Will the War in Israel Take Down Biden?

Are we an accomplice to genocide?

A child desperate for food. More than half a million Palestinians are starving. That figure could include the entire population by early February. Fatima Shbair/AP

Welcome to 2024. The planet continues to heat up, a lying creep who fomented an insurrection on national television remains in contention to be president again, and Israel continues to pulverize Gaza. Over 22,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed, and more than 57,000 wounded. The dead include 9,100 children and 6,500 women. More than 7,000 people are missing, no doubt never to be identified, blown to bits or crushed beyond recognition.

An additional 324 Palestinians have died on the occupied West Bank and 3,800 wounded. Israeli casualties stand at 1,139 dead and 8,730 wounded. An eye for an eye has been amply accomplished. A running count of these numbers and more can be found here. The figures originate from the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the occupied West Bank. Some people question their impartiality, but every credible resource I have looked at carries similar figures. There is no way to know exact body counts in any ongoing war, anyhow.

On average, every hour, 42 bombs are dropped on Gaza. 1.9 million people have been displaced, 85 percent of the population. People sleep on the ground, in the rubble, if they can sleep at all. I can’t imagine. As of December 11, 134 United Nations relief workers have been killed. 87 journalists have died as well, the people we depend on to keep the score on government and corporate misdeeds that threaten human rights and freedom, and always will.

Netanyahu issues warnings about where the bombs are going to fall, but with no internet or electricity and destroyed roads such warnings mean nothing. There is nowhere to run. He knows that. Of 36 hospitals in Gaza, 23 are too damaged to function. Antibiotics are in short supply and amputations of the wounded, which have included 1,000 children thus far, take place without anesthesia. They’re given gauze to bite down on. Oh, fuel, food and water are largely cut off, too, in defiance of the laws of the Geneva Convention, which were of course were written in reaction to the atrocities the Nazis committed against Jews and other “inferior” races.

On October 9 Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s words on Palestinians were laden with that irony. The man responsible for Israel’s war plan said:

“We are fighting human animals, and we will act accordingly... there will be no electricity, no food, no fuel. Everything is closed.”

It wasn’t many generations ago Jews were considered human animals, Yoav. Mission accomplished. As of December 21, more than half a million Gazan people are starving sir, a quarter of the population. The UN projects that figure to encompass the entire Gaza population by February 7.

So, Happy New Year, brave readers. Humanity is finally finding its way.

Here’s a picture of a human animal for Mr. Gallant. BBC photo

We’re number one

The US is the number one arms supplier in the world, by far. Here’s a list of all the major players. From 2017 through 2021 we supplied the world with 38.6 percent of its weapons. Russia was a distant second at 18.6 percent. Our arms sales to Israel from 2010 to 2020 amounted to $3.09 billion dollars, 70.1 percent of its purchases. Israel is thirteenth on this list of twenty-five countries we supply weapons to, Saudi Arabia being number one at $17.61 billion.

Most recently, for the second time in late December, Biden bypassed Congress to sell $147.5 million of arms to Israel for its “defense.”

The State Department headed by Anthony Blinken said:

“Given the urgency of Israel’s defensive needs, the secretary notified Congress that he had exercised his delegated authority to determine an emergency existed necessitating the immediate approval of the transfer... the United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to U.S. national interests to ensure Israel is able to defend itself against the threats it faces.”

The first sale Blinken approved was for nearly 14,000 rounds of tank ammunition, 155mm shells, worth more than $106 million on December 9. The most recent sale includes fuses, chargers and primers to help the “functionality” of the 155mm shells.

It’s kind of embarrassing we forgot fuses the first time. I wonder how many Israeli soldiers were killed by Palestinian toddlers in the interim?

According to DefenseAerospace.com, the shells sold were 4,792 rounds of M107 155mm artillery ammunition, 52,229 rounds of M795 155mm artillery ammunition, and 30,000 M4 propelling charges. An M107 can be fired more than 10 miles (16 km) and on detonation produces approximately 1,950 fragments. An M795 can go nearly 14 miles (22.5 km) with a muzzle exit velocity of 830 miles a second. It is designed to be more lethal than an M107. General Dynamics Corporation builds these weapons. If they’re not in your stock portfolio, get busy.

