Biden's Been Pumping Israel With Thousands of Bombs on Consistent Basis: Whistleblower
Biden's Been Pumping Israel With Thousands of Bombs on Consistent Basis: Whistleblower
White House is making a purposeful decision to not know what is going on in Gaza so it can continue to flood Israel with weapons, he says
Josh Paul, the long-time U.S. State Department official who resigned in October over the Biden administration’s approach to the Israeli war in Gaza, said in an interview Tuesday that the report last week President Biden was sending Israel billions of dollars worth of bombs and fighter jets to Israel is nothing new and has been consistent since the start of the Gaza genocide.
“Last week, the U.S. authorized the transfer of over 2,000 more bombs to Israel,” he told “Democracy Now.” “This week, I anticipate it will authorize the transfer of a thousand more. It has been doing this on a weekly basis since the conflict began, just an open tap of arms. And these are the arms that Israel is using to kill not only thousands of civilians but hundreds of aid workers, as well.”
He said the Biden administration is purposely not seeking legal opinions on these arms transfers and “is essentially sticking its fingers in its ears and, you know, covering its eyes and saying, “You know, ‘We don’t know what’s going on.’ It is making a purposeful decision to not know what is going on. And I have never seen anything like it in my time in government.”
Biden has tried to balance providing Israel with unlimited weapons — while calling on the country to try and limit civilian casualties. The White House is planning on providing Israel with another $18 billion in F-15 fighter jets and other weapons in the upcoming war with Iran.
Paul’s interview came a day after Israel laid waste to Gaza’s Shifa Hospital and bombed a humanitarian food convoy.
The New York Times described the condition of the hospital:
Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, once the fulcrum of Gaza’s health system and now an emblem of its destruction, stood in ruins on Sunday, as if a tsunami had surged through it followed by a tornado.
Paul had worked for the office that approves arms transfers, said in an interview after his resignation: “I recognize the Israeli government's right to respond and to defend themselves. I guess I question how many Palestinian children have to die in that process.”
Democracy Now quoted Paul:
The strike on the World Central Kitchen comes on the same day that Israel wrapped up its operations in Al-Shifa Hospital, that has left the ground littered with decaying body parts, and nor is it by any means the first strike on humanitarian aid workers. In February, Israel murdered U.S. citizen Mousa Shawwa, logistics coordinator for the charity Anera. In November, it murdered three doctors from Médecins Sans Frontières, Doctors Without Borders. And in December, it murdered Reem Abu Lebdeh, who was a board member of MSF UK. And, of course, in February, after having given direct permission for an ambulance to retrieve 6-year-old Hind Rajab from the car, where she sat with the bodies of her dead parents, Israel struck that ambulance, killing the medics who were on their way to save her.
So, you know, this is a continuing pattern. And in that context, as you note, last week, the U.S. authorized the transfer of over 2,000 more bombs to Israel. This week, I anticipate it will authorize the transfer of a thousand more. It has been doing this on a weekly basis since the conflict began, just an open tap of arms. And these are the arms that Israel is using to kill not only thousands of civilians but hundreds of aid workers, as well.
Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, took to social media last month to post the line of relief trucks that are unable to enter Gaza because of the brutal Israeli siege on the enclave.
“Today, I saw long lines of blocked relief trucks waiting to be let into Gaza,” he posted. “It’s time to truly flood Gaza with life-saving aid. The choice is clear: surge or starvation. Let’s choose the side of help, the side of hope & the right side of history. I will not give up.”
Guterres was on the Egyptian side of the border on Saturday and called the conditions that Gazans face a “moral outrage.”
Paul was not the only State Department official to resign over the bloodbath in Gaza.
Annelle Sheline, a human rights official at the U.S. State Department, resigned after it became clear to her that the Biden administration would not stop arming Israel no matter what.
“The fundamental reason was – I no longer wanted to be affiliated with this administration,” she told the Guardian. “I have a young daughter. She’s not yet two, but if someday in the future, she is learning about this and knows that I was at the State Department and she asked me [about it] – I want to be able to tell her that I did what I could.”