Gaza aid stuck as Egypt says Israel not cooperating - Reuters
Egypt said on Monday that Israel was not cooperating with delivery of aid into Gaza and evacuations of foreign passport holders via the only entry it does not wholly control, leaving hundreds of tonnes of supplies stuck.
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Israel is going to slow down cooperating as long as they can, so there's as much death as possible, while still being able to say they allowed them to live.
Yeah, they will ultimately cooperate as the USA and Europe increasingly go "hey guys, please no genocide", but as slow and as little as they can.
Reading between the lies, it looks like Biden is trying to really hammer home the message that Hamas is different from Palestinian civilians and that the latter should be protected. Abbas issued a condemnation of Hamas after Biden spoke with him, even though initially Abbas excused the attack.
We'll have to see how successful it is. Judging from who they're asking to stay quiet on this, I think Biden and only the highest ranking officials are trying to back channel here.
The only thing I can think of is that some of the more moderate Arab states put some pressure on the Biden administration. Because initially the posture seemed more like they were going to be 100% on board with whatever -- even directing the State Department to not talk about things like ceasefires, de-escalation, and the normal stuff that the State Department should always be talking about. And it really seems like that has changed a bit since the end of last week/this weekend after Blinken was meeting with some of them.
The US has been pressuring for restraint behind closed doors while offering unconditional support in public from the start. Honestly, they haven't even seemed to be trying too hard to keep it a secret as details of closed door talks have been leaked almost in real-time. Democrats don't like Netanyahu, who's aligned himself ever closer with Republicans over the years, and see both him and his policies as impossible obstacles to peace, so it's seriously unlikely they're doing it for his benefit. I'm sure it's partly to help restore a sense of security in a traumatized Israeli public but it's probably primarily messaging for others in the region. They don't want to give the impression that there's any daylight between the US and Israel so Iran/Syria/Hezbollah won't get the idea that it's worth gambling that the US won't act if they attack. Especially if Hezbollah decides to go to war, everything will become exponentially worse for everyone involved, including the Palestinians.
I think they've been very consistent and deliberate on their messaging. They don't want people in the state department to give official statement about de-escalation, but Biden and Blinken are still making those statements themselves, and they're reportedly pressuring Israel privately too.
It makes sense. I don't think there's a more fraught topic than this. You want to control your messaging around de-escalation to word it correctly, and it's best for Biden and Blinken to handle that directly.
Geopolitically, it has to remain clear that the US will keep its word and help Israel. And I think even the sharpest US critic would agree the US presence is a powerful deterrent against Iran and company pulling shit -- and if they do, the US will need to react quickly. Iran is behind all this shit, no one should take issue with telling them to shut it.
Yeah, was listening to BBC this morning -Tim Franks interviewing Israeli intelligence about allowing fuel through to get water pumps going again. It was very clear the answer was no, but they refused to say so directly. The interviewee became hostile and kept going on about how hamas uses these people as human shields. ... Is the west supposed to think dying of thirst the more humanitarian option? Is that what they're going for? jfc
Someone said the pipes are too fucked by the bombing and TBH that makes sense. But assuming they're ok, can you even get water pumps going again safely?
I've heard that pipes always leak and you need to keep constant pressure in the lines so the leak is out into the soil instead of losing pressure and letting the dirt and bacteria leak back into the water supply.
I suppose dirty water can be boiled and is better than water with heavy metals.... Anybody with any actual experience wanna speak up about this?
