Tag: joe biden

Israeli army steps up attacks across Gaza as top US official visits Israel | Israel War on Gaza News

The Israeli army has stepped up attacks across Gaza, killing dozens of Palestinians in the central part of the besieged enclave, as US national security adviser Jake Sullivan travelled to Israel to hold talks with senior officials.

Sullivan was expected to press Israeli leaders on Sunday to take a more targeted approach in the country’s Gaza offensive and avoid a wider-scale assault on the southern city of Rafah.

He met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and was also expected to hold discussions with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has vowed to move forward with the Rafah offensive despite warnings from the United States.

Nearly 800,000 Palestinians have been displaced from Rafah since Israel launched an assault on the city last week, according to the United Nations, prompting condemnations from UN officials as well as human rights groups.

The Israeli government maintains that a military operation there is necessary to destroy the last bastion of the Palestinian group Hamas.

The Israeli military has carried out intensified air and ground attacks across the Palestinian territory, with air strikes killing at least 31 people on Sunday in the Nuseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza.

Reporting from the site of the attack, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said a residential home was destroyed while surrounding buildings “sustained a great deal of damage” and had been rendered uninhabitable.

The building, Mahmoud said, was sheltering five families who had first fled violence in the north of Gaza, and then were forced to evacuate from Rafah after Israel expanded its military operations there.

“They fled to Nuseirat only to get killed,” he said.

Israeli forces also pushed deeper into the narrow alleyways of Jabalia in northern Gaza overnight and into Sunday, returning to an area that they said they had cleared earlier in the conflict, residents said.

The Gaza Civil Emergency Service said in a statement that rescue teams have so far recovered the bodies of 150 Palestinians killed by the Israeli army in recent days, and that 300 houses had been struck by Israeli aerial and ground fire.

‘Open those crossings’

Sullivan’s trip to Israel – the latest by a senior US official since the war broke out in early October – comes as President Joe Biden has faced widespread criticism domestically for his unwavering support for Israel amid the Gaza war.

Despite saying it disagrees with a full-scale Rafah operation, Biden’s administration has continued to provide Israel with military and diplomatic support. Last week, Washington announced plans to provide an additional $1bn in military aid to the top US ally.

Israel already receives at least $3.8bn in US military assistance annually, and rights advocates have urged the Biden administration to curb its support as the Gaza death toll continues to rise.

More than 35,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israeli attacks to date.

The humanitarian situation in the territory also has worsened since Israel seized and closed the Rafah land crossing with Egypt earlier this month.

Desperate Palestinians were filmed clambering onto aid trucks carrying supplies that were delivered through a newly US-built floating pier.

The pier has been criticised as a complicated and costly alternative to what humanitarian groups say is a more appropriate and much simpler solution: for Israel to open land crossings into Gaza to allow aid trucks to deliver supplies.

“The message from all humanitarian agencies is ‘Open those crossings’ – it’s that simple,” the UN’s humanitarian affairs coordinator, Martin Griffiths, told Al Jazeera in an interview on Sunday.

“We are stuck in the south in terms of our operations because we don’t have fuel and trucks are not going through because crossings are blocked, so we have very little to offer to the people of Gaza,” Griffiths said.

Pressure on Netanyahu

Meanwhile, Netanyahu has vowed to keep fighting Hamas until the group’s military capacity is destroyed.

But the Israeli prime minister has failed to deliver a post-war plan for Gaza and to bring home the more than 100 captives still held in the enclave – and he is facing heightened political pressure inside Israel.

On Saturday, as tens of thousands of Israelis demonstrated in cities across the country, war cabinet member and former defence minister Benny Gantz threatened to quit the government should Netanyahu fail to deliver a clear six-point vision once the conflict ends.

Gantz’s warning marked one of the strongest public displays of a growing rift within the war cabinet.

It also came just a few days after Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel should not be involved in governing Gaza once the fighting is over – a statement that stood in contrast to Netanyahu’s previous remarks over the need to maintain Israeli control over the territory.



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Who benefits from US tariffs on Chinese imports? Experts weigh in | US Election 2024 News

The trade war between the United States and China continued this week with its latest salvo – a move that comes amid a heated race for the White House.

On Tuesday, US President Joe Biden announced tariff hikes on imports of various Chinese goods, worth $18bn.

Lithium-ion batteries make up $13bn of the total imports, while certain steel and aluminium products, as well as items like medical gloves and syringes, accounted for the remaining $5bn.

Experts say tariffs on these products will likely have limited effects on consumer goods prices and economic growth. The greater gain, they say, may lie at the ballot box, as Biden jockeys for a second term in the White House.

“These tariffs are very much on the margins, and the impacts on the economy will be a rounding error,” Bernard Yaros, lead US economist at Oxford Economics, told Al Jazeera.

While the tariffs do not change much for the US economy, it is still “good politics to do this”, especially during an election year, Yaros added.

Projecting strength

The US is set to hold a presidential vote in November, and Biden is expected to face his predecessor, former Republican President Donald Trump, in a tightly fought race.

Trump has long sought to project a tough-man image, particularly in foreign policy and the economy, while framing his Democratic rival as “weak”. Biden, however, has sought to deflect that criticism by imposing policies that, in some cases, build on Trump’s.

A January paper (PDF) from the National Bureau of Economic Research suggests that tariffs can pay political dividends, even if they do not translate into “substantial job gains”.

The paper looked at the period from 2018 to 2019, when Trump slapped stiff tariffs on China and other countries, targeting products like aluminium, washing machines and solar panels.

