WASHINGTON (JTA) — The U.S. State Department told Congress there were credible reports that Israel had violated international law in its war against Hamas, but recommended against cutting defense assistance to the country.
The report, published Friday, cited steps Israel has taken to mitigate harm to civilians, and noted the difficulty the Israeli military faces while fighting Hamas, a terror group that has embedded itself among civilians in the Gaza Strip.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency obtained a copy of the report, which also assessed the compliance of six other countries with international law. The report said, “It is reasonable to assess that” Israel has violated “obligations or… established best practices for mitigating civilian harm.”
The report cited what it said were credible reports by nongovernmental organizations about the sometimes fatal risks their staffers encountered in Gaza. Hundreds of thousands of Gaza civilians have been displaced and thrown into humanitarian crisis by Israel’s strikes on Hamas.
The report also addressed what it said were credible reports of abuse of captive Palestinians.
“Despite regular engagement from humanitarian actors and repeated [U.S. government] interventions with Israeli officials on deconfliction/coordination procedures, the IDF has struck humanitarian workers and facilities,” the report said. “While Israel repeatedly committed to improve deconfliction and implemented some additional measures, those changes did not fully prevent subsequent strikes involving humanitarian workers and facilities during the reporting period.”
Despite that assessment, the report recommended against cutting aid to Israel, a longstanding demand of Biden’s progressive critics. According to the report, while the U.S. Intelligence Community “assesses that Israel could do more to avoid civilian harm,” it also “has no direct indication of Israel intentionally targeting civilians.”
The report also argued against cutting aid because Israel is willing to coordinate with the U.S. government and undertake measures to mitigate harm to civilians. “IDF officials have shared” with U.S. counterparts “details about their targeting processes, including an extensive sensitive site list, legal advisors embedded in the target approval process, and investigation protocol for incidents of unanticipated collateral damage,” the report says.
The report also repeatedly notes that Hamas initiated the conflict, hides behind civilians and continues to seek Israel’s destruction.
“Israel has had to confront an extraordinary military challenge: Hamas has embedded itself deliberately within and underneath the civilian population to use civilians as human shields,” it says. “Hamas intentionally uses schools, hospitals, residential buildings, and international organization facilities for military purposes. It has constructed a vast tunnel network beneath this civilian infrastructure not to protect civilians, but to hide its leaders and fighters and from which it stages and launches attacks.”
The report sparked pressure from left and right. Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a leading proponent of conditioning aid to Israel, told reporters that the report provided “clear, independent evidence” that the Israeli government has not been forthright with the Biden administration, according to Al Monitor.
Republican Sen. James Risch of Idaho, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, accused Biden of seeking to placate progressives. “The administration is attempting to placate voters on the far left at the expense of a close ally in the midst of its justified war with Hamas terrorists,” according to a statement obtained by Jewish Insider.
Maryland Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin, the Jewish pro-Israel stalwart who chairs the Foreign Relations Committee, welcomed the report’s conclusion — but said it undercut the decision to stop sending large bombs to Israel. He said in a statement that the report “has raised concerns” but that it advocates “that military assistance to support Israel’s security remains in the U.S. interest and should continue.”
“In this regard,” he added, “I differ with President Biden’s recent decision.”
On Friday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) formally requested a sentence of 40 years in prison for the man who was convicted in the assault of Paul Pelosi, husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
According to Axios, the demand was made by federal prosecutors in a 20-page sentencing memo, which specifically stated that the goal was for the steep sentence to serve as a warning to others who may try to carry out political violence.
In October of 2022, David DePape broke into the Pelosis’ residence in San Francisco late in the evening and assaulted Paul with a hammer just as police were arriving. The former Speaker was not home at the time. DePape allegedly said that he wanted to assault Nancy Pelosi herself in order to “show other members of Congress there were consequences to actions.”
Parishioners in a southern Louisiana Catholic church accosted and removed a suspicious-looking teenager armed with a gun as about 60 children readied themselves for their first Holy Communion service on Saturday, according to reports.
The Abbeville Police Department (APD) received the report at 10:35 a.m. from the St Mary Magdalen Church in Abbeville, Chief of Police Mike Hardy said in a Saturday press release. “The person was confronted by parishioners and escorted outside. Upon arrival, Officers arrested the suspect and placed him in custody.”
“The suspect, a 16 year old…is being charged with Terrorizing and 2 counts of Possession of a Firearm by a Juvenile,” Hardy added, according to the press release. The charges followed a police interrogation of the suspect in the presence of his parent and a psychological evaluation of the suspect at the Abbeville General Hospital Behavioral Unit, the press release noted.
