The Biden administration is sailing into oblivion. The United States will never be able to recover from this administration’s bad decisions. Its hegemony over world affairs is gone and what is left is a precarious coercive dominance.

The interests of “empire” in the national security state within the United States are in damage control mode. For a brief moment they were able to stear Biden into a meaningful UNSC ceasefire resolution over the heads of Israel lobbyists.

It has become clear, however, that Biden’s personal commitment to Zionism continues to stand in the way of making any resolution work and is banking on the Israel lobby to bring him back to power.

Recall from previous articles that Chuck Schumer wanted to get rid of Netanyahu and that William Burns argued ferociously with Biden to try to get rid of Blinken before it was too late. Biden refused. Now Blinken helps Netanyahu undermine the latest UNSC ceasefire resolution. He has flatly refused to give Hamas written guarantees about the resolution’s implementation, which is distincly odd since it was the Biden adminstration that drafted the text, in the first place. [See ***P.P.S. 25 June on Blinken’s threats to Hamas, and Hamas’ relocation to Baghdad]

However, it doesn’t stop there. Extraordinarily, Biden, and with him Blinken, are being deceitful with their own staffs. A senior US State Department official, Stacy Gilbert, resigned this week over disagreements with a newly published report claiming “Israel” was not blocking aid into Gaza. Gilbert, who served in the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, sent an email to her own staff saying that the State Department was wrong in its conclusion that “Israel” is not behind obstructing humanitarian assistance to Gaza.

Former State Department official Josh Paul, who was the first official to resign over Biden’s Gaza policy, posted on LinkedIn about Gilbert, saying: “On the day when the White House announced that the latest atrocity in Rafah did not cross its red line, this resignation demonstrates that the Biden Administration will do anything to avoid the truth.” He continued: “This is not just a story of bureaucratic complicity or ineptitude — there are people signing off on arms transfers, people drafting arms transfer approval memos, people turning a blind eye,” he continued. People “who could be speaking up, people who have an awesome responsibility to do good, and a lifelong commitment to human rights — whose choice is to let the bureaucracy function as though it were business as usual.”

The report that Gilbert resigned over had been written in response to a presidential memo known as NSM-20 issued by Biden in February that required the State Department to assess if Israel’s use of US weapons in Gaza violated US or international humanitarian law. It included an examination of whether humanitarian aid had been intentionally obstructed. The report carried a conclusion in complete contradiction to main arguments. Those arguments said that, while “aid remains insufficient,” the US does not “currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance.” The conclusion was doctored specifically to find that there were not enough grounds to stop weapons from going to Israel. So the Biden administration is lying to itself.

Just two weeks ago, an Interior Department staffer became the first Jewish political appointee to resign publicly in protest against US unwavering support for “Israel’s” war on Gaza. Lily Greenberg Call, a special assistant to the chief of staff in the Interior Department, accused Joe Biden of exploiting Jewish people to justify the US policy in the Israeli war on Gaza. There has been a mass flow of resignations from Blinken’s State Department in April and the months preceding.

Dr. Annelle Sheline resigned from the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.

Hala Rharrit, a long standing foreign service officer resigned last month, saying, “We have no ground to stand on anymore,” adding that the US efforts to stop the Israeli war on Gaza were a “failed policy”.

Tariq Habash, another former policy advisor who resigned in January, has said that all the anonymous letters sent urging Biden to shift his Israel policy “were not enough anymore” and
called on other officials to resign, whether they go public about it or not.

What is the Netanyahu, Biden and Blinken trio trying to do in Israel?

Quite apart from its craven reaction of hiding from popular anger behind the skirts of the Israel lobby, it isn’t at all clear that the Biden administration is actually trying to achieve anything with its blind support for Israel. The new US military base on the Gaza pier is clear indication that the Israeli armed forces cannot continue their Gaza ground offensive alone.[** See post-post script 15 June on the breakup of the pier]. Weapons supplies aren’t enough. Direct American participation is necessary now to do the dirty work on the battlefield Israeli troops are no longer capable of undertaking.