It found that residents in US regions that were more exposed to import tariffs became less likely to identify as Democrats and more likely to vote Republican.

The report concluded that voters “responded favourably” to the tariffs “despite their economic cost”, which came in the form of retaliatory tariffs from China.

“Tariffs are good politics, even though the economics don’t work,” Yaros said.

Appealing to the Rust Belt

Biden and Trump are in a neck-and-neck race, with some polls showing the Republican candidate edging out the incumbent in key swing states.

A poll this week found that former US President Donald Trump had an advantage in a few pivotal states over President Biden [File: Brendan McDermid and Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters]

A poll this week from the New York Times, Siena College and the Philadelphia Inquirer, for instance, found that Trump had an advantage in pivotal states like Arizona, Nevada and Georgia.

Biden appeared in one of those states, Pennsylvania, last month to announce his intention to triple tariffs on Chinese steel. Pennsylvania is part of the Rust Belt, a region historically known for manufacturing, and the state itself is famed for steel production.

Brad Setser, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said Biden has also sought to protect other US industries, like its burgeoning electric vehicle (EV) sector.

His new trade rules will ensure that the US cannot directly import EVs made in China, Setser explained.

He added that China has built a competitive EV industry on the back of deep government subsidies and could flood the global and US markets with cheap cars if it was not for such measures.

“China, with its significant auto needs, provided a lot of subsidies to its EV industry that has led to this strength,” said Setser.

“It needs to recognise that the US and Europe will use some of these techniques [of subsidies and tariffs] to build their own industries. It’s unrealistic for China to object to other countries doing the same thing.”

Protecting the American auto industry will also help Biden in the polls. The sector is historically centred in Michigan, another key battleground state where Biden has recently faced backlash.

Michigan is the birthplace of the “uncommitted” movement, which encouraged Democrats to withhold their votes from Biden during the primaries and cast ballots for the “uncommitted” option instead.

The protest was seen as a part of a broader, largely progressive backlash to Biden’s unwavering support for Israel’s war in Gaza.

Looking ahead to November

However, the experts who spoke to Al Jazeera questioned whether Biden’s newly announced tariffs would move the needle at election time.

The US imported $427bn in goods from China in 2023, but it only exported $148bn to the country in return, according to the US Census Bureau.

That trade gap has persisted for decades and become an ever more sensitive subject in Washington, particularly as China competes with the US to be the world’s largest economy.

While the trans-Pacific trade has benefitted both countries – providing cheap goods to American consumers and a large market to Chinese manufacturers – it remains a contentious issue, especially at election time, because of a history of US manufacturing jobs moving overseas.

US politicians have also raised concerns over privacy, as Chinese technology enters the North American market.

Although China has promised retaliation for the latest round of tariffs, experts say it will likely be symbolic as the US tariffs themselves are very targeted.

“We don’t assume the retaliation will be anything disruptive,” said Yaros. “They’re not going to up the ante. That’s not been their MO [modus operandi] in the past when the US has imposed tariffs.”

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Rafah, US arms, UNRWA: How Biden defends supporting Israel amid Gaza war | Israel War on Gaza News

Washington, DC – “It’s wrong,” United States President Joe Biden said last week of the ongoing Israeli offensive against the southern Gaza city of Rafah, pledging to stop supplying offensive weapons if the assault proceeds.

One week later, however, Israeli forces have seized the Rafah border crossing and pushed into the city, where more than 1.5 million Palestinians are sheltering. Still, US media reported on Tuesday that Biden plans to advance a $1bn arms transfer to Israel, including tank shells.

Advocates say the apparent contradiction — between pressuring Israel to stop its offensive, then offering further weaponry — is part of a broader pattern whereby the US says one thing but does another.

“We’ve got a situation where the rhetoric is not matching the action,” said Hassan El-Tayyab, legislative director for Middle East policy at the advocacy group Friends Committee on National Legislation. “It’s obviously distressing seeing the US complicity in these horrific war crimes.”

Biden’s statements one week prior signalled to some advocates that Washington may finally use its leverage to pressure Israel to end its abuses against Palestinians.

In a CNN interview, the president said he would stop the transfer of artillery shells to Israel in the case of a Rafah invasion, and his administration ultimately withheld one shipment of heavy bombs over the assault.

But advocates say the media reports of the $1bn transfer raises questions about Biden’s commitment to protecting civilians in Rafah — and standing up to Israel, its longtime ally.

Here, Al Jazeera looks at how the Biden administration presents its policies to overcome legal and political questions about its unconditional support for Israel.

Rafah invasion

Claim: The US government says Israel has not launched a major invasion of Rafah.

“We believe that what we’re seeing right now is a targeted operation. That’s what Israel has told us. We have not seen a major operation moving forward,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday.

Fact: The Israeli offensive in Rafah has so far displaced 450,000 Palestinians from the city and further strained the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, raising fears of catastrophic consequences.

While Israeli troops have not entered the dense urban centre of Rafah, Israel’s tanks have been pushing deeper into the city. Last week, the State Department acknowledged that theoretically “a series of limited operations” can constitute “one large one”.

“It’s not credible to say that the Rafah offensive has not started. From everything we’re seeing, the Rafah invasion is happening. And it should have already crossed that red line,” El-Tayyab told Al Jazeera.

Ceasefire

Claim: The Biden administration says it is pushing for a ceasefire in Gaza, often blaming Hamas for rejecting proposals to reach a deal to halt the fighting.

