When the US provides military & diplomatic support to an abusive, apartheid govt that is committing crimes against humanity, the US is breaching its own human rights obligations not to contribute to human rights abuses. It is also breaching US law that prohibits aid to abusers.
This is what impunity looks like. It means enforcing a system to ensure an abusive actor cannot be held accountable, or even be forced to stop at least some of its bad acts.
The US *enforces* Israeli impunity at the UNSC. It always has.
I really, truly don’t understand how the folks in the @JoeBiden admin, many of whom signed the infamous mea culpa letter confessing to their Obama era sins for permitting the war in Yemen, are now ensuring the war in Gaza proceeds. These are the folks who supposedly “get it”?
Are any resignations from the @JoeBiden admin imminent in the face of its blocking not one, not two, but THREE efforts at a ceasefire resolution in #Gaza? How could they possibly be justifying this to themselves?
Really no point in having a “democracy summit” @JoeBiden. When world sees that our democracy supports war crimes & apartheid just like dictatorships of world, notion of “democracy” as a morally superior system loses its shine. You’re part of the reason there’s a democracy crisis.
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“The strictly controlled public narrative, handled in the United States not only by Israeli government spokespersons but the lobbying group @AIPAC, @AJCGlobal American Jewish Committee, and @ADL Anti-Defamation League cheerleaders in America, has snowballed out of their control.”
What is new and qualitatively different is the vigorous and unapologetic analytic criticism of Israel—and U.S. policy that has provided it with billions in annual, unconditional military support for the past several decades—that has seeped into mainstream discourse.
Where were you @RepJeffries? Have not heard your voice in support of human rights and justice for #Palestinians. Your constituents in #Brooklyn and #Queens - including me - would like you to speak out.
Congresswoman @RashidaTlaib and @CoriBush have a clear moral compass and callin the ugly reality in Israel Palestine what it is - apartheid - and so not a democracy.
(1) You'll see a lot of these hoary claims of "human shields" in Gaza to justify Israel's deliberate and indiscriminate bombardment of civilians. They used the same line in the 2006 Lebanon war and multiple wars in Gaza. Don't fall for it.
In 2006, Israel repeated this lie to justify killing 900 Lebanese civilians, basically treating all of South Lebanon as "shielded" by Hezbollah and so fair game:
(3) "Human shielding" is a specific crime: it refers to purposefully using civilians to render military forces immune from attack. Taking over a family's home and not permitting the family to leave to deter the enemy from attacking is a simple example of using "human shields."
My reflection on 30 years of working on #Iraq starting with the First Gulf War, for those who remember it. In short, US has made things catastrophically worse. prospect.org/world/now-is-t…
“Purveyors of American empire & Iraqi desperation never tire of offering up fresh justifications to give the US just one more go at a fix. But it really is time fo the US to step aside, as it’s been promising to do for far too long.”
“For those focused on the welfare of the people of Iraq, but still driven, despite the overwhelming evidence of three decades, to seek help from the U.S. government, it’s past time to come to terms with the reality that U.S. policies have never helped the Iraqi people.”
David, why don't you keep telling us about how much progress our mission in #Afghanistan has been making, like the tales you and your pals in the @pentagon spun to the American people for almost two decades? defenseone.com/threats/2021/0…
"A confidential trove of governments..reveals senior US officials failed to tell the truth about war in Afghanistan throughout 18-year campaign, making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false & hiding unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable" washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/…
“If the American people knew the magnitude of this dysfunction . . . 2,400 lives lost,” Lute added, blaming the deaths of U.S. military personnel on bureaucratic breakdowns among Congress, the Pentagon and the State Department. “Who will say this was in vain?”
Lotta talk about recalibrating our relationships w dictators in Middle East from @JoeBiden back when he was a candidate, lotta yang yang from @secblinken & @nedprice @ “human rights”, hold on #UAE arms, but then this:
Seems the hold on arms to #UAE had zero to do w human rights or reassessing our interests, but wheeling and dealing to extract “concessions” from the emirs: play nice on Iran! 💯 pct guarantee they won’t even do that
Meanwhile #UAE continues to wreak mayhem and conflict in region, arms and military bases in #Libya to support war criminal Haftar; 5 years of bombardment and terror in Yemen; continued proxy forces in South.