The Biden administration has asked Congress for $14 billion in additional military aid to Israel, despite warnings he and other officials could be rendering themselves complicit in genocide.
March 2016: Joe Biden, as U.S. vice president, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a visit to Israel. (U.S. Embassy Jerusalem/Flickr)
By Jake Johnson
Common Dreams
A new Gallup survey shows that U.S. President Joe Biden’s approval rating among Democrats has fallen by 11 percentage points this month, a possible indication that his unconditional support for Israel as it carries out massacres in the Gaza Strip is angering part of his base.
In September, 86 percent of Democrats approved of Biden’s job performance. But between October 2 and October 23, Biden’s approval rating among Democrats has fallen to 75 percent, according to Gallup—the lowest level of his presidency.
Megan Brenan, a research consultant at Gallup, argued the survey results released on Thursday suggest that “Biden’s immediate and decisive show of support for Israel following the October 7 attacks by Hamas appears to have turned off some in his own party.”
BREAKING from Gallup: "Biden’s job approval rating among Democrats has tumbled 11 percentage points in the past month to 75%, the worst reading of his presidency from his own party. This drop has pushed his overall approval rating down four points to 37%, matching his personal…
— Waleed Shahid ? (@_waleedshahid) October 26, 2023
As the death toll and humanitarian crisis in Gaza worsen by the hour, Muslim Americans are increasingly expressing outrage over the Biden administration’s unwavering show of support for the Israeli government, which human rights groups and United Nations experts have accused of collective punishment and other war crimes.
“Joe Biden has single-handedly alienated almost every Arab-American and Muslim-American voter in Michigan,” Democratic state Rep. Alabas Farhat told NBC News over the weekend. Michigan is a critical battleground state that Biden won in 2020.
“The Biden administration and Democrats as a whole are going to have to do a lot of work to rebuild some level of trust with my community,” added Farhat, who represents Dearborn, one of the largest Muslim- and Arab-American communities in the U.S. “It’s never too late to do the right thing.”
Last week, the Biden administration asked Congress to approve $14 billion in additional military assistance for Israel, despite warnings that he and other administration officials could be rendering themselves complicit in genocide.
Biden, who is running for reelection in 2024, has backed efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to Gazans under Israeli bombardment.
But he has thus far refused to call for a cease-fire and suggested he doesn’t trust the Gaza Health Ministry’s figures on the grisly death toll in the Palestinian territory—even though his own administration has repeatedly cited the data internally. Human rights experts say the ministry’s figures have proven to be reliable.
NBC News reported Sunday that “in rolling conversations in Michigan and beyond over the past two weeks, Muslim elected officials, activists, and community leaders have coalesced around a plan to mobilize their constituents to vote next year—but also to encourage them to leave the top of the ticket blank in protest.”
Survey results released last week by Data for Progress showed that two-thirds of likely U.S. voters—and 80 percent of Democrats—believe that “the U.S. should call for a cease-fire and deescalation of violence in Gaza” and “leverage its close diplomatic relationship with Israel to prevent further violence and civilian deaths.”
But the Biden administration has responded dismissively to growing cease-fire demands from human rights groups, the United Nations, and members of his party.
“A cease-fire, right now, really only benefits Hamas,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said during a press briefing earlier this week.
Kirby later said the Biden administration has not set or discussed any red lines with Israel as it prepares to invade the Gaza Strip after weeks of near-constant bombing.
By Brett Wilkins
Common Dreams
Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib hit back at Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Thursday after the Georgia Republican introduced an “unhinged” resolution to censure the Michigan Democrat—and only Palestinian American in Congress—for participating in a recent peaceful Capitol sit-in supporting a Gaza cease-fire.
Greene’s privileged resolution—which requires House consideration within two legislative days—seeks to censure Tlaib “for antisemitic activity, sympathizing with terrorist organizations, and leading an insurrection at the United States Capitol” on October 18.
That day, thousands of Jewish protesters and allies rallied in and outside the Capitol to demand members of Congress push for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, where Israeli forces have killed nearly 7,000 Palestinians, wounded over 17,000 more, destroyed or damaged nearly half of all homes, and displaced more than 1.4 million people.
