Biden has threatened to halt arms sales to Israel, but it's impossible to take the claim seriously.

Every week seems to include a new batch of concerning swing state numbers for Kamala Harris, which might help explain why the Biden administration recently sent the Israeli government a letter claiming that it might cut off some military assistance to the country if it fails to boost humanitarian aid access for Gaza.

The U.S. says Israel has an entire month to comply. Why so long? "We believe it's appropriate to give them a chance to cure the problem," says State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller.

There are factors beyond the looming election, no doubt.

It's probably difficult to shock millions of people who have watched a genocide take place on their phones for over a year, but the recent video of a patient burning alive while hooked to an IV undoubtedly had an impact.

With the escalating situation in the Middle East, there's also been a renewed focus on "The Generals Plan" being implemented in northern Gaza. Mondoweiss' Qassam Muaddi recently broke down the strategy at our site:

Israel's current offensive on northern Gaza is being reported in the media as the apparent implementation of what has come to be known as "the Generals' Plan." The plan is based on a vision laid out in two separate articles by retired Israeli general Giora Eiland in the early months of the war. Eiland's vision is that Israel should impose unlivable conditions on the inhabitants of northern Gaza by starving them out and forcing them to leave the south. Whoever remains, Eiland said, would be considered a Hamas member or sympathizer, and thus a legitimate target. The idea is to drain northern Gaza of its population and thus isolate Hamas from its social base, forcing it to capitulate or die.

While Israel has not saved a single inch of the Gaza Strip from attack over the past year, its focus on the north of Gaza, and Jabalia in particular, is twofold. Northern Gaza, particularly Gaza City, is the most populous area of the Gaza Strip, containing more than 50% of the Strip's population. Jabalia has traditionally been a stronghold of support for Hamas, and has proven to be a place where the resistance has been able to recoup despite massive hits since last October. By tightening the noose around northern Gaza and squeezing out what little life is left, Israel will be able to further its goal of ethnic cleansing and annexation.

Whatever the White House's motivations, it's impossible to take these threats seriously and it's unclear why Netanyahu would be influenced by them.

We know that the Israeli Prime Minister has gotten everything Israel wanted from Biden and that the administration has ignored its own experts on the subject of Israel blocking aid. We know that Secretary of State Antony Blinken rejected internal reports detailing how Israel was preventing Gazans from receiving aid and we know he wasn't truthful when he testified to Congress on the issue.

Yesterday Politico reported that Biden's Special Envoy for Middle East Humanitarian Issues Lise Grande said the United States would not consider blocking weapons transfers over Israel blocking food and medicine.

"At the Aug. 29 meeting in Washington, Lise Grande told the leaders of more than a dozen aid organizations that the U.S. could potentially consider other tactics to convince Israel to allow life-saving aid into Gaza — such as applying pressure through the United Nations, but stressed that the administration would continue to support Israel and would not delay or stop weapons shipments."

One official told the website, "She was sort of saying, with certain allies, we can't play bad cop."

The AP's Matt Lee asked Miller about the letter and this is what he got:

Miller: I - as I said, this is not a letter that we intended to make public, we intended to discuss in public. I understand it is public, and so you - it is very fair for you to ask questions about it. But when it comes to those implications, we're going to have those conversations privately with the Government of Israel. And we hope, ultimately, that this is all hypothetically because we hope, ultimately, the Government of Israel implements the steps that we outlined and there are no further implications.

Lee: Right. But further implications, you can't even speak to what one implication might be.

Miller: I can't speak to them here in this setting.

Lee: Okay. So if we drag you outside and..off-camera, you'll be able to speak to the implications?

Miller: If you join the Government of Israel, I'm happy to have a conversation with you about the intent of that letter and what we fully mean by it.

Pro-Israel spending

AIPAC's astronomical spending is understandably a major story this election cycle and I've covered it a lot at the site, but let's spare a moment to contemplate the impact of GOP megadonor and pro-Israel zealot Miriam Adelson, who has picked up where her late husband left off.

A report filed with the Federal Election Commission this week revealed that Adelson dumped $95 million into her pro-Trump Super PAC Preserve America.

Overall she's given $100 million to the PAC this year, meaning she's spent as much as AIPAC on her own.

Here's the Times of Israel on her spending:

If Trump wins, Adelson could once again be instrumental in shaping American policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Miriam Adelson and her husband were influential in Trump's monumental direction to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the country's capital city of Jerusalem in 2017...

Adelson's ties to Israel run deep. She was born in Tel Aviv during the British Mandate and speaks fluent Hebrew. She also served as an officer in the Israeli military. Though her business empire is based in the United States, she reportedly spends much of her time nowadays in Israel, where [she] is known as the owner of the country's largest newspaper, Israel Hayom.

Her writing in the newspaper since the attacks of October 7, 2023, makes clear that she's been swept up in the political and social fervor gripping the country as it mourns the dead and seeks retribution. She said those who don't support Israel in its campaign against Hamas are "dead to us."

Adelson's spokesperson earlier this year denied a report that she conditioned support for Trump on his public endorsement of Israeli annexation of the West Bank. But a top confidant, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, told the New York Times she's against the establishment of a Palestinian state.

There's an interesting piece about AIPAC's consistent support of South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson in The Post and Courier this week.

You might remember Wilson as the guy who yelled at Barack Obama during a State of the Union address.

From the piece:

The nation's largest pro-Israel lobby has funded South Carolina Republican Joe Wilson's congressional campaign to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars — a dizzying level of financial support for a candidate who has not faced a serious re-election challenge in decades.

In campaign finance reports filed this week, Wilson's campaign disclosed it has received more than $133,000 in donations over the 2024 election cycle from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a highly influential lobbying organization that by its description works to strengthen the U.S.-Israeli relationship on Capitol Hill.

Wilson, a veteran of Beltway politics, has been a leading voice for pro-Israel interests in Congress dating back to his first term. That's when he issued a controversial statement comparing longtime South Carolina Sen. Fritz Hollings to the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein after the Democrat voted against a resolution boosting the country's fight against "terrorism" amid a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation in the early 2000s.

His office's connection to the country is so close, one of his former legislative directors even made a move to work for AIPAC in 2021.

Turning to the Democrats, this Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) CEO Mark Mellman posted a picture of himself meeting with vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz.

As you probably know, DMFI is a political organization specifically created to stomp out growing pro-Palestine sentiment within the Democratic party and one of its board members called for Gaza to be burned in 2018.

Mellman recently wrote an op-ed for the New York Daily News comparing pro-Palestine lawmakers to fascists Holocaust deniers and taking a victory lap for helping to oust Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush.

Yair Lapid's pollster also takes credit for defeating "Squad adjacent" Rep. Marie Newman.

"Extremism is in retreat in the Democratic Party," declares Mellman.Those who recently watched video of hospital patients burning alive might have a different conclusion.
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