Amin Qudsi
The US continues backing Israel as its chaotic attempt to escape a crushing destiny proliferates war beyond its borders amid warnings of a wider conflict and another humanitarian disaster.
The unconditional support and its disastrous outcomes have not gone unnoticed in the United States.
Jake Johnson of Common Dreams notes Thursday the IDF said its ground invasion would be “targeted” at Hezbollah, “like its Gaza genocide which ‘targeted’ Hamas and frequently killed scores of civilians and obliterated schools, hospitals, shops, and residential buildings”.
Since mid-September, Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have killed more than a thousand people and displaced a million.
The White House acknowledged the risk of “mission creep” last week only to effectively wave it away, saying that “we will keep discussing that with the Israelis.”
Analysts in the US have likened Israel’s Lebanon assault to its invasion of Rafah — a “limited” operation that destroyed the city. They fear the same could happen in Lebanon and even in wider Arabia.
“Gaza was a testing ground for Israel to see what they could get away with and, it turns out, the answer is absolutely anything it wants,” said historian and analyst Assal Rad. “It did not stop at Gaza or the West Bank and it may not stop at Lebanon, because war was [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s objective all along and his prize is Iran.”
“Make no mistake: The Biden administration is providing cover for Israel as it invades a neighbouring, sovereign nation,” Rad added.
The Western mainstream media is painting the US as “increasingly powerless,” with “limited” influence, but the Biden administration has yet to seriously condition American military aid to prevent a war that could envelop the entire region.
The Washington Post observed that “the events of recent weeks appear to fit a pattern in which the administration urges against specific Israeli actions only to later backtrack so it can avoid imposing conditions on military aid.”
Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), said late Monday “Israel’s invasion of Lebanon … is the entirely predictable consequence of the Biden administration’s ceaseless coddling and resupply of weapons to Israel, whatever public bleats for cease-fires the administration has otherwise made.”
“The Biden administration has acted recklessly in giving Israel a blank check to light the entire region on fire, all while disregarding our own legal obligations under both US and international law to halt the weapons flow to them,” Whitson added.
The US-based anti-war group CodePink said: “Make no mistake: The Biden administration is providing cover for Israel as it invades a neighbouring, sovereign nation. US taxpayers fund Israel’s military, providing billions annually and supplying weapons used to kill innocent people.”
“The Biden administration and Congress could halt this escalation by cutting military aid, demanding a cease-fire, and holding Israel accountable,” CodePink continued, “but instead, they allow continued aggression across the Middle East.”
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