I am glad to see this, and it doesn’t surprise me.
I mean, how many times could Bibi tell Biden to fuck off before we were going to get here?
🚨🚨Scoop: U.S. put a hold on an ammunition shipment to Israel last week, two Israeli officials told me. My story on @axios https://t.co/vyS0DEAZNg
— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) May 5, 2024
U.S. put a hold on an ammunition shipment to Israel (Axios)
The Biden administration last week put a hold on a shipment of U.S.-made ammunition to Israel, two Israeli officials told Axios.
Why it matters: It is the first time since the Oct. 7 attack that the U.S. has stopped a weapons shipment intended for the Israeli military.
The incident raised serious concerns inside the Israeli government and sent officials scrambling to understand why the shipment was held, Israeli officials said.
President Biden is facing sharp criticism among Americans who oppose his support of Israel. The administration in February asked Israel to provide assurances that U.S.-made weapons were being used by Israel Defense Forces in Gaza in accordance with international law. Israel provided a signed letter of assurances in March.
State of play: The Israeli officials said the ammunition shipment to Israel was stopped last week.
The White House declined to comment.
The Pentagon, the State Department and the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office didn’t immediately respond to questions.
Driving the news: The Biden administration is highly concerned Israel will invade the southern Gaza city of Rafah where more than one million displaced Palestinians have been taking shelter.
Open thread.
pat
Can we send those munitions to Ukraine instead?????
YY_Sima Qian
Long overdue, but welcome news!
J. Arthur Crank
This does seem like a big deal. I presume the ammunition being held back is some form of artillery shells, but the article doesn’t say. I suppose Israel sort of needs that ammunition to continue doing what it has been doing, otherwise there would not be a kerfluffle.
piratedan
good to see that Bibi has received his first Dildo of Consequences. Here’s hoping the rest of the war cabinet of the war coalition in Israel gets theirs soon as well.
WaterGirl
This was my favorite part:
Gee, I can’t imagine why. It’s inexplicable!
mvr
I hope they keep this up. The total lack of concern for civilians is chilling. The fact that the main purpose seems to be to protect the flank of a corrupt prime minister only makes it worse. But so much makes it worse. So I hope that Biden will keep on pushing back and pushing back hard.
WaterGirl
More from the article:
They are just defending themselves!
Do we think Bibi believes his own bullshit? I am inclined to think not.
Jackie
I’ve had MSNBC on most of the day as background. I haven’t heard boo about this – although I could have missed it. I don’t think so, though, as I watched Ayman, and nothing was said about this during his program – and it’s the last show before reruns of earlier programming.
ETA I can’t speak for other MSM reports.
Melancholy Jaques
@WaterGirl:
Is there anyone in the ruling coalition who can convince Netanyahu to back away?
TeezySkeezy
It has been something hearing the Israel foreign policy apologists telling us sending Israel weapons or not doesn’t matter because they do not actually need them so we better keep sending them… which really seems to argue in favor of stopping military support if it really makes no difference. It clearly makes a difference, but we shall see how much difference *this* move makes. I feel it is mostly a symbolic warning shot. If Bibi calls it a bluff, will we go harder or fold? Curious what will happen (Bibi def gonna try to call it as a bluff, he has no choice. It is up to the US not to blink).
Jackie
@Melancholy Jaques: Netanyahu is Israel’s TIFG. He double downs and refuses to admit he’s wrong, IMO.
Wag
Is the slaughter of Palestinian civilians unjustified? Absolutely.
Were the events of 10/7 unjustified? Absolutely
Is holding Netenyatu accountable for his overreach completely justified? Again, absolutely.
Is it both wrong and antisemitic to hold the whole of the Jewish people responsible for Netenyatu’s destruction of Gaza? Again, absolutely.
That’s how nuance works. Many disparate ideas can be true without contradicting each other.
WaterGirl
@Wag: Absolutely!
scav
Yup, good. would slow them down a bit if they had to defend themselves with nothing but local sticks, so a little reminder wouldn’t be amiss.