If Biden could openly send American troops to Gaza, he would. As it is, we have seen special forces take their first disasterous steps covertly, losing as many people dead as they saved alive in their Nuseirat gambit, and causing a massacre of 270 Palestinians along the way. Ex-head of Human Rights Watch Kenneth Roth said today that this particular massacre qualified unmistakably as a breach of international law and should go for trial to the International Criminal Court (ICC). However, as UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese recently said, with everything Israel is doing in Gaza the ICC’s has its work cut out for the next five decades.

Anyway, it is interesting to note that the last time an American military base was set up on an Arab shoreline to intervene (to evacuate Palestinians from Lebanon following Israel’s June 1982 invasion of Lebanon), 241 US Marines and 58 French troops were eventually blown up (in October 1983) with no survivors and the base was closed down. Today, the Pentagon’s denials about its involvement in the Nuseirat massacre merely displays a concern that the Pier’s humanitarian aid cover has been blown. But then how could it not be?

Yet the real war is up north. Yesterday, in retaliation for the murder of another of its leaders, Hezbollah launched 250 rockets into Israel whilst widening the scope of its operations to 40kms. The United States has told Israel that in its estimate Hezbollah holds over one million rockets in store of various calibres and types and that in the event of any further escalation, to expect coordinated attacks on its soil by Hezbollah, Iraqi militias and Yemen.

Thus the question of what the Netanyahu, Biden and Blinken trio is trying to do doesn’t just pose itself over the question of Gaza. What does it plan to do about the destruction in Galilee and the drastic erosion of Israel’s defences in the north (picture below)?

Over the months, Netanyahu has visited the area, spouted empty promises, aimed empty threats at Hezbollah – did so over and over again – time passed and nothing happened.

That is not all. Why is Israel carrying out increasingly bloody raids in the West Bank? Why is it systematically torturing and starving Palestinians in its prisons? Why is it sequestring the Palestinian Authority’s funds, driving it to bankruptcy? What is the point of all this?

We are watching an administration in the United States and a government in Israel seemingly working purposely against the interests of their countries, unable to extract themselves from what seems to be a demented loop. They are driven insane by the impossible goal of defeating Hamas, by the refusal of the Gazan population to submit, and by their inability to come to a decision finally about how to launch a full scale war against Hezbollah that they would most probably lose. This is costing their countries dear and has shorn the empire of its hegemony already. It is extraordinary to watch.

In the end, the war will stop, but it is doubtful that Israel will be more than a wraith at that point, while the freezing cold reality of hundreds of thousands dead, injured and lost in Gaza will crack the edifice of the Washington establishment. The International Court of Justice will eventually rule on the question of genocide. But world public opinion has already ruled.

European despair, Ukrainian carnage

Meanwhile Western Europe is following the United States down its blind alley, not just in Israel but also in Ukraine. A previous article analysed how it fell prey to a US imperialist power grab when Bill Clinton launched his Balkan War and the first wave of NATO expansion in 1999. This was a reaction to the plan by the countries of Europe to launch their own joint currency, the EURO, in competition with the dollar.

This was followed by a revitalised Cold War militarism put on steroids by the Bush-Cheney administration in the early 2000s. It led to NATO taking over from the EU and its member states as Europe’s ultimate suzerain. This was the point at which Europe left its vaunted path of democratic development and liberal free trade, and when it fell headlong into its current cul-de-sac of protectionism, senseless securitisation and migrant-related violence. Ever since the Algerian civil war of the 1990s, Europe’s Arab periphery has become a locus of coups, war, and pillage in Europe’s search for cheap energy – or to be more accurate for energy it barely pays for at all – to the total exclusion of any contructive international relations policy for the region and the world.

Yet the total refusal of the Biden administration to come to terms with Russia over Ukraine before the war started and its sabotage of the March 2022 peace deal between Russia and Ukraine (for which we have even more evidence than we had previously) went directly against those interests. It had as an ultimate goal to sever gas supplies from Russia to Europe, and to impose sanctions on Russia in retaliation for the avoidable invasion Russia felt it had no choice but to undertake.

