Joe Biden

Former US secretary of state says Netanyahu repeatedly pressed US presidents to strike Iran, only Trump agreed

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This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Former US Secretary of State John Kerry in Paris, France on June 8, 2024. [Mustafa Yalçın – Anadolu Agency]

Former US Secretary of State John Kerry said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had repeatedly urged US administrations to carry out military strikes on Iran, but previous presidents declined, Anadolu reports.

Speaking in an interview on The Briefing with Jen Psaki on Friday, Kerry said he had participated in multiple discussions with Netanyahu, noting: “He wanted us to strike.”

He said the Israeli premier presented the proposal directly to former President Barack Obama, adding: “President Obama refused. President Joe Biden refused. President George W. Bush refused.”

Kerry said: “The only president who has agreed to this, obviously, is President Trump.”

Referring to recent reporting, Kerry said Netanyahu made a detailed case for military action, describing it as “a four-point pitch.”

He said the proposal included claims that such a strike could “kill the leadership,” “incite a change of regime,” and “destroy the military.”

READ: Netanyahu led US into Iran war with ‘farcical’ regime change pitch

Kerry said the reporting on the discussions appeared credible, noting it “seemed like good reporting.”

He also indicated that Netanyahu had presented these arguments in meetings involving senior officials, where different views were considered.

The US and Israel launched an offensive against Iran on Feb. 28, killing then Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and many other senior political and military leaders.

Tehran retaliated with drone and missile strikes targeting Israel as well as Jordan, Iraq and Gulf countries hosting US military assets. Iran also restricted the movement of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.

Pakistan, together with Turkiye, China, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, managed to secure a two-week ceasefire on Wednesday between Washington and Tehran, 40 days after the war began.

As part of the deal, the two sides agreed to meet in Islamabad for talks to negotiate a lasting peace.

READ: US Vice President Vance arrives in Pakistan for Islamabad Talks with Iran

Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel's genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism "without qualification". Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Straight of Hormuz despite saying on 7 March 2026 that they don't need people to join wars after they've already won. He's challenged with the claim that he lies as much as the IDF.
Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Straight of Hormuz despite saying on 7 March 2026 that they don’t need people to join wars after they’ve already won. He’s challenged with the claim that he lies as much as the IDF.
Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.

Continue ReadingFormer US secretary of state says Netanyahu repeatedly pressed US presidents to strike Iran, only Trump agreed

After 2 Years of Denial, IDF Confirms ​70,000+ Killed in Gaza​—But Denies Famine

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Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

The bodies of victims of the October 31, 2023 Israeli bombing of the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip are lined up outside the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza City.(Photo by Fadi Alwhidi/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“The real figure is much higher,” said one UK lawmaker. “This is a ‘ceasefire’ in name only. The slaughter goes on.”

After two years of denial and deception, the Israel Defense Forces acknowledged Wednesday for the first time that over 70,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, while continuing to deny the famine Israel caused by blocking humanitarian aid from entering the obliterated strip.

Israeli media including the Times of Israel, the Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, and others reported that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) accepts the accuracy of the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry’s (GHM) death toll, which currently stands at least 71,667, with more than 171,000 others wounded and 9,500 missing and presumed dead and buried beneath the rubble of bombed buildings.

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“How many years did we spend screaming, with checked and re-checked figures, lists showing names and ID numbers, being told the numbers were completely fanciful despite rigorous, transparent verification, and now the IDF quietly accepts that they were correct all along,” Beirut-based journalist Séamus Malekafzali said on X in response to the IDF admission.

Experts—including the authors of multiple peer-reviewed studies in the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet—assert that the actual death toll in Gaza is much higher than reported. Last June, a study published in Nature reported 84,000 deaths in Gaza. Others say the toll could be even higher, with one Economist study estimating between 77,000-109,000 Gazans killed by Israeli forces.

“We should not care what the IDF accepts or not—they perpetrated the genocide,” said Jake Romm, the US representative for the Hind Rajab Foundation, which tracks suspected IDF war criminals and is named after a 5-year-old Palestinian girl massacred along with relatives and rescue workers by Israeli occupation forces on January 29, 2024. “Their communications are in service of that project.”

“This is, in any event, an admission that will only be used to discredit the real, much higher death toll as the scale of the atrocity becomes known,” Romm added.

Israeli academic Ori Goldberg was also skeptical of the IDF’s admission, asserting on X: “’Accepts’ means that even the vast network of lies no longer holds. If the IDF ‘accepts’ 70,000, it has killed innumerably more.”

