Biden administration is sending $1 billion more in weapons, ammo to Israel, congressional aides say

The Biden administration has told key lawmakers it is sending a new package of more than $1 billion in arms and ammunition to Israel, three congressional aides said Tuesday.

It’s the first arms shipment to Israel to be announced by the administration since it put another arms transfer — consisting of 3,500 bombs — on hold this month. The administration has said it paused that earlier transfer to keep Israel from using the bombs in its growing offensive in the crowded southern Gaza city of Rafah.

nobleshift,
@nobleshift@lemmy.world avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    venusaur,
    @venusaur@lemmy.world avatar

    Tell your politicians to support RCV legislation:

    Fair Representation Act p2a.co/ZraNU5n

    Voter Choice Act p2a.co/9OZd4JL

    FlyingSquid,
    @FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

    Please do not respond to multiple comments with the same post. That is essentially spamming, no matter how well-intentioned you are.

    venusaur,
    @venusaur@lemmy.world avatar

    U got it

    beardown,

    Why should we believe that a more equitable voting system would solve this issue? Or any similar issues?

    To be sure, ranked choice voting would result in some improvements to the United States, and should be supported on that basis. But it would do nothing to modify the current structure wherein oligarchs rule the United States with impunity. It’s just that this would empower the neoliberal Democratic oligarchs rather than the fascist Republican oligarchs. Which is harm reduction and is therefore preferable, but is not a meaningful solution - especially to something as entrenched as Zionism

    venusaur,
    @venusaur@lemmy.world avatar

    We would have to dismantle capitalism entirely and a huge cultural shift to fix that. Huge spending caps on campaigns would be a good start.

    RCV allows people to vote for candidates of a third party without wasting a vote like they would now. The problem is that much of society is brainwashed with red vs. blue politics and it would take a long time for everybody to get on the same page about a third party candidate.

    beardown,

    I agree.

    And, again, RCV and campaign finance reform would certainly be an improvement.

    But the root issue would remain untouched. And eventually, the ruling class would find ways to grossly manipulate that system to their own ends as well - or would gradually chip away at it through the judiciary that they control

    These proposals should be adopted nevertheless. But we should be clear-eyed about what they will and will not accomplish

    gravitas_deficiency,

    Because the electoral and voting systems in the US are, respectively, intentionally undemocratic and extremely inconsistent depending on the state.

    RCV for national elections would materially address the former, and enforcing RCV as the system to use for all elections at all levels would materially address the latter.

    I am not claiming RCV (or any other similar/related system) would be a panacea, but it would be a damn sight better than the intentionally flawed shitshow we have to use now.

    flames5123,

    STAR voting is so much better than RCV. RCV is only marginally better than first past the post.

    venusaur,
    @venusaur@lemmy.world avatar

    is it just RCV with 5 rankings, or you rank every candidate?

    flames5123,

    You can rank every candidate, so you can give multiple people 5’s. If you can’t decide between them. In RCV, if 51% vote #1 for candidate A, 49% vote #1 for candidate B, but 100% vote #2 for candidate C, the winner is still candidate A even though everyone voted for C. Everyone would’ve been a little satisfied. In STAR, if everyone put 4’s for C, they would win.

    venusaur,
    @venusaur@lemmy.world avatar

    Most people would still give A and B 5’s or 4’s, so C still loses even if they get all 4’s, no?

    flames5123,

    You total all of the points. So say 100 people with the 51/49 doing A/B at 5, and all 100 do C at 4. A would have 255 points, B would have 245 points, and C would have 400. C wins by a landslide.

    venusaur, (edited )
    @venusaur@lemmy.world avatar

    Ah right assuming A and B are opposing candidates. Kind of a way to eliminate the most popular opposing candidates in a runoff assuming there is a middle of the road candidate that everybody likes.

    In RCV this might be translated differently tho. Maybe 26% vote C #1, 49% A #1, 25% B #1 with C #2, then in runoff, C would win.

    I don’t see everybody liking the same candidate for #2.

    flames5123,

    It’s more of an example how a more popular candidate can lose because RCV still depends on first past the post and isn’t that much better. It’s not translated by points. Everyone gets #1 first. If anyone has 51%, they win and we’re done. If no one has 51%, then we eliminate the least popular candidate, transferring the votes. This continues until one is at 51%. RCV is a bandaid.

