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On March 20, the Sacramento City Council passed Resolution 2024, which:
Calls for an immediate and permanent bilateral ceasefire to urgently end the current violence; a true and effective bilateral ceasefire must include four key simultaneous elements. (1) Hamas must cease all military operations directed against Israel, (2) the immediate unconditional release of all Israeli hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, (3) Israel must stop the bombing and military action inside the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and (4) the elimination of all offensive weapons by Israel and Hamas directed at one another.
The Muslim and Arab-American communities are experiencing the terrible rise in Islamophobia and anti-Arab rhetoric, the acceptance of hate speech on college campuses and elsewhere against Muslims and Arabs, and the refusal of some to condemn Islamophobia and anti-Arab prejudice without qualifications as a shocking reminder of historic reality. Islamophobia and anti-Arab hate are centuries old prejudices that never go away. An independent Palestinian state remains the hope that Palestinians can live safely and freely and never again face threats to their very existence;
And so on, all backed the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). True to form, “Islamophobia” appears four times and anti-Semitism three times. Resolution 2024 was the project of Sacramento mayor Darrell Steinberg. As Sir Bedevire (Terry Jones) might say, who is this who is so wise in the ways of diplomacy?
Steinberg served as an attorney for the California State Employees Association, which gained a faithful friend in the state Senate. In 2004, the Sacramento Democrat sponsored Proposition 63, the Mental Health Services Act, which backers claimed would get the homeless off the street and keep people out of prison.
Promises Still to Keep: A Decade of the Mental Health Services Act, from California’s Little Hoover Commission, was unable to determine whether the money fulfilled any of the Act’s proclaimed intentions. The Sacramento Bee wondered if the money had been “shoved down a rat hole” with questionable uses “such as yoga, horseback riding, gardening, the purchase of iPads,” and so forth. On the other hand, the measure did give $7.5 million to the UC Davis Behavioral Health Center of Excellence, where Steinberg became director of policy and advocacy.
In 2012, voters faced four measures on taxes and spending. The Senate Governance and Finance Committee held hearings but Steinberg blocked citizens’ access by killing the live broadcast on the California Channel. When this came to light, Steinberg proclaimed, “I pride myself on being open and transparent.” Steinberg now backs Resolution 2024 which claims, “Sacramento is such a special place to live for many reasons.” That is true, but not the way Steinberg spins it.
Twenty years after Proposition 63, the homeless problem is worse than ever. As in San Francisco, dogs run the risk of stepping in human waste. Sacramento has been dubbed “Excremento,” and Steinberg’s Resolution 2024 piles it higher and deeper. As Katy Grimes of the California Globe explains, “it was likely a move to cover and distract from his $66 million budget deficit – and would serve to elevate his political image as Steinberg has his hopes set on a move up to the California Attorney General’s office.”
That is what Joe Biden demanded of the Israelis, Hamas and representatives of Qatar and Egypt who are trying to broker a cease-fire agreement. As though he were the party in interest. The Telegraph interprets Biden’s motives:
Mr Biden is under major pressure from voters over the US alliance with Israel, and the president was punished at the ballot box by protesting young Democrats in the primaries last week.
So what would a proposed deal look like?
A potential deal could include a six-week pause in fighting, the release of approximately 400 Palestinian prisoners in return for the freeing of 40 Israeli hostages, as well as preparation for a gradual return of Palestinian citizens to the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
Why 40 hostages? Why not all of them? Why should Israel even discuss a proposal that does not include a total release of kidnap victims? And how about a Hamas surrender? Normally, when a country starts a war and then loses it, if it wants the fighting to stop it has to surrender. It is bizarre that some people take seriously the idea that Hamas should survive the war it foolishly started.
Happily, Israel has decided not to attend the cease-fire negotiations in Cairo:
Israel will not be sending a negotiating team to Cairo, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel on Sunday, after receiving an unsatisfactory response from Hamas on the latest framework for a hostage deal hammered out in Paris last weekend.
The Gaza-based terror organization refused to address Jerusalem’s demand to provide a list of living hostages and to lock down how many Palestinian prisoners Israel must release for every hostage freed, added the official.
My guess is that Gaza doesn’t want to provide a list of living kidnap victims because a shocking number have been murdered. In any event, Israel shouldn’t allow Hamas’s transparent diplomatic maneuvering, or hysterical reactions from the Biden administration, to distract It from the total victory it needs to achieve over Gaza.
Yesterday President Biden announced the imminent airdrop of humanitarian assistance into Gaza (Biden to the contrary notwithstanding, not Ukraine). The Times of Israel covers the announcement here.
White House National Security Advisor John Kirby was asked a good question about it at a press briefing that followed the announcement. He was asked how the administration will prevent Hamas from seizing the supplies that it intends to airdrop into Gaza.
Kirby expressed joy to be asked the question, yet for some reason he did not answer it directly. See if you can deduce the answer from his response (video below). These airdrops are complicated. They’re difficult. We’re going to keep at it and we’re going to get better. Hamas, by the way, is a designated foreign terrorist organization and therefore one to which it is illegal for American citizens to render assistance.
John Kirby effectively admits that the White House knows Hamas will steal aid air-dropped into Gaza pic.twitter.com/gzxHnBUpCp
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) March 2, 2024
The airdrop has begun. The Times of Israel reports that US military officials say the initial airdrop was carried out using three C-130 planes. One of the officials says more than 35,000 meals were airdropped. The video below shows the current airdrop to Hamas’s last stronghold in Rafah. According to Barak Ravid, the Rafah airdrop “included thousands of U.S. military ‘meals ready to eat’ (Halal).” The genocidaires of Hamas must be grateful in their own special way.
Update: #IsraelHamasWar #US #Rafah
According to U.S. and Israeli officials, 3 C-130s airdropped aid over the city of Rafah.
In the video that reportedly shows the airdrop, 2 C-130s can be seen with the payload of the third visible in the video. pic.twitter.com/OhyUMWd9z4
— John M. Larrier (@DefenseBulletin) March 2, 2024
President Biden announced today that the United States will airdrop humanitarian aid into Gaza in the coming days. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to those of us who have been following the line traced by the Biden administration, but this may strike some as a bridge too far. The mission will purportedly increase the flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza, but all sentient observers understand that the it will necessarily make the “assistance” available to Hamas.
Politico reports Biden’s remarks here. The White House has not yet posted a transcript. To add insult to injury, even though he was reading off note cards, Biden confused “Ukraine” with “Gaza.” The guy’s brain is fried in more ways than one.
Biden announces the U.S. is “providing air drops of additional food and supplies” into Ukraine pic.twitter.com/ZZt7LV1EMg
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 1, 2024
STEVE adds: Curious thing, though. A spokesman for Oxfam America has issued a Twitter statement opposing the relief air drop, because the narrative needs to be preserved. At least that’s how I read this:
Vaunce News 