One of the most fringe, right-wing members of Congress is attempting to censure Rashida Tlaib for standing up for Palestinian human rights and against endless bloodshed.
We all know that those who are war-mongering in Congress would be the ones censured and shamed. https://t.co/838UUSniaD
— Justice Democrats (@justicedems) October 26, 2023
“This type of Israel-hating, America-hating behavior from a sitting member of Congress is unacceptable and she does not represent anything America stands for,” Greene said on Tuesday while introducing a separate motion to censure Tlaib. Rep. Jack Bergman (R-MI)—whose third-biggest campaign contributor during the 2022 election cycle was the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)—introduced his own censure motion against Tlaib earlier this month.
Meanwhile, Rep. Rebecca Balint (D-VT) moved Thursday to force a vote on her July motion to censure Greene “for her racist, homophobic, transphobic, antisemitic remarks, and unhinged conspiracy theories.”
Since Tlaib chairs no committees, there would be consequences should Greene’s resolution pass.
Earlier this week, Greene accused Tlaib and “the communist left” of seeking to “bring Jihad to America.”
Tlaib, who was one of the speakers at the rally outside the Capitol, said in a statement that Greene’s “unhinged resolution is deeply Islamophobic and attacks peaceful Jewish anti-war advocates.”
BREAKING: One of the most powerful speeches ever heard on the Washington Mall by @RashidaTlaib warning President Biden and Democrats about their rejection of Palestinian lives and calling for a ceasefire with @jvplive and @IfNotNowOrg. pic.twitter.com/IjePzvNTur
— Justice Democrats (@justicedems) October 18, 2023
“I am proud to stand in solidarity with Jewish peace advocates calling for a cease-fire and an end to the violence. I will not be bullied, I will not be dehumanized, and I will not be silenced,” she continued. “I will continue to call for cease-fire, for the immediate delivery of humanitarian aid, for the release of hostages and those arbitrarily detained, and for every American to be brought home.”
“I will continue to work for a just and lasting peace that upholds the human rights and dignity of all people, and ensures that no person, no child has to suffer or live in fear of violence,” Tlaib added.
My statement on Marjorie Taylor Greene’s effort to censure me. pic.twitter.com/dzUNflJPh2
— Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (@RepRashida) October 26, 2023
On Thursday, Tlaib, seven progressive Democratic colleagues—Reps. Jamaal Bowman (NY), Cori Bush (MO), Ilhan Omar (MN), André Carson (IN), Summer Lee (PA), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Delia Ramirez (IL), and Al Green (D-TX)—and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) voted against a bipartisan House resolution expressing unconditional support for the Israeli government.
The measure does not mention Israel’s mass slaughter, displacement, deprivation, and terrorizing of Gazans.
Greene’s resolution also baselessly claims that Tlaib “celebrated the Holocaust,” a charge also leveled in a video shared by the far-right congresswoman. The short clip takes a quote by Tlaib—that she gets a “calming feeling” when she thinks of the Holocaust—wildly out of context. What Tlaib actually said was:
There’s kind of a calming feeling I always tell folks when I think of the Holocaust, and the tragedy of the Holocaust, and the fact that it was my ancestors, Palestinians, who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity, their existence in many ways, have been wiped out… in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews, post-the Holocaust, post-the tragedy and the horrific persecution of Jews across the world at that time, and I love the fact that it was my ancestors that provided that, right, in many ways.
The video also notes that Tlaib calls Israel an “apartheid” state—as do many Israelis and diaspora Jews, as well as human rights groups, experts, and world leaders.
Jewish Voice for Peace Action, the sister organization of Jewish Voice for Peace—which has led numerous protests across the U.S. during the war, including on October 18—weighed in against Greene’s resolution Thursday.
Our response to Marjorie "Jewish-Space-Lasers" Taylor Greene attempting to smear @RepRashida and our sibling organization Jewish Voice for Peace. pic.twitter.com/XxIJRbhxk7
— Jewish Voice for Peace Action (@JvpAction) October 26, 2023
“Believe it or not, a self-described ‘Christian nationalist’ who believes in ‘Jewish space lasers’ doesn’t have the best interests of Jewish people at heart,” JVP Action political director Beth Miller said in a statement.