President Trump is back in court today in front of a New York City jury in the ongoing lawfare case where the prosecution has still not defined the criminal act that President Trump allegedly took part in.
This is the latest lawfare suit against President Trump that was completely derived by Democrats and the Biden regime to interfere with the 2024 election.
President Trump is currently leading in the polls in every battleground state except Wisconsin. Trump is ahead in Arizona and Georgia by 10 and 7 points.
Trump’s former attorney and close confidante Michael Cohen is testifying today at the show trial.
Former Trump Attorney blew away attorney-client privileges today and played a secret recording he had with President Trump.
The largest observational analysis study to date which investigated health outcomes following Covid vaccination confirmed a causal link between the shots and myocarditis, pericarditis, Guillain-Barré syndrome, cerebral venous sinus thrombosis and more.
The study analyzed health data from 99 million patients and encompassed eight countries through the Global Covid Vaccine Safety (GCoVS) Project.
“This multi-country analysis confirmed pre-established safety signals for myocarditis, pericarditis, Guillain-Barré syndrome, and cerebral venous sinus thrombosis. Other potential safety signals that require further investigation were identified,” the study said in the ‘Conclusion’ section.
On Sunday, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria started to prepare viewers for former President Donald Trump to win the White House in November, admitting that the race has not played out as he thought.
In a clip, Zakaria said, “As someone who worried about the prospects of a second Trump term, I think it’s best to be honest about reality.” He noted that “Trump is now leading in almost all the swing states” and polls “in general, they have tended to underestimate Donald Trump support, not overestimate.”
CNN’s latest coverage of the presidential election has become the news equivalent of a five-alarm fire.
Hours after longtime host Fareed Zakaria begged President Joe Biden on his Sunday show to “turn things around,” analyst Harry Enten broke down the latest poll numbers from NYT/Sienna showing the Democratic incumbent badly training former President Donald Trump in key swing states that are expected to decide the election. Among them: Trump leads Biden by 9% in Georgia, ground zero to the disputed 2020 presidential results and two stunning U.S. Senate wins by Democrats that year. Arizona, another close loss for Trump four years ago, now favors him by 6% among likely voters.
Madurai: Madras high court granted anticipatory bail to a man who set ablaze his brother’s two-wheeler over a property dispute in Pudukottai district on condition that he pays `20,000 to the cancer institute in Adyar.The court entertained the anticipatory bail plea filed by Chithiravel, also known as Chithiravelu, who feared arrest in a case registered by the Aranthangi police in Pudukkottai district.
It’s good to see that, as summer break approaches, the situation on our nation’s college campuses in blue cities maintains the same grim status quo as we’ve come to expect over the past few months.
This time, it’s neither students chanting “death to America” or demanding the abolition of Israel, nor is it the usual malaise associated with elevated crime in Democrat-run metropolises — homelessness, “bail reform,” defunding the police or anything like that. Instead, it’s a kind of meeting of the two; call it a new form of intersectionality.
At Howard University in Washington, D.C., the graduation ceremony for students in the College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences was canceled during the keynote speech on Thursday night as angry relatives who were unable to make it into the packed Cramton Auditorium began demanding entry.
Duke University students walk out on Jerry Seinfeld’s commencement speech, chant ‘free Palestine’
Dozens of students at Duke University walked out on legendary comedian Jerry Seinfeld’s commencement speech on Sunday, with some chanting “free Palestine,” according to videos of the ceremony posted on social media.
The student protesters staged the walkout just as Seinfeld, who is Jewish and a vocal supporter of Israel, was introduced, according to the videos.
Minnesota officials issued an air quality control warning through mid-day Monday as smoke from Canadian wild fires moves to northern parts and sweeps across the state.
“Fine particle levels are expected to reach the red air quality index (AQI) category, a level considered unhealthy for everyone, across all of Minnesota,” stated the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency in a press release.
The warning is set to expire at 12 p.m. Monday.
Areas in west, central and northern Wisconsin, as well as southern Minnesota, have visibilities that range from 4 to 7 miles, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a part of the USA TODAY Network.
At the start of 2024, there were 28 state legislatures entirely under Republican control and 20 under Democratic control. Of these, many have majorities where one party has overwhelming control, like West Virginia where there are 88 Republicans and only 10 Democrats, or Massachusetts with 134 Democrats to 25 Republicans.
When voters elect such lopsided majorities, they give one party the power to enact their own platform. That’s especially true in states where the governor is of the same party as the legislative majority. In these situations, more than any other, parties express themselves to the detriment of constituents’ lives.
With many state legislatures wrapping up their 2023-2024 sessions, here are two examples of what voters get for their partisan investment. One state got guns and a culture war; the other got education, transportation, and housing.
