Secy of State #Blinken returned to #Israel Mon. Blinken met Israeli PM #Netanyahu & Pres #Herzog in #Jerusalem; he heads to #TelAviv next to meet w/ the #war cabinet ahead of their military offensive against #Hamas. Blinken’s 2nd visit in just a few days, comes after Pres #Biden warned that a new Israeli #occupation of #Gaza would be a “big mistake” — his firmest effort to signal restraint to Israel as the #HumanitarianCrisis in Gaza reaches critical.
The #UnitedStates & #Qatar have agreed to revisit the Gulf state’s association w/ #Hamas after resolution of the high-stakes international hostage crisis involving >220 people in #Gaza. The agreement strives to balance the #Biden admin’s goal of rescuing as many #hostages as possible w/its desire to isolate the #terrorists after their rampage in #Israel
So #Blinken sits in with #Ukrainian band playing "Rockin' in the Free World." Uh, yeah, that's great, but the song title belies the song's true meaning. Sort of like "Born in the USA," isn't a full-throated endorsement of American militarism.
This may not be as bad as #TFG using it in campaigns. #NeilYoung
U.S. admits it hasn’t verified Israel’s #UNRWA claims, media ignores it
Secretary Blinken admits that the U.S. has been unable to investigate the “evidence” presented by Israel claiming 13 of UNRWA’s 13,000 #Gaza employees participated in October 7. #Biden took Israel’s word for it anyway.
Many on the pro-Israel and Israeli right and center believe doing away with UNRWA would essentially allow Israel to do away with Palestinian refugees because they believe UNRWA is the only thing maintaining that generational definition.
US Secretary of State Antony #Blinken stated, “We haven’t had the ability to investigate [the allegations] ourselves. But they are highly, highly credible.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the United States will transfer assets confiscated from sanctioned Russian oligarchs to Ukraine for the first time.
WTAF: #US Secretary of State #Blinken warned if United Nations recognizes #Palestine as an independent State, United States, allies and affiliated businessmen will cut funding for #UN, thus cutting United Nations ability to run huminitarian aid for Global South countries.
He is threatening the world on behalf of #Israel, while pretending that they support a 2 state solution.
This is the most outrageous comment I've ever read from Blinken. I'm not sure if it's accurate, because the only source is the post on ShiTwitter:https://x.com/halalflow/status/1792944530389393422
Inside the White House, a Debate Over Letting #Ukraine Shoot #US Weapons Into #Russia
After a sobering trip to #Kyiv, Secretary of State Antony J. #Blinken is urging the president to lift restrictions on how Ukraine can use American arms.
The United States on Thursday announced the allocation of a new package of military assistance worth $ 150 million to Ukraine.
#Blinken noted that the new package of assistance includes air defense, artillery, anti-tank and other means that “will further strengthen Ukraine’s ability to defend its territory from Russian offensive actions, while continuing a counteroffensive against Russian troops.”
US-Außenminister Blinken plädiert gegen sofortigen Waffenstillstand
Die Zivilisten im Gazastreifen müssen geschützt werden, so US-Außenminister Blinken bei einem Treffen mit Amtskollegen im Nahen Osten. Einen sofortigen Waffenstillstand lehnte er jedoch ab: Dieser würde lediglich der Hamas in die Hände spielen.
#Blinken should end up in The Hague, with Netanyahu, Biden and the rest
By amplifying ZAKA's unsubstantiated claims without corroborating evidence from impartial sources, Blinken tacitly lent credibility to an infamously unreliable organization. However, Blinken's and others' willingness to broadcast selectively curated information aligns the U.S. stance with Israeli propaganda efforts to reframe defensive Palestinian resistance as unwarranted aggression. Blinken's actions normalized the marginalization of Palestinian perspectives and enabled the systemic information asymmetry that nurtures the cyclical perpetuation of the Israeli occupation's oppressive status quo in Gaza, which is reaching its worst possible conclusion right before our eyes.
