Hasnain says:

“The 30-day ultimatum illuminates a grotesque tension at play among White House leadership. The Biden administration believes that its Israel policy should not be constrained by human rights law, but still badly wants to be seen as committed to upholding human rights. The White House’s letter to Israeli officials gestured at a commitment to human rights by expressing concern over the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Gaza and demanding of Israel improvements in humanitarian access purportedly to ameliorate those conditions.

But the ultimatum was all for show, a public relations maneuver to create the illusion of a commitment to human rights and distance itself from the mass starvation policy it is enabling. That the demands were not enforced, that they were written in a way that would still allow Israel to starve Gaza, and the context in which the ultimatum itself was issued all reveal how deeply unserious the Biden administration was about deviating from the genocidal status quo. In this way, the administration’s PR stunt backfired — it’s now clearer than ever that the Biden administration’s policy is enabling mass starvation in Gaza. The 30-day ultimatum for Israel may not have changed US policy, but it clarified what that policy is.”

Posted on 2024-11-28T03:52:26+0000