PARIS, Oct 24 (IPS) – Fooled by President Biden’s recent warning to Israel that the United States could face consequences if it does not do more to expand humanitarian aid to Gaza within the next 30 days. is not allowed. Biden’s warning, along with Anthony Blinken’s 11th visit to Israel and the region to restart ceasefire talks, was a cynical move designed to appease domestic audiences and buy time for Israel to deepen its genocidal goals against the Palestinian people and brutally punish them. It’s nothing more than double talk. Those who support their liberation.
Israel’s immediate response to Biden’s warning this week and Blinken’s shuttle diplomacy was to expand its humanitarian blockade and military offensive against civilians in the already besieged Gaza Strip, especially northern Gaza, where tens of thousands of unarmed and starving people are suffering from famine. That’s not surprising. , women and children are now trapped, locked up, and slaughtered like animals by Israeli political elites who have an endless supply of lethal American weapons and Biden’s ironclad loyalty on their side.
Hospitals are facing dwindling medical supplies amid rising numbers of the injured and sick as Israel blocks humanitarian aid from reaching besieged and displaced Palestinian civilians across the Gaza Strip. Health care providers and emergency responders struggling to survive now have little to offer sympathy to the sick and dying. Unless President Biden uses his own means to take decisive and immediate action, tens of thousands more Palestinians will be murdered in the next 30 days, 75% of them women and children.
As an American citizen who has worked in humanitarian assistance for over 30 years, I have witnessed and paid keen attention to the devastating toll on civilian lives that our government has consistently chosen to announce in Afghanistan since 9/11. Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Libya, Yemen and now Gaza and Lebanon. In times of crisis, the United States too often chooses to pursue extreme military power as the cornerstone of its foreign policy, regardless of which political party is in power, rather than to ease tensions through serious, mature diplomacy. It attacked special interest groups in Washington at the expense of innocent populations overseas, American soldiers, and ordinary American taxpayers at home.
Over the course of my career, I have also had the privilege of witnessing rare moments when the United States has chosen to mitigate harm by using powerful foreign policy tools to defuse conflict and secure humanitarian space. In northern Iraq in 1991, the United States led a multinational coalition of NATO and UN partners to provide emergency aid and protection to Iraqi Kurdish refugees fleeing Saddam Hussein’s gas attacks. Also in the ’90s, the United States helped deliver many life-saving emergency supplies on the C5 Galaxy to besieged civilians in Sarajevo and worked with NATO and UN partners to enforce a no-fly zone over the former Yugoslavia. This decision helped reduce the level of violence between the various warring factions and protect civilians and UN staff. When earthquakes like those that struck Turkiye in 1999 and 2023, the United States sent search and rescue teams, often with special equipment and dogs, who were the first to reach people trapped beneath tons of concrete and metal. Biden’s decision to leave Palestinian civilians and civil defense workers to desperately rescue people from homes and shelters destroyed by American bombs with their bare hands is his latest warning, red line and shuttle diplomacy. Biden’s foreign policy is nothing more than a cruel and unusual punishment that the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution warns Americans not to inflict on others.
If President Biden was actually serious about addressing the humanitarian catastrophe facing Palestine and now Lebanon, he wouldn’t have to wait 30 days. All he has to do is immediately exercise his executive power in imitation of past U.S. administrations, immediately implement a no-fly zone over Gaza and Lebanon, and authorize an immediate arms embargo against Israel. This combined approach will immediately improve conditions for a durable ceasefire, unimpeded humanitarian access and prevent further escalation of regional tensions. Rather than buying time for Israel to inflict more human suffering during the remainder of his term, President Biden should buy time for those who will no longer survive without a more humane foreign policy intervention from the United States. Imagine being the most powerful leader in the world and choosing to be anything less.
The author is an expert in humanitarian affairs and disaster response.
IPS UN Secretariat
Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau.
Follow the IPS News UN Secretariat on Instagram
© Interpress Service (2024) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Interpress Service