While the IDF accepted GHM’s death toll, it argued that the famine in Gaza—which officially lasted from August-December 2025, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the standard international framework for classifying food insecurity and malnutrition—did not happen.

GHM says at least 453 Palestinians, including 150 children, have died of malnutrition in Gaza since October 2023. The IDF contends that the figure is a mix of lies and misleading reporting about people who had preexisting health conditions before they starved to death.

However, famine experts argue that Israel orchestrated a carefully planned campaign of mass starvation in Gaza.

Throughout the war, Israeli leaders, their supporters abroad, and mainstream US media attempted to discredit GHM casualty figures by casting aspersions upon the “Hamas-run” ministry. This, despite Israeli military intelligence deeming the figures accurate and historical confirmations of their reliability.

“The phrase *Hamas* Health Ministry was used as a slur for years to signal unreliability, even though it was pointed out again and again that its numbers had always held up,” noted journalist Jasper Nathaniel, adding sardonically that “I’m sure the ‘Pallywood’ crowd will be rushing to apologize today.”

The International Center for Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) said on social media that “every media outlet that cast doubt over these figures with dogwhistling phrases like ‘Hamas-run MoH’ is complicit in these killings.”

“In truth, the 71,000+ figure is conservative,” ICJP added. “Palestinian bodies are buried under the rubble and can’t be counted and many more have died from malnutrition due to Israel’s deliberate starvation of Palestinians. Different tools, same outcome: Israeli genocide of Palestinians.”

In the United States—which has supported Israel’s annihilation of Gaza with tens of billions of dollars in armed aid and diplomatic cover including vetoes of numerous United Nations Security Council ceasefire resolutions during both the Biden and Trump administrations—the House of Representatives approved a bipartisan amendment in June 2024 that banned US officials from using State Department resources to cite GHM casualty figures.

The amendment’s lead sponsor, Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.)—whose all-time top campaign contributor is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)—contended that “at the end of the day, the Gaza Ministry of Health is the Hamas Ministry of Health.”

Former President Joe Biden faced genocide denial accusations for casting aspersions upon GHM reports. President Donald Trump has also said he does not believe that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

A senior IDF official told the Times of Israel that the military is in the process of determining how many of the Gaza dead were members of Hamas or other militant groups.

While the Israeli government has claimed a historically low civilian-to-combatant kill ratio in Gaza, classified IDF intelligence data obtained last year during an investigation by Israeli journalist and filmmaker Yuval Abraham of +972 Magazine and Local Call and Guardian senior international affairs correspondent Emma Graham-Harrison revealed that 5 in 6 Palestinians—or 83%—killed by the IDF through the first 19 months of the US-backed war were civilians.

Former Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi—who led the IDF through most of the war—acknowledged after retiring last year that “over 10%” of Gaza’s population, or about 220,000 Palestinians, had been killed or wounded as of September 2025.

“This is not a gentle war,” Halevi said at the time, “we took the gloves off from the first minute.”

Following the Hamas-led October 7 attack on Israel, the IDF dramatically loosened its rules of engagement, effectively allowing an unlimited number of civilians to be killed when targeting a single Hamas member, no matter how low-ranking.

The IDF’s use of massive ordnance, including US-supplied 1,000- and 2,000-pound “bunker buster” bombs capable of leveling entire city blocks, and utilization of artificial intelligence to select targets has resulted in staggering numbers of civilian deaths, including numerous instances of dozens or more people being massacred in single strikes.

Through it all, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli political and military leaders claimed that the IDF, “the most moral army in the world,” went to great lengths to avoid harming civilians.

While Israeli leaders scoffed at war crimes allegations, South Africa filed a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The ICJ, a UN body, subsequently issued multiple provisional orders for Israel to prevent genocidal acts. Israel has been accused of ignoring these orders, and last September a panel of UN experts concluded that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza.

Later, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza, including murder and forced starvation.

The killing isn’t over. Since a tenuous ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect last October 10, Israeli forces have killed more than 500 Palestinians in over 1,200 violations of the truce. Palestinians—mostly children and infants—are also still dying of exposure to cold weather as Israel continues to restrict the entry of aid into Gaza.

“They said Palestinians were exaggerating. Lying. Propagandists,” Independent UK Member of Parliament Shockat Adam said on X Thursday. “Now, even the IDF accepts 70,000+ killed in Gaza. The real figure is much higher. This is a ‘ceasefire’ in name only. The slaughter goes on.”

Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Experiencing issues with this image not appearing. I suspect because it's so critical of Zionist Keir Starmer's support of and complicity in Israel's genocides.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.

Continue ReadingAfter 2 Years of Denial, IDF Confirms ​70,000+ Killed in Gaza​—But Denies Famine

The powerful who stand with Israel

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Original article by Vijay Prashad republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

US Vice President JD Vance meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog in Israel. Photo: US VP JD Vance/ X

Israel was able to carry out its live-streamed genocide in Gaza because of its powerful Western allies who supplied it with diplomatic cover and weapons

On October 26, Caroline Willemen of Médecins Sans Frontières stated that Israel continues to use the need for humanitarian aid in Gaza as “means of pressure”. “The humanitarian situation in Gaza has not improved significantly,” she told the press, “as water and shelter shortages persist and hundreds of thousands of people continue to live in tents as winter approaches”. Israel’s armed forces have now annexed more than half of Gaza’s land and are dumping vast amounts of debris into that zone, turning it into a mountain of garbage. To move the rubble without experts and equipment is very dangerous, as about ten to twelve percent of the Israeli bombs dropped on Gaza have not exploded.

“Every Gazan person is now living in a horrific, unmapped minefield,” said Nick Orr of Humanity and Inclusion, a non-governmental organization at work in Palestine. “The UXO [Unexploded Ordnance] is everywhere. On the ground, in the rubble, under the ground, everywhere”. As Palestinians dig through the hills of concrete, they risk triggering a dormant bomb – creating more casualties of the Israeli genocide.

Over the past two years, Israel has dropped at least 200,000 tons of explosives on Gaza, a tonnage equivalent to thirteen atom bombs of the scale dropped on Hiroshima by the United States on August 6, 1945. This is unimaginable, particularly given the fact that Palestinians have no air defense systems, no air force, and no ability to defend themselves from high-altitude and drone bombing or to strike back in any comparable way. Genocides are, by their nature, asymmetrical. But to describe these past two years as asymmetrical is obscene: this was one-directional violence, the Goliath-like Israelis using their immense advantages against the David-like Palestinian resistance.

The opaqueness of official arms transfers means we have no precise idea how much of this tonnage came to Israel from its major suppliers during the war: the United States, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom. However, we have enough evidence to know that most of the bombs came from the United States, with smaller supplies from the other countries. A new report from the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, entitled Gaza Genocide: a collective crime (October 20, 2025), makes it indisputably clear that the countries supplying Israel with military equipment, or assisting it in any way – including through diplomatic support – are utterly complicit in the genocide.

In other words, the obligation to abide by the UN Convention on Genocide is not discretionary; the duty to do what they can to stop the genocide is mandatory. The participation makes them wholly culpable. The report notes that the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza makes this “an internationally enabled crime”.

The level of complicity is extraordinary. Take the case of the United Kingdom, whose Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, is a human rights lawyer and indeed wrote the textbook on European human rights law (1999). On August 6, 2025, Matt Kennard told Palestine Deep Dive about how UK military aircraft left RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus and escorted an unidentified plane over Gaza. Six days later, Iain Overton at UK Declassified revealed that amongst these planes was an RAF Shadow R1 surveillance plane flying alongside a Beechcraft Super King Air 350 owned by the Sierra Nevada Corporation (from the United States) with a call sign CROOK 11. What were these aircraft doing? Who had sanctioned them this work? Who is CROOK 11?

In December 2024, Starmer told troops at RAF Akrotiri: “There’s a lot of different work that goes on. I’m also aware that some, or quite a bit, of what goes on here can’t necessarily be talked about all of the time…We can’t necessarily tell the world what you’re doing here…because although we’re not saying it to the whole world for reasons that are obvious to you”. The obvious reason is that this is a genocide, and the UK is complicit, so they cannot talk about it.

The record for the United States is even more ghastly. One paragraph from the Special Rapporteur’s report is damning enough:

Since October 2023, the US has transferred 742 consignments of “arms and ammunition” (HS Code 93) and approved tens of billions in new sales. The Biden and Trump Administrations reduced transparency, accelerated transfers through repeated emergency approvals, facilitated Israeli access to US weapons stockpile held abroad, and authorized hundreds of sales just below the amount requiring congressional approval. The US has deployed military aircraft, special forces and surveillance drones to Israel, with US surveillance purportedly being used to target Hamas, including in the first raid on Al Shifa hospital.

