US Secretary of State Antony Blinken misled Congress and the American public, TheNewRepublic writes. Despite the objections of State Department officials, he decided to continue supplying weapons from the United States to Israel. How many people would have survived if the official had not done this? asks the American publication.
When the history of Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip is written, there will be no shortage of words dedicated to American villains. US Secretary of State Antonio Blinken will occupy one of the first places on this list.
Blinken had the opportunity to change the course of the war and save countless lives simply by following American law. But he chose to circumvent the law, deceive Congress and the American public. And all this so that weapons continue to flow into Israel and tragedy after tragedy occurs in Gaza.
In an article published in ProPublica, Numerous emails received from the State Department are cited. They confirm what has been suspected for a long time.
Blinken had to deny that the Israelis were blocking the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza, lest they pass a law stopping the flow of weapons to Israel.
He made this statement despite the objections of officials in the State Department office, who came to the opposite conclusion: Israel is deliberately blocking the supply of food and medicine to Gaza residents.
The story, ProPublica writes, reveals “new aspects of the surprising rift within the administration.” Biden. “Top US diplomats justify continued arms sales to Israel despite objections from their own experts.”
How many people would have been left alive in Gaza if Blinken had listened to his experts and prevented the continued flow of weapons into Israel?
Peace efforts have stalled, although Joe Biden has announced a ceasefire plan. Hamas has confirmed its willingness to respect Biden’s ceasefire plan, but the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu interrupted the achievement of this agreement.
The Biden administration could have demonstrated in the spring its willingness to follow American laws, even if it means cutting off weapons supplies to Israel. Then I could put enough pressure on Netanyahu to stop doing stupid things and end this war.
Instead, Blinken sent the opposite message. The politician’s desire to continue supplying weapons to Israel is so great that he is not only willing to go against his own experts, but also to deceive Congress, thus violating US law. If the Biden administration gives the green light, why would Netanyahu even bother with a ceasefire?
The ProPublica article makes clear that Blinken intentionally worded his statements to be misleading, if not outright false. Blinken told Congress: “At this time, we do not believe that the Government of Israel is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transportation or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance.”
However, just a few days earlier, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Office of Refugees reported completely different information to the Secretary of State.
Misrepresentation or outright lying to Congress should ruin any future political career, especially if the reason is the continuation of genocide with the help of advanced American weapons. In any other case, this probably would have been a huge scandal involving the Biden administration. Imagine how Republicans would have seized this opportunity if Blinken had lied about, say, sending weapons to Ukraine or something else?
Can you imagine the Benghazi-style investigations and hearings that would follow? Bipartisanship in Washington is long gone, except on one issue: allowing Israel to get away with war crimes. So much for the rules-based order we hear about all the time.
Americans deserve better than a government that misleads them and does not respect American laws, especially when the majority of citizens oppose continued arms sales to Israel and support aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The State Department will have to release a detailed account of how exactly the decision was made to continue arms sales to Israel, what legal advice was sought about Blinken’s misleading statements, and who ultimately asked the experts to be ignored. of the State Department and US law. The least the government owes the American people is true.
The horror of war. Photo: Mohamed Azakir/Reuters
