Biden Administration Finally Moves One F***ing Inch Off Its Israel Policy

It's a start.

News broke Friday afternoon that the United States is going to start airdropping humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. This would seem to be at least partially in response to Israeli soldiers having massacred over a hundred civilians who were trying to rush aid trucks that had been allowed to drive in to Gaza on Thursday.

We will not pretend to be experts on international relations here, nor will we pretend to know what Bibi Netanyahu is thinking, to the extent that he is thinking. Nor will we pretend to know anything about whatever internal Biden administration debates are being had. Nor will we pretend to know anything definitive about what has been said behind closed doors during the rounds and rounds and rounds of ceasfire talks and hostage negotiations between the affected parties. Nor will we pretend that we have not been extremely, genuinely frustrated with the extent of Biden administration support for Israel anyway in what was clearly a ridiculous and doomed mission right from the jump. Nor will we pretend that we’ve been reading Ha’aretz or Times of Israel and thus have some great insight into the mindset of the Israeli public right now. Nor will we pretend that the rhetoric we’ve been hearing out of right-wing settlers for years now makes us want to do anything other than scream. Nor will we pretend that we would not like to see Itmar Ben-Gvir fired out of a cannon into the Mediterranean.

All that said, we will offer our opinion that this is a very good move by the US for reasons beyond the obvious humanitarian one of trying to keep a couple of million people from starving to death.

As best we can tell, this is the biggest break between the Biden administration and the Netanyahu government since this whole mess began nearly five months ago. This sends a signal to Israel that the US is under tremendous domestic and foreign pressure here to stop its support, and that for once, the US will not be able to hold out indefinitely.

It is also a very public repudiation and rebuke of Netanyahu. It is a very public and dramatic undermining of Israel’s goals from its largest, and at this point just about only, ally.

In short, for those of us who have been screaming into this void about Israel’s cluelessness for years, it feels like movement.

What Did An International Court Just Tell Israel About Gaza? Wonkette Tries To International Lawsplain.

Now, before anyone starts screaming, it is certainly not sufficient movement. Sufficient movement would be Israel immediately stopping its bombing campaign, withdrawing its troops, and letting the international community go full throttle on helping the Palestinians. It would be Netanyahu’s government falling and being replaced by a coalition not apparently populated by vicious sociopaths. It would be clearing out every West Bank settlement and a cessation of regular annexations of land.

There is unfortunately no magic bullet that will stop the killing on a dime.

But good Lord and butter, the public has been clamoring in a fury for Biden to do one fucking thing differently for months now. He finally is. The president has shown on other issues that he can be moved by pressure. Now people know he can be moved on this one. We should applaud that, even as we keep pressuring him to do more.

[NBC News]

[Editrix’s note: Sorry, out of an abundance of not wanting to babysit this post all weekend, comments remain closed.]