Tuesday, May 18, 2021

The Arab-Israeli Cookbook

 Grauniard

BIDEN EXPRESSES SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL-GAZA CEASEFIRE AS PRESSURE ON US RISES

President stops short of demanding a halt to hostilities amid calls from his own party to take a tougher line as the death toll in Gaza mounts

Joe Biden has issued a statement for the first time expressing support for a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza’s militant rulers Hamas, after a phone conversation with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

However, the US president stopped short of calling for an immediate halt to the eight days of Israeli airstrikes and Hamas rocket barrages that have killed more than 200 people, the vast majority of them Palestinian.

“The president reiterated his firm support for Israel’s right to defend itself against indiscriminate rocket attacks,” the White House statement said after the phone call, the second known one between the leaders in three days.

If Donald Trump was still the President the media would be telling us this conflict was his fault. Imagine the reaction if the Donald's White House had announced that "The president reiterated his firm support for Israel’s right to defend itself against indiscriminate rocket attacks."

How come Biden, like Obama before him, gets such an easy ride? More and more I think that if I was a Yank I would tend to vote for Republican presidents on the grounds that they get scrutinised rather than indulged.

As for what is actually going on, see Icons passim.

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