Archiv: Biden Administration 2021-2025


15.11.2024 - 17:55 [ ]

IAEA chief tours two key Iranian nuclear facilities

In 2015, Iran proved the peaceful nature of its nuclear program to the world by signing the multilateral nuclear agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — with six world powers.

However, Washington’s unilateral withdrawal in 2018 and its subsequent re-imposition of sanctions against Tehran left the future of the deal in limbo.

In 2019, Iran started to roll back the limits it had accepted under the JCPOA after the other parties failed to live up to their commitments.

14.11.2024 - 22:16 [ United Nations ]

Report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories

The present report contains information regarding the efforts of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories to implement its mandate and documents human rights concerns in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the occupied Syrian Golan from October 2023 to July 2024. The Special Committee was not able to conduct visits to the occupied territories, but did conduct its annual consultations in Geneva and undertook a visit to Amman, and met with government officials, United Nations organizations and mechanisms, representatives of civil society organizations, youth representatives, human rights defenders, and Palestinian families.

The report raises serious concerns of breaches of international humanitarian and human rights laws in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including starvation as a weapon of war, the possibility of genocide in Gaza and an apartheid system in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. It documents the impact of the conflict escalation since 7 October 2023 on Palestinians’ rights to food; to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment; to physical integrity, liberty and security of persons; as well as the disproportionate effects on the rights of women, children, and future generations more broadly. The report also highlights the ongoing attacks against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and refers to developments in the occupied Syrian Golan. The report provides recommendations to the General Assembly and Member States; to the State of Israel; and to businesses operating with Israel, that in any way contribute to maintaining Israel’s unlawful presence in the occupied territories.

(…)

IX. Conclusions

69. The developments in this report lead the Special Committee to conclude that the policies and practices of Israel during the reporting period are consistent with the characteristics of genocide. The targeting of Palestinians as a group; the life-threatening conditions imposed on Palestinians in Gaza through warfare and restrictions on humanitarian aid – resulting in physical destruction, increased miscarriages and stillbirths – and the killing of and serious bodily or mental harm caused to Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are violations under international law. Civilians have been indiscriminately and disproportionally killed en masse in Gaza, while in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Israeli colonial settlers, military and security personnel have continued to violate human rights and humanitarian law with impunity. Senior Israeli government and military officials must be held accountable, including for using dehumanizing language and inciting violence.

14.11.2024 - 22:04 [ Common Dreams ]

As US Keeps Arms Flowing, UN Panel Says Israeli Assault on Gaza ‚Consistent With Genocide‘

Less than 48 hours after the Biden administration said it does not believe Israel is unlawfully obstructing humanitarian assistance in Gaza, a United Nations special committee issued a report Thursday arguing that the Israeli military‘s actions in the Palestinian enclave bear „the characteristics of genocide.“

14.11.2024 - 21:01 [ Common Dreams ]

Global Fury After State Dept Claims Israel Not Violating US Law by Blocking Gaza Aid

(November 12, 2024)

Last month, the Biden administration—which has approved tens of billions of dollars in military aid for Israel and provided nearly unconditional diplomatic support since October 2023—sent a letter to the Israeli government threatening to cut off U.S. arms transfers if it failed to take „urgent and sustained actions“ to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza within 30 days.

Asked during a Tuesday press conference if the Israeli government has met the letter‘s demands, State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said that „we have not made an assessment that they are in violation of U.S. law.“

13.11.2024 - 12:59 [ Reuters ]

US carried out strikes against Iranian linked targets in Syria

(November 11, 2024)

The U.S. military said on Monday it had carried out strikes against nine targets associated with Iranian groups in Syria.
(…)
The U.S. has 900 troops in Syria, and 2,500 more in neighboring Iraq, on a mission to advise and assist local forces trying to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State, which in 2014 seized large swathes of both countries but was later defeated.

10.11.2024 - 13:35 [ New York Times ]

When Did Liberals Become So Comfortable With War?

First, history has shown that governments and bureaucracies tend to become addicted to a war footing, with failure sucking them in further — think of America’s war on terror, or Vietnam. War encourages a perverse cycle of escalation in which huge financial and political gains accrue for governments and the military-industrial complex while the costs tend to be borne by weaker parties — before they start to come home in some shape or form.

We’ve called this bipartisan pattern “wreckonomics” and have found it especially present in wars or conflicts with costs that Western politicians can largely outsource — from fighting terrorism, drugs and smugglers to quasi-colonial interventions during the Cold War.