Bassem: THEY LIED . THEY LIED . THEY STILL DO. They lied so the world can accept the atrocities they are doing now . They lied . Their media said they lied . And the western media didn’t even bother reporting on that . Shame on you @cnn@bbcnews@skynews@msnbc@foxnews@france24@dwnews
US politicians step up condemnation of Israel over Gaza
Connecticut Democrat Chris #Murphy, a member of the Senate foreign relations committee, warned that Hamas was likely to become stronger if Israel waged an all-out assault in Rafah.
“I want #Hamas gone,” Murphy said. “I don’t want them to ever have the ability to hit Israel again. ⭐️[But] I worry that the number of civilians that are dying are ultimately going to provide permanent recruiting material to Hamas, and it will be a threat for years to come.
“We cannot have an invasion of Rafah that ends up in tens of thousands of additional civilians dying. ⭐️That will be bad for Israel from a moral and strategic standpoint.”
He continued: “So I am certainly willing to call out Israel when I think that they have made strategic and moral mistakes in this war. We should [also] be calling out Hamas for the attacks that began this war, the way in which they have violated the rules of engagement, and the fact that the quickest route to end this war is for Hamas to surrender and protect the people of Gaza.”
Murphy’s comments amounted to some of the strongest criticism yet by a centrist US politician against Israel, which the Gaza health ministry said on Sunday had now killed more than 35,000 people in strikes since the 7 October attacks by Hamas.
Stronger condemnation came from Vermont Democratic senator Bernie #Sanders, a member of the party’s progressive wing.
“Any objective observer knows Israel has ⭐️broken international law … has ⭐️broken American law – and in my view, Israel should not be receiving another nickel in US military aid,” he told NBC’s Meet the Press, adding that Hamas was “a terrible, disgusting terrorist organization that began this war”.
Meanwhile, #Blinken’s commentary was considerably more measured. In an interview with CBS’s Face the Nation, the Joe Biden White House’s top diplomat said it is “reasonable to assess that in certain instances Israel acted in ways that are⭐️ not consistent” with international humanitarian laws.
Blinken’s comments on Sunday came after #Biden threatened to ⭐️stop supplying Israel with weapons if it invaded Rafah.
That came as the White House said the US had stopped the transfer of 3,500 high payload “dumb” bombs over concerns of the growing number of civilian casualties in Gaza.
Blinken stopped short of explicitly accusing Israel of violating international law as it pursued its offensive against the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
He said it was “critical” to note that Israel itself has accountability processes – and there were hundreds of active inquiries as well as criminal investigations into different incidents, showing Israel had “the ability, means and the actions to self-correct.
“It had been very difficult to determine, particularly in the midst of war, exactly what happened and to draw final conclusions from any one incident,” he said, adding that the US was avoiding any firm assessment over a potential breach because Hamas “hides behind as well as underneath civilian populations, in schools and hospitals”.
A special State Department panel told Secretary of State Antony #Blinken that the U.S. should restrict arms sales to Israeli military units that have been credibly accused of human rights abuses. He has not taken any action.
After a sobering trip to #Kyiv, Secy of State Antony J. #Blinken is urging #POTUS#Biden to lift some restrictions on how Ukraine can use American arms.
The #UnitedStates is actively weighing whether to lift one of #POTUS#Biden’s longest-held precautionary measures of the #Ukraine war: a ban on the use of #US provided #weapons for offensive strikes inside #Russia.
The reassessment is a byproduct of Russia’s renewed cross-border assault on #Kharkiv, a chorus of pressure from #EU ofcls & a visit to Kyiv by Secy of State #Blinken that reinforced the peril facing Ukraine….
US to give Ukraine money confiscated from Russian oligarchs for first time (www.pravda.com.ua)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the United States will transfer assets confiscated from sanctioned Russian oligarchs to Ukraine for the first time.