The whole nuance thing needs a bit about not holding all Palestinians responsible for the actions of Hamas to complete the let’s make it explicit.
wjca
Some people you gotta smack up side the head with a 2×4, in order to get their attention.
wjca
This was a message to the Israeli government, not the US public. Hence the “No comment” from the White House.
Since the number of actual reporters in DC is, as has been noted here, not large, a simple lack of a press release can be almost as good as a “Classified” label for keeping something secret for a few weeks.
Kelly
@wjca: A 2×4 is an awkward weapon. Too fat to get my hands around and then there’s the corners. A pickaxe handle has a nice grip and plenty of heft.
Jay
@wjca:
Israel stopped “reading the room” decades ago.
Jackie
OT: Watching Hakeem Jeffries on 60 Minutes and his first statement? “Even though we’re in the minority, we’re effectively have been governing as if we were in the majority…” 👏🏻👏🏻 👏🏻👏🏻
Oh, the GQP are going to freak!😂😂😂
Villago Delenda Est
@WaterGirl: My favorite part, too, WG. Gosh, you don’t suppose that Bibi’s thirst for blood has anything to do with it, do you?
WaterGirl
@Jackie: Hakeem on 60 minutes? I would have recorded it if I had known.
Leto
Yet Schumer and Pastor Johnson invited Bibi to speak before Congress. It’d be nice if Biden and Schumer were on the same page here.
Villago Delenda Est
@Kelly: Louisville Slugger. Al Capone showed us the way.
Villago Delenda Est
@Jay: Bibi’s been running the show for most of the last 25 years or so.
WaterGirl
@Villago Delenda Est: as I was typing the comment you just responded to, I almost typed thirst for blood, but did not because I was afraid that might be an anti-Jewish trope. Apparently not? Good.
SpaceUnit
About damn time.
Carlo Graziani
The historical parallel to keep in mind here is GHW Bush/Baker suspending loan guarantees to Israel over West Bank settlements in 1991, ultimately destabilizing Shamir’s Likud government, and causing its electoral defeat in 1992.
Suspending weapons deliveries is a at least as concrete and consequential an action as declining to co-sign Israeli debt. The Biden administration wants Bibi gone.
Parfigliano
Take Bibi up on his holocaust statement and let them stand alone. High time Israel fought its own wars and the USA act in our interest.
Parfigliano
@Wag: Did the Israeli citizenry elect the Israeli Government? Absolutely. Are they responsible fot its actions absolutely?
Should the US blindly support the Israeli Government? Absolutely not.
Gretchen
@Melancholy Jaques: The young progressives keep saying all that’s needed is for Biden to pick up the phone and call Bobbi. End of war! Why didn’t Biden think of that?
It’s finally starting to be reported how much behind the scenes negotiations have been going on all along. People were thinking if it wasn’t in the news it wasn’t happening.
Jackie
@Jackie: Nora O’Donnell tried her best to diminish Hakeem; he refused to bite the bait. I’m proud of him, as always. He makes me proud to be a Democrat.
karen marie
@Wag: Remember too that history didn’t start on October 7th. Palestinians have been waiting for 80 years, and each year the Israeli government steals and sanctions the theft of more of the little land they have left.
I’ve been trying to avoid news coverage because it’s all such a load of bullshit designed to obfuscate the truth.
Jackie
@WaterGirl: I only knew because someone on the morning post mentioned it, so I DVR‘d it. I’m pretty sure YouTube will have a link😊
wjca
They’ve become so accustomed to government as performance, as loudly and publicly as pissible, that it simply doesn’t occur to them that there’s any other way. Especially the kids (sorry, young adults) who only became old enough to pay attention after TIFG’s arrival on the scene.
JWR
@Leto:
Again?!!! Is he gonna have another line drawing of a Boris Badenov style bomb as his backdrop?
Villago Delenda Est
Sounds a lot like TFG’s “peace plan” for Russia and Ukraine. Also, too what wjca said.
Spanky
@wjca:
Boy, ain’t that the truth.
JWR
@WaterGirl, @Jackie: 60 Minutes link to the Jeffries interview:
wjca
@Spanky:
I means “as possible.” But this works, too.
prostratedragon
The Biden administration is making even Obama’s seem histrionic. We’ll know when we get there.