After the US blew up the Nord Stream pipeline with British help, Germany was left with no choice but to buy much more expensive LNG gas from the US. Now its leading companies are leaving Germany to cut production costs and take advantage of the incentives under the reshoring programme in Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act and the Chips and Science Act.

This destructive direction of travel collapsed the possibility for Europe to grow normally and has been accompanied by the creation of a generation of European politicians, who have been shadowed from their terms at university all the way to high office by elements the US national security state. These politicians are now leading their countries into penury and despair.

Some countries, like Spain, Ireland and Norway have broken away and are seeking a different path.

But Britain, Germany, France and Italy are in free fall. Germany in particular has come under the rule of a strange coalition of the centre left of Social Democrats, Liberals and Greens who are committed to war at all costs, and who – undeterred by the cannibalisation of Ukraine -intend to implement universal military conscription in their own country. It is difficult to find words to come to terms with a situation in which political parties that have historically been committed to human rights, justice and fairness, turn into organisations of thugees.

A similar plan for military conscription has been put forward in Britain by the conservatives. What is hapenning? Are European leaders really envisaging a full scale ground war against Russia?

These are all governments who have ceased to be able to govern their countries s a result of years of fiscal austerity, monetary madness and absence of sovereignty. Are the UK and French snap elections in the face of disastrous polls effectively resignations by Rishi Sunak in Britain and Macron in France?

The swing in the EU elections to even greater political extremism, as living standards rapidly erode, tells us of the kind of political turmoil that has historically resulted in war. But Europe is already at war in Ukraine- and that is the problem. Milllions of migrants are currently escaping a collapsing Ukrainian state, and – unlike migrants from the Middle East – they are not being turned away or worse. In fact, Ukrainians get very generous social allowances. Meanwhile endemic Islamophobia will ensure that the political repercussions of this migration will rebound on the Muslim populations of Europe.

P.S. 14 June

Here is the Palestinian Resistance joint response to the ceasfire proposal which Biden has called “Israel’s proposal.”

Here are the foundational principles for an agreement between the Israeli and Palestinian sides in Gaza concerning the exchange of detainees and prisoners, as well as achieving sustainable calm.

This text outlines the fundamental principles for an agreement, referencing the Palestinian response to the Israeli proposal dated May 6, 2024.

The framework aims to release all Israeli captives in the Gaza Strip, including civilians and soldiers, regardless of their status (alive or deceased) or the duration of their detention. In exchange, there would be a reciprocal release of an agreed-upon number of prisoners held in Israeli prisons, to achieve a state of calm.

To achieve a permanent ceasefire, the following steps are proposed: the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, the reconstruction of Gaza, and the lifting of the blockade. This includes opening all border crossings to facilitate the movement of residents and unrestricted transport of goods.

The framework agreement consists of three related and interconnected stages as follows:

The first phase (42 days)

1. Both parties agree to temporarily cease military operations, with Israeli forces withdrawing eastward and away from densely populated areas to position themselves along the border throughout the Gaza Strip. This includes the Philadelphi Axis and the Gaza Valley (Netzarim Axis and the Kuwait roundabout), as outlined below.

2. Temporary cessation of flights (both military and reconnaissance) over the Gaza Strip daily, to be restricted to 10 hours, extended to 12 hours on days designated for the exchange of captives and prisoners.

3. The agreement includes provisions for returning displaced individuals to their respective areas of residence, along with the withdrawal of forces from the Philadelphi axis and Gaza Valley (specifically the Netzarim axis and the Kuwait roundabout).

