The USA says Israel may have breached international law with American weapons in Gaza

[Scirocco]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68984999

There are concerns that the report was watered down, but even so, it's a new level of criticism to say these issues formally in a report at this level.

Yes Russia & Iran are major military & trading allies. That's partly why America sees Israel as an important strategic ally. The military budget is not a pie of a fixed size. Inreasing aid or supplies to one ally doessnt automatically mean decreasing it to another. Especially when they are both important strategically

On news I saw the other night I thought it seemed to suggest that more to Israel meant less for Ukraine. I hope you are right.

republicans, I believe , have stopped several payments to Ukraine and israel in the last year mainly because they want their money to be invested in the wall along Mexico.

Yes, Im sure its an argument - Im just saying its not inevitable. Part of the problem is Trump's lack of interest in Nato/Ukraine & crush on Putin. I pray the US continues to see the value of keeping both Russia & Iran at bay.

I pray the US continues to see the value of keeping both Russia & Iran at bay.

Yes.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/04/biden-netanyahu-peace-deal-election-influence

Special Report: Emails show early US concerns over Gaza offensive, risk of Israeli war crimes

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/emails-show-early-us-concerns-over-gaza-offensive-risk-israeli-war-crimes-2024-10-04/

Clearly the USA has a policy that it will defend Israel more or less no matter what.

All the US internal checks and balances that reveal any wrong action by Israel, meaning the US should pause from giving them arms, will be ignored. The US will instead continue issuing bland public statements to protect themselves from criticism.

It's scary to read just how quickly it became apparent that Israel were behaving in a manner that risked humanitarian catastrophe and how many lives could have been saved if those warnings had have been heeded.

https://m.economictimes.com/news/defence/us-spends-a-record-usd-17-9-billion-on-military-aid-to-israel-since-last-october-7/amp_articleshow/114014242.cms

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cew1jkgd7n8o

Bbc

The US has written to Israel’s government giving it 30 days to urgently boost humanitarian aid access in Gaza or face having some US military assistance cut off.
The letter amounts to the strongest known written warning from the Biden administration to its ally, coming as Israel’s attack on northern Gaza has seen mass forced displacements of civilians to the south.
The letter - sent two days ago - was signed by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin. It says the US has “deep concern” about “the deteriorating humanitarian situation”.
It adds that Israel last month denied or impeded nearly 90% of humanitarian movements between north and south Gaza.
It states that evacuation orders have forced 1.7 million people into a narrow coastal strip where they are at “high risk of lethal contagion”.
The letter demands “urgent and sustained actions by your government this month to reverse this trajectory”.
It says Israel “must, starting now and within 30 days” act on a series of concrete measures to boost aid supplies, adding that failure may “have implications for US policy”.
It cites US laws which can prohibit military assistance to countries that impede delivery of American humanitarian aid.
It calls on Israel to end the “isolation of northern Gaza” by reaffirming that there will be no “no Israeli government policy of forced evacuation of civilians” from north to south.
The contents of the letter, reported by the journalist Barak Ravid, have been verified by the BBC.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/20/leaked-documents-allege-israel-plans-attack-iran

guess too early to know but how much impact has Gaza today had on todays result

Well Kamala did tell that voter that protested her stance on Gaza at one of her rallies to "Shut up, I'm speaking".

I guess thousands of people took that seriously and sat out the election or voted third party.

The margins will be interesting, Jill Stein was one of the only anti genocide candidates and it looks like in a lot of races the votes that she got would have allowed the Democrats to win.

Jill was my favourite

Initial data suggests it may have cost the Democrats crucial support. But I think Trump is likely to be far worse for the region, as well as for the country.

There is no doubt about your latter sentence My only hope is that they blocked a few money transfers to Israel so here is hoping that these money is stopped under his mandate

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senate-sets-test-vote-ukraine-aid-despite-republican-opposition-2023-12-06/

but as belle says Harris has pissed off many people that might have stayed at home or voted for Jill

Does it? Can you post that data? All I can see is that her vote is 0.4%. Hard to see how that can have swung very much.

Yes, she has been wonderful and her VP Butch were steadfast on their stance on Gaza.

Genocide should be a red line and shout out to the Arab community in Dearbon Michigan who despite threats voted Stein.

Like my friend in Lebanon, it doesn't matter who wins the American election their bombs will still drop on us.

The problem with protest votes is that they do exactly the same as actively voting for the opposite party. I have a Palestinian friend here in Israel who refuses to vote for any of the 3 Palestinian parties in Israel, claiming that they all are too much of a compromise. OK, but in the end, the question boils down not to whether you prefer this policy or that, but would you prefer one more Palestinian representative in the Knesset or one more from the far right? Because that is the actual difference your vote makes.

Likewise here. A vote for Jill Stein wasn't a subtle dig at the Democrats - it was a vote to prefer a Trump administration. Anyone who is prepared to own that and think it's better for Palestinians - great - but I personally am in huge doubt that a Trump administration will be better for Palestinians or more effective in ending the war and promoting human rights than a Harris one.

Palestinians were going to lose regardless who won in USA. Harris Biden organisation hasn’t been good for them

I agree with the sentiment of a vote for Stein being equivalent to endorsing Trump.

However the depths of destruction and death that people have seen over the last 13 months is horrific, all those children killed. If you can’t make a stand now, then when?

Professor John Mearsheimer put it best when asked who he was voting for:
“I’m not voting for Trump and i’m not voting for Harris…
… genocide is a red line for me. I won’t vote for the Democrats, they are complicit in the genocide…”

https://x.com/Hamza_a96/status/1853797371378913361

I guess steadfast is one word for it. But you are endorsing someone who celebrated 7 October, who denied the sexual violence of 7 October. Stein's response to that was to say she didn't want to be 'distracted' by 7 October. Not my idea of 'wonderful'. jewishinsider.com/2024/10/jill-stein-rudolph-butch-ware-green-party-violence-israel/

Exactly. Protest votes are usually (not always) an indulgence. Trump will be a disaster because he is unhinged and profoundly undemocratic, and openly racist, whatever his individual policy positions. The world doesn't need that sort of personality right now. It remains to be seen what impact Stein had. The mistake people usually make when analysing protest votes is assuming they would otherwise have gone to a mainstream candidate. Its in the makeup of a protest voter that they often wouldn't have turned out at all.