A wrapup from the Columbia Spectator on the last couple of weeks of campus protests.
TeezySkeezy
@wjca: except this more of a delay on a single scheduled shipment as a warning shot. Requires the US to stick with it for a few months to really matter.
YY_Sima Qian
In the meantime, NYPD is touting a short introductory booklet on terrorism, published by the Oxford University Press,, found after they cleared Hamilton Hall at Columbia University, as evidence that the occupiers were learning from a “how to” handbook. High level NYPD leaders have gone on Newmax (of all places) to spread the misinformation!
Of course, NYPD is getting raked over the coals by academics everywhere, but plenty will believe the narrative.
At the same time, LAPD decided to parade the pro-Palestinian protestors arrested at the UCLA encampment in front of media to be unmasked. Interesting that cops rarely unmask the herrenvolk fascists that march through American towns.
If there is a some kind of show down in the US, a lot of the local & state law enforcement will side w/ the fascists, including those in liberal leaning states & municipalities, & probably at least parts of the federal law enforcement (ICE, CPB, elements of the FBI, etc.).
TeezySkeezy
@prostratedragon: Sometimes AI is bettah….
Martin
@Leto: They are. The Saudi deal is the whole ballgame here. That’s all that matters. Guessing the delivery suspension is to increase pressure on Israel to accept the US/Saudi demands.
TeezySkeezy
@YY_Sima Qian: It should be very easy to burst that narrative by asking the cops if theres any “how to” knowledge or if its just a history book on terror movements. Ask would a history book on ww2 help build concentration camps? No.
Jay
@YY_Sima Qian:
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2024/05/authoritarians-love-state-violence
YY_Sima Qian
@prostratedragon:
Here is NYT’s analysis of the events at the UCLA encampment before the police intervention. Aric Toler also has a Twitter thread summarizing the article.
@Martin: Does this change your assessment of the UCLA admin’s handling?
Villago Delenda Est
@TeezySkeezy: People on the ‘Net are already pointing this out. NYPD beclowns itself yet again.
Jay
@TeezySkeezy:
The first response to any ACAB “ackion” is reams and reams of Copaganda, and they stick with it all the way through the FOIA forced release of the bodycam footage.
Villago Delenda Est
@YY_Sima Qian: Just like the protests that erupted after George Floyd was murdered. Can you say Rittenhouse?
Origuy
RIP Bernard Hill, actor. He was the captain in Titanic and Theoden, King of Rohan in The Lord of the Rings.
wjca
Of course.
This was the warning shot. The attention step, if you will, to make sure everybody there is paying attention when the next shipment also gets held. It isn’t that lack of these will inconvenience the IDF in the short term. But the change of posture has ominous implications, should the Israeli government continue its current course.
YY_Sima Qian
@TeezySkeezy: Should it be easy to burst? Yes. Will it? No. Because many people will only want to believe what reinforce their preconceived notion.
What is shocking here (to me at least) is the NYPD actively spreading misinformation on Newsmax. Next they will be touting going after “Reds under Beds” in the Epoch Times.
They are already raising the specter of foreign driven conspiracy driving the protests on college campuses, rather than the heavy handed response by the admins & the local law enforcement, as well as tone deafness by national level politicians.
YY_Sima Qian
@Origuy: Ugh! That sucks! Really enjoyed Bernard Hill as Theoden.
JWR
@YY_Sima Qian: I think that’s the one Kay linked to the other day, and if so, it tracks with much of what I saw that night. (Local news stayed on it till the late night shows came on.) Highly recommended for the best timeline to date.
YY_Sima Qian
@Jay: Saw the reporting on Steve Tamari yesterday or the day before. Cops (or at least a large number of them) will be the foot soldiers for the forces that try to bring authoritarianism in America.
Martin
@YY_Sima Qian: No. On Wed I was arguing that UCLA admin had hired private security to keep outsiders isolated from the encampment, but they weren’t equipped for a brawl, so they pulled back and called police. This wasn’t a bad approach given that we hadn’t seen counterprotest violence so far, and keeping the police back from the encampment could be used to help build trust between the protestors and the students because the security had a narrow charge, where the relationship with the police is a bit more complex.
