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   Jamie Osborne (jmeosbn@mas.to)'s status on Friday, 10-May-2024 01:28:17 JST Jamie Osborne

   It would be an outrage if Israel’s “assurances” are treated as credible, and their obstruction of supplies and various glaring atrocities are ignored.

   But if they are “cleared”, and only then attack Rafah, Biden will be humiliated.

   — ‘the state department is also due Wednesday to deliver a formal assessment to Congress … assessing whether the IDF are conducting its campaign in accordance with humanitarian law – in other words, whether the IDF is committing war crimes.’

   https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/07/biden-israel-palestine-policy

   • Embed this notice
     Jamie Osborne (jmeosbn@mas.to)'s status on Friday, 10-May-2024 01:28:16 JST Jamie Osborne

     in reply to

     They already have supplied the weapons – Israel hasn’t run out of US bombs – they already have triggered a humanitarian disaster – is he not watching the fucking news?! – and they already have “gone into Rafah”, closing the border and purposefully making that situation worse.

     — ‘The US president … made clear his administration would not provide the weapons for an offensive on Rafah, which the US, the UN and other aid agencies warn would trigger a humanitarian disaster.’

     https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/08/biden-israel-weapons-shipment-rafah-invasion

   • Embed this notice
     Jamie Osborne (jmeosbn@mas.to)'s status on Friday, 10-May-2024 01:28:17 JST Jamie Osborne

     in reply to

     Finally. Biden has done the very least he could have done, at the very latest.

     A “pause” that is a “policy decision” and (ostensibly) isn’t due to any legal determination.

     — ‘There is nervousness in the administration about making legal judgments in case they are used against Israel in legal disputes before the international [courts].

     … conversations in recent months have focused on how the Israeli military’s use of certain munitions diverges from the Pentagon’s …’

     https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/08/us-signals-to-israel-more-arms-shipments-could-be-paused-rafah-offensive-gaza

     Aral Balkan repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Jamie Osborne (jmeosbn@mas.to)'s status on Saturday, 11-May-2024 21:13:36 JST Jamie Osborne

     in reply to

     Cruder than these weapons is Israel’s warfare – it says it needs them to eliminate Hamas; by flattening every block in Gaza?

     — ‘A surprise was that the US was even considering supplying the 1,700 500lb bombs and in particular the 1,800 2,000lb bombs … powerful enough to blow up a small apartment block and leave behind a crater 12 metres wide.
     …
     CNN, using satellite imagery, concluded that 500 large impact craters had appeared in Gaza during the first month of the war …’

     https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/09/does-israel-need-more-us-arms-for-a-rafah-offensive

     Aral Balkan repeated this.
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     Jamie Osborne (jmeosbn@mas.to)'s status on Saturday, 11-May-2024 21:13:36 JST Jamie Osborne

     in reply to

     The US confirms its complicity in Israeli war crimes.

     — ‘Van Hollen … called it “contradictory”, pointing out that it found evidence of violations while it accepted Israeli assurances of compliance to be “credible and reliable”
     …
     “While the administration reaches this general conclusion, it fails to do the hard work of making an assessment and ducks the ultimate questions that the report was designed to determine with respect to compliance with international law.”’

     https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/10/us-weapons-israel-human-rights-law

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     Jamie Osborne (jmeosbn@mas.to)'s status on Saturday, 11-May-2024 21:13:37 JST Jamie Osborne

     in reply to

     The UK and allies need to show more courage – and less craven hypocrisy – by holding allies to the same standards as adversaries.

     What has the UK done to fulfil its obligations to the ICJ regarding Israel’s noncompliance?

     This could be one small point of leverage.

     — ‘Cameron’s claim … could be challenged on the basis that the scale or supplier of the arms is immaterial …

     Cameron [also] argued the UK and its allies had to show more courage in facing down adversaries.’

     https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/09/david-cameron-says-uk-will-not-follow-us-in-withholding-arms-sales-to-israel

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Saturday, 11-May-2024 21:14:23 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     @jmeosbn #doublethink