Currently Online 
More lies
Blinken aims to sustain US pressure on Israel in high-stakes visit as Middle East tensions soar
From CNN's Alex Marquardt and Jennifer Hansler
Secretary of State Antony Blinken will be the latest in a long parade of Biden national security officials to meet face to face with the Israeli government when he arrives in Tel Aviv this week for his fifth visit since the October 7 attack by Hamas.
Blinken’s meetings in Israel, one of nine stops on a frenetic, weeklong crisscrossing of the region, are part of what US officials say is a constant effort to stay in touch with – and in front of – Israeli officials in an attempt to keep Israel’s war machine in check as the conflict drags on.
“What happens is you get in a room and say, ‘This is what we need to see,’” a US official told CNN, noting that breakthroughs with Israel have typically occurred after a visit by Blinken or a call from President Joe Biden. Sometimes the Israelis agree with what the US says, the official said, and sometimes they don’t and negotiations ensue.
There are “at least a dozen live issues we are pushing for,” the official told CNN, including protecting Palestinian civilians amid a skyrocketing death toll as well as creating conditions to allow desperately needed aid to get where it is required most.
Shifts by Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have been slow and incremental, and US officials have acknowledged that “gaps” remain between what they claim is Israel’s intentions and what has played out.
“We don’t tell Israel what to do, but at the same time, as close allies, these are tough conversations that you can only have as friends where you ask the hard questions,” a second US official told CNN. “You ask, ‘Well, what is your objective? What is your angle? How do you intend to achieve it? What do you think is realistic? Have you considered this, have you considered that?’”
The stakes of Blinken’s fifth trip are high as America’s allies that stood behind Israel at the start of the war but have grown critical as the civilian toll in Gaza rises. Those partners will be looking for evidence Israel is listening to the US, and, as tensions skyrocket in the region, allies are hoping Blinken can ensure Israel has a viable plan to end the war amid concerns over a wider conflict.
“We don’t expect every conversation on this trip to be easy,” Matthew Miller, the State Department spokesperson, said Thursday before the delegation left.
No US pressure on Israel beyond ‘doublespeak’ statements: Analyst
Blinken has been emphasising the protection of civilians in Gaza but as the US remains Israel’s top military and diplomatic backer, Hafsa Halawa says Washington’s statements are not effective.
“Nothing in the US’s policy actions – beyond certain doublespeak that we see or tweets that are written by the teams of everybody from the secretary of state to the president of the United States and other members of the government – seems to signal that there is any material pressure on Israel,” Halawa told Al Jazeera’s Inside Story.
“At the end of the day, nothing that we’ve seen since October 7 from anyone in this administration signals that the US is anything but supportive of this war.”
Actually Israel has been using these 'talks' and reassurances from the USA only to step up the attacks every time. It's just diplomatic cover, distraction, downplaying, pretending things will get better. The situation has been and is still only getting worse.
Israeli statement on killing journalists ‘doesn’t add up’
The Israeli army issued a statement responding to journalists who asked for comment all day from the Israeli army on why these journalists were targeted and killed inside of Gaza.
It says: “An Israeli military aircraft identified and struck a terrorist operative who was operating an aircraft that posed a threat to troops. We are aware of the reports that during the strike, two other suspects who were in the same vehicle as the terrorists were also hit.”
Just pay attention to this wording. They’re calling the journalists in the car “suspects”. We do know that third person in the car who was seriously injured was Hazem Rajab, a content creator and a journalist. If you go to his page, you can see that he operates a drone for photography purposes. And if the Israeli military is releasing this statement, they are also calling these journalists, all three of them, suspects.
It’s interesting that the Israeli military took several hours to respond to questions from journalists, just releasing this statement before midnight local time. But the Israeli military is going to have a lot of other questions to answer… because what they’re saying and what happened on the ground is not adding up.
‘Total dissonance’ in Blinken’s ‘sorry’ for Hamza Dahdouh: Analyst
Blinken had said he was “deeply sorry” about the “unimaginable loss” of Wael Dahdouh, whose son was killed in an Israeli attack.
“The total dissonance of being sorry about an outcome that you have actively enabled at every stage,” Middle East expert Khaled Elgindy wrote in a social media post addressing Blinken’s comments.