What we don’t know is what the instructions to the police were on Tuesday and why they weren’t responding. Maybe that was the admin. But the UC police union statement doesn’t say anything that suggests they were told to stand down which I would expect them to make hay over, so my WAG here is that admin told the police that security would handle the task of keeping the encampment free of non-students, but stay on campus and the police got salty that their role was diminished and refused to respond to the call until they realized the magnitude of things.
I mean, the UCLA campus is pretty small. You can walk clean across it in 10 minutes. The police dept is a 3 minute walk from Royce. The explosive thrown into the encampment should have triggered an active shooter response regardless of whatever instructions they had.
Martin
@Martin: Note in my previous post how I said we always had staff there to direct the police. There was a reason for that.
We had one incident where they made a decision to lock down a building on campus due to a demonstration that was getting a little agitated. As campus police were spreading out to lock doors an alum showed up, unaware of the demonstration on the other side of the building away from the parking lot and entered a side door to pick up her diploma and was body slammed by the officer heading there to lock it, and then arrested by the city. As soon as the social media post hit about the incident a half hour later (which is how we learned about it) we immediately went and posted her bond and worked to sort the situation out.
We left an officer unsupervised for all of 30 seconds and left us with 50 hours of clean up to do.
YY_Sima Qian
@Martin: How does the admin not call in the cops when counter protestors have attacked the encampment for hours, & clearly private security was inadequate to the task? & why does the admin allow LAPD to unmask the arrested students in front of glaring media lights?
prostratedragon
A tune from Mariachi Sirenas de Chicago.
YY_Sima Qian
@YY_Sima Qian: Here is someone claiming to be a veteran of IDF special forces who performed freelance COIN on social media against the UCLA protestors.
Martin
@YY_Sima Qian: I don’t think admin knew about the Tues attack when it was happening. The student reports that I read were that the security called the police directly, and that the students did as well. I don’t know that anyone called admin. The students wouldn’t have if they didn’t have a direct relationship (I’d get calls like that on my personal phone). If they called 911 that goes to campus police. And one of my concerns in watching this play out was that I didn’t see any evidence of campus admin present. I suspect they weren’t there – which they should be criticized for, but which doesn’t excuse why 911 calls weren’t responded to.
You’re wondering why LAPD and CHP unmasked arrested students? Because they’re LAPD and CHP. Admin doesn’t mean shit to city and state cops. This was my point over why admin need to work a lot harder to keep things in their control, because their authority only applies to students, faculty, staff, and campus police and nobody else. LAPD doesn’t take instruction from the campus unless they feel like it. I suspect the only reason they were as gentle as they were Wed was because the Governor weighed in and because the cops realized they fucked up Tuesday and the cameras would be there, so they were on their best behavior.
prostratedragon
@YY_Sima Qian: That is, or should be, as embarrassing as that infomercial that either the NYPD or Fraternal Order of Police released after the Clearance.
Martin
@YY_Sima Qian: This doesn’t make sense. These are students. What are you counterintelligencing? They’re not going to fight the cops. The campus knew who was in the encampment.
This is some Tom Clancy cosplay bullshit.
YY_Sima Qian
@Martin: That explains quite a bit. Thanks for the clarification. However, if there is no admin present when there is an encampment & counterprotests, that seems to be dereliction of duty, no?
I don’t have a problem w/ cops unmasking arrested protestors, although parading them in front of media is uncalled for. However, reactionary counterprotestors seem to be unmasked a lot less frequently. May be some of them are off duty cops?
Martin
@YY_Sima Qian: This statement by the chancellor:
“It is clear that UCLA needs a unit and leader whose sole responsibility is campus safety to guide us through tense times,” Block said.
Reads to me that the administration has lost faith in campus police to focus on student safety. UC campus police are a single entity across all campuses, but integrate with city police to various degrees. I’ll just leave this here.