    Check out this CGP Grey video about RCV: youtu.be/3Y3jE3B8HsE

    venusaur,
    @venusaur@lemmy.world avatar

    Is anybody using Star voting now? I just feel like it can be gamed. If you want your major candidate to win, you wouldn’t rank anybody else highly.

    Thanks for the video. I totally agree that there are other voting systems like approval voting that may be better, but lots of traction with RCV already. Can be a stepping stone to other voting systems. Perfect is the enemy of good enough. Gotta take baby steps.

    Mango,

    Well, so far as the decision makers are concerned, the lesson is that we always win. It’s just unfortunate that what’s important doesn’t matter to them and they do not represent us.

    andrew,
    @andrew@lemmy.stuart.fun avatar

    Nonsense! We will write that history so that we’re clearly the good guys!

    Unless you’re saying it’s possible we’ve not always been the good guys but surely that’s not it.

    retrospectology,
    @retrospectology@lemmy.world avatar

    Which is why so many people simply cannot put their name in support of Biden and AIPAC democrats.

    There’s pragmatic politics and then there’s supporting actual genocide. For many people that line is something they just won’t ever compromise on because it’s so unequivocally immoral, there’s no justification to actively support it.

    Personally if he doesn’t reverse course there’s no way I’m voting for this. I’ve lived through one Trump presidency, I’ll do it again if I have to and find other ways to resist.

    If Democrats can’t do better than genocide they can’t demand my vote.

    nobleshift,
    @nobleshift@lemmy.world avatar

    deleted_by_author

    •
    retrospectology,
    @retrospectology@lemmy.world avatar

    No, who said that? Voting uncommitted is a valid third option when Democrats don’t give you someone you can morally vote for.

    Ellecram,

    Not a genocide. It’s war.

    retrospectology,
    @retrospectology@lemmy.world avatar

    No. It is a genocide.

    Even Netanyahu admitted it was analagous to the genocide of the Amakelites in the Torah fairy tale.

    There is no debate here, it is a genocide and you are a supporter.

    jumjummy,

    What a completely foolish take. “I won’t vote for Biden, I’ll just vote for the guy who wants to be a dictator and who cares even less about Palestine”

    Russian troll or a completely deluded and/or privileged person who “lived through one Trump presidency”.

    I can’t begin to stress how completely, off the rails, crayon eating levels of stupidity this approach is.

    retrospectology,
    @retrospectology@lemmy.world avatar

    Who said I was voting for Trump?

    Biden can easily get my vote, there’s literally only one thing he has to do; stop supporting genocide. It’s not rocket science. Don’t like the idea of him losing? Then you need to be doing everything in your power to communicate to him that he needs to do a 180 on this issue. People aren’t going to vote for him because you try to badger and shame them, didn’t work in 2016, won’t work now.

    jumjummy,

    Sadly with how the US general election works, if your not voting for Biden, it just helps Trump. You know his supporters don’t care about Israel, the Middle East, women, LGBT people, etc., so they’re not holding back.

    If Trump wins, none of your rhetoric will excuse where we end up, and yes Biden and the current lobbying groups so entrenched with Israel have their share of the blame, but absolutely so do the voters who let it happen.

    Viking_Hippie,

    Are these motherfuckers TRYING to lose the election and thus democracy to a fascist conman?! 🤦

    Tryptaminev,

    Yes they are. They rather want Trump to win, than to end a genocide. And people are gaslighting themselves happily to suck up to the Dems instead of saying: “We will vote for you, but only, when you end this genocide and bring justice and peace to the people.”

    And the Reps are having a blast over it, because they know that the DNCs are their buddies in exploiting the normal Americans and murdering people outside the US.

    shikitohno,

    And people are gaslighting themselves happily to suck up to the Dems instead of saying: “We will vote for you, but only, when you end this genocide and bring justice and peace to the people.”

