Netanyahu’s Concessions Are Not ‘Enough’
Israel responds after Biden, others rachet rhetoric following aid worker killings
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s promises to allow for an increased flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza are not sufficient, according to one prominent senator.
Netanyahu made a few concessions after the outcry of the Israeli killing of international aid workers earlier this week.
The workers, with World Central Kitchen, were killed in an Israeli rocket attack even after the convoy had announced themselves as aid workers.
Patience from President Biden, and other Democrats, also has been growing short as Israel continues to indiscriminately kill Palestinian civilians. In all more than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began their current operations in the wake of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks.
Thousands of those Palestinians killed have been women and young children.
“We’ve made it clear, that unless we see some policy changes on the Israeli part, we might have to make some policy changes on our part. So we’re going to watch and see, they’re expected to make some announcements in coming hours and days of ways they’re going to improve the efficacy of their targeting process, ways that they’re going to improve humanitarian assistance, ways they’re going to protect aid workers,” John Kirby, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said Thursday. “We want to see those changes. Too many civilians have been killed. And if we don’t see those changes, well, then we’re going to have to make some changes and decisions of our own. That doesn’t mean — and this is an important point — it doesn’t mean that our support for the state of Israel is going down or that we don’t support Israel’s right to defend itself against these threats. But how they defend themselves against these threats, particularly Hamas, really does matter.”
But Friday morning, Sen Chris Murphy (D-Conn) made clear that the allowances Netanyahu offered were not be sufficient.
“I do not believe that opening up a new crossing into Gaza is enough. I was at Americares — a Connecticut-based emergency relief organization — they send medicines into Gaza. They have suspended operations, they and their partners on the ground, not because of a lack of crossings into Gaza, but because they simply believe that the danger to aid workers now is too high. We have seen over 200 aid workers killed inside Gaza,” he said. “So without a pause in military operations, I just don’t think you are going to be able to save lives.
“I think right now there needs to be a temporary halt so that we can get food and medicine, emergency supplies spread throughout Gaza in a way to save lives,” Murphy added. “As for what Congress is going to do, listen, I don’t know. But there was a group of us, about 20, that introduced an amendment in the Senate to the emergency supplemental bill that included Israel aid that would have conditioned funding upon compliance with U.S. humanitarian law and international laws of war. I think there will likely be more — not less — interest in that kind of amendment in the House of Representatives after this latest incident with the aid workers.”
Please support our work…
Please subscribe…