“On October 18, over 500 Jews and allies sat on the floor of a congressional… office building in prayer and song to demand an immediate cease-fire to save Palestinian and Israeli lives, and to prevent an imminent genocide of Palestinians in Gaza by the Israeli government,” she continued. “Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib is one of the leading anti-war voices in Congress right now, and has the support of progressive Jews across the country.”
Thank you to our Jewish allies from across the country who joined in solidarity to call for a #CeasefireNOW.
Chanting “Not in Our Name.” https://t.co/IXcOfmhDM0
— Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (@RepRashida) October 18, 2023
Clearly,” added Miller, “Marjorie Taylor Greene is politically threatened by Palestinians and Jews coming together to work for peace and justice.”
Jake Johnson and Brett Wilkins are staff writers at Common Dreams.
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And we are still waiting to hear the fate of Julian Assange.
BTW, i agree about rounding up the “international bankers” you mentioned above. But what would that take i wonder.
I’m just as upset as the rest of you, on this U.S. backed and financially supported with our tax dollars, the new Holocaust against the Palestinian people by the Zionist regime -secret admirers of the Nazi Party of the Third Reich – it seems, as they’ve been systematically killing, maiming and “displacing” the people of Palestine for 75 years, and even get away with bulldozing Palestinian homes and use that land for only American tax dollar supported “Jewish Only” homes, which even the worthless U.N. condemns as a human rights violation, but didn’t “sanction Israel or authorize “humanitarian bombing” of Tel Aviv to stop the calculated slaughter of thousands of children, women, and men in Gaza.
This is when I wish the Russians and the Chinese had the moral courage and moral strength of the “superman” and the “samurai” of Germany and Japan during the WWII era to stop the U.S. and the vassal paid-off nations under Uncle Sam’s heel and say, “enough is enough,” and put a stop to Imperial America and the corrupt nations who do our bidding, and round up the infamous “international bankers” who have enriched themselves with their insatiable greed while impoverishing much of the world’s people.
As the 20th Century was the most violent period in recorded history, one would think that the 21st Century would have been one of cooperation and mutual trust rather than confrontation and violent conflict, mostly initiated by the U.S. but unfortunately, most folks go along with the status quo and by doing so, support the Death, Destruction, Misery & Suffering industries, aka the MIC and the perpetual war machine for a continuity of blood money profits for the employees of those businesses plus the investor-class.
It’s pitiful and totally unnecessary! And scary, too!
That 75% of voters who identify as Democrats support genocide and ethnic cleansing is horrific, but probably not to be outdone, at least that percentage of Republicans do as well. What does that say about all of those who gave their lives, their limbs and their sanity to oppose those crimes in the purported second war to end all wars?
I find this article highly ironic since it pits two congress women with opposing but similar/contradictory stances on the issues of war, peace and genocide. The irony comes when looking closely at both representatives for two different conflicts Ukraine and Israel/Palestine. Margorie Taylor Green is one of the most outspoken Republican representatives in opposition to the US/NATO support for the Ukraine war and correctly identifies the Neo-Nazi elements in the Ukraine government, the brutalizing and killing of ethnic Russians in the Dombas region and the early efforts by the Russian Federation to resolve the conflict that were rebuffed by the US and NATO. Democrat Rashida Tlaib on the other hand along with her democratic colleagues in congress offer unquestioned support for the war effort in Ukraine and continue to view Putin and Lavrov as ruthless dictators who won’t compromise. Then the two are complete opposites on the subject of Israel and Gaza with Taylor Green refusing to even acknowledge the rights under international law of the Palestinian people. My question for both of these individuals is how can you trun a blind eye to injustice no matter where or which nation it occurs in.
#BlueAnon will vote for Biden. They are too afraid of being gaslighted by their liberal friends to do anything else.
“In September, 86 percent of Democrats approved of Biden’s job performance.” That 75% still do?