1.  On the third day (following the release of three detainees), Israeli forces will fully withdraw from the Rafah crossing, the entire Philadelphi axis, and completely eastward from al-Rashid Street to Salah al-Din Street. All military sites and installations in the area will be dismantled by no later than the seventh day. From the first day, displaced individuals will begin returning to their residences (without carrying weapons), and residents will enjoy unrestricted movement throughout the Gaza Strip. Additionally, humanitarian aid will enter via al-Rashid Street from the outset without restrictions.
2. By the 22nd day, Israeli forces will withdraw from the central areas of the Gaza Strip, specifically the Netzarim axis and the Kuwait Roundabout axis, to a nearby border area. All military sites and installations in this zone will be dismantled. Displaced individuals will continue returning to their residences throughout the Gaza Strip, without carrying weapons, with a focus on facilitating their return from South to North. The agreement ensures unrestricted freedom of movement for the population across all areas of the Gaza Strip.
3. From the first day onwards, a substantial amount of humanitarian aid, relief materials, and fuel will be delivered, totaling 600 trucks daily. This includes 50 fuel trucks, with 300 allocated for the northern regions. The aid will support the operation of power stations and trade activities, and provide equipment for rubble removal, hospital rehabilitation, and operational needs across Gaza’s health services and bakeries. This humanitarian assistance will be sustained throughout all phases of the agreement.

4. Prisoner-captive exchange between both sides:

During this initial phase, Hamas will release 32 Israeli captives, including both living individuals and the remains of the deceased. This group includes women (both civilians and female soldiers), children (under 19 years who are not conscripts), elderly individuals (over 50 years old), and civilians who are sick or wounded. In exchange, an agreed number of prisoners held in Israeli prisons and detention centers will be released.

1. Hamas would release all living Israeli captives, which includes civilian women and children (under 19 years old who are not conscripts). In return, “Israel” agrees to release 30 women and children for each Israeli captive released, based on lists provided by Hamas, according to their date of capture.
2. Hamas would release all living Israeli detainees, including elderly individuals (over 50 years old) and sick or wounded civilians. In exchange, “Israel” agrees to release 30 elderly individuals (over 50 years old) and any sick or wounded civilian detainees for every Israeli captive, based on lists provided by Hamas sorted by the oldest arrests.
3. Hamas would release all living Israeli female captives and recruits, in exchange for “Israel” releasing 50 detainees from its prisons for every Israeli female captive released (30 sentenced to life, 20 to other sentences) based on lists provided by Hamas.

5. Mechanism for exchanging detainees and prisoners between the two parties during the first phase:

• By the third day, Hamas will release three Israeli captives, prioritizing civilians. By the seventh day, Hamas will release three Israeli captives, prioritizing civilians.

• Afterward, Hamas will release three Israeli detainees every seven days, beginning with women (both civilians and soldiers, if possible), and prioritizing all living detainees for release before addressing the transfer of body parts and remains of the deceased.
• In return, “Israel” will release the agreed-upon number of detainees in Israeli prisons for every Israeli captive who is released, provided that this happens simultaneously and on the same day according to the lists that Hamas will provide.
• During the sixth week, Hamas will release the remaining detainees included in this stage. In exchange, the agreed-upon number of detainees will be released from Israeli prisons simultaneously and on the same day, based on lists provided by Hamas.

•  By the seventh day, Hamas will disclose the available information regarding the number of Israeli detainees to be released in this phase, contingent upon Israel providing adequate information to Hamas and relevant international authorities regarding Palestinian prisoners and detainees from the Gaza Strip, particularly those arrested after October 7, 2023.
• On the 22nd day, “Israel” will release all detainees who were re-detained following the “Gilad Shalit” deal.
• If the number of Israeli detainees to be released in this stage does not reach 32, Hamas will supplement the release with body parts or remains of the deceased from the same categories outlined for this stage. In exchange, “Israel” will release all women, children (under 19 years old), patients, and elderly individuals (over 50 years old) who were arrested from the Gaza Strip after October 7, 2023.

This exchange is expected to occur during the fifth week of this phase.

• The standards and criteria for a prisoner-captive exchange in this stage will apply to the two individuals, Hisham al-Sayyed and Avera Mengistu if they are confirmed to be alive.

1. The exchange process is contingent upon adherence to the terms of the agreement, which include halting military operations by both parties, withdrawing Israeli forces along the border including the Philadelphi axis and Rafah crossing, facilitating the return of displaced persons to their homes, and ensuring the unrestricted entry of humanitarian aid.

