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I understood from the Star Tribune headline over the AP story yesterday that the IDF had massacred some 100 Gazans seeking food and water. As of this morning, the AP is sticking with the story with a Rafah dateline. It leads with this observation: “Israeli troops fired on a crowd of Palestinians racing to pull food off an aid convoy in Gaza City on Thursday, witnesses said.”
I’m not sure about the massacre. Deep into the story we hear from the ever reliable “Gaza Health Ministry.” The AP reports: “At least 112 people were killed, Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said. The ministry described it as a ‘massacre’ and said more than 700 others were injured.” The AP raises no warning about the record of the “Gaza Health Ministry” on such matters.
The IDF spokesmen have a better record than the AP on these IDF alleged massacres. I take it that the IDF denies that’s what happened, although it is investigating. [See update below.] The Times of Israel reports, per the IDF, that troops opened fire on several Gazans who moved toward soldiers and a tank at an IDF checkpoint, endangering soldiers, after they had rushed the last truck in the convoy further south. The Times of Israel story quotes IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari:
This morning, the IDF coordinated a convoy of 38 trucks to provide additional humanitarian assistance to the residents of northern Gaza. This humanitarian aid came from Egypt, went through a security screening at the Kerem Shalom humanitarian crossing in Israel, and then entered Gaza, for distribution by private contractors. As these vital humanitarian supplies made their way toward Gazans in need, thousands of Gazans [rushed] the trucks, some began violently pushing and trampling other Gazans to death, looting the humanitarian supplies.
Here are the facts: At 4:40 a.m., the first aid truck in the humanitarian convoy started making its way through the humanitarian corridor that we were securing. Our tanks were there to secure the humanitarian corridor for the aid convoy. Our UAVs were there in the air to give our forces a clear picture from above. At 4:45 a.m., a mob ambushed the aid trucks, bringing the convoy to a halt.
Hagari also showed a new video of the incident that is included in the Times of Israel story. Hagari’s statement continues:
In this video, the tanks that were there to secure the convoy saw the Gazans being trampled and cautiously tried to disperse the mob with a few warning shots. When the hundreds became thousands and things got out of hand, the tank commander decided to retreat to avoid harm to the thousands of Gazans that were there.
You can see how cautious they were when they were backing up. They were backing up securely, risking their own lives, not shooting at the mob.” he continued…No IDF strike was conducted toward the aid convoy. On the contrary, the IDF was there carrying out a humanitarian aid operation, to secure the humanitarian corridor, and allow the aid convoy to reach its distribution point, so that the humanitarian aid could reach Gazan civilians in the north who are in need.
The IDF posted Hagari’s statement below on X. Video is included with his statement.
“We recognize the suffering of the innocent people of Gaza. This is why we are seeking ways to expand our humanitarian efforts.”
Watch the full statement by IDF Spokesperson RAdm. Daniel Hagari on the incident regarding the humanitarian aid convoy the IDF facilitated. pic.twitter.com/m6Pve3Odqw
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) February 29, 2024
“And yet the lie will be repeated as fact over and over and over by those who are ignorant, and those who are not ignorant but are evil, and those who are Susan Sarandon,” comments Cliff Asness. Add the detestable Senator Elizabeth Warren to the list. Query into which category the AP falls.
Netanyahu & his right-wing government have created a catastrophe in Gaza. Today Israeli troops opened fire on Palestinians desperate for aid.
The U.S. must push for a cease-fire, hostage releases, & condition military support on pursuing a two-state solution for a lasting peace. pic.twitter.com/igeEpeFRC8
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) February 29, 2024
I can’t wait for the United States Air Force to show us how it’s to be done. If this goes down as advertised, we can resupply Hamas directly.
The U.S. Air Force is reportedly preparing for an Operation beginning next week that will see the Mass Airdropping of Humanitarian Aid including Food, Water, and Medicine into the Gaza Strip, with Flights utilizing C-130 and C-17 Transport Aircraft being launched from Airbases in… pic.twitter.com/ZH7Es0vvoj
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) March 1, 2024
UPDATE: The Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff includes this account in today’s edition.
