World Leaders Intentionally Blast Netanyahu for “Unintentionally” Blasting Aid Workers

Apr 03, 2024

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video yesterday explaining how he does war. (Screengrab / Israeli video.)

International outrage yesterday left Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu increasingly isolated, as global leaders coalesced around World Central Kitchen Prime Minister José Andrés.

Netanyahu yesterday called Monday’s airstrikes that killed seven World Central Kitchen workers “unintentional.” And while it’s easy to doubt Netanyahu’s word, who among us hasn’t carried out an unintentional airstrike?

“This happens in wartime,” Netanyahu explained, without explaining why it happens so much more in his wartime.

Pres. Joe Biden condemned the attack in rhetoric much tougher than any of the so-far ineffective language he has used to date.

“I am outraged and heartbroken,” Biden said in a statement. “This is not a stand-alone incident,” he said in reference to Israel, which is increasingly standing alone. “This conflict has been one of the worst in recent memory in terms of how many aid workers have been killed.”

Israel, Biden said, “has not done enough to protect aid workers … [and] civilians.” That “not doing enough” includes killing tens of thousands of them.

Biden spoke with Andrés yesterday, after World Central Kitchen suspended its aid shipments.

And Biden is not alone rendering Israel more alone.

U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in a call yesterday told Netanyahu the killings “appalled” him, which is British for “fuck you.”

And while Biden called for Israel to release its investigation of the deadly airstrike, Sunak went further, demanding an “independent” investigation. And the U.K. took the rare step for the first time in 12 years of summoning Israel’s ambassador for a stern talking-to, which is British for “Do you know what we do in our boarding schools, mate?”

The problem, though is revealed in the language the U.K. used to describe Sunak’s call. Officials said Sunak told Netanyahu that the Gaza situation is “increasingly intolerable.” But “intolerable” by definition means you have reached your limit on tolerating it. And “increasingly” means you haven’t. (Thanks, O.E.D.!)

And the last time the U.K. summoned Israel’s ambassador was to protest illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Which have since become increasingly tolerable.

But other nations are piling on Israel, too, after its killing of a veritable United Nations of altruism on Monday.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the killings “completely unacceptable,” a slightly more absolute way of saying “increasingly intolerable,” but similarly toothless, given the tacit acceptance of the completely unacceptable.

The World Central Kitchen workers were traveling in what was reportedly a deconflicted zone, traveling in vehicles bearing World Central Kitchen markings and also not doing war shit.

On top of that, World Central Kitchen workers had coordinated their movements with the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and they were hit as they left a warehouse used to store relief aid and not war shit.

World Central Kitchen CEO Erin Gore called the killings a “targeted” IDF attack and said, “This is unforgivable.”

Now, do I think Israel on Monday said to itself, “Y’know what would help a lot? Killing aid workers from multiple powerful allies”? I do not.

But…Netanyahu has claimed all along that the IDF is super-good at targeting “terrorists.” That’s the primary justification for the wholesale slaughter and devastation.

And yet, he’s taken out hostages, surrendering hostages, aid workers, doctors, U.N. staff, a staggering number of journalists, and 33,000 people total. And yet, Hamas still is.

So you can’t claim you’re only targeting terrorists and also claim that you accidentally blew away seven relief workers. Israel is either intentionally killing relief workers — a scenario I know some folks out there are entirely ready to believe and I’m probably just too morally horrified to accept — or Israel is just as shambolic as pretty much every military ever portrayed in fiction has been and is just bashing away at anything that moves hoping it’ll work.

And given that the Israeli population supports the IDF’s assaults in Gaza — but doesn’t like Netanyahu (who’s facing potentially serious corruption charges), he’s got every incentive in the world to keep on bashing away in Gaza, intentionally, unintentionally, or indiscriminately, to forestall his own political demise at the hands of his own people.

And/or to provoke conflict elsewhere.

Elsewhere…

In an intentional intentional airstrike on Monday, Israel bombed an Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria.

What’s that, you say? Israel isn’t at war with Iran? Or Syria? Maybe not, but it’s only Wednesday!

The airstrike reportedly killed 12 people, including four Syrians, a Lebanese Hezbollah official, and at least two generals from Iran’s Quds Force — the external arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. The strike reportedly succeeded at seriously degrading, for now, Iran’s functional ability to carry out ongoing attacks on Israeli Jews.

But analysts told the New York Times that the strike risks igniting retaliatory efforts, which could threaten U.S. troops who are in the region because that’s historically worked so well. The airstrike was “incredibly reckless” said one former official of the CIA, the masters of reckless.

Another analyst called the airstrike “a significant escalation.”

And sure enough, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said of Israel, “We will make them regretful about the crime.” Which, supremely doubtful.

Of course, Israel’s ability to keep doing this kind of stuff depends in large part on what the U.S. does in the meanwhile.

Meanwhile…

The Biden administration reportedly is pushing Congress to sign off on an $18 billion sale of F-15 fighter jets to Israel. The jets would be intended for use in intentional intentional airstrikes, but hey, we all know what “happens in wartime.”

The jets are not expected to be used in Israel’s current conflict ~~with~~ on Gaza, but at the rate that’s going, ya never know.