    Not just that, but they’re twisting themselves into knots to try and convince people that unconditionally supporting Biden is the better option than continuing to pressure him to stop this and calling out his terrible stance here. Sure, everyone can vote as they please come election day, but we’re a touch under 6 months out and people are all over this site browbeating anyone who doesn’t toe the line and going “Don’t you dare criticize our savior, Biden! If you say he needs to stop enabling Israel’s genocide, you’re just a Russian disinformation agent trying to keep people from voting so that fascists take over and murder all the minorities in the US. They’ll probably double murder Palestinians, even!”

    jumjummy,

    There’s a difference between criticizing, protesting, etc. but that’s not what people are advocating for here. It’s either “don’t vote” or “don’t vote for Biden in the General Election”.

    You see the difference right? Once that general election comes, Trump winning would be absolutely catastrophic for the US, so unless you’re a Russian plant, or one of those “let it all burn down” people, there isn’t much choice.

    shikitohno,

    Damn, you got me, I missed the part where I said not to vote for Biden under any circumstances.

    Way to prove the point. Elections are not today, there is no reason not to continue to criticize Biden and pressure him to change his position in a meaningful way in order to make him more electable for those who won’t support him if he continues his current policy, and along you come with the same tired shtick to say “If you don’t bend over backwards to sing his praises, you’re a Russian plant!”

    If Biden actually changed his stance in a meaningful way, there’s still plenty of time for him to win back those voters, but you folks come along running to shout out “But Trump!!!” once anyone suggests that maybe giving him unconditional support no matter how shitty his stances are isn’t the best way to convince him to not be just as awful while he still has time to do so.

    jumjummy,

    Ok, so vote for the guy who will literally make all of this worse. You won’t have to worry about a genocide in another part of the world because there would be some starting up right at home.

    Linkerbaan,
    @Linkerbaan@lemmy.world avatar

    Genocide Joe is a fascist con-man. Anyone defending this is a hardcore tankie.

    Amoxtli,

    Correct, Joe Biden is the fascist here.

    UnderpantsWeevil,
    @UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

    In a democracy, you can vote for whichever fascist party you like

    Amoxtli,

    They only want your loyalty.

    Viking_Hippie,

    And by that, you mean obedience.

    zerog_bandit,

    Lol, go ahead and vote for Trump. If you think what’s going on now is “genocide”, just wait and see…

    Viking_Hippie,

    What part of correctly identifying him as a fascist conman did you think looked like an endorsement? 🤦

    And yes, Israel is by the official definition committing genocide.

    mightyfoolish,

    Read the room.

    UnderpantsWeevil,
    @UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

    Trump’s the best thing to happen to Biden. He has a blank check to do whatever he likes, knowing full well the only response is “Trump will be worse”

    Viking_Hippie,

    Yeah, he’d never had become president in the first place if not for a horrible alternative.

    Now that he’s been for a few years of him mostly being the same conservative he was as a senator, it’s even more obvious that there’s going to be many times more votes AGAINST Trump than FOR Biden.

    I just hope he doesn’t alienate so many people with his steadfast support of, even participation in, the genocide bring peroetrated by a fascist apartheid regime that he actually loses the second most winnable presidential election in US history (the most easily winnable being 2020) to someone who’s objectively much worse for the country and thus the world…

    WarmApplePieShrek,

    Biden’s the best thing to happen to Trump. Trump’s going to win.

    FuglyDuck,
    @FuglyDuck@lemmy.world avatar

    So. do you think Netanyahu pinched his nose or something. you know. while biden was sucking his dick off? “withhold weapons, are you…?”

    it’d be nice if one of the most powerful men in the world actually had a fucking spine.

    MxM111,
    @MxM111@kbin.social avatar

    Biden withhold and still withholding bombs. I am actually not sure if it is wise decision in terms of civilian casualties - I am not sure where more civilians will die - with precision bombing and ground attack or just ground attack (supported by tanks and artillery).

    FuglyDuck,
    @FuglyDuck@lemmy.world avatar

    Yes because we really need to give them something…. It’s awfully unfair otherwise…

    distantsounds,

    It’s the first arms shipment to Israel to be revealed since the administration put another arms transfer, consisting of 3,500 bombs of up to 2,000 pounds each, on hold this month.

    With bombs that size, they want the casualties.

    MxM111,
    @MxM111@kbin.social avatar

    It is up to, not just 2000 pounds.