“Israel put a forward-leaning proposal on the table for a ceasefire and hostage deal,” US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday. “The world should be calling on Hamas to come back to the table and accept a deal.”

Fact: The US has vetoed three separate ceasefire draft resolutions at the United Nations Security Council and voted against two at the General Assembly.

Hamas has accepted a deal put forward by Qatar and Egypt that would lead to a lasting ceasefire and the release of Israeli captives in Gaza and a number of Palestinian prisoners in Israel. The Israeli government rejected it.

“What we need is a permanent ceasefire now to end this mass killing, and we need to move towards a resolution of the deeper issues of this horrible conflict,” El-Tayyab said.

International humanitarian law violations

Claim: The US says it cannot definitively determine whether Israel is using American weapons to violate international law.

The Biden administration issued a report last week saying that Israel offered “credible and reliable” assurances that US arms are not being deployed to commit abuses.

Fact: Rights groups have documented numerous violations of international humanitarian law by the Israeli military, which extensively uses US weapons. Those reports include evidence of indiscriminate bombing, torture and targeting civilians.

“There’s a version of reality that this administration would like people to believe in. And then there is a version of reality that people have been actually watching for months now in Gaza, with horrific images of the killing of civilians, the destruction of civilian infrastructure, the starvation of an entire population,” Palestinian American analyst Yousef Munayyer told Al Jazeera.

“And these two realities don’t line up at all. And so, I don’t know what audience this theatre is intended for. But I can’t imagine it being persuasive to anybody really.”

Leahy Law

Claim: The Biden administration says it applies the “same standards” to Israel in enforcing the Leahy Law, which prohibits assistance to foreign military units that commit abuses.

Last month, the US State Department said it would not suspend aid to any Israeli battalions despite acknowledging that five units had engaged in gross violations of human rights.

Washington said four of the battalions had taken remedial steps to address the abuses, and the US is engaging with Israel over the fifth unit.

Fact: Experts say the US has a special process in applying the Leahy Law to Israel, giving the country more time and leeway to address allegations of abuse.

“They have made the determination that the unit has been engaged in gross violations and that the host country has failed to remediate,” Raed Jarrar, advocacy director at Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), told Al Jazeera last week.

“And they still have not cut off that unit. That is an admission that the secretary of state is violating US law.”

De-funding UNRWA

Claim: The Biden administration says it cut off funding to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) to “comply with the law”.

The law in question is a government funding bill that Congress passed in March, banning aid to UNRWA.

The UN agency provides vital services to millions of Palestinians across the Middle East and has played a leading role in aid delivery in Gaza.

Fact: Biden supported the funding legislation and signed it into law. Washington had also suspended its assistance to the agency weeks before the bill was approved, following Israeli allegations of links between UNRWA and Hamas.

Last month, an independent review of UNRWA, commissioned by the UN, found that Israel did not provide credible evidence to back its accusations.

“Our political process has chosen to cut US funding to literally the only entity that can address the level of suffering and scale of suffering that’s happening in Gaza right now,” Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute (AAI), told Al Jazeera earlier this year.

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Another Biden administration staffer resigns over US stance on Gaza war | Israel War on Gaza News

Lily Greenberg Call says she cannot ‘in good conscience’ represent the US gov’t, condemns ‘disastrous’ Gaza policy.

Another staffer in United States President Joe Biden’s administration has publicly resigned in protest of the US’s continued support for Israel amid its war on Gaza, The Associated Press news agency reported.

Lily Greenberg Call, a special assistant to the chief of staff in the US Interior Department, wrote in her resignation letter that she could not “in good conscience continue to represent” the administration, AP reported on Wednesday.

Call, who is Jewish, also condemned comments Biden has made since the Gaza war began in October, including one where he warned “there wouldn’t be a Jew in the world who was safe” without the existence of Israel.

“He is making Jews the face of the American war machine. And that is so deeply wrong,” she told the news agency in an interview.

A handful of Biden administration officials and appointees – including a former US Army officer – have publicly stepped down over the US’s Gaza policy since the conflict began on October 7.

The resignations have come amid widespread anger in the country about Biden’s unequivocal support for Israel, despite the mounting death toll in the Gaza Strip and accusations that Israeli forces are committing genocide against Palestinians in the enclave.

More than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed since the conflict began, and Israel’s continued assault and siege on the territory has created a dire humanitarian crisis. Hundreds of thousands have been internally displaced.

But despite the dire toll of Israel’s military offensive, and a recent decision to pause one US weapons shipment to Israel, the Biden administration signalled this week that it plans to send another $1bn in military assistance to Israel.

The news drew condemnation from rights advocates, who for months have urged Washington to suspend all weapons transfers to its top Middle East ally.

A recent US Department of State report found that Israeli forces likely used US-supplied weapons in a manner “inconsistent” with international law. However, it stopped short of identifying violations that would put an end to Washington’s ongoing military aid.

On Wednesday, Josh Paul – a former State Department official who resigned in October over the US’s Gaza policy – said the latest Biden administration resignation signalled that “the tide is turning”.

Paul noted in a post on LinkedIn that US university students, Democratic Party voters, as well as Biden’s own staff and political appointees have all made clear they are opposed to his Middle East policy.

The US president, who is seeking re-election in November, faces growing disapproval among key segments of his Democratic base over his Gaza stance.

Young people, progressives, and voters of colour, among others, have said they would not vote for him in the upcoming elections if he does not change tack.

