Biden sees the light, but it may be too late for Rafah

Alameen Templeton

The blindfold has fallen from president Joe Biden’s eyes, but is it too late for Rafah?

The US leader last night admitted for the first time in 215 days of slaughter that Israel’s weapons had been killing civilians. He’s threatening to withhold all bombs and ammunition from “israel” if it launches a full-scale invasion of Rafah.

Still, it wouldn’t be a blanket ban. Biden says the Nazi state will still receive all the weapons needed in case it comes under a wider attack from somewhere in Arabia.

“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centres,” Biden told CNN’s Erin Burnett during an interview last night.

But Biden is not that keen to examine the path “israel” has already stomped in blood; he’s only got his eyes on Rafah and any future atrocities.

And, so far, Israel has not yet stepped over his rather indistinct “red line”, Biden says.

“They haven’t gotten into the population centers. What they did was right on the border, and it’s causing problems with, right now, in terms of with Egypt,” he claimed.

But he warned: “If they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, that deal with that problem.”

He added that, in case of a “wide attack” on the border city, he would stop delivering “the weapons and artillery shells,” and would limit weapons to air defence and other non-attack components and ammunition.

He hastened to stress he remained an ardent fan of the genocidal state, reassuring his allies “”we’re not walking away from Israel security, we’re walking away from Israel’s ability to wage war in (Rafah)”.

Being a genocide enabler is starting to catch up on America as more and more evidence emerges of US weapons being used in “israel’s” atrocities.

The Guardian newspaper yesterday published an article documenting the use of US munititions in an airstrike against an ambulance centre in the Lebanese town of Hebbariyeh that killed seven health workers on March 27.

It is revelations of this sort that will weight heavily on the Biden and his administration officials if any future litigation is aimed at them for abuses of humanitarian law.

A months-long investigation by his state department was supposed to be released yesterday, but was suddenly withdrawn at the last moment. Biden seems to be trying to stretch his “plausible deniability” as far as he can.

But his deniability is stretched so thin already that most people can already see through it. Outsiders seem to know more about the effects of US munitions of civilians than the US’s entire intelligence agencies combined.

The Guardian, for instance, found that the March 27 attack murdered seven volunteer paramedics aged between 18 and 25. “israel” claimed without any proof it had killed a leading “terrorist” from the Jamaa Islamiya movement.

Shrapnel left behind – verified by independent weapons experts and Human Rights Watch – showed the blast was caused by a 500 pound “Israeli” bomb equipped with US-made Joint Direct Attack Munition which turns ordinary bombs into “smart” bombs.

And the entire Gaza strip is blanketed in similar evidence.

Some of that may be included in yesterday’s stalled report which started in February after some concerned US lawmakers appealed to the White House to invoke National Security Memorandum 20 which requires Biden to make a determination if “israel” is violating international humanitarian law in Gaza.

If it is found in violation, Biden is required to suspend all arms sales to the Nazi state.

So far, all Biden’s administration has is a single letter from “israel” claiming it doesn’t violate any laws.

“israel” has threatened to upend the peace process (if it hasn’t done that already) if arms supplies are stopped.