    Tryptaminev,

    “precision bombing” You toss 2,000 pounds of explosive onto an area. That has a lethal radius of about 380m, or a lethal area of 0.45km². Rafah has 1.5 million people sheltered in an area of 64km² So 23,400 people / km²

    So each of that bomb puts on average 10,500 people at risk of death or serious injury.

    This is not to excuse sending other weapons. Anyone who still sends weapons or any form of military equipment or money to Israel now is willfully complicit in war crimes, massacres and genocide.

    MxM111,
    @MxM111@kbin.social avatar

    It is not 2000 pounds, it is “up to 2000”.

    Tryptaminev,

    So we are only talking 5,000 people at risk with every bomb? Or maybe only 2,000? Well that is a steal!

    MxM111,
    @MxM111@kbin.social avatar

    I understand that lemmy behaves as if Israel is completely reckless and even has as his goal to kill as many civilians as possible. This is not the case if you look at the numbers. If you look here: https://civiliansinconflict.org/our-work/conflict-trends/urban-warfare/ then you see that typical ratio of civilians killed in urban conflicts is 90% or 1:9 (military:civilian).

    If you go with 14000 Hamas fighters killed and 35,000 total killed, that means that 21, 000 civilians killed (this number, by the way includes natural deaths and death from Hamas rockets malfunctioning and falling inside Gaza). This is ratio 1:1.4. If you go with Israeli civilian casualties estimations, then the ratio will be close 1:1. But even with Hamas reported numbers, the ratio of civilian deaths is 6 times better than in typical urban warfare. Far from general perception that Israel being reckless.

    It is quite possible that it is partly due to precision bombing and that removing this resource from Israel arsenal will have negative effect on civilian to military death ratio.

    Tryptaminev,

    Israel declares anyone who is male and at least teenage as killed Hamas fighter. There is dozens of videos of clearly unarmed civilians being executed by the IDF. Their numbers of alleged Hamas fighters are highly unreliable.

    MxM111,
    @MxM111@kbin.social avatar

    I have not seen anyone with reputation claiming that. Hamas itself does not object against these claims. And at this point even if they are inflated by factor of two, it would be still good ratios.

    Also, the ratio of civilians killed versus military fighters killed was good for Israel in the past. And nobody objected that either.

    As for clearly civilians being killed - of course they are. But IDF is not Hamas - they do not target civilians on purpose, and as numbers show, they are quite accurate in killing fighters. Are there IDF fuck ups who actually want and kill some civilians? Most likely. In any large scale military such things exist, but they are exceptions which are investigated. IDF is no different than any other military in that respect, including US.

    I understand that echo chamber exist here on fediverse, but the more I study the actual facts more I come to conclusion that the citiation is quite different as most here trying to paint. People react on videos that a) difficult to understand without context b) in terms of statistics are exceptions, not a rule. The overall situation is different and you can’t make conclusions by couple videos.

    Viking_Hippie,

    I know that it’s beside the point, but just FYI: in most cases, pinching the nose of someone blowing you does nothing since the vast majority (all?) of humans can’t breathe in through their nose while their mouth is full and vigorously sucking.

    All it does is expose you as an ignorant jerk 🤷

    FuglyDuck,
    @FuglyDuck@lemmy.world avatar

    All it does is expose you as an ignorant jerk 🤷

    If one does it, yes. I suspect Netanyahu is the type.

    Viking_Hippie, (edited )

    True. Didn’t mean to imply that YOU specifically do it, in case that’s how it came off btw, I intended it as the generalized you 😁

    FuglyDuck,
    @FuglyDuck@lemmy.world avatar

    No worries!

    livus,
    @livus@kbin.social avatar

    deleted_by_author

    •
    girlfreddy,
    @girlfreddy@lemmy.ca avatar

    They said ‘vast majority’, not ‘all’.

    index,

    They have the spine to laugh at all the peasants below them, i think it’s someone else lacking spine

    givesomefucks,

    I am shocked Biden went back on his word so quickly…

    /s

    TropicalDingdong,

    https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/55ac6df9-0e13-41a0-af50-6e4e22f98680.gif

    Moonrise2473,

    Unfortunately there’s still not enough proof of genocide, according to the military complex

    Viking_Hippie,

    There never will be, of course. Israel could nuke the entire Middle East including themselves and the politicians that rely on the MIC for bribes would do no more than wag a finger 😮‍💨

    nondescripthandle,

    As long as someones left to buy the bombs they’re selling, they don’t mind who or how many die.