“How many more Palestinian lives will it take before President Biden catches up to the American electorate and ceases American support to the war crimes being committed with our funding, with our arms, by Israel?” Paul wrote.

Call, the staffer who resigned from the Interior Department, also said Israel’s Gaza war and US support for it were “disastrous”.

“I think the president has to know that there are people in his administration who think this is disastrous,” Call told The Associated Press. “Not just for Palestinians, for Israelis, for Jews, for Americans, for his election prospects.”

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‘Make my day’: Biden challenges Trump to two debates ahead of November vote | US Election 2024 News

United States President Joe Biden has challenged his Republican rival and predecessor Donald Trump to two debates before November’s election but said he would bypass a traditional debate schedule set by a bipartisan commission.

“Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020, and since then, he hasn’t shown up to a debate,” Biden said in a video posted on social media on Wednesday morning. “Now he’s acting like he wants to debate me again. Well, make my day, pal. I’ll even do it twice.”

Biden called on Trump to join him for two televised presidential debates in June and September.

The Democratic president also took a swipe at Trump’s legal troubles in the video with a reference to the weekly break in Trump’s hush money trial in New York. “So let’s pick the dates, Donald. I hear you’re free on Wednesdays,” Biden said.

His proposal, outlined in a letter and a video, called for direct negotiations between the Trump and Biden campaigns over the rules, network hosts and moderators for the one-on-one meetings.

Trump responded swiftly, writing on his Truth Social media platform that he is “Ready and Willing to Debate Crooked Joe” on the proposed dates.

“I would strongly recommend more than two debates and, for excitement purposes, a very large venue, although Biden is supposedly afraid of crowds – That’s only because he doesn’t get them,” Trump wrote.

“Just tell me when, I’ll be there. ‘Let’s get ready to Rumble!!!’”

Biden later confirmed that he had accepted an invitation from CNN for a debate on June 27, and challenged Trump to attend.

“Over to you, Donald. As you said: anywhere, any time, any place,” he wrote in a social media post.

Fox News reported that Trump intends to accept the invitation.

Most polls show a tight race between Biden and Trump, the presumptive Democratic and Republican presidential nominees.

Experts said the contest will likely come down to how the candidates fare in critical swing states, such as Michigan, Georgia and Nevada.

But there is also widespread frustration that the choice this election cycle is the same as in 2020 when Biden defeated the then-incumbent Trump to win the White House.

A recent Pew Research Center poll found nearly half of all registered voters said they would replace both Biden and Trump on the ballot if they could.

About two-thirds of respondents said they had little to no confidence that Biden is physically fit enough to be president while a similar number said they did not believe Trump would act ethically in office.

“It is Election 2.0,” Jan Leighley, a political science professor at American University in Washington, DC, told Al Jazeera this month.

“I think that creates a disincentive for voting, which again comes back on the campaigns to convince people that, even though it’s the same choice, there’s still a reason to vote.”

Both candidates also face serious challenges before the election.

Trump is currently in court on accusations he falsified business documents to conceal hush money payments made to an adult film star – one of four criminal indictments against the former president.

Biden, for his part, has faced widespread criticism and public anger for his support of Israel during the Gaza war with key segments of his Democratic Party base saying they would not vote for him if he doesn’t change his stance.

Trump, who refused to debate his rivals in the Republican primary race, has in recent weeks been challenging Biden to engage in a one-on-one match-up, offering to debate the incumbent Democrat “anytime, anywhere, anyplace”.

On Wednesday, the Biden campaign explained its decision to eschew the traditional debate schedule in a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates, a nonprofit that has sponsored US presidential debates since 1988.

“The Commission’s schedule has debates that begin after the American people have a chance to cast their vote early, and doesn’t conclude until after tens of millions of Americans will have already voted,” the campaign wrote.

It also said the commission’s model of holding debates with large, in-person audiences “simply isn’t necessary or conducive to good debates”.



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Biden slaps new tariffs on Chinese imports, ratcheting trade war | Business and Economy News

President Joe Biden has slapped major new tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, advanced batteries, solar cells, steel, aluminium and medical equipment, taking potshots at Donald Trump along the way as he embraced a strategy that’s increasing friction between the world’s two largest economies.

The Democratic president said on Tuesday that Chinese government subsidies ensure the nation’s companies do not have to turn a profit, giving them an unfair advantage in global trade.

“American workers can outwork and outcompete anyone as long as the competition is fair,” Biden said in the White House Rose Garden. “But for too long, it hasn’t been fair. For years, the Chinese government has poured state money into Chinese companies … it’s not competition, it’s cheating.”

China immediately promised retaliation. Its Ministry of Commerce said Beijing was opposed to the tariff hikes by the United States and would take measures to defend its interests.

Biden will keep tariffs put in place by his Republican predecessor Donald Trump while ratcheting up others, including a quadrupling of EV duties to more than 100 percent and doubling the duties on semiconductor tariffs to 50 percent.

The new measures affect $18bn in imported Chinese goods including steel and aluminium, semiconductors, electric vehicles, critical minerals, solar cells and cranes, the White House said. The EV figure, while headline-grabbing, may have more political than practical impact in the US, which imports very few Chinese EVs.

The US imported $427bn in goods from China in 2023 and exported $148bn to the world’s number-two economy, according to the US Census Bureau, a trade gap that has persisted for decades and become an ever more sensitive subject in Washington.

US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the revised tariffs were justified because China was stealing US intellectual property. But Tai recommended tariff exclusions for hundreds of industrial machinery import categories from China, including 19 for solar product manufacturing equipment.