If the sale is approved, it won’t go through for at least five years. Meaning either that Netanyahu will be out of jail by then and able to use the jets to delay his next trial and/or impeachment. Or the jets will be available to help Netanyahu’s successors defend Israel from the consequences of Netanyahu’s actions today.

Whether Biden will escape the consequences, however, may depend on Muslim sentiment here at home…

Muslim Sentiment Here at Home

Last night’s planned Iftar dinner at the White House turned into a meeting, instead, after Muslim participants reportedly concluded that a celebratory dinner would leave a bad taste in their mouths while people in Gaza have no food in theirs.

The meeting included Pres. Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, and Muslim leaders such as Dr. Thaer Ahmad, a Palestinian-American who has done relief work in Gaza and not been unintentionally killed.

But Ahmad walked out on the meeting in protest, telling CNN he was the only Palestinian there.

Ahmad said he gave Biden a letter from an eight-year-old girl named Hadeel. She’s an orphan now “living” in Rafah.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his army is going to storm Rafah, the same city where displaced Palestinians were told to take shelter. Biden has called a Rafah ground offensive a “red line,” and to his credit, so far Israel has yet to cross it.

In the letter that Ahmad handed Biden last night, Hadeel wrote: “I beg you, President Biden, stop them from entering Rafah.”

Ugandan Court Upholds LGBTQ+ Death Penalty

Uganda’s Constitutional Court this morning let stand most major provisions of last year’s Anti-Homosexuality Act, which includes the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality.” (By contrast, aggravated heterosexuality enjoys the full support of most U.S. officials, despite the resulting death, violence, and misery.)

One of the provisions struck down infringed on protected individual rights, the court said. The ruling means people will no longer be required by law to report suspected violations of the law.

The death penalty still stands, however, for those convicted.

Since the law’s enactment last year, activists have reported a wave of anti-LGBTQ+ incidents, including rape, torture, and evictions. Police made the first arrest under the new law in August. A 20-year-old man is accused of “unlawful intercourse” and faces the death penalty.

The plaintiffs in the suit challenging the law, including activist Frank Mugisha, are now considering whether to appeal to the Supreme Court.

International pressure so far has failed to budge Ugandan lawmakers. The U.S. imposed restrictions on Ugandan officials, cut Uganda out of the African Growth and Development Act trade deal, and warned investors against operating in Uganda. The World Bank cut off loans to Uganda.

The economic backlash to the law kneecapped the value of the Ugandan shilling, leading to an interest-rate hike last month that’s increased the cost of borrowing. So how is it that the Ugandan people aren’t taking this all out on President Yoweri Museveni and the parliament?

Well, for one thing, Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI) told Uganda to “stand firm.” As I reported, Walberg at the Oct. 8 Ugandan National Prayer Breakfast told Uganda to hang in there, and know that they have conservative, Christian allies in the U.S. It was lost on no one that a November victory by D4FRFP1 Donald Trump would likely mean an end to Pres. Joe Biden’s sanctions.

So now Ugandans know that Republican Christians will go to bat for them. And it’s not just Walberg (the same Walberg who just suggested nuking Gaza). As I reported, Walberg’s trip to deliver his message was paid for by the Christians behind the National Prayer Breakfast, aka The Family.

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI), chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, responded to my reporting by demanding answers from The Family, including whether they condemn Uganda’s new law. The Family declined to do so.

PolitiFact: Musk Sticks to Facts Worse Than Teslas Stick to Roads

PolitiFact yesterday drove a lengthy, documented, high-tech rebuttal flawlessly right to its target: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s integrity. Specifically, Musk’s recent bullshit claims about immigrants and replacement theory and fictional Democratic Party conspiracies to steal elections.

Among the bullshit Musk is giving away for free:

Claims that undocumented immigrants can vote in federal elections, which they can’t.
Claims that states don’t verify voter citizenship, which they do.
Claims that immigrants will give Democrats more seats in Congress, which they won’t.
Claims that the proposed border bill would let undocumented immigrants vote, which it won’t.

And social-media bullshit that Musk weaponized in his own bullshit turned out to be bullshit. English captions of Spanish comments were mistranslated to sound more malo than they really were. Qualifying statements like “If you could vote,” were excluded from clips that then just said, “Will you vote for Biden?”

Anyway, the point is that Tesla sales fell 8.5% in the first quarter of this year, compared to the same period last year. And yesterday that led Tesla’s stock price to drop 5%, meaning the shares have now lost a third of their value so far this year.

The reason? Tesla is losing out to other EV automakers. From other countries.

TCB

ORIGINAL REPORTING If you missed it, yesterday I broke the news that The Family is secretly behind an event being held Friday through Sunday at the Kennedy Space Center. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson is a longtime Family insider.

I’ve got more stories in the pipeline, but was kinda racing to finish this one so I could get it out before the event starts on Friday. Now that I don’t have an external deadline like that on my upcoming reporting, I’m going to try to find a better balance between reporting, improving The Fucking News, and, frankly, dedicating more time to the soul-crushing tasks of “marketing” and “promotion” and “social media,” and otherwise making it easier for folks to spread the word out about my work.

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Go get ‘em, kids…!

D4FRFP = Disgraced, quadicted, fraudster, rapist, former President.