10.11.2024 - 12:00 [ Middle East Eye ]

Instead of looking inwards, white liberals are blaming Arab Americans for Trump‘s victory

(November 8, 2024)

Democrats actually benefitted from Trump‘s rise, which presented an opportunity for them to win votes freely by positioning themselves as the only alternative to outright fascism.

Yet, instead of looking inwards for answers on why Harris lost to a candidate as problematic as Trump, these liberal Democrats chose to reprimand minorities. Signalling a sense of superiority, they could not hide their racism, implying that it was incumbent upon these minority communities to vote within the guidelines provided by their liberal saviours.

By this logic, Arabs, Muslims and Latinos must vote for a Democrat no matter what.

09.11.2024 - 15:49 [ CNN ]

Biden administration to allow American military contractors to deploy to Ukraine for first time since Russia’s invasion

(November 8, 2024)

The Biden administration has lifted a de facto ban on American military contractors deploying to Ukraine to help the country’s military maintain and repair US-provided weapons systems, particularly F16 fighter jets and Patriot air defense systems, an official with direct knowledge of the plan told CNN.
(,,,)
It is not clear whether Donald Trump will keep the policy in place when he takes office in January. Trump has said he hopes to end the war between Ukraine and Russia “within 24 hours” of returning to power.

09.11.2024 - 14:41 [ PressTV.ir ]

Iran roundly dismisses claims of assassination plot targeting Trump

Baghaei said the repetition of such claims at this juncture is “a malicious conspiracy by Zionist and anti-Iranian circles aimed at further complicating the issues between the United States and Iran.”

It came after Trump was declared the winner of the presidential election on Wednesday. On July 13, Trump survived an assassination attempt, suffering only minor injury to his ear.

In August, Iran dismissed having any connection with a Pakistani individual allegedly arrested in the United States and charged with being behind a foiled plot to assassinate US politicians.

09.11.2024 - 14:28 [ CNN ]

DOJ announces charges in Iranian plot to kill Donald Trump

Prosecutors allege Shakeri – who participated in recorded conversations with law enforcement – was originally tasked by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps to carrying out other assassinations against US and Israeli citizens inside the US. (…)

Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray, in statements released Friday, denounced the continued threats from the Iranian government against individuals in the United States.

“There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran,” Garland said.

07.11.2024 - 18:26 [ Fox News ]

Hollywood director declares it‘s ‚time to abandon‘ the Democratic Party in wake of Trump win

„Who would have guessed lying about Biden’s cognitive health for 2 yrs, refusing to do an open convention for a new nominee, never mentioning public healthcare & embracing fracking, the Cheneys & a yr long slaughter of children in Gaza wouldn’t be a winning strategy?“ he said.

„Anyone with half a brain?“ he continued. „But I thought liberals’ whole thing is being smart? It’s not? They actually just blindly cheer the parade of rickety optics wrapped up in New York Times fonts that is the modern Dem Party?“

07.11.2024 - 17:55 [ New York Times ]

Germany’s Coalition Collapses, Leaving the Government Teetering

Mr. Scholz vowed to keep governing until the end of the year and then to demand a confidence vote in Parliament in January, a test he may fail. That would open the way for early elections, a rarity in Germany since World War II, possibly in March.

07.11.2024 - 16:32 [ Tagesschau.de ]

Ende der Ampelkoalition: „Über Nacht in den Wahlkampfmodus“

…Als Politikwissenschaftlerin kann man natürlich nicht geheim halten, dass das alles hochinteressant und spannend ist und man sich darüber freut, das beobachten zu können. Als Bürgerin des Landes gebe ich aber auch offen zu, dass das bewegende Zeiten sind und weitreichende Zeiten, und insofern ist es ein gemischtes Gefühl, mit dem man auf das schaut und sich schon fragt, wenn wir in den USA gestern früh anfangen und hier in Deutschland, in Berlin gestern Abend enden, was so an einem einzigen Tag alles an Bewegungen stattfinden kann und uns jetzt über Monate, womöglich Jahre beschäftigen wird. …

07.11.2024 - 16:25 [ Peter Beinart / New York Times ]

Democrats Ignored Gaza and Brought Down Their Party

Over the past year, Israel’s slaughter and starvation of Palestinians — funded by U.S. taxpayers and live-streamed on social media — has triggered one of the greatest surges in progressive activism in a generation. Many Americans roused to action by their government’s complicity in Gaza’s destruction have no personal connection to Palestine or Israel. Like many Americans who protested South African apartheid or the Vietnam War, their motive is not ethnic or religious. It is moral.