The tariffs come in the middle of a heated campaign between Biden and Trump, his Republican predecessor, to show who’s tougher on China.

Asked to respond to Trump’s comments that China was eating the US’s lunch, Biden said of his rival, “He’s been feeding them a long time.” The Democrat said Trump had failed to crack down on Chinese trade abuses as he had pledged he would do during his presidency.

Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s press secretary, called the new tariffs a “weak and futile attempt” to distract from Biden’s own support for EVs in the United States, which Trump says will lead to layoffs at car factories.

Administration officials said their measures are combined with domestic investment in key industries and unlikely to worsen a bout of inflation that has already angered US voters.

Trade tariff

Biden has struggled to convince voters of the efficacy of his economic policies despite a backdrop of low unemployment and above-trend economic growth. A Reuters/Ipsos poll last month showed Trump had a seven percentage-point edge over Biden on the economy.

China’s BYD overtook Tesla as the biggest seller of electric vehicles [File: VCG/VCG via Getty Images]

Analysts have warned that a trade tiff could raise costs for EVs overall, hurting Biden’s climate goals and his aim to create manufacturing jobs.

Biden has said he wants to win this era of competition with China but not to launch a trade war. He has worked in recent months to ease tensions in one-on-one talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Both 2024 US presidential candidates have departed from the free-trade consensus that once reigned in Washington, a period capped by China’s joining the World Trade Organization in 2001. Trump’s broader imposition of tariffs during his 2017-2021 presidency kicked off a tariff war with China.

As part of the long-awaited tariff update, Biden will increase tariffs this year from 25 percent to 100 percent on EVs, bringing total duties to 102.5 percent, from 7.5 percent to 25 percent on lithium-ion EV batteries and other battery parts and from 25 percent to 50 percent on photovoltaic cells used to make solar panels. Some critical minerals will have their tariffs raised from nothing to 25 percent.

More tariffs will follow in 2025 and 2026 on semiconductors, as well as lithium-ion batteries that are not used in electric vehicles, graphite and permanent magnets, as well as rubber medical and surgical gloves.

A number of lawmakers have called for massive hikes on Chinese vehicle tariffs or an outright ban over data privacy concerns. There are relatively few Chinese-made light-duty vehicles being imported now.

The United Auto Workers, a politically important union that endorsed Biden, said the tariff moves would ensure that “the transition to electric vehicles is a just transition.”

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NSM-20: ‘Inconsistencies’ plague US assessment on Israel’s Gaza war conduct | Israel War on Gaza News

Washington, DC – In a report released on Friday, the United States concluded that it is “reasonable to assess” that the weapons it provided to Israel during its war on Gaza have been used in violation of international humanitarian law.

However, the same report said that Israel’s assurances that it is not using US arms to commit abuses are “credible and reliable” — and that the US can therefore continue to provide those weapons.

Advocates say the apparent contradiction shows that the US is willing to go to extraordinary lengths to continue arming Israel, even at the expense of Washington’s own laws.

“What those inconsistencies show you is that the administration does know what is happening,” said Annie Shiel, the US advocacy director at the Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC).

“They absolutely can see that there is devastating civilian harm, that there are apparent violations, that aid is being restricted. And they do not have the political will to do what that means — and end US support and US arms transfers to Israel.”

President Joe Biden’s unwillingness to do so, advocates say, should compel Congress instead to use its oversight and legislative powers to ensure that the rules apply to Israel.

“The ball is in Congress’s court here,” said Shiel. “It is very clear that the administration is not going to take the steps that it needs to take — that US law demands, that US policy demands, that basic humanity demands. And so Congress really needs to step in and say, ‘This report is not honest. US assistance, US arms transfers do need to stop now.’”

Origins of NSM-20

Shiel noted that even Friday’s report resulted from congressional pressure. Earlier this year, Senator Chris Van Hollen, along with 18 colleagues, pushed the White House to draw up a national security memorandum, dubbed NSM-20.

The memorandum required written assurances from the recipients of US weapons that the arms were not being used to violate international humanitarian law (IHL) or restrict Washington-backed humanitarian aid in areas of armed conflict.

IHL spells out the laws of war. It is a set of rules meant to protect non-combatants during armed conflict, consisting of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and subsequent international treaties aimed at limiting civilian suffering.

Friday’s report, released by the US State Department, assessed assurances provided by several countries that receive US security aid, including Iraq, Nigeria and Ukraine. But all eyes were on Israel, given the mounting death toll, destruction and starvation in Gaza.

So what exactly did the report say? Here are a few takeaways:

  • The US government found the assurances provided by recipient countries, including Israel, “to be credible and reliable so as to allow the provision of defense articles covered under NSM-20 to continue”.
  • “Given Israel’s significant reliance on US-made defense articles, it is reasonable to assess that defense articles covered under NSM-20 have been used by Israeli security forces since October 7 in instances inconsistent with its IHL obligations or with established best practices for mitigating civilian harm.”
  • The US intelligence community finds that Israel has “inflicted harm on civilians” in Gaza, but there was “no direct indication of Israel intentionally targeting civilians”. Still, “Israel could do more to avoid civilian harm”.
  • Israel “has not shared complete information” on whether US weapons have been used in abuses.
  • Israeli officials have encouraged protests to block aid to Gaza. Israel has also implemented “extensive bureaucratic delays” on the delivery of assistance and launched military strikes on “coordinated humanitarian movements and deconflicted humanitarian sites”.
  • The US government does “not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of US humanitarian assistance“.
  • Israel has its own rules and procedures and says it is investigating alleged abuses, but the US is “unaware of any Israeli prosecutions for violations of IHL or civilian harm since October 7”, the start date for its current war in Gaza.

