics in sharp relief.
Khody Akhavi is Senior Video Producer at the Quincy Institute. Previously he was Head of Video for Al-Monitor and covered the White House for Al Jazeera English, as well as produced films for the network’s flagship investigative unit.
photo : U.S. President Joe Biden attends a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as he visits Israel amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, October 18, 2023.
A group of 60 national, state, and local organizations sent a letter to President Biden on Monday urging him to “hold Israel accountable to U.S. law [by] ending arms sales to Israel to protect U.S. interests, achieve a ceasefire, protect civilians, increase aid access in Gaza, and work towards a stable future for the region.”
The policy, humanitarian, and faith-based organizations — which include Amnesty International, the Friends Committee on National Legislation, and the Quincy Institute, publisher of Responsible Statecraft — expressed disappointment with Biden’s policy of “unconditional support of Israel paired with empty threats,” saying the policy has not yielded any meaningful results and serves to harm America’s global reputation.
Rather than curbing Israel’s actions, the signatories say the Biden administration has enabled it to bomb hospitals, schools, and residential areas, block humanitarian aid, and kill tens of thousands of civilians, journalists, and aid workers, all at the expense of the taxpayer.
The organizations say a letter sent by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to Israeli Defense Secretary Yoav Gallant asking Israel to allow humanitarian aid in Gaza “provides an opportunity to course correct U.S. policy” and enforce U.S. law which would require the United States to withhold aid until humanitarian assistance is delivered.
“The longer the U.S. allows its power and global standing to be undermined by this conflict, the more cost the United States will bear in reputation, taxpayer dollars, and possibly servicemember and citizens’ lives,” they write. “In your final months in office, we urge you to do everything in your power to end U.S. military aid to Israel to stop Israel’s assaults on civilians and maintain regional stability.”
keep readingShow less
Top Photo: Green Party presidential nominee attends a rally in Dearborn, Michigan (REUTERS)
A majority of Muslim-Americans voted for Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein in this week’s election, while just 21 percent supported Republican Donald Trump and 20 percent voted for Vice President Kamala Harris, according to newly released data.
The survey, conducted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and released on Friday, polled 1,575 verified Muslim-American voters nationwide.
CAIR also released exit polling results from Michigan and Maryland voters. Out of the 502 Muslim-Americans surveyed in Michigan, 59% supported Dr. Stein, 22% voted for Trump, and 14% pulled the lever for Harris. Stein received 81% of the vote from Muslim-Americans in Maryland with Harris earning 12% and Trump around 4%.
The results stand in stark contrast to results from previous cycles. CAIR found that in 2020 President Biden had support from 69% of those surveyed, with Trump earning 17%, and other candidates 3%. Additionally, a study released in October of 2016 found that 72% of Muslim-American voters supported Hillary Clinton, while 4% voted for Trump, and 5% chose other candidates.
CAIR says the dramatic shift away from the Democratic Party candidate can be explained in large part by President Biden’s Middle East policy. ”Our final exit poll of American Muslim voters confirms that opposition to the Biden administration’s support for the war on Gaza played a crucial role,” CAIR National Government Affairs Director Robert S. McCaw said, “leading to a sharp drop in support for Vice President Harris compared to the support President Biden received from Muslim voters in 2020, and a sharp rise in support for third party candidate Jill Stein. President-Elect Trump also managed to make in-roads with Muslim voters.”
keep readingShow less
Top photo credit: Palestinians, including children wait to buy bread in front of the only bakery in Dair EL-Balah, Gaza. Photo by Omar Ashtawy apaimages Dair EL-Balah Gaza Strip Palestinian Territory 241024_Dair_EL_Balah_OSH_0013 Copyright: xapaimagesxOmarxAshtawyxxapaimagesx
We are just a few days away from the Nov. 12 deadline set out by the administration to key Israeli leaders, demanding the improvement of humanitarian conditions in Gaza under the threat of withdrawing military aid.
While the State Department acknowledged this week that Israel has so far failed to make any such progress, it has yet to back up its initial warning or outline what the consequences for Israel might be.
Blinken and Austin’s Oct. 13 letter demands entry of at least 350 food trucks into Gaza per day, among other requirements. Using UN data, the BBC reported last week that only 35 aid trucks entered Gaza per day in the first three weeks of October — the lowest recorded average since the start of the war last year.
