Defender of US arms transfers to Israel gets prominent State Dept role: Report
US news outlet HuffPost is reporting that Mira Resnick has been appointed to a special Israel-Palestine role at the US State Department, prompting rebuke from critics of the administration’s policy.
Resnick had previously worked in a bureau that oversaw billions in arms shipments to Israel, the report said. A source also told HuffPost that Resnick has more recently been privately defending new arms transfers to Israel to lawmakers and their staff.
The appointment “reflects a doubling down on the administration’s determination to continue to provide unconditional material support for Israel’s genocidal campaign against civilians in Gaza”, former State Department official Annelle Sheline, who quit over the Biden administration’s Israel policy, told the news outlet.
Resnick is set to replace Andrew Miller as deputy assistant secretary for Israeli-Palestinian affairs in the State Department’s Middle East office. Sheline said Miller was known to be wary of the Biden administration’s approach, and “did his best” to push back.
Parties and grief: A stark contrast at the Democratic National Convention
Two radically contrasting realities have emerged out of this week’s four-day Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
On one side, there was happiness and excitement as Kamala Harris formally accepted the party’s presidential nomination and set her sights on November’s election.
But for Palestinian rights supporters, the convention brought further pain and disappointment.
The convention’s “uncommitted” delegates, who had been calling for an arms embargo against Israel amid its devastating war on Gaza, were dealt a blow after Harris said – in no uncertain terms – that she would continue to provide weapons to the US ally.
“There are balloons raining down on the Democrats in our party, and there are bombs raining down on children and families and people I love,” Asma Mohammed, a delegate from Minnesota, told Al Jazeera as tears streamed down her cheeks.
ICC prosecutor calls on judges to rule on Netanyahu, Sinwar arrest warrants
The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, has filed a brief urging a panel of pre-trial judges to “urgently render its decisions” on the requests he filed in May.
Citing possible war crimes and crimes against humanity, Khan had requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
Khan had also sought warrants for Hamas officials Mohammed Deif, who Israel said it killed in a Gaza strike, and Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in Tehran last month in an attack widely believed to have been carried out by Israel.
The chief prosecutor’s brief came in response to legal filings by several parties arguing both for and against the court’s jurisdiction in the matter. “It is settled law that the Court has jurisdiction in this situation,” he wrote.