‘Wild’ acknowledgment

Amanda Klasing, the director of government relations and advocacy at Amnesty International USA, said one of the most important findings from the report is the intelligence community’s assessment that Israel should do more to avoid civilian harm.

“When you have all of that laid out, the question is how do they still come to the conclusion that they came to,” Klasing told Al Jazeera.

She highlighted the report’s acknowledgment that Israel has not provided full information about possible IHL violations.

“You’re lacking evidence in order to prove your case, because your security partner isn’t cooperating with you. The next logical conclusion would be to withhold your weapons until you could actually get the information required to ensure that you’re not being complicit in violations of international law,” she said.

“Instead, the report recognises these big gaps. And then the conclusion is: Because of these gaps, we can’t draw any definitive conclusions, and therefore it will continue weapons transfers.”

Scott Paul, the associate director for peace and security at Oxfam America, called the acknowledgement that Israel did not fully cooperate with the US query “wild”.

He also criticised the State Department for deferring to Israel’s own processes and military justice system to provide information about potential humanitarian law violations. Israel rarely ever prosecutes its own soldiers for misconduct.

“It’s form over substance. The fact that a justice system exists doesn’t mean that it’s credible — doesn’t mean that it will work in a way to hold individuals to account for their violations of the law,” Paul told Al Jazeera.

“And all of the work being done here is being done by the fact that the system exists, not that the system is functioning.”

He added that, while indeed it is difficult to document IHL violations in war zones, rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have done so in Gaza.

Paul also noted the US had no such difficulty when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022: The government formally accused Russia of war crimes only weeks into the war.

Some advocates say that, by turning a blind eye to Israeli abuses, the US is losing its credibility to call out violations of international law in other parts of the world.

“How does [the US] have any accountability in other instances if it wants international law to be respected in the context of Ukraine, but it is taking every action to undermine international law or multilateral approaches to holding Israel accountable?” Klasing said.

Biden’s ultimatum

The report’s release on Friday came two days after Biden himself acknowledged that US bombs killed civilians in Gaza, as he warned Israel against carrying out an invasion of the southern city of Rafah.

“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centres,” the US president told CNN in an interview on Wednesday.

Washington confirmed that it suspended one shipment of heavy bombs to Israel. Biden also threatened to withhold further transfers if the Israeli military launches a full assault on Rafah.

Many Palestinian rights advocates have argued that a gradual invasion of Rafah is already under way in defiance of Biden’s ultimatum.

Shiel at CIVIC stressed that the administration’s decision to withhold some weapons from Israel over Rafah is separate from the NSM-20 process.

“It is very clear US weapons have fuelled catastrophic civilian harm and displacement and apparent violations for many months,” she told Al Jazeera.

“And for those many months — even before the NSM existed — existing US and international law as well as other established policy have required an end to that harm. So no, this is not simply a discretionary decision for the president to make. US law demands that US arms transfers stop for these reasons.”

For his part, Paul at Oxfam said, while NSM-20 was a welcome step, the Biden administration ultimately “bent over backwards” to avoid definitively answering the question raised by the memorandum: whether US assistance is being used in accordance with the law.

“It is studiously trying not to tell us anything,” he said of the report.

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On 2nd anniversary of Abu Akleh killing, press advocates push for justice | Freedom of the Press News

Washington, DC – In 214 days, Israel has killed 142 journalists in Gaza, approximately one every 36 hours. The staggering death toll makes the war the deadliest conflict for journalists in modern history.

But activists say the case of renowned Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, a United States citizen, underscores the fact that Israel has been killing journalists with impunity long before the current war.

Saturday marks the second anniversary of her death after she was shot by Israeli forces while reporting in the occupied West Bank on May 11, 2022.

The lack of accountability in her killing helped pave the way for the rampant Israeli abuses taking place in Gaza, said Yousef Munayyer, head of the Palestine/Israel Program at the Arab Center Washington DC.

“What we have seen Israel do in terms of killing a record number of journalists in Gaza is directly connected to the lack of accountability for Shireen,” Munayyer told Al Jazeera.

“If you can kill an American citizen, who was among the highest profile journalists in the Arab world, on camera and get away with it, that sends a very clear message about what’s permissible.”

Dressed in a blue vest marked with the word “press”, Abu Akleh was killed while covering an Israeli raid in Jenin, a city in the northern part of the West Bank.

Initially, then-Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett falsely accused Palestinian fighters of shooting her – an allegation that was quickly disproven by independent reports.

How the US re-defined accountability

Immediately after Abu Akleh’s shooting, the administration of US President Joe Biden called for accountability, saying that “those responsible for Shireen’s killing should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law”.

But Washington shifted its position after Israel admitted that its soldiers killed Abu Akleh and dismissed the incident as an accident, refusing to open a criminal investigation.

By September 2022, the US dropped its demand that the perpetrators be prosecuted.

Accountability, officials said, could instead be accomplished by Israel changing its rules of engagement — a demand that was openly rejected by Israeli leaders.

Washington has also rejected calls for an independent probe into the incident, arguing that Israel has functioning institutions capable of investigating the case.

But Palestinian rights advocates have long said that Israel rarely prosecutes its own soldiers for abuses and should not be trusted to investigate itself.

