The US will begin air dropping food aid to the people of Gaza, President Joe Biden announced on Friday, as the humanitarian crisis deepens and Israel continues to resist opening additional land crossings to allow more assistance into the war-torn strip.

Speaking in the Oval Office, Biden said the US would be “pulling out every stop” to get additional aid into Gaza, which has been under heavy bombardment by Israel since the October 7 Hamas terror attacks.

“Aid flowing to Gaza is nowhere nearly enough,” the US President said, noting “hundreds of trucks” should be entering the enclave.

Biden said the US is “going to insist that Israel facilitate more trucks and more routes to get more and more people the help they need, no excuses”.

He also noted the efforts to broker a deal to free the hostages and secure an “immediate ceasefire” that would allow additional aid in.

  • GrymEdm@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Congratulations “Uncommitted” voters and other protesters, it looks like you are at least part of making Biden’s “blank check” support of Israel too politically expensive to continue. It will be interesting to see how this plays out as Biden tries to balance actions around an angry electorate vs. pro-Israel factions and money (which non-profit watchdog Open Secrets says he’s the largest recipient of). Especially with the unofficial cease-fire deadline of Ramadan only 10 days away which is expected to be the launch of an Israeli offensive in Rafah barring a temporary cease-fire agreement. I say temporary because Netanyahu is cited in that article as saying, “If we have a deal, it will be delayed somewhat, but it will happen. If we don’t have a deal, we’ll do it anyway”.

    I hope this “no excuses” change in tone will yield meaningful results and most importantly relief for the civilians in Gaza.

    • Atyno@dmv.social
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      4 months ago

      I feel like it was that gunning down incident with the humanitarian aid that ultimately tipped the scales.

      I know I’ve been going on defense for Israel a lot recently, but I am kinda playing messenger boy as a neutral for being both here and some pro-Israel groups. The Michigan vote didn’t really phase them, that incident did. Seen them even sharing more info about how ridiculously strict Bibi is with aid in general.

      • GrymEdm@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        I think the Michigan vote and subsequent media coverage was meaningful, but I agree there’s no denying the shooting had a big impact. Thank you for adding that perspective. My guess is having both happen so close to each other increased the total effect. Regardless, it’s going to be an important 10 days coming up.

        • cmbabul@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Realistically it’s probably both in some sort of confluence, the campaign hears the uncommitted vote news and then the massacre happens and they see it as an opportunity to about face without making it look like they are back tracking previous moves. It’s cynical as hell but I think it’s probably likely

      • Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Nah israel did shootings like that every week. Biden doesn’t care about brown people dying. I’d argue that the hospital massacre israel committed was far worse optically

        Michigan did this. All the people that refused to bend the knee and vote for Biden in December if he continues the Genocide.

        And Aaron Bushnell. His sacrifice was a huge turning point.

        • Atyno@dmv.social
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          4 months ago

          You’d think that, but humans can be weird with what actually causes introspection.

          The hospital thing they just took the official line for. They actually mocked Aaron, or were actually grateful he took his own life thinking he was a disturbed individual.

          Edit: If you want to understand the logic: they’re willing to turn a blind eye if they can “both sides” incidents so they can simply keep their position of “Israel has a right to defend itself, regardless if they’re not saints about it”.

          The humanitarian aid story is getting them because Bibi won’t even let them do that! Hence why I mentioned the story sharing, since they know Bibi had made it clear he wants to starve Palestinians.

      • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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        4 months ago

        Oh it’s absolutely from the mass shooting and terror incident at the humanitarian aid delivery.

        The optics on that are awful and being repressed pretty hard since there really ain’t going to be a good look for that.

        “The IDF soldiers were scared” oh grow up.

        But Biden was insistent that he was heading towards a cease fire that probably got massively pushed back because of that incident crushing even more of the little remaining trust in Israel by citizens of Palestine.

        Air dropping food in away from soldiers makes it so it’s an obvious sign that it’s not a trap from IDF shows they understand there is starvation and tries to claw back the trust at least in the US of being helpful. Probably expect a lot more aid and some heavy pushing from the US to look trustworthy to start talks through.

    • rambaroo@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      This is what pisses me off about “moderates”. All they give a damn about is optics and winning the next election. The rest of us understand that the only power we have is our vote, and if we don’t use that power to its full extent, which means threatening to withhold it, we’ll never get any concession from any politician.

      The rest of you are quite literally shills who simply don’t give a shit about what’s happening in Palestine. You just do what you’re told to and act like that makes you a good person. You weren’t even willing to do the bare minimum of using your voice, because you dummy actually care.

    • phreekno@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      You must be some Russian/MAGA spam bot!! How dare you encourage them to just hand over the election to trump!

      /s

      • GrymEdm@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        I know you’re making a joke, but it really is a crazy year to be an American voter. I laughed at Bill Burr’s take in December when he said (among other funny things) “I want someone in their 40’s. Someone who is going to have to live with their decisions”. I’m biased though because I’ve enjoyed Bill’s brutal comedy for years.

        Trump would be a disaster in all respects, so I guess that decides things. Biden’s domestic policies don’t feature destroying checks and balances on power and revenge/witch hunts as key features. Democracy is supposed to be rule of the people via elected officials who genuinely represent them, so I’m happy to see the beginnings of a change in tone at least (and I dearly hope policy) from Biden. I’m definitely not cheering for another 2016.

        • SoylentBlake@lemm.ee
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          4 months ago

          Man that audio/video of Bibi saying genocide would continue and they were gonna level Gaza because the American people have given them a blank check and full support …yea …that was everything I expected from that fascist.

          And as fascists (and corporatists; tho any difference is arguable) always do, he said the quiet part out loud, insinusting Israel’s stretched past their compacity while invigorating the anti-genocide (which I would hope is all of us, but clearly isn’t. I don’t see how a moral person rationalizes killing 20000 children) center/left to bolder action against Biden.

          The news getting out of Bibi’s forces beating down the Orthodox in Jerusalem for protesting is indicative of a few things, mainly that dissent at home is greater than his propaganda machine can keep the lid on. His propaganda machine has been busch league, AT BEST. Obviously lying with AI generated photos. Idk about you, but I can’t believe a single thing that comes out of a zionists mouth. If the world didn’t stop their aggression, I think we all know full well they would’ve killed every single Palestinian down to the last.

          Zionist has become as negative a word to me as Nazi. The only difference being pro-jew or anti-jew. I spit at them both.

            • jaxxed@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              Yes, please give us the video link. B.N. and members of his government have said home very bad things, but I’ve not heard that quote. We would join your sentiment if you could be more factual.

              • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net
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                4 months ago

                Unfortunately it’s been a few days so I’m not sure we’re going to get it. I looked but couldn’t find any quote like this. I suspect this is a distorted version of something he did say but without knowing his exact words I would take the above comment with a large grain of salt.