    BlackNo1,

    fuck this goddam fucking system thats going to force me to vote for this old cunt

    ChillPenguin,

    Also fuck this system that makes us pay for this with our taxes.

    spicysoup,
    @spicysoup@lemmy.world avatar

    meanwhile in the US, the government can’t seem to find the money for continued funding of the ACP, a program providing internet and mobile services to the poorest people in the country, in a world where connectivity is pretty crucial to functioning in society

    Tinidril,

    Austerity programs in the US have nothing to do with saving the government money. It’s literally the goal to make life worse for working Americans, this making them more subservient to employers.

    gravitas_deficiency,

    Jesus tapdancing christ he just can’t fucking help scoring an own-goal. What the actual fuck.

    I’ve been trying to be as magnanimous and politically pragmatic as I can, but this is straight up idiotic. Come the fuck on, Biden. You are going to throw the whole fucking election if you keep this up.

    IamAnonymous,

    This is what I don’t understand. He might lose Michigan this time without the support of the Arab-Americans. Last time he won by a narrow margin.

    GladiusB,
    @GladiusB@lemmy.world avatar

    It’s still months away. He’s probably waiting.

    IamAnonymous,

    Yeah, probably. But this is not like student loans. How many more lives will be lost in the next few months if he waits to order a ceasefire.

    shikitohno,

    When you think he might finally be correcting course, he just immediately goes and undoes it.

    UnderpantsWeevil,
    @UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

    I don’t think he cares

    gravitas_deficiency, (edited )

    I think he kinda does, but at the same time he’s too fucking old and set in his boomer ways. I’m beginning to suspect that he may be incapable of understanding why the youths can’t just sEe tHinGs hiS WaY.

    WarmApplePieShrek,

    he doesn’t care as long as progressives lose, he doesn’t care whether biden or trump wins

    gravitas_deficiency,

    wtf are you talking about

    WarmApplePieShrek,

    Biden and his donors want to block someone like AOC or Bernie from getting in power. They’re fine with Trump getting in power.

    selokichtli,

    We should start recognizing this genocide as an Israel and the USA one, not only Israel’s.

    Squizzy,

    The people do, what makes it so much worse and really shows the monstrousness of the USA is that there was a palestinian teenager making music about his family amd life in an open air prison, occupied territory troubles and the like and he got picked up by a US music label and is there making music now. The US enabled his country to fall to shit only to then profit off his art he makes talking about how awful his life is amd how many cousins he has lost to Israeli aggresion.

    Pure microcosm but it is heartbreaking what the US gets away with.

    AmbiguousProps,

    What a shocker. God, I wish I could afford to leave this country so that my tax dollars weren’t funneled directly to this genocide.

    SlopppyEngineer,

    You still have to pay USA income tax abroad unless you renounce your citizenship.

    Emma_Gold_Man,

    Not necessarily. There is a foreign earned income exclusion, so if you pay income taxes on it in the country where you’re living you don’t pay taxes to the US.

    Professorozone,

    Up to a max. So paying a little in the foreign country will not invalidate ALL taxes owed in the US. You might still owe some. Just FYI.

    Emma_Gold_Man,

    $126,500 per person, plus another $20,240 in housing expenses. Plus your $13,850 standard deduction (though if you’re making that much you’re probably itemizing for more). So $160,590 for an individual or $321,180 for married filing jointly. That’s assuming no kids and no other deductions or credits - which is pretty unlikely at that income level.

    $160,590 is the 93rd percentile for US income distribution. So yeah, if you (AND your partner, if any) are both in the top 7% income bracket, bad at tax preparation, and don’t hire an accountant, you might still pay tax on the income over that amount. Of course, making that much while keeping the kind of ethics that let you care about anyone other than yourself is a nontrivial endeavor.

    Don’t forget that your foreign employer won’t be reporting to the IRS. So if your protest extends to not voluntarily reporting that excess income …

    Epicmulch,

    They literally are not.