07.11.2024 - 15:51 [ Common Dreams ]

Israel Bombs Refugee Camps After Inking $5.2 Billion Deal for US F-15 Fighter Jets

The agreement, part of a broader military aid package approved by the Biden administration and the U.S. Congress earlier this year, was finalized hours after Vice President Kamala Harris lost the 2024 election to Republican nominee Donald Trump following a campaign in which she resisted calls to support an arms embargo against Israel.

07.11.2024 - 15:15 [ AmmonNews.net ]

85 thousand tons of bombs dropped by Israel on the Gaza Strip

(November 6, 2024)

According to a statement by the Palestinian Environment Quality Authority today, Wednesday, over 85,000 tons of bombs have been deployed by the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the conflict on October 7, 2023.

07.11.2024 - 15:10 [ Anadolu ]

Amount of Israeli bombs dropped on Gaza surpasses that of World War II

(June 4, 2024)

Israel dropped 70,000 tons of bombs on Gaza Strip since last October, exceeding World War II bombings in Dresden, Hamburg, London combined, according to rights monitor

07.11.2024 - 10:55 [ theHill.com ]

Sanders: Democratic Party ‘has abandoned working class people’

“Will the big money interests and well-paid consultants who control the Democratic Party learn any real lessons from this disastrous campaign? Will they understand the pain and political alienation that tens of millions of Americans are experiencing? Do they have any ideas as to how we can take on the increasingly powerful Oligarchy, which has so much economic power?” Sanders asked.

“Probably not,” he said in response to his own question.

07.11.2024 - 10:41 [ USA Tpday ]

‚The American people are angry and want change‘: Bernie Sanders slams Democrats for loss

Sanders, 83, highlighted several issues he believes the nation has failed to address under the Biden-Harris Administration, from wealth inequality and a worsening standard of living to high prescription drug prices and the lack of guaranteed medical leave.

Though he is an Independent, Sanders caucuses with the Democratic Party, and has long championed policies like Medicare for All and a higher federal minimum wage.

07.11.2024 - 09:55 [ Wikipedia ]

Jaime Harrison

Following President Joe Biden‘s victory in the 2020 presidential election, Harrison was nominated by Biden to be the chair of the DNC, succeeding Tom Perez.[23] DNC members elected him on January 21, 2021.[24]

07.11.2024 - 09:53 [ theNation.com ]

This Time We Have to Hold the Democratic Party Elite Responsible for This Catastrophe

With Trump winning his second term, it is worth noting that there was no absolutely accountability by the Democratic Party when he won in 2016. Losing an election to so dangerous and corrupt a figure as Donald Trump should cause a political party to do some major inward reflection on their own failures of policy and political strategy. Instead, all the Democrats who bore responsibility for the 2016 failure—starting with Hillary Clinton—found a way to blame anyone else but them.

07.11.2024 - 09:41 [ New York Times ]

A Party of Prigs and Pontificators Suffers a Humiliating Defeat

There was also the larger error of anointing Harris without political competition — an insult to the democratic process that handed the nomination to a candidate who, as some of us warned at the time, was exceptionally weak. That, in turn, came about because Democrats failed to take Biden’s obvious mental decline seriously until June’s debate debacle (and then allowed him to cling to the nomination for a few weeks more), making it difficult to hold even a truncated mini-primary.

07.11.2024 - 08:45 [ Associated Press / Youtube ]

LIVE: Kamala Harris concession speech (FULL STREAM)

Streamed live 12 hours ago #kamalaharris #election2024 #usa
Watch live as Kamala Harris delivers her concession speech after Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the United States.

06.11.2024 - 09:32 [ i24news.tv ]

Protests break out in Israel after Netanyahu fires Gallant

The Biden administration was caught off-guard by the decision on Election Day, The Times of Israel cited a U.S. source. “Minister Gallant has been an important partner on all matters related to the defense of Israel. As close partners, we will continue to work collaboratively with Israel’s next minister of defense,” the NSC spokesperson told TOI.

06.11.2024 - 09:21 [ CNN ]

Netanyahu fires Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, after months of clashes over war and politics

Israel Katz, currently the foreign minister, will become defense minister. Gideon Sa’ar will replace Katz as foreign minister, the prime minister’s office said Tuesday. Neither has extensive military experience, though Katz has served in the cabinet throughout the war.

