2y ago

Blinken denounces civilian toll in Gaza, says ‘far too many Palestinians have been killed’

www.cnn.com

Blinken denounces civilian toll in Gaza, says ‘far too many Palestinians have been killed’ | CNN Politics

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday gave one of his most direct condemnations of the civilian death toll in Gaza and said more needs to be done to “minimize harm to Palestinian civilians.”

Although Blinken commended Israel for its announcement of daily military pauses in areas of Northern Gaza and two evacuation corridors, he said that “there is more that can and should be done to minimize harm to Palestinian civilians.”

The top US diplomat has subtly shifted his messaging in the days since he departed the Middle East earlier this week to more directly voice condemnation of the civilian toll in Gaza and the US’ expectations for the Israeli government. However, he still has not condemned the Israeli government offensive and has continually voiced support for its right to defend itself.

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"now here's more bomb money."
- You're not wrong.
  Military Industrial Problem: These bombs are killing too many civilians, it's bad for PR.
  Military Industrial Solution: Here, let us sell you some GPS kits to make your bombs more accurate.
  
  Which Israel uses to accurately kill civilians.
  I mean not to sound pedantic, but it seems like such a waste even bothering with guided weapons with what they're accomplishing. Bibi could literally save money and just uses regular old toss/dive bombing considering Gaza has zero air defense.
  It's like how they used an aim-9x for the Chinese balloon. its so overkill.
Then don’t endorse and finance their genocide motherfucker!
- Right? We strongly condem Israel for Palestinian lives.
  Also, here’s billions more to keep it going.
  
  Was listening to a Canadian retired politician earlier this week. The problem is that 50 billion a year in aide to Israel is a roundabout subsidization of the American military complex. The vast majority of that money is then used to buy American made weapons. It's an elaborate system to steal money from American taxpayers and put it in the pocket of the elite few.
  Good luck turning off that tap.
The US administration, still providing diplomatic coverage to the Fascists that rule Israel, hence the mild "finger wagging only" criticism and even that immediatelly diluted by commending them for doing the element of their military plan they already wanted to do.
Those bloody hypocrites are trying to thread the needle between de facto "unwaivering support" of the Israeli Fascist regime even as they really go no-holes-barred in their inhuman treatment of those they see as subhuman, and not losing too many votes in America or too much support from allies around the World.
- What's needed is genuine Humanist and Democratic values, not Performative Politics that go nowhere because they were never meant to actually make any difference, only to use Divide et Impera to dissipate any real pressure for change.
  
  Israel has been playing the social media manipulation game for a long time. That is why calling someone an antisemite has been so effective. I think getting Antifa to support Palestinians would put them into an existential crisis.
  
  The Israeli one? By and large, in Berlin.
- The US isn't going to interfere with Israel making itself safe and bind their hands until they ensure that such an attack cannot occur again. Said, "finger wagging," is trying to minimize the political blowback from this. It's evident that many people have sympathy for the underdog, even when said underdog is explicitly genocidal, violent, dangerous, provocative, and uncompromising.
- Fascism is when you defend yourself against people who are trying to genocide you? Israel is a modern democracy.
Talk about too little too fucking late!
- There's still about 2 million civilians in Gaza, about 10,000 have been killed if you believe the Hamas numbers. It is nowhere near too late.
If only the IDF had kept the civilian murders to a more reasonable number, it would have made the US look less bad.
I’m pretty sure I’ve seen and read Blinken talk about “concrete plans” for the past couple of weeks already. Where are these plans? Where are the discussions around formalizing them with UN’s backing?
Most importantly, what sort of “concrete plan” does not involve a ceasefire and a hostage exchange with Israel on board? Let’s start there.
- Actions talk and bullshit walks. They talk about "pressure" and "negotiations" but they're trying to ram through a $14 billion arms package.
Next we'll be hearing about how it was just some "bad apples" in the IDF that did the genocide and after these two corporals get resigned to desk jobs everything will be ok.
US Cops and IDF run from the same playbook.
Then move away that carrier group. Words mean nothing.
These statements are a bit wild to me.
Whenever I hear this I always wonder what the "right" amount of Palestinians that should have been killed is.
- War is brutal. There is an acceptable amount of civilian casualties, and according to him, Israel has exceeded that number.
  
  Let's tell a story... Imagine for a moment, if you will, the United States in the present day.
  Imagine a bill reaches the US House of Representatives called "America the nation state of white people".
  In its basic principles it states "the right to exercise National self-determination in the United States is unique to white people".
  Further down a clause for White Settlement "the state views the development of White Settlement as a national value and will act to encourage and promote its establishment and consolidation".
  Outraged a coalition led by the Congressional Black Caucus initiates a challenge to the bill and proposes a bill of their own where it calls the United States "a country for all its citizens" but the speaker of the house unilaterally disqualifies the bill before it's allowed to even be debated.
  The House General Counsel explains in a statement the bill includes several articles that are meant to "alter the character of the United States from the nation state of white people to a state in which there is equal status from the point of view of nationality for whites and people of color" the bill is dead.
  "America the nation state of white people" passes through both chambers of Congress unchallenged it's then signed into law.
  US President Joe Biden would invoke the law in a tweet a year later saying "America is not a state of all its citizens according to the nation state law we passed America is the nation state of white people and not anyone else"
  As one Rights group put it "there is no Democratic constitution in the world that designates the Constitutional identity of the state on racial grounds as serving one ethnic group".
  There is now, this disconcerting scenario is anything imaginary. It's completely real and happened just a few years ago to little coverage and little condemnation in Israel.
And they send weapons with which even more civilians would be killed and homes destroyed. Oh the double standards.
A few was ok, though, right?
Oh, have we gotten to the phase where the US tells Israel "We have to start making some statements to mollify the domestic uproar, but just ignore it, we'll be sending you a few B in weapons next week." ?
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Although Blinken commended Israel for its announcement of daily military pauses in areas of Northern Gaza and two evacuation corridors, he said that “there is more that can and should be done to minimize harm to Palestinian civilians.”
The top US diplomat has subtly shifted his messaging in the days since he departed the Middle East earlier this week to more directly voice condemnation of the civilian toll in Gaza and the US’ expectations for the Israeli government.
Far too many have suffered these past weeks,” Blinken said at a press availability in New Delhi at the end of a whirlwind trip that also included stops Israel, Jordan, the West Bank, Turkey, Iraq, Japan and South Korea.
In Tokyo on Wednesday, Blinken described the US’ terms for a “durable and sustainable peace” in Gaza after the war, and on Friday he reiterated that “some progress” had been made in setting those “basic principles.”
Speaking in India Friday, Blinken said “some progress has been made” in the week since he met in Tel Aviv with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials, but “this is a process and it’s not always flipping the light switch.”
On Wednesday at a meeting of the G7 Foreign Ministers, however, there was joint supported for humanitarian pauses -– not a ceasefire -– in Gaza “to facilitate urgently needed assistance, civilian movement, and the release of hostages.”
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wow

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