According to PBS, Blinken told reporters Nov. 1 that the U.S. has been closely following Israel’s adherence to the letter’s demands.
“There’s been progress, but it’s insufficient, and we’re working on a daily basis to make sure Israel does what it must do to ensure that this assistance gets to people who need it inside of Gaza,” he said.
Recent comments from the State Department, however, make it unclear how the U.S. is assessing Israeli action — or lack thereof — on the administration’s letter.
“We are not at the end, where we are able to make an assessment. But I can tell you the situation has not been good enough for some time, and the situation has not improved sufficiently in [the three weeks] since we sent that letter. There is still a week or so to go until we reach the end of the period, but there is much more that we need to see them do,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a Nov. 4 press briefing.
In the 30-day window the U.S. outlined in the letter, Israel has not only failed to improve the flow of humanitarian aid in Gaza, but also formally voided its 1967 contract with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) — ending operations for the largest provider of aid to Palestinian refugees.
This move follows the near-unanimous passage of two bills last week by the Knesset, Israel’s legislative body, which banned the agency from any activities in Israel or its controlled areas and labeled the UNRWA a “terror group.”
UNRWA said on Monday that the operational ban will lead to a “collapse” of humanitarian efforts in the Gaza Strip. The agency distributes aid, runs shelters and maintains key infrastructure in Gaza and has distributed food parcels to over 1.9 million Palestinians since the war began.
Even before UNRWA’s termination, conditions in Gaza had been growing increasingly dire. The UN World Food Program warned last week that there could soon be widespread famine in the enclave if immediate humanitarian progress is not made. A recent report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) documenting conditions from June to September said that 96% of Gaza’s population is facing acute food insecurity and over 22% are experiencing “an extreme lack of food, starvation, and exhaustion of coping capacities.”
Miller said the administration opposes Israel’s legislation because UNRWA plays a “critical role,” and that there is no other way right now to distribute aid sufficiently. However, he refused to comment on any potential sanctions or retributive U.S. government action stemming from either this decision or the unmet expectations of increased humanitarian flow outlined in the letter.
At the briefing, Miller also had a kerfuffle with Associated Press reporter Matt Lee when asked about Israel’s UNRWA decision and how it might affect the conditions laid out in the letter. Miller reiterated the Department’s concerns about Israel’s decision and Gaza’s humanitarian situation overall, but when Lee pressured him to provide a “letter grade” on Israel’s adherence to humanitarian expectations, Miller laughed and said, playing into the analogy, that you don’t hand out grades in the middle of the semester.
Israel’s stated justification for terminating relations with UNRWA is the connection of several of its former employees with Hamas. Israel previously accused 19 UNRWA staffers of involvement in the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks against Israel, of which nine were fired by the UN in August based on evidence “sufficient to conclude that they may have been involved in the 7 October attacks.” The U.S. did not dispute these claims but expressed with “low confidence” in the strength Israel’s findings, according to reporting from the Wall Street Journal in February,
According to Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s Commissioner General, Israel has killed 223 of the agency’s employees since the war in Gaza began — a tally the UN says is the highest for a single conflict in its history.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN Danny Danon re-emphasized the dominant Israeli state perspective on Monday, positing that “The State of Israel will continue to cooperate with humanitarian organizations but not with organizations that promote terrorism against the State of Israel.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said last week that the argument of no alternatives to UNRWA is fictional, citing Israeli claims that only 13% of aid to Palestinians goes through the agency. Officials from COGAT, the wing of the Israeli military in charge of humanitarian aid for Palestinians, say it is sufficiently providing for Gaza.
Senior COGAT official Elad Goren said most aid distributed in the north is going to Gaza City, and falsely claimed that there is “no population” left in regions of northern Gaza like Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya, according to reporting from PBS.
When asked about why aid was not going to other northern regions like Jabaliya, a dense refugee camp facing a new Israeli offensive, Goren said the population is being evacuated and those still there have “enough assistance” from the previous months’ shipments. This past weekend, Al Jazeera reported heavy Israeli bombardment in Jabaliya, in which at least 50 children were killed.
With less than a week remaining before Blinken and Austin’s attempt at hardball reaches its critical point — and at least $3.8B in annual defense aid to its ally hanging in the balance — it remains to be seen what the U.S. will do about Israel’s continuous failures to improve the humanitarian devastation in Gaza and comply with American demands.
Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.