If it weren’t for the fact that both the Dems and the Repubs between them only add up to 50% of the populace being associated with them—25% for each party—I think I would truly abandon hope. It’s a sad truth of old age that one finally comes to terms with the deficiencies of the human species that make us so dangerous to each other and ourselves. With age, the illusions drop away even as the cataracts hard-form. Ironic, that. Even as those ‘elected’ few and the dug-in-like-chiggers perennial bureaucrats hold the world’s fate in their sweaty little, never-calloused, and perfectly manicured hands
Throughout life, and now in these techno times in particular, we have been surreptitiously and unconsciously imprinted like in no other age with wanton illusions. So if confronted with a defined moral dilemma-paradox, we as political tribes resort to a ‘human-wave’ levels of mass denial, our perceptions having been formed by the spectrum of psychological assaults from decades of focused propaganda that is so microscopically crafted and manufactured so as to make even otherwise most heinous of atrocities palatable.
We are actually collective wimps, we’re overcooked spaghetti, pliable and twisted into impossible (to square with conscience) contortions of amoral pretzel logic. And the sauce sprinkled on top like Parmesan cheese, the ultimate form of self-protection is often enough times smugness. All this while delusionally believing we are objectively informed, if not celestially-guided. In truth, so very, very few—of the first—actually are. I cannot speak objectively for the second.
What to do, what to do, what to do…?
Bear up under the weights of opprobrium, the towering over us all heights of absurdity, the ineffable sadness of the cruelties we see ourselves via our fellow human beings committing in blinding passions of hatred. We’re all—always—a hairs-breadth away from finding ourselves stimulated to such degrees of sustained madness. We’re all hardwired loaded guns with a hair trigger.
Some call it Intelligent Design.
“Forgive them, Lord, they know no what they do.” Ultimately, that’s all I’ve got.
“Some call it Intelligent Design.”
“The leading proponents of ID are associated with the Discovery Institute, a Christian, politically conservative think tank based in the United States.”
So there you go David. It all comes back to the US.
“Throughout life, and now in these techno times in particular, we have been surreptitiously and unconsciously imprinted like in no other age with wanton illusions.”
But not all of us have succumbed. Like yourself, there are others who see through the “illusions”.
75% of Democrats still support Biden? All I can say is they have gone completely off the rails in their Trump Derangement. The two are equally repugnant and are a clear indication of what a freak show US politics has become. The US needs to be isolated from having any say in global efforts to bring about justice anywhere. I am and have been for a long time, embarrassed to be from this country.
I am shocked and disappointed that 75% of Democrats still support Biden. He’s a crook, he’s incompetent, he was never very bright, and now he’s senile. But with all that, Biden still has a good chance of becoming a two term President. All signs of an empire in decline.
Even if Israel Kill Every Man, Woman and Child in the Gaza Strip, America will Still
Bankroll it. Because Israel is Sacred to the Rothschild Family; who Control the US
Federal Reserve, who Control the Money Supply to the American Government. America has been trying to destroy Every Enemy of the State of Israel. Gadhafi`s Libya, Saddam Hussein`s Iraq, Azzad`s Syria , Hezbollah in Lebanon and now America`s Delta Force
are operating in Gaza City and Southern Lebanon.
I DON’T know if a peaceful solution to the Israel/Hamas/Palestinian conflict is possible, but I DO know that if a serious attempt is to be made to find one, the United States CANNOT be part of the negotiating team. The US, and specifically the Biden Administration, is poisonous to conflict resolution.
DC has an $850 billion annual military budget. Peace is the last thing the MIC wants. The MIC wants chaos and war and in modern day Washington DC the MIC gets what it wants. Our Federal governments foreign policy base was formed in1945 when the non Soviet Union world wanted a worlds policeman. It’s now 2023 and the world, including the Soviet Union, has changed but our foreign policy remains the same. It really, really is in need of modernization.
This article is all about the craziness of United States. This society is really sick. And i dont mean that all americans are sick but too many are.
Without US the world would be much better place.
Hah! Dems (with a few very, very rare exceptions) are just about as big of Zionist apologists and enablers of Jewish supremacist monstrous war crimes and assaults on humanity as Republicans.
The Jewish supremacists have just totally disabled all Gaza communication capabilities to the outside world, international cables are completely out of commission as well as the internet and all telecommunications.
The Jewish supremacists will now be able to launch a bloodbath of astounding proportions, free from the eyes of the world. Gas the tunnels with complete impunity, shoot to death innocent women and children on apartment balconies in cold blood.
On our watches. Genocide in real-time! On our watches!
