Israeli TV: Netanyahu blocked peace in Gaza while Biden did nothing to stop the slaughter

    By Reginald Johnson

  

  An investigation by Channel 13 in Israel has revealed that during the first 16 months of the Gaza War, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu actively impeded efforts to bring about a peace settlement and that at no point did the US administration of former US President Joe Biden demand that Israel curtail its brutal military operation and agree to a cease-fire, despite a mounting death toll.

The bombshell report also showed that American officials were aware of Israeli war crimes but covered them up in order to give legal clearance for continuing to ship weapons to Israel.

The report was posted on the Drop Site News site on X.

“A sweeping Israeli channel 13 investigation has exposed the administration’s complicity in Israel’s 19-months long war in Gaza. Nine top Biden officials acknowledged avoiding real pressure on Israel – even as the death toll surpassed 30,000. Israeli leaders openly bragged they dragged out the war playing for time until Donald Trump’s return to the presidency,” said the cover story by Drop Site News. Former Israeli officials were also interviewed.

“God, did the state of Israel favor that Biden was the president,” said former Israeli Ambassador Michael Herzog. “We fought for over a year in Gaza and the administration never came to us and said ‘cease-fire now.’  It never did. And that’s not to be taken for granted.”

 The report said that Biden aides privately admitted that Netanyahu was prolonging the war. “He’s undercutting it every step of the way,” said Ilan Goldenberg, a senior national security aide. “All the security people are coming out and saying it,” he said.

The report said Netanyahu spurned possible peace plans, including a proposal by the US and Saudi Arabia. That plan collapsed because it required acceptance of a “political horizon” for the Palestinians and Netanyahu would not agree to it.

The Channel 13 investigation also said Netanyahu sabotaged the talks on the release of the Israeli hostages, in order to extend the war. The Israeli prime minister “deliberately tanked negotiations” fearing a deal would force him to end the war.

  The investigation also found that American officials were aware of Israeli forces illegally blocking humanitarian aid shipments into Gaza but covered it up. State Department official Stacy Gilbert resigned after the revelations about the Israeli violations were taken out of a required aid compliance report.

  “The final version cleared Israel of violating US law despite overwhelming evidence of aid obstruction.” Gilbert called it “shocking in its mendacity”  and said “everyone knows this is not true.”

  The Channel 13 story added, "Even as settlers looted Gaza-bound trucks and Israel blocked humanitarian aid, Biden certified compliance and kept weapons flowing."

   The Gaza War began in October of 2024, after Hamas militants raided a southern Israel music fair, and killed 1200 people. Some 240 hostages were taken. Israel then launched a furious air and ground assault into the Palestinian enclave and thousands were killed in the first few weeks.

  The war has dragged on since then with staggering results. Some 60,000 Gazans, mostly civilians, are dead; much of Gaza's infrastructure has been leveled, including universities and apartment buildings; and most of Gaza's hospitals are destroyed or heavily damaged. Now 2.2 million residents are under threat of starvation, as Israel has imposed a food and water blockade.

  UN officials have accused Israel of waging a genocide in Gaza, which Israel has strenuously denied.

  The US has fully backed Israel in the war and billions of dollars in military aid has been provided.

Peace walkers come to Bridgeport

     

         By Reginald Johnson

        BRIDGEPORT, CT ---- A group of veterans and others taking part in the “Peace Walk 2024” from Maine to Washington, DC came to Bridgeport yesterday bringing their message of peace, nuclear disarmament and an end to war.

  Participants in the 700-mile walk organized by Veterans for Peace, which began May 7 in Ogunquit, Maine, walked along Route 1 from Milford and Stratford and then into Bridgeport following Barnum Avenue and then onto other streets over to downtown and then eventually to the Islamic Community Center on State Street. The walkers held aloft the Veterans for Peace flag, the Palestinian flag and a huge black and red banner which read “Ceasefire Now.”

   As they stopped for a bite to eat at Frankie’s Diner on Barnum Avenue the walkers and others who accompanied them in support vehicles said they came from all over the country for the peace walk. Alexis said she was from a small town near Sacramento California; Tito was from a town near Waco, Texas; Russell and Diane were from Buffalo, New York. Another participant was from Cambridge, Massachusetts.

 Others joining the group at the diner were Jim from West Haven and Angelo from Milford.

  “We’re kind of a band from every different location, right?” said Alexis.

  She said she found out about the walk by looking at the Veterans for Peace website because she was looking for peace walks to participate in.

 “I knew about Veterans for Peace but I’d never been involved with them,” she said. “So here I am deeply involved with Veterans for Peace.”

  Alexis and the others said they were taking part because they want to see an end to wars in general but were particularly motivated recently because of the brutal war that is going on in Gaza. Israel is waging a relentless campaign in the Palestinian enclave and some 34,000 people, a majority of them civilians, have been killed. There have been widespread calls for a cease-fire but so far Israel has balked at stopping its military assault. The Biden administration is being criticized strongly for continuing to send arms aid to Israel.

         

Participants in the Veterans for Peace "Peace Walk 2024" stop at Frankies Diner in Bridgeport. The walk, a protest against wars and militarism, began in Ogunquit, Maine and will end in Washington, DC in July.

 

Several members of the group were veterans of the Vietnam War. Angelo, who is 95, is a veteran of the Korean War.

 Friday the group will march to Black Rock in Bridgeport then into Fairfield and continue in the next few days into lower Fairfield County and New York State.

   The peace walk will conclude on July 5 in Washington, DC and participants will take part in a demonstration against NATO which is holding its 75^th anniversary celebration.

 

 

City panel to take up Gaza ceasefire resolution

 

   By Reginald Johnson

    BRIDGEPORT --- As the brutal Israel-Hamas War drags on --- with more than 18,000 people dead and 1.8 million people displaced --- more cities around the country are passing resolutions demanding the Biden administration support a ceasefire.

 Already, cities such as Oakland, California and Detroit, Michigan have passed resolutions calling for a ceasefire. Leaders in New Haven are considering one.

Now activists in Bridgeport are pushing the City Council to approve a resolution calling for an “Immediate de-escalation and permanent ceasefire in Israel, Gaza and the occupied West Bank.”  A number of pro-Palestinian supporters spoke at public forums prior to the last two city council meetings to urge passage of the statement.

 The council referred the proposed resolution, offered by Council Member Jazmarie Melendez, to the Miscellaneous Matters committee for review.

 The committee will take up the proposal at its meeting Tuesday, Dec. 26^th, at 6 p.m. in the Wheeler Room, City Hall, 45 Lyon Terrace.

  If the panel votes in favor of the resolution, it will go back to the full council for a vote.

  Melendez told fellow council members, “We cannot conduct business as usual here, because of what we are bearing witness to in Palestine….If we as a legislative body choose to remain silent, then we are complicit.”

  Peace activists in Bridgeport and elsewhere hope that passage of these resolutions will add to the pressure on both the Biden administration and members of Congress to take a stand and support a ceasefire.

 While officials in the Biden administration have recently been raising concerns about the level of civilian casualties in Gaza caused by the Israeli military, the administration is still pledging support for Israel and its continued military campaign against Hamas. Likewise, the vast majority of the members of Congress, both in the House and Senate, are backing Israel fully and have not signed on to the idea of a ceasefire.

  No one in Connecticut’s congressional delegation --- including five House members and two Senators --- is supporting a ceasefire.