Don’t despair, though. President Joe has been asking psycho killer Bibi to not blow up any more defenseless Palestinian civilians than necessary.

According to this emotionless White House December 7 press release:

President Biden reiterated his concern about extremist violence committed against Palestinians and the need to increase stability in the West Bank.

A couple of weeks later, on Saturday, December 23, The Wall Street Journal reported, “Biden Convinced Netanyahu to Halt a Pre-Emptive [sic] Strike Against Hezbollah.” However, it appears that Bibi was not impressed, dismissing reports the US had convinced Israel not to expand its military activity during a weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday.

Netanyahu responded to Reuters, saying:

“I have seen false publications claiming that the US prevented and is preventing us from operational operations in the region.”

“This is not true. Israel is a sovereign state. Our decisions in the war are based on our operational considerations, and I will not elaborate on that.”

Charges brought against Israel at the International Court of Justice

In the meantime, the US is growing isolated on the international stage, as the world is horrified by the carnage Israel is carrying out with our weapons. South Africa, that victim of nearly 50 years of Apartheid, has brought charges against Israel.

In filing its case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, South Africa has leveled charges of genocide against Israel and trying to destroy Palestinians in Gaza. A separate investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) is investigating war crimes by both Israel and Hamas. In its filing to the ICJ, the main judicial body for the United Nations, South Africa said:

“The acts and omissions by Israel complained of by South Africa are genocidal in nature because they’re intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national and ethnical group.”

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories to the racist system of Apartheid in his own country, which ended in 1994 after nearly half a century. This is a fair comparison. Gaza has been a blockaded open air prison since 2005, besieged by poverty, food insecurity, and high unemployment and suicide rates.

In this 22-minute video on Democracy Now!, Francis Boyle, a professor of international law, and international human rights lawyer is interviewed. Most significantly, Boyle won protection for the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina against the genocidal crimes committed in the 1990s by Yugoslavia under the Genocide Convention of 1948 through the ICJ.

Professor Boyle has reviewed South Africa’s case and believes they will win an order against Israel to cease and desist all acts of genocide. At that point, 153 participating states would then be obligated to prevent genocide against the Palestinians. If the world court gives this cease and desist order, the Biden administration would stand condemned under an article of the genocide convention that criminalizes complicity. A hearing is anticipated by January 11 or 12.

Those of you who have read my work for a while know my primary focus is the #ClimateEmergency, and that will continue to be. However, the tragedy in Gaza has disturbed many of us since the despicable attack of Hamas on Israeli citizens October 7. It bothered me enough to write an article asking who the real monsters are in this article ten days later.

This one I will tie back to climate change. I have been tough on Biden on the issue. I called him out in June 2022, asking, “What is Joe Biden Thinking,” as he broke campaign pledges promising “No more drilling on federal lands,” and fires raced through California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. I called him out a couple of months later in “The Inflation Reduction Act: Climate Change Farce,” the bill that delayed development of renewable energy on federal land and water for ten years in deferment to big oil. I called him out again in “Massive Alaska Willow Drilling Project Approved.” I have found his achievements on the #ClimateEmergency front woefully inconsistent. We need a galvanizing message and that brings people together, akin to our unity in WWII.

Now we have the possibility Biden, Blinken and cohorts could be accused and charged as accessories to genocide. Whether that happens or not, or if prosecution in an international court could be a real possibility, is an open question. Professor Boyle, an expert in this area, thinks so, but I’m more cynical. The world does not often run on justice.

Either way, Biden’s future is more endangered than ever. Although I feel his accomplishments on #ClimateChange have been inadequate at best, Donald Trump is an outright denier who overturned over 100 EPA laws protecting our health and the environment. In addition to operating as a tyrant, his return to office would end all hope of getting global warming under control.

It's going to be a pivotal year for the planet and democracy.