The US will begin air dropping food aid to the people of Gaza, President Joe Biden announced on Friday, as the humanitarian crisis deepens and Israel continues to resist opening additional land crossings to allow more assistance into the war-torn strip.
Speaking in the Oval Office, Biden said the US would be “pulling out every stop” to get additional aid into Gaza, which has been under heavy bombardment by Israel since the October 7 Hamas terror attacks.
“Aid flowing to Gaza is nowhere nearly enough,” the US President said, noting “hundreds of trucks” should be entering the enclave.
Biden said the US is “going to insist that Israel facilitate more trucks and more routes to get more and more people the help they need, no excuses”.
He also noted the efforts to broker a deal to free the hostages and secure an “immediate ceasefire” that would allow additional aid in.
honestly doesn’t it seem like this change of direction is him listening? Even weeks ago I would have never thought I would have heard the words ceasefire out of his mouth.
to me this seems like a direct response of the message people sent to him with the Michigan primary and I am happy to see it.
doesn’t mean I’m happy with what he’s done so far or even that he has not immediately taken direct action but this is a pivot and failing to acknowledge it weakens protest actions like this in the future.
If you read the article, he still wants the hostages released as a pre condition to any ceasefire. His position there hasn’t actually changed.
maybe I am missing something that I don’t see why that is an objectionable position? like obviously the ceasefire needs to happen immediately but what is wrong with hostage release as part of it?
not that long ago politicians were doing anything they could to avoid the word ceasefire and now they’re actively calling for it I’m really not thinking that this is an unchanged position but I am willing to listen if I have some drastic misunderstanding.
Because the hostages aren’t why we need the ceasefire. We need it to deliver aid. Also it’s an Israeli pre-condition. So what the white house is doing is putting the one big thing Israel wants and telling Hamas they’ll get a temporary peace out of it. Hamas has no reason to take that deal. Israel would similarly tell the white house to pound sand if they showed up in Tel Aviv to say Hamas has a deal that just requires the removal of all IDF troops from Palestinian territory.
thank you for the explanation that is a lot more understandable now.
hostages being released in order to stop the violence is what I was thinking.
but you’re saying it’s more like losing leverage in order to temporarily pause the violence.
they would have nothing left to bargain with and would just have to hope the world actually cares enough to step in.
I can definitely see why they wouldn’t want to do that
I mean, wouldn’t it be a good thing if hostages were released? Also, surely getting a ceasefire like this is one of the reasons Hamas took hostages, right?
In a vacuum, yes. But we aren’t in a vacuum and Hamas needs something more than a shaky ceasefire to release all of the hostages. Israel isn’t agreeing to a ceasefire unless every hostage is released. At that point Hamas loses all leverage.
It’s also an incredibly partisan move by a mediator who says their main concern is getting aid into the area. You need cooperation for that and you don’t get cooperation by backing the demands of just one side.