In November 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) filed a warrant for the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant. Based on this recent UN report, the ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, should be obliged to file warrants against Rishi Sunak, Starmer, Olaf Scholz, Friedrich Merz, Joe Biden, and Donald Trump – at a minimum. Anything less makes a mockery of the rules-based international system, namely the United Nations Charter.

Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, editor, and journalist. He is a writing fellow and chief correspondent at Globetrotter. He is an editor of LeftWord Books and the director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. He has written more than 20 books, including The Darker Nations and The Poorer Nations. His latest books are On Cuba: Reflections on 70 Years of Revolution and Struggle (with Noam Chomsky), Struggle Makes Us Human: Learning from Movements for Socialism, and (also with Noam Chomsky) The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Fragility of US Power. Chelwa and Prashad will publish How the International Monetary Fund is Suffocating Africa later this year with Inkani Books.

This article was written by Globetrotter.

Original article by Vijay Prashad republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Experiencing issues with this image not appearing. I suspect because it's so critical of Zionist Keir Starmer's support of and complicity in Israel's genocides.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Continue ReadingThe powerful who stand with Israel

Israel’s Destruction of Gaza Over Last 2 Years ‘Would Not Have Been Possible’ Without $21.7 Billion From US

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Original article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

The body of a Palestinian child, who was killed in an Israeli attack on al-Tuffah neighborhood, is brought to al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, Gaza on October 4, 2025. (Photo by Hamza ZH Qraiqea/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“Our research highlights numbers, but we must never lose sight of this key fact: What we’re talking about is human suffering.”

Tuesday marked two years since the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that killed more than 1,100 people and provoked the Israeli military’s slaughter of over 67,000 Palestinians in Gaza, and a new report provides an accounting of the United States’ support for the latter—support that made possible the mass destruction and killing that Israel continues to carry out across Gaza, as one analyst said.

“The devastating damage the current Israeli government has done to Gaza and its people would not have been possible without US financing, US-supplied weapons, and US assistance with spare parts and maintenance,” said Bill Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and author of a new report published by the organization along with the Costs of War Project at Brown University.

The report—published alongside another analysis that details the human toll of Israel’s US-backed bombardment of Gaza—finds that the Biden and Trump administrations provided at least $21.7 billion in military aid to Israel since the start of the war on October 7, 2023.

Over the same period, the US has also spent at least $9.65 billion on military operations in Yemen, Iran, and the wider region.

In the first year of the war, when President Joe Biden was in office, the US provided $17.9 billion. Another $3.8 billion has been sent to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) since October 2024. Some of the military aid that’s been allocated to Israel is set to be supplied in the coming years.

The Costs of War Project emphasized that there are also billions of dollars in arms sales agreements that are set to be paid for in the years to come and are not included in the figure.

The Biden and Trump administrations have financed the IDF even as Israeli officials have spelled out their intention of killing civilians as well as Hamas combatants—and as Israeli soldiers have said they’ve been directed to target civilians. Their funding of Israel’s military has also been in violation of US laws including Section 6201 of the Foreign Assistance Act, which prohibits the US from transferring weapons or military aid to countries that block humanitarian assistance, as Israel has done since October 2023.

As the US has sent more than $8 billion in military financing, $725 million in ”offshore procurement“ to support Israel’s own arms industry, $4.4 billion in weapons, $801 million in ammunition procurement, and more to the IDF, the near-total blockade on humanitarian aid had pushed Gaza into a famine.

More than half a million people in the Gaza Strip were facing ”catastrophic conditions characterized by starvation, destitution, and death“ in August when the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification declared that famine had taken hold in the exclave.

”Without U.S. support, the Israeli government would have no combat aircraft to drop bombs and many fewer bombs.“

At least 453 people, including 150 children have starved to death in Gaza since Israel first began blocking humanitarian aid, with many dying in recent weeks.