Cornel West is the Princeton University Class of 1943 University Professor emeritus. He is running as an independent candidate for president. He fancies himself “one of America’s most provocative public intellectuals; a champion for Truth, Justice & Love.” That’s what the man said. In the tweet below, he celebrates the suicide of Aaron Bushnell in the service of “free Palestine” — free, Hamas style. If he gets on the ballot in Michigan, he poses a certain kind of danger to the reelection of Joe Biden.
Let us never forget the extraordinary courage and commitment of brother Aaron Bushnell who died for truth and justice! I pray for his precious loved ones! Let us rededicate ourselves to genuine solidarity with Palestinians undergoing genocidal attacks in real time!… pic.twitter.com/9F7dXOAYJt
— Cornel West (@CornelWest) February 26, 2024
President Biden spoke at the Governors Ball Dinner in the State Dining Room at the White House on Saturday evening (video excerpt below). The White House has posted the transcript of his brief remarks here.
After the introductory blather, Biden referred to the portrait of Abraham Lincoln behind him — you can see it here — as he attempted to follow his text. This is how the White House transcript of the fourth paragraph reads:
And, you know, standing here in front of this portrait of the man behind me here, he — he said — and I want to make sure I get the quote exactly right. He said, “We — the better angels” — he said, “We must address the counsel — and adjust the better angels of our nature.” And we do the — and we do well to remember what else he said. He said, “We’re not enemies, but [we’re] friends.” This is in the middle of — this is in the — in the part of the Civil War. He said, “We’re not enemies, but [we’re] friends. We must not be enemies.”
“The [unnamed] man behind [him}” was Lincoln. Remember him? The attempted quotation comes from the famous passage that concludes Lincoln’s first inaugural address:
I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
The Daily Mail reports on Biden’s senescent ramble in “Biden completely butchering lines from Lincoln’s inaugural address – and then gets laughs when he jokes about his age after telling audience: ‘I wanna get this quote exactly right.'” However, I’m not sure that this was the worst of Biden’s brief remarks. He also took an incoherent stab at his phony remembrance of things past:
And, you know, it seems to me that — I’ll conclude by saying, I — I’ve spent a lot of time with Xi Jinping — someone whom I have a great deal of difference with. And I was — when I was vice president, President — my — my president was — told me that he wanted me to get to know Xi Jinping because it was clear he was going to be the head of Russia — of — of China and that he — we had a — we were having problems with Russia at the time and other countries as well. And so, what he said was, “Get to know him. He’s going to be there.” I — and he couldn’t because he was the president, and he couldn’t travel. So, I traveled 17,000 miles with him throughout the country — our country and — and in — in China, as well.
We were in the Tibetan Plateau. And he turned to me, and he said, “Can you define America for me?” And I — given this has been documented, and it’s real — I looked at him, and I said, “Yes, I can. In one word.” And he looked at me. And he said, “What’s that?” And I said, “Possibilities.” Possibilities.
You say president, you say vice president. You say Russia, you say China. Let’s call the whole thing off.
Biden has reached the stage of life described by Mark Twain. His faculties have decayed to such an extent that he cannot remember any but the things that never happened. This 17,000-mile shtick has been debunked many times. Glenn Kessler devoted one of his Washington Post Fact Checker columns — this one — to it in February 2021. He awarded it 3 Pinocchios.
However, it’s the substance of the story that is most absurd. Biden says it has been “documented.” That means he has told the story many, many times. According to Matt Viser’s 2022 Washington Post story, aides who were with Biden say that they do not recall that exchange. It has been “documented” by his repetition of it.
We can go this far with the story. When Xi observes an Obama or a Biden, he wonders how he can exploit the “possibilities.”
The White House transcript specifies the time of Biden’s remarks at 7:40 P.M. EST. He wound up at 7:44. It was past the guy’s bedtime. Fortunately, the State Dining Room is located in the Executive Residence of the White House. He only had a few pitty-pat steps to go before his head hit the pillow for the evening.
Biden completely malfunctions as he tries — and fails miserably — to read a quote from "the man behind me here" pic.twitter.com/anLx6NEAPx
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 25, 2024
Vaunce News 