To Munayyer, the Biden administration paved the way for Israel to allow the killing to fade into the background.

“It really sent a very dangerous message and, I think, contributed to an open season on Palestinian journalists in Gaza,” Munayyer said.

Even when Al Jazeera referred the Abu Akleh case to the International Criminal Court for investigation, the US publicly opposed the court’s involvement, reiterating its stance that Israel should take up the matter itself.

The Biden administration also failed to condemn the Israeli assault on Abu Akleh’s funeral in Jerusalem, wherein armed officers beat her pallbearers with batons.

Israel’s attacks on Al Jazeera

With no meaningful accountability for the killing of Abu Akleh, Israeli attacks on press freedom — and Al Jazeera specifically — have worsened with the outbreak of its war in Gaza.

In January, for instance, an Israeli drone targeted an Al Jazeera crew in Khan Younis, a city in the southern Gaza Strip. Israeli forces then prevented medics from reaching cameraman Samer Abudaqa, who was wounded in the strike.

Abudaqa, who was described by his colleagues as fearless, hard-working and joyful, eventually bled to death. The network’s Gaza bureau chief Wael Dahdouh was injured in the same attack.

Israel also has killed several members of Dahdouh’s family, including his son Hamza, a journalist who contributed to Al Jazeera.

Earlier this month, Israel — which has blocked foreign journalists from entering Gaza — banned Al Jazeera from operating and broadcasting within its borders.

That decision prompted an outcry from some US politicians, for whom Abu Akleh’s death signalled a trend of attacks against press freedom.

“Two years ago, Israeli forces assassinated American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and then brutally attacked her funeral,” US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib told Al Jazeera in an email this week.

“Since then, the Biden Administration failed to hold the Israeli government accountable and let them operate with complete impunity. Now, the Israeli apartheid regime has shut down Al Jazeera’s coverage to stop the world from seeing their war crimes.

“I will continue to defend the freedom of the press and demand justice for Shireen and every journalist killed by the Israeli government.”

On Friday, Reporters Without Borders, known by its French acronym RSF, called the killing of Abu Akleh a “chapter in the story of Israel’s relentless attack on the Al Jazeera channel”. It also decried the persistent “impunity” for killing journalists, including in the ongoing Gaza war.

“This pattern endangers the lives of journalists throughout the world and the public’s right to free, independent and pluralistic information,” Jonathan Dagher, head of RSF’s Middle East desk, said in a statement.

The Biden administration, meanwhile, expressed “concern” earlier this month over the Al Jazeera ban. But Munayyer said toothless criticism is often ignored by Israeli leaders.

“The Israelis do not care that the United States is concerned. They don’t take those words seriously,” he said.

“And the only time that we’ve seen any shifts in Israeli behaviour — particularly over the last seven months — was when serious consequences were threatened.”

Israel receives at least $3.8bn in US military aid annually, and Biden approved $14bn in additional aid to the country last month despite a growing outcry about the war in Gaza, which has killed nearly 35,000 Palestinians.

‘We still don’t have justice’

Abu Akleh’s family has pushed the US to pursue accountability in her death, by meeting with legislators and officials and speaking out about the issue.

“The past two years feel like it went by very fast, but unfortunately two years later and we still don’t have justice, we still don’t have accountability,” Lina Abu Akleh, the slain journalist’s niece, said at an event in Washington, DC, this week.

“The US administration has failed our family, has failed Shireen, an American citizen and journalist, a female journalist.”

Late in 2022, several news reports indicated that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had opened its own probe into the incident. But the Justice Department, which oversees the bureau, declined to confirm that such an investigation exists.

“The last thing we know is that the FBI opened an investigation just a few months after Shireen was killed, but we still don’t know where that investigation is heading towards. We haven’t received any updates,” the younger Abu Akleh said.

On Friday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) urged transparency from the FBI about the supposed probe.

“It is time to break Israel’s longstanding impunity in journalist killings, which have only multiplied in the Israel-Gaza war,” CPJ programme director Carlos Martinez de la Serna said in a statement.

“The FBI needs to disclose a timeline for the conclusion of its investigation, and Israel must cooperate with the FBI probe and any future ICC probe.”

Last year, on the first anniversary of Abu Akleh’s killing, the CPJ released a report detailing how Israeli forces killed 20 journalists in the two decades prior, in what it called a “pattern”.

“No one has ever been charged or held accountable for these deaths,” it said.

That pattern of impunity appears to have intensified with the war on Gaza. But advocates say they will continue to push for justice for Abu Akleh, particularly as the number of Israel violations against press freedom grows.

“We’re not going to forget. And an important reason we’re not going to forget is because the consequences of these failures to achieve accountability for the killing of Shireen are on display in Gaza every day,” Munayyer said.

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US report punts on possible Israeli violations of international law in Gaza | Israel War on Gaza News

A report from the administration of President Joe Biden has found that Israeli forces likely used United States-supplied weapons in a manner “inconsistent” with international law, but it stopped short of identifying violations that would put an end to the ongoing military aid.

In the report, released on Friday after a delay, the US State Department indicated Israel did not provide adequate information to verify whether US weapons were used in possible violations of international law during its war in Gaza.

The Biden White House had issued a national security memorandum, NSM-20, in February requiring Israel and other countries receiving military aid to provide written assurances that all US-supplied weapons were used in a manner consistent with international law.

The US would then make a decision about future military aid based on those written assurances. Friday’s report is a byproduct of that memorandum.