Martin
@YY_Sima Qian: This is a really grey area. Admin _shouldn’t_ be needed – campus police should be able to be trusted to do that. But we didn’t trust them. We needed them – we can’t arrest people. We certainly relied on them for bigger security matters, but they still have cop instincts and escalate immediately. They’re not the ones that have to mop up the mess, so they don’t really care if they turn a demonstration into an intractable conflict between students and the campus (see previous examples).
So we made a point to be present, but it was a lot of hours – and unpaid ones, and organizing that kind of thing is difficult. I wasn’t about to tell my staff to show up at 2AM or on a Sunday, so I did that, but I still needed to sleep and I still needed to be there at 8AM on Monday. We did that kind of stuff because we knew the ramification if we didn’t. It wasn’t part of the institutional mission, it was part of the culture. Once we left, it’s not like there were people tasked with taking that up.
So, which admins were tasked with being there at 3AM on Thursday morning when the camp was coming down? Probably none. But someone should still have been there. They either have a culture for that or they don’t.
YY_Sima Qian
@Martin: To anyone normal it is cosplay BS, but clearly many local law enforcement organizations, supporters of herrenvolk fascism, & national level politicians (including some D reps who would know better if the issue does not involve Israel) are promoting the narrative that the protest movement is a Hamas-adjacent agitation being instigated by Hamas, Iran, Russia &/or the PRC. So, there is a ready market for such charlatanism.
BTW, see this clip of a recent discussion between SecState Blinken & Sen. Romney at the McCain Institute, Romney let slip the reason for the sudden surge in Congressional support to ban TikTok: it is the one platform where the pro-Palestinian voices were dominant, & made it difficult for Israel & USG to sustain their preferred narratives.
Right now the clip is blowing up among the people predisposed to skepticism of US global hegemony & Israeli regional hegemony: the normal Left, the “dirt bag” Left, the isolationists, the advocates of US FP restraint, the pro-Palestinian types, the anti-Semites, people from across the Global South, the apologists for Hamas/Iran/Russia/PRC, etc., which makes me rather sick. However, at the end of the day, Romney & Blinken are responsible for their own words.
JWR
@YY_Sima Qian:
Were any counter-protesters arrested, let alone unmasked? Just going by what I saw that night, the counter-protesters , who were clearly seen kicking at the plywood enclosure, just ran off, weaving their way through the advancing police unmolested.
YY_Sima Qian
@Martin: Cops spraying pepper spray on protestors who were sitting down & non-threatening, that was one of the abiding images coming out of Occupy Wall Street.
frosty
@Martin: I really appreciate your perspective on all of this. I’d like to send it along to some friends so I’m with WaterGirl – I hope you can gather all your thoughts from your comments and at least post it as a front page, if not publish.
Hell of a thing to ask a retiree, right??
YY_Sima Qian
@JWR: Not just the UCLA situation, but reactionary protests in general.
YY_Sima Qian
@frosty: + 1
YY_Sima Qian
People sympathetic to the Hong Kong protest movement of 2019 are posting how the protestors there equipped themselves, as advice to the students in the US. (image through the link.) However, using laser pointers on the police, or throwing tear gas canisters back, are liable to get someone kill in America.
A couple of Tweets on how students from the PRC are navigating the student protest movement (Citizens Daily is a dissident publication published by Chinese students overseas who want to break out of the narrative constraints imposed by the CPC regime), click through the links to see the images:
Martin
@frosty: I’m working on a post now. It’s taking shape. Hopefully I can get it to WG tomorrow. Have thoughts on one after that.
wjca
I can’t see Hammas having the ability to do this on such a widespread basis. Even assuming a) they thought of it, and b) they wanted to do it for some reason. Neither Iran nor the PRC have any obvious motive to go to the effort. (Or take the risk.)
Russia, on the other hand, could easily see this as an opportunity to boost Trump’s electoral prospects, which they care about a lot. So they’ve got the motivation. And, given the various indications of how industriously they have been involving themselves with our (not to mention the Europeans’) political class, they likely have the reasources at hand to at least do some agitation.
Which certainly doesn’t mean that they have. Nor indicate which side they might have decided was a more effective target for agitation. But I wouldn’t be astonished to find that they have their fingers in the pie.
