Biden administration ardent supporter of Israel despite abusing human rights for decades, says analyst

The administration of US President Joe Biden is an ardent supporter of the Israeli regime which has been instigating gross human rights violations for decades, a political analyst says, stressing that Washington cannot be relied on to defend or act on any type of genuine humanitarian conscience.

“When the bar for human rights is set by hegemonic Western states, then, as we see, the term will not be enforced by imperialist powers themselves and their allies, which commit the most heinous human rights abuses and whose societies are built on oppression,” Julia Kassem told Press TV in an exclusive interview on Thursday.

She added, “It is also a mistake to assume the Biden administration has any interest in calling an end to the violence, as it is an avid supporter of the entity that has instigated it for decades.”

The independent journalist went on to say that the US provides almost non-stop international support for Israel’s economy irrespective of the fact that the latter is still insisting on further aggression against Palestinians.

She highlighted that Washington and Tel Aviv have a mutually beneficial relationship in this regard, meaning that the occupying Israeli regime receives tremendous financial support in return for advancing US interests in the Middle East and pursuing its interests.

“For the US to not support the Zionist entity would be existential to its own history, aims, and living reality as a settler colonialist empire,” Kassem said.

How US enables Israeli occupation, apartheid and war crimes

Emboldened by Washington’s support, Israel oppresses the Palestinians through unlawful killings, forced displacement, abusive detention and illegal settlements.

“The US will never agree to something politically, or place pressure on its number-one ally, out of a concern for human rights, but sometimes, when it needs a more soft-power strategy to maintain its hegemony, will feign this approach under this term,” the analyst pointed out.

Kassem noted that US officials refrain from addressing the systematic violation of Palestinians’ human rights and their sufferings at the hands of the Israeli regime out of fear of losing their most strategic asset in the region.

“Acknowledgement of Palestinians’ sufferings at the hands of the Zionist entity legitimizes the right of resistance to occupation under the international law. This puts the entire US policies, either domestic or foreign, into a big existential crisis,” she commented.

US lawmakers urge Biden to protect Palestinians’ human rights

Several US Congress members spoke in support of Palestinian rights on the floor of the House of Representatives on Thursday, calling on the Biden administration to pursue an even-handed approach towards Israel.

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib slammed Biden's handling of the ongoing tensions in the occupied Palestinian territories, and urged US statesmen to recognize Palestinians' humanity.

“There has been absolutely no recognition of Palestinian humanity. If our own State Department can't even bring itself to acknowledge the killing of Palestinian children is wrong, well, I will say it for the millions of Americans who stand with me against the killing of innocent children, no matter their ethnicity, or faith,” Tlaib said.

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar also rebuked the Israeli regime’s policies against Palestinians, calling prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu an “ethno-nationalist leader.”

“Now consider that 78 percent of their land was taken from them,” she said of Nakba, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes in the war surrounding Israel's creation in 1948.

Over 300 US lawmakers demand maintaining Israel aid without preconditions

More than 300 US legislators sign a letter, saying that Washington’s aid to the Israeli regime must continue without any preconditions.

“Since then, 5.6 million Palestinians have been continually displaced from their homes in one of the largest among the lasting refugee crises in human history,” the US lawmaker said.

Omar said hope of a Palestinian state is slipping away because of Israel's policy of settlement expansion and displacing Palestinians.

The congresswoman then described the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a crisis, where one side “funded and supported by the United States government."

She cited the recent Human Rights Watch report that Israel is committing “crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution” against Palestinians.

“The Israeli regime and their far-right, ethno-nationalist leader Benjamin Netanyahu has razed Palestinian ancestral homes, leveled entire neighborhoods, and violently suppressed any resistance.

“This is all to make way for illegal Israeli settlement outposts, designed to displace Palestinians from their homes and prevent a future Palestinian state," Omar said. 

Mark Pocan, a Wisconsin lawmaker who organized the session, also denounced the Israeli occupation and likened the conditions separating Palestinians and Israelis to the apartheid system in South Africa.

“The United States must acknowledge its role in the injustice and human rights violations of Palestinians,” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the most prominent Democrats in Congress, said on Thursday.

She added,”This is not about both sides. This is about an imbalance of power.”

Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat, voiced support for creating a Palestinian state and thanked Tlaib for her testimony.

“I think part of what's been missing in this Congress is hearing from Palestinian voices,” he said.

On Wednesday, 25 Democrats wrote a letter to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, urging Biden’s administration to apply “diplomatic pressure” on Israel to end the campaign of displacement and home demolitions in occupied Jerusalem al-Quds.

New surprise awaiting Israel? Hamas says has yet to unveil main military assets

A senior Hamas leader says the Gaza-based resistance movement has not yet used its “main assets” in its campaign against the Israeli regime’s acts aggression targeting Palestinians in the occupied territories and Gaza.

Tensions have escalated in Jerusalem al-Quds, the occupied West Bank and Gaza amid the planned forced expulsions of dozens of Palestinians from Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, where illegal Israeli settlers are looking to take over the properties of Palestinian families.

Since Israel launched air raids on the besieged Gaza Strip late on Monday, Gaza’s health ministry says at least 119 people, including 27 children and 11 women, have been killed and more than 600 others have been wounded.

Israel’s military says more than 1,600 rockets have been fired by Palestinian resistance groups from Gaza towards various locations in Israeli occupied territories since Monday.

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