“It is reasonable to assess that defense articles covered under NSM-20 have been used by Israeli security forces since October 7 in instances inconsistent with its IHL [international humanitarian law] obligations or with established best practices for mitigating civilian harm,” the report said.

The report nevertheless adds that the Biden administration believes Israel is taking “appropriate steps” to address such concerns.

Political backlash

The US has been a consistent ally to Israel throughout its seven-month-long military campaign in Gaza, which began on October 7.

That war, however, has spurred international outcry as humanitarian concerns mount.

Nearly 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, many of them women and children, and the head of the United Nations World Food Programme has declared a “full-blown famine” in the northern part of the narrow enclave.

Still, Israel’s siege on Gaza continues, with access to food, water and electricity severely limited. UN experts have repeatedly warned of a “risk of genocide” in the territory.

As a result, the Biden administration has faced pressure, particularly from the progressive flank of the Democratic Party, to address the humanitarian concerns by placing conditions on military aid to Israel.

After the report’s release on Friday, progressive lawmakers expressed disappointment with its conclusions.

Senator Chris Van Hollen, for instance, stated it “fails to do the hard work of making an assessment and ducks the ultimate questions that the report was designed to determine”.

Meanwhile, Republicans blasted the report as undermining Israel in its campaign against the Palestinian group Hamas.

Senator Jim Risch, for instance, called the document “politically damaging” and said it would do long-term harm to US allies beyond Israel.

“NSM-20 is aimed squarely at Israel in the near-term, but the additional highly-politicized reporting requirements will eventually be aimed at other American allies and partners across the globe, further impeding the delivery of security assistance and undermining our ability to deter China and Russia,” he wrote in a statement.

Impediments to the report

Friday’s report acknowledges limits to the US State Department’s findings, pointing out that the information that Israel provided was not comprehensive.

“Although we have gained insight into Israel’s procedures and rules, we do not have complete information on how these processes are implemented,” the report reads.

It also said the war itself creates barriers to understanding what is happening on the ground.

“It is difficult to assess or reach conclusive findings on individual incidents” in Gaza, the report said, citing a lack of US government personnel on the ground.

It also echoed Israeli accusations that Hamas could be manipulating civilian casualties for its own gains.

Gaza, the report said, represents “as difficult a battlespace as any military has faced in modern warfare”.

Tracing the flow of aid

The report also sought to assess whether Israel was impeding the flow of aid into Gaza, another possible violation of international humanitarian law, as well as US law.

It found “numerous instances during the period of Israeli actions that delayed or had a negative effect on the delivery of aid to Gaza”.

Nevertheless, the report concluded that it could not assess that the “Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of US humanitarian assistance within the meaning of section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act”.

Humanitarian groups, however, have reported for months that Israel systematically blocks large portions of aid from entering the Gaza Strip.

Overall, the report said that US intelligence agencies have “no direct indication of Israel intentionally targeting civilians”, but they assessed that “Israel could do more to avoid civilian harm”.

In addition, the State Department pledged to continue to monitor the situation in Gaza, particularly with regards to the delivery of aid.

“This is an ongoing assessment and we will continue to monitor and respond to any challenges to the delivery of aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza moving forward.”

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Israeli officials defiant after Biden weapons warning on Rafah assault | Israel War on Gaza News

Prime Minister Netanyahu says Israel would ‘fight with our fingernails’ to achieve war objectives despite mounting US pressure.

Israeli officials have struck a defiant tone after US President Joe Biden warned that the United States would not provide weapons for a full-scale ground assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are hemmed in with no safe way to leave.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in televised remarks on Thursday that Israel, which is heavily reliant on US weapons shipments, would “fight with our fingernails” if necessary.

“Hamas [hearts] Biden,” Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s far-right security minister, wrote in a social media post.

The US has consistently provided Israel with military support throughout the campaign in the Gaza Strip, defying growing international and domestic pressure and sidelining concerns over alleged violations of international law by Israeli forces.

Biden, in an interview with CNN on Wednesday, said the US was still committed to Israel’s defence and would supply Iron Dome rocket interceptors and other defensive arms but, if Israeli forces invade Rafah, “we’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells used.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the US would pause a shipment of heavy bombs.

The statements appeared to suggest a widening rift between the Biden administration and Netanyahu’s government.

“I turn to Israel’s enemies as well as to our best of friends and say – the State of Israel cannot be subdued,” Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said in a statement on Thursday.

“We will stand strong, we will achieve our goals – we will hit Hamas, we will hit Hezbollah, and we will achieve security.”

Cairo talks continue

Talks in Cairo aimed at securing a six-week ceasefire to allow for the release of some captives and a surge in aid to civilians in Gaza are continuing, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said.

CIA Director Bill Burns and other delegations to the talks left Egypt on Thursday without an agreement.

Israel has insisted that the war will continue until it achieves its objective of destroying Hamas in Gaza. Israeli forces seized control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt this week and have probed the outskirts of the nearby city of Rafah, where they have also carried out air strikes.

Netanyahu so far has not ordered troops to enter the city, where Israel says four battalions of Hamas fighters are based.

The Biden administration has consistently said an Israeli incursion into Rafah must not move forward until there is a plan to protect civilians sheltering there. Humanitarian groups have said an assault would result in a catastrophe for civilians and there is no safe option.

“That’s a choice that Israel will have to make, and it’s one we hope they don’t,” Kirby said of the offensive in Rafah, noting that the Biden administration believes there are better ways of advancing Israel’s goal of dismantling Hamas.



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