    Linkerbaan,
    @Linkerbaan@lemmy.world avatar

    Weekly Biden gaslighting complete, quick ship some $700m in tank shells they ran out shooting at tent camps in Rafah!

    The package disclosed Tuesday includes about $700 million for tank ammunition, $500 million in tactical vehicles and $60 million in mortar rounds, the congressional aides said. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an arms transfer that has not yet been made public.

    So that’s 1.36 Billion.

    Viking_Hippie,

    What’s an extra $360m between friends and war criminals?

    TokenBoomer,

    Tents are Hamas.

    TropicalDingdong,

    Biden doesn’t want to win this election.

    Do you get it yet? We have to move on past Biden if we don’t want Trump.

    MxM111,
    @MxM111@kbin.social avatar

    Move where? If not Biden, then Trump this election.

    venusaur,
    @venusaur@lemmy.world avatar

    deleted_by_moderator

    •
    DeadPand,

    Maybe vote all D but abstain from the Pres vote, who knows anymore

    Linkerbaan,
    @Linkerbaan@lemmy.world avatar

    If people didn’t PTSD themselves into staying with Biden for the last 7 months we’d have a different candidate by now.

    This election has the worst two candidates ever. If this isn’t the time to jump ship then it will never happen.

    AmbiguousProps,

    For real, Biden should not have been the candidate, and now we’re stuck with him.

    Linkerbaan,
    @Linkerbaan@lemmy.world avatar

    There’s still 6 months. I liked what Cornel West told Mehdi Hasan during his interview. It was along the lines of

    “I’m not likely to win but if all the stars align then I can’t capitalize on it if I wasn’t there”.

    A lot of life comes down to participating and a large part of the result can be luck. Even if there’s a 1/3000 chance that a third party would win, this would be one of the more likely elections in which that could happen if a massive migration wave happens from the Democrats to a third party candidate.

    Most people are voting Democrat because they feel there’s no other option. The second they feel the wind blowing differently they will jump ship.

    mightyfoolish,

    At this point all we can do is pray and hope the ballots get hit with a heatwave and the name checked on them smear into a third party candidate’s name while gamma waves do the same with the digital ballots.

    It really feels like people in this country don’t want a better future. They truely want the best of two awful ones but only for themselves, screw everyone not in your immediate vicinity.

    Amoxtli,

    The Deep State is more than just Joe Biden.

    nondescripthandle,

    If people wont break the duopoly when the lesser of two evils turns into the lesser of two genocides then they will never break away. Nothing will convince these people to actually support other parties and Im tired of hearing them pretend that’s not true.

    NegativeInf,

    Past Biden? No one else is even on all the ballots in all the necessary states to even come close to 270.

    I’m just happy we don’t have an idiot saying “Nuke 'em all to glass” like my conservative father.

    venusaur,
    @venusaur@lemmy.world avatar

    deleted_by_moderator

    •
    venusaur,
    @venusaur@lemmy.world avatar

    deleted_by_moderator

    •
    HuntressHimbo,

    In semi convinced the way forward would be to remove biden from office on January 1st after voting him in. Deny Trump and then tell the dems absolutely not try fucking harder.

    TropicalDingdong,

    He can pass along his delegates at the convention.

    Still time to switch it up.

    arymandias,

    Ben-Gvir: It’s time for a true solution to Gaza.

    Biden:

    cyberpunk007,

    Fucking loser

    JesusSon,
    @JesusSon@lemmy.world avatar

    Feed me Seymour

    3volver,

    Another step closer to getting an orange criminal as president from 2025 to 2029. What an absurd joke. Don’t make the majority feel like their voice isn’t being heard for too long, it’s never a good idea to do that.

    seanziepples,

    More like 2025 to indefinitely. Say goodbye to the 2-term limit if the tangerine becomes president.

    3volver,

    Nah. There’s no way the orange man would get more than 4 years. If he tried, we would see a nation wide shut down, the riots would be beyond anything we’ve ever seen in this country. The people with money know they wouldn’t make more money trying that, so it won’t happen. Biden is already helping them enough.

    WarmApplePieShrek,

    He will become president, but he’s too stupid to override the term limit.

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