The move came as voters in the United States, Israel’s most important ally, voted for their next president. Gallant is a close interlocutor for the US administration, and has been said to have daily conversations with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

29.10.2024 - 23:10 [ Umair Malik / Twitter ]

this is the biggest blunder in American history. Mark my words

(December 9, 2023)

29.10.2024 - 13:30 [ VoteAgainstGenocide.com ]

Vote Against Genocide: American Academic Letter

As American scholars and higher education administrators, we are deeply committed to the pursuit of truth, justice, and the common good—both in our classrooms and research, and in the broader world we engage with daily. Since October 2023, the Biden-Harris administration has failed to uphold fundamental human rights and the principles of knowledge, truth, and humanity. Their material support for genocidal atrocities has devastated entire communities in Palestine, leading to the loss of countless families in Gaza over the past year, and undermined the core values the United States professes to uphold globally. Under Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee for President, every university has been bombed and destroyed in Gaza, more journalists have been killed than in any other conflict in recorded modern history, and the death toll is projected to exceed 186,000 according to The Lancet. Under Biden-Harris, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has prosecuted violations of the 1948 Genocide Convention, and declared Israel‘s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, unlawful, along with its associated settlement apartheid regime.

This election, on November 5th, the Democratic Party—once again with Kamala Harris at its center—has repeatedly sought our votes by positioning itself as the „lesser evil,“ urging us to abandon our moral convictions out of fear of a second Trump term under Republican leadership. Let us be clear: there is no „lesser evil“ when both parties are complicit in the same atrocities. And there is no lesser evil when they are complicit in genocide. Kamala Harris has actively funded and endorsed genocide, and we cannot reward such leadership with a Harris-Walz ticket. While the Republican Party under a Trump-Vance ticket offers no meaningful alternative, it is the Democratic Party, under Kamala Harris, that has actively supported and sanctioned these international crimes against humanity since October 2023. They must not be rewarded.

29.10.2024 - 13:20 [ AbandonHarris.com ]

Abandon Harris Campaign’s Academic Letter Urges Nationwide Vote Against Genocide

The Abandon Harris Campaign announces that an academic letter calling on Americans to vote third party in the upcoming election is quickly gaining traction across higher education institutions nationwide. Titled “A Call by American Academics to Vote Against Genocide on November 5, 2024: Vote to Abandon Harris – Vote Third Party,” the principled letter condemns the Biden-Harris administration’s support for Israel’s actions in Gaza and urges voters to hold Kamala Harris accountable at the ballot box. The letter and its signatories can be found at voteagainstgenocide.org.

28.10.2024 - 03:41 [ theHill.com ]

Democrats look to quash threat from Green Party’s Jill Stein

(October 18,2024)

Kennedy, who has become a top surrogate for Trump since dropping out, posed a specific threat to Democrats in that he had a famous name attached to their party but aligned politically with the right on many issues. Stein, however, is to the left of most progressives and, in Democrats’ estimation, comes with her own unique baggage.

That lingering, eight-year-old resentment has prompted an uptick of activity across the party, with Harris’s allies strategizing multiple ways to cut off any support she has in states where 1 and 2 percent support could be decisive.

28.10.2024 - 03:25 [ New York Times ]

Voters Are Deeply Skeptical About the Health of American Democracy

Three-quarters of voters in the United States say democracy is under threat, though their perception of the forces imperiling it varies widely based on partisan leanings. And a majority of voters believe that the country is plagued by corruption, with 62 percent saying that the government is mostly working to benefit itself and elites rather than the common good.

27.10.2024 - 11:26 [ Shafaq.com ]

Iran says Israel used US-controlled airspace in Iraq for strikes, warns of retaliation

In a statement broadcast on Iranian state television, the Iranian Armed Forces Communications Center said, “We inform the brave and honorable Iranian people that hostile Zionist aircraft, in a blatant violation of international law, used airspace provided by the American terrorist army in Iraq early this morning to launch multiple long-range, air-launched missiles from 100 kilometers away from the Iranian border.” The statement was followed by calls to Iran’s media and experts to rely solely on official sources amid circulating rumors.

The missiles, reportedly fitted with warheads one-fifth the size of Iranian ballistic warheads, targeted radar systems in the provinces of Ilam, Khuzestan, and areas near Tehran, the statement noted.

“Thanks to timely intervention by Iran’s air defense, the damage was limited; several radar systems sustained minor damage, with some already repaired and others undergoing restoration.”

