Joe Biden is the same hunger as Gaza. Blood in his hands | Mohamad Bazzi

IIn March 2024, Global Food Security Administration Warn that Palestinian As Israel continues its siege of the territory, famine is coming in northern Gaza. The report It is one of the most direct warnings of the United Nations and International Relief Organizations, which has been arousing alarms about the potential for widespread hunger in Gaza since December 2023.

Joe Biden was in the White House at the time and his administration not only failed to pay attention to those repeated warnings, but also undermined UN agencies and humanitarian groups that tried to focus on Israel’s use of hunger as a weapon of war in Gaza, Gaza. Today, Donald Trump and his administration are deeply accomplices in artisan production Gaza faminebut it is important to remember that American complicity predates Trump – another taint of Biden’s legacy as president.

During several moments during his presidency, Biden could have stopped the spread of hunger. Gazaif his administration hears warnings from the United Nations and aid groups and uses it as a driving force to limit U.S. military support for Israel. Biden’s record is not only shocking, as he has to change the course, but also his ruthlessness to his misery against the Palestinians.

Senior Israeli officials unsecretly intend to starve Gaza’s population of 2.2 million in days after the attack on Israel in Hamas on October 7, 2023. Two days later, Israel’s then Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, announced: “I have ordered a complete encirclement on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed.” He added: “We are fighting human animals and we are taking action accordingly.” By December 2023, the UN Hunger Monitoring Group, Integrated Food Security Stage Classification (IPC), Warning in the report Unless Israel eases restrictions on aid, a million people in Gaza face widespread hunger in a few months.

IPC, including the World Food Program, the World Health Organization and others, was established in 2004 to alert global food shortages and hunger that could lead to famine. (it Declare the famine In Somalia in 2011 and South Sudan in 2017, the formal declaration of famine was retrospective and often lag behind local deterioration. )last month, IPC Warning Amid the alarm, Gaza’s “the worst situation is happening right now” even though the group has not officially declared the famine.

In February 2024, UN Special Rapporteur on the right side of food, Michael Fakhri warned of the speed and scale of the mass hunger movement in Israel. “We have never seen civilians so hungry, so quickly, so thoroughly.” He told the guardianresponding to reports from UN agencies and humanitarian groups, indicating that Israel is Illegally stop food and other aids to enter Gaza and use Hunger as a weapon – War crimes in international law.

With such detailed warnings, the Biden administration and other Western supporters in Israel cannot claim that they do not know the severity of hunger in Gaza and the scope of Israel’s policy. Talking hungry on purpose Palestinian. As alarms for the upcoming famine in the spring of 2024 intensified, Biden could have blocked artificial aid by putting pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to include more food into Gaza and enforce U.S. laws prohibiting the shipment of weapons to U.S. allies who hindered artificial aid.

Biden doesn’t have to become so profoundly accomplice in Israel’s war crimes – his administration has political leverage and legal mechanisms to limit Netanyahu and end the war, saving thousands of Palestinian lives and many Israeli hostages held by Hamas. Instead, Biden and his assistant twisted themselves to continue sending Billions of dollars In the United States’ weapons, Israel continues its genocide war.

In justifying his policies that proved his ineffectiveness and moral bankruptcy, Biden not only ignored warnings about the humanitarian disaster in Gaza, he violated U.S. law and his own government rules. In February 2024, Biden issued a new national security memorandum asking the State Department to prove the recipient of U.S. weapons Comply with international law and allow humanitarian assistance during active conflict. The memorandum relies on existing U.S. laws, especially the Foreign Aid Act of 1961, which prohibits the U.S. government from providing weapons to countries that block U.S. humanitarian aid, just like Israel Complete repeatedly During the Gaza War.

By May 2024, the Biden administration has the opportunity to use the law to transport its weapons to Israel and put pressure on Netanyahu to end the war. Instead, the State Department sent a 46-page report to Congress full of bureaucratic double rhetoric that avoided concluding that the Israeli military Violating international law When using U.S. weapons or Israeli obstructs Gaza’s aid. If the government draws these conclusions In its reportBiden could have suspended the delivery of most weapons to Israel, thinking he was upholding U.S. law. But Biden decided to continue to kill thousands of Palestinians and expand the siege of Gaza.

In October 2024, the Biden administration had another opportunity to change its policies, when two of its top officials – then Secretary of State Anthony Blink and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin – Letter to Israeli officials Warning they must take “specific measures” to ensure that civilians in northern Gaza have access to food, medicine and other basic needs. U.S. officials threaten that they may suspend military support for Israel if conditions do not improve within 30 days. Despite reaching the final atum, the amount of aid to Gaza that month has dropped to it Minimum level in 11 months.

In November 2024, the U.S. deadline passed, and the Biden administration did nothing and continued to send weapons to Israel, ignoring international condemnation and U.S. law. Since the 2023 Hamas attack, Biden has shockedly told the world that he will not have any consequences for Israel and will continue to protect the Netanyahu government at the United Nations and other international agencies.

But Biden’s most ardent attempt to undermine humanitarian groups aims to raise awareness of potential famine in Gaza and protect Israel’s irrefutable hunger policies – was in the last weeks of his tenure. In late December, the Biden administration forced a U.S.-funded organization, a famine warning system, Retraction of the report The warning said famine was about to occur in northern Gaza.

By then, Trump had won the U.S. presidential election and Biden no longer faced any political impact for his break with Netanyahu. However, Biden still cannot acknowledge that he has caused Palestinian suffering in Gaza. That’s Biden’s legacy: Israel’s hunger and other war crimes until his last days as president.