YY_Sima Qian
@wjca: I could definitely see Iran taking the risk, given the current valence of the U.S.-Iranian relations. I would not be surprised if Russia is sowing discord from both sides, just like they did during the BLM.
However, cries of foreign astroturfing cannot be the main tenor of the response by establishment powers to these kinds of protests. That pours oil onto the fire, & ignores the grievances precipitating the protests to begin w/.
frosty
@YY_Sima Qian:
Adam posted good advice on this awhile back for the Women’s March and others, in 2016. I hope it’s in the B-J link but I’m sure it’s in the archives. Let’s dig it out again.
Jay
@Martin:
Scuzzy dude’s bio seems to check out.
Worst part, is he get’s paid to train ACAB’s and testify.
The Nazi’s are inside the House.
YY_Sima Qian
From the Ha’aretz:
Warblewarble
Headline in The Independant(UK) “Blinken blames Tik Tok and social media for disrupting Israels narrative of war in Gaza” Since when is it the role of the SoS. to be a spokesman for the IDF. Key words “Israels narrative of war in Gaza”.
WaterGirl
@YY_Sima Qian: Wow. Not surprising coming from Bibi, but horrifying nonetheless.
jlowe
In counterpoint, holding up a shipment of a few tons of shells is kind of subtle signaling. Still, last night, I wrote a note to the President telling him I approved.
RevRick
@wjca: The thing is Netanyahu’s goal of eradicating Hamas is a foolish mission to begin with. Even though Hamas is losing the battle militarily, the cost to Israel of the slaughter of innocents will be immense. It has lost its moral claims on most of the rest of the world, and for every Hamas fighter they kill, ten more are being created out of the rubble.
Hamas has also lost this war, in the sense that if one of their aims was to halt the Israeli and Gulf Coast states’ rapprochement, that won’t happen. Hamas’ patron, Iran, will continue to drive them together.
Ultimately, the big loser in this war will be the Palestinians, since it will leave Gaza an ungovernable hellhole and will further embolden radical West Bank settlers. Furthermore, the Palestinians will see their cause for statehood tossed aside by most of the Arab world.
Perhaps the only unsheathed weapon that the U.S. has to get Israel to stop their quixotic war to end Hamas would be for the administration to quietly threaten to recognize Palestine in its pre-1967 West Bank/Gaza configuration.
YY_Sima Qian
@Warblewarble: The reporting is probably based on the event at the McCain Institute that I mentioned before. Romney said that the reason Congress suddenly became supportive of banning TikTok was the prevalence of Palestinian voices. Such comment surely will be used by TikTok during the inevitable court proceedings to come, as evidence that the law violate 1st Amendment principles.
Warblewarble
Now that it has got the headline , do we know for certain whether the arms shipment has not been quietly sent on?
evodevo
@YY_Sima Qian: I can’t access ANY link to Ha’aretz…hacked? Any attempt just goes to a 403 error page.
YY_Sima Qian
@evodevo: I am not having any issues. Maybe the website set up a blanket geo-block?
Steeplejack
@YY_Sima Qian:
I was able to get to the article you linked. Windows browser in the D.C. area.
YY_Sima Qian
@evodevo: Here is the link to the Haaretz article w/o paywall.
Chris Johnson
@wjca: That is an easy question and an easy answer.
If it’s Russia, and they would be negligent if they were NOT in this up to the neck, then they are on both sides, getting both sides to be more violent as best they can.
You have to understand their motivations and known tactics. They are not picking winners. They think we’re all losers and so they are supporting everybody, to kill everybody else, and they’re absolutely going to be in there goading on the protestors using their left wing people AND in there making the counterprotestors more violent using their right wing people.
I figure that’s what they did in BLM, it’ll be even more effective here. Effective enough? Dunno. They’re kind of busy right now. They’re not invincible, they’re just shit-stirrers.
Bill Arnold
@YY_Sima Qian:
Thanks!
The general view of the Israeli press, and thus the general non-Israeli general impression of the Israeli polity, is right–wing-biased in part due to the Haaretz paywall. 972mag is useful, but narrow (and deep).