The Dems always put on a show of having an ‘exception’. Its standard operation procedure. For example, the pro-banker party has its one exception that stands up and opposes the bankers. Then loses with little support, after making a bit of noise. The Dems are good about putting on a powerless show that has no chance of changing anything, and then using that bit of theater to try to keep the Woke Sheep asleep in their pen.
The key point is to notice that these ‘exceptions’ never do anything, never change anything, and really only just make an acceptable amount of noise. They never really actually fight, just talk. They don’t defeat their speaker. They don’t stall Biden in a 50-50 Senate to get what they want. They don’t do what Manchin and Gaetz have shown can be done.
The Dems have now officially changed their letter to (G) for Genocide. Anyone left who has a soul needs to get out of that party. Actually, that point was awhile ago. It has reached the point where there really isn’t any good explanation for explaining why a person was a good party member and loyal voter to a pro-genocide party. Too many wars. Too many crimes. Too many deaths. Too many prisons and camps. Is an American really going to try to explain later why they still voted Democrat even after the hospital blew up? Especially when its not the first hospital? (see Kunduz).
Excellent comment Chadwick!
hxxps://consortiumnews.com/2015/10/14/the-kunduz-hospital-atrocity/
The CN Archives are indispensable. They are also a vivid condensed history of where we’ve been and how we got here; the imprimatur and overwhelming influence of the Kagan-Nuland bloc’s prominence is laid out starkly.
‘Influencers’ as a trite trending social phenomenon meets its darkness-shrouded twin, a now and ongoing historical series of cruelty methodically made; written in spilled human blood.
“The Jewish supremacists have just totally disabled all Gaza communication capabilities to the outside world, international cables are completely out of commission as well as the internet and all telecommunications.”
What about that Musk thing, Starlink? Can that not be applied? OMGodzilla. I am incensed.
And now we won’t be able to get Ziad’s daily Gaza Diary. Today he talked about a “beacon” in the form of an injured cat. Ziad is my “beacon” in this absurdity.
“The Jewish supremacists will now be able to launch a bloodbath of astounding proportions, free from the eyes of the world.”
When it comes, as it surely must if there is any justice on this earth, let the punishment fit the crime.
The narrow boundaries of public discourse: most only focus on the D/R status quo and contrived drama of Greene/Tlaib etc. It’s like a sad soap-opera. Meanwhile, the situation worsens, likelihood of escalation and spread of conflict worsens.
Besides, if Ds don’t like JB, “whadda they gonna do? vote Republican? ha ha ha. Jokes on us. The Best Democracy Money Can Buy!
“Meanwhile, the situation worsens, likelihood of escalation and spread of conflict worsens.”
Listening to Alastair Crooke today on “judging freedom” was pretty sobering. This former british diplomat whose experience and expertise in hostage situations and general intellect/education/knowledge is second to none. Watching him today, shaking his head in exasperation at the folly of the reactions and intentions of the US was unsettling. Even i, and i’m sure you Jonny and all of us here on CN are in agreement with Mr. Crooke; this is a dispute which will lead to dire consequences. It has been festering for decades now. Time to conclude this dispute one way or another.
Same can be said about the Ukraine conflict or better named the NATO/US project to destroy and dismember Russia
Oh that? Yes. Not much news about it. Perhaps this is another ploy to get Russia involved. The mind boggles.
> Yes. Not much news about it.
Perhaps because the news is currently so disastrous for the Kiev regime and its warhawk backers in Washington, London, Brussels and Berlin:
— Its air force is being wiped out; a couple of dozen fighters shot down in the last couple of days;
— Most of the ammo promised by EU countries has failed to arrive yet.
— After conscripting all the men they can get hold of off the street, the word is they are now planning to conscript those women who have not fled the country already — as Mercouris pointed out on The Duran, even the Nazis did not try this in the last days of the Third Reich.
Thanks Valerie, Alistair Crooke is a great source, yes I agree. I would imagine that he and Craig Murray are friends.
To Valerie and Jonny:
Both men are honest and have the courage to speak the truth in their analysis of the situations they speak or right about.
Johnathan Cook in Israel has that moral quality as well, which takes a strong backbone in revealing the truth behind the scenes, committed by nefarious types and governments.
I agree Frank. Another journalist in Israel, Amira Hass has done great work as well (Ha’aretz).