27.10.2024 - 11:20 [ FirstPost.com ]

Biden cautiously optimistic as wider war in West Asia appears averted

Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump has seized on Biden’s challenges in the Middle East, framing his own administration as one that delivered “peace in the Middle East.”

Speaking in Michigan, Trump told voters, “They want strength in the Oval Office, law and order, and common sense.” Trump’s comments resonated with many Arab American voters, a demographic with significant concerns over the ongoing violence.

27.10.2024 - 11:02 [ wionews.com ]

West Asia crisis: Biden optimistic Israel‘s latest Iran strike is ‚the end‘ to months of escalations

US President Joe Biden on Saturday (Oct 26) expressed hope that Israel‘s recent strikes on Iran could mark „the end“ of the months-long period of escalations. He said to reporters, „It looks like they didn‘t hit anything other than military targets.“

„I hope that this is the end,“ stated Biden, adding that Israel had given him a heads-up about the attack.

26.10.2024 - 14:40 [ Jordan Times ]

US says ‚now is the time‘ to end Gaza war

(October 23, 2024)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday „now is the time“ to end the conflict in Gaza, and urged Israel to avoid further escalation with Iran.

26.10.2024 - 14:32 [ CNN ]

The US wants this to be ‘the end’ of direct Israel-Iran fire. It may be too soon to tell

The airstrikes “should be the end of this direct exchange of fire between Israel and Iran,” a senior US administration official said after the attacks.

24.10.2024 - 08:57 [ B’Tselem ]

The world must stop the ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza

For a year now, since the war began, the international community has shown utter impotence to stop the indiscriminate attack on civilians in the Gaza Strip. Now, when it is clearer than ever that Israel intends to forcibly displace northern Gaza’s residents by committing some of the gravest crimes under the laws of war, the world’s nations must take action.

Without immediate, decisive action from the international community, without using every tool available – political, legal, economic – the mass killings in the northern Gaza Strip will continue and the suffering of its besieged civilians will grow. All international bodies and institutions must act now to compel Israel to stop the war and end the carnage.

23.10.2024 - 11:35 [ Middle East Monitor ]

Mercenary firm to force Palestinians into biometric screenings in Gaza control zones, in potential US, Israel plan

(October 22, 2024)

Israel and the United States are reportedly considering a joint plan to deploy a private American-Israeli security firm to administer Gaza by subjecting Palestinians to biometric screenings with the threat of withholding humanitarian aid.

According to media reports, based on an initial report by Israeli journalist, Shlomi Eldar, on Monday this week, the US and Israel are planning to run a pilot programme – starting with the Al-Atatra village in north-western Gaza – involving 1,000 private mercenaries who would create “gated communities” within the Strip where they will control the inhabitants and their movements through the use of biometrics.

23.10.2024 - 11:34 [ JNS.org ]

Report: Israel’s postwar Gaza strategy to create ‘bubbles’ of control

(July 2, 2024)

The experimental model is slated to be implemented soon in the northern Gaza neighborhoods of Al-Atatra, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia, according to the Financial Times, citing six sources familiar with the plan.

23.10.2024 - 10:55 [ Zeteo.com ]

EXCLUSIVE: DOJ Lawyers Press Merrick Garland to Investigate Israel’s Killing of American Citizens

The attorneys highlight three categories of potential US code violations the DOJ could investigate:

– The killing of US citizens by Israeli citizens and soldiers in recent years (including Ayşenur Eygi, Kamel Ahmad Jawad, Jacob Flickinger, Tawfiq Abdel Jabbar, Mohammad Khdour, Omar Assad, and Shireen Abu Akleh).

– Israel’s illegal settlement activity in the occupied West Bank, assisted by US citizens and organizations.

– Evidence that Israeli forces may have committed war crimes and engaged in torture – including killing thousands of civilians, forcibly displacement and starvation, unlawful confinement, torture and inhumane treatment of detainees, and mass destruction of civilian property and infrastructure.

“Of‬‭ course,” the attorneys note,‬‭ “U.S.‬‭ courts‬‭ have‬‭ jurisdiction‬‭ over‬‭ the‬‭ more‬‭ than‬‭ 23,000‬‭ U.S.‬‭ citizens‬‭ currently‬‭ serving‬‭ in‬‭ Israel’s‬‭ armed‬‭ forces,‬‭ along‬‭ with‬‭ IDF‬‭ members‬‭ or‬‭ other‬‭ Israeli‬ officials‬‭ that‬‭ travel‬‭ to‬‭ the‬‭ United‬‭ States.”