6. The Palestinian detainees who are liberated will not be re-detained on the same charges for which they were initially detained. “Israel” will not reincarcerate these prisoners to serve the remainder of their sentences, nor will they require them to sign any documents as a condition for their release. These measures will be accompanied by necessary legal procedures to ensure compliance with these terms.

• Restoring the conditions of prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons and detention camps to what they were before October 7, 2023, including those who were arrested after this date.

7. The principles and criteria for exchanging detainees and prisoners in the first phase mentioned above do not serve as the basis for negotiating the exchange criteria in the second phase.

8. By the 16th day at the latest, indirect discussions will commence between the two parties to finalize the criteria for exchanging detainees, including conscripts and remaining individuals, for the second phase. This process must be completed and agreed upon before the end of the fifth week of this phase.

9. The United Nations, its agencies (including UNRWA), and other organizations will actively engage in providing humanitarian services across all areas of the Gaza Strip, a commitment that will be sustained throughout all stages of the agreement.

10. Infrastructure rehabilitation (including electricity, water, sewage, communications, and roads) across all areas of the Gaza Strip will commence immediately from day one. Necessary equipment for civil defense, public works, and municipal services will be deployed for debris removal and reconstruction, a process that will persist throughout all phases of the agreement.

11. The necessary supplies and resources will be provided to accommodate displaced persons who lost their homes during the war, ensuring a minimum of 60,000 temporary homes and 200,000 tents. 

12. An agreed-upon number of wounded soldiers will be permitted to travel (at least 50 per day) through the Rafah crossing. Restrictions on travel will be lifted, and the movement of goods and trade will resume from the first day of this phase.

13. Arrangements and plans are underway for the reconstruction of homes, civilian facilities, and infrastructure destroyed during the war. Those affected will receive support and compensation under the supervision of several countries and organizations, including Egypt, Qatar, and the United Nations.

14. All procedures from this stage will carry over into the second stage, encompassing temporary cessation of military operations by both parties, relief efforts, shelter provisions, withdrawal of Israeli forces, cessation of flights, and more, until a sustainable calm is declared, marking a permanent cessation of military and hostile operations that comes into effect.

Negotiations will persist under the guarantee of mediators until both parties agree on the criteria for exchanging captives and detainees during the second phase.

The second phase (42 days):

15. Announcing the restoration of sustainable calm, which signifies a permanent cessation of military and hostile operations, will take effect before the captive-prisoner exchange between the two parties.

This exchange will involve all remaining Israeli male captives who are alive (both civilians and soldiers), in exchange for an agreed-upon number of detainees from Israeli prisons and detainees from Israeli detention centers. Additionally, it includes the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.

The third phase (42 days):

16. Both parties will exchange all body parts or remains of the deceased after their arrival and identification.

17. Initiate the Gaza Strip reconstruction plan, scheduled to span three to five years, encompassing the rebuilding of homes, civilian facilities, and infrastructure to support and compensate all affected groups. This effort will be overseen by several countries and organizations, including Egypt, Qatar, and the United Nations.

18. Ending the complete siege of the Gaza Strip entails opening all border crossings, notably the Rafah crossing, to facilitate the movement of residents and goods. Additionally, ensuring uninterrupted electricity supply throughout all areas of the Gaza Strip is paramount.

The guarantors of this agreement:

Qatar, Egypt, the United States, the United Nations, Turkey, Russia, and China

**P.P.S. 15 June

Rough seas have broken up the US Gaza pier, which CENTOM announced is now being towed to Ashdod.

***P.P.P.S. 25 June

Hamas intends to move its political leadership from Doha to Baghdad, in a decision already approved by the Iraqi government. In early June, the movement established its political office in Baghdad and plans to launch a press center there in the upcoming weeks, but is still determining a timeframe for the relocation. Tehran would apparently handle the security of the movement’s members in Iraq.

Blinken pushed Qatar to threaten Hamas with expulsion from Doha in a message to Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani during a meeting in Washington on March 5.