At least 67,173 Palestinians have also been killed and 169,780 have been injured, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, which does not distinguish between militants and civilians. Out of the approximately 2.2 million people who were living in Gaza in July 2023, more than 10% have either been killed or injured. The Costs of War Project said that while some supporters in Israel have claimed the Ministry of Health’s numbers are an ”exaggeration“—including Biden in the first weeks of the war—”they are likely an undercount.“

Another report released Tuesday by Neta Crawford, co-founder and strategic adviser at the Costs of War Project, detailed The Human Toll of the Gaza War, including:

  • 1,048 people who have been killed and 10,320 people who have been injured by ”direct violence“ in the West Bank;
  • The forced displacement of approximately 90% of Gaza’s population;
  • The killing of at least 554 aid workers;
  • The killing of 248 journalists, according to the United Nations Human Rights Office;
  • Bombings of hospitals such as Nasser Hospital, the only remaining healthcare center in southern Gaza, where 20 people including five journalists were killed on August 25;
  • The killing of more than 18,000 children under the age of 18;
  • The destruction of 90% of housing units and at least 78% of all buildings and structures;
  • The creation of the world’s ”largest orphan crisis,“ with at least 39,000 children having lost one or both parents; and
  • The creation of the world’s largest population of child amputees, with many having lost limbs and had surgeries ”without even anesthesia,“ as UN Secretary-General António Guterres said earlier this year.

”For well over a decade, the Costs of War Project has shed light on the costs of the so-called US ‘War on Terror’; now we’re examining the devastating costs of US military spending and operations in the post-October 7 wars—which in the case of Gaza, many experts call a genocide,” said Stephanie Savell, director of the Costs of War Project. “Our research highlights numbers, but we must never lose sight of this key fact: What we’re talking about is human suffering. This research shows that the suffering is unthinkably vast.“

Savell said the group’s aim is for its research to ”inform efforts to stop the mass killing and displacement, move beyond the war paradigm, and explore true solutions towards peace.”

The reports were released as Hamas and Israel began the latest indirect peace talks in Egypt, with US representatives expected to join the negotiations in the coming hours. Hamas and Israel have both expressed willingness to move forward with the release of Israelis and Palestinians who have been held captive and imprisoned, a key point in a peace plan proposed by President Donald Trump last week. Since the plan was announced and Trump called on Israel to halt its bombing of Gaza, the IDF has continued attacking parts of the exclave, killing at least 104 people.

Despite Israel’s dependence on the US for military aid, said Hartung, since October 2023, “neither former President Joe Biden nor current President Donald Trump have used Israel’s reliance on US weapons as a tool to pressure Tel Aviv to change its conduct.”

To be effective, said the report released Tuesday, ”any U.S. government effort to impede Israel’s military operations in Gaza and beyond must include a ban on new sales, a suspension of arms in the pipeline that have been committed but are yet to be delivered, and a cut off of spare parts and support for the maintenance of Israeli weapons systems already in use.“

”Without U.S. support, the Israeli government would have no combat aircraft to drop bombs and many fewer bombs,“ the report reads. ”An increasing share of Israel’s arsenal would be down for maintenance without US government or US contractor mechanics and spare parts. In addition, Israel’s government could not have built a military of its current size and sophistication without US financial backing.“

”Thus far,“ it adds, ”the US government has not acted to stop the killing by cutting off military aid.“

Original article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Genocide denying UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspending 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government's support for Israel's Gaza genocide and the UK government and military's active participation in genocide.
Genocide denying UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspending 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide and the UK government and military’s active participation in genocide.
Continue ReadingIsrael’s Destruction of Gaza Over Last 2 Years ‘Would Not Have Been Possible’ Without $21.7 Billion From US

Israel receives 940 US arms shipments since Gaza war: Defense Ministry

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This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

A view of an Israeli military camp as Israel continues to deploy soldiers, tanks and armored vehicles near the Gaza border in Kibbutz Bar’am, Israel on October 14, 2023. [Mostafa Alkharouf – Anadolu Agency]

Israel has received 940 aircraft and vessels loaded with US weapons and military equipment since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, the Defense Ministry said on Tuesday, Anadolu reports.

“The 800th aircraft in the comprehensive military equipment and weapons airlift operation that commenced immediately following the (Gaza) war has landed in Israel this morning,” the ministry said in a statement.

During the airlift, the ministry said, over 90,000 tons of military equipment have been delivered to Israel via 800 flights and approximately 140 maritime shipments.

The procured and transported equipment includes munitions, armored vehicles, individual protective equipment, and medical supplies, according to the ministry.

READ: Several injured by Israeli fire as starving Gazans storm US aid distribution facility in Rafah

The latest arrival of US weapons comes amid reports of strained relations between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump.

The Israeli army, rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, has pursued a brutal offensive against Gaza since October 2023, killing over 54,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war crimes against defenseless civilians in the enclave.

BLOG: Humanitarian aid serves violent interests

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Continue ReadingIsrael receives 940 US arms shipments since Gaza war: Defense Ministry