C.J. Atkins

Just in time for Israel to make headlines around the world with its razing of Al-Shifa Hospital and targeted murders of international aid workers this weekend, the Biden administration approved fresh shipments of some of the deadliest bombs and warplanes in the U.S. arsenal to the Israeli military.

Every week, the finance department staff at People’s World tally up the fund drive totals. They open every envelope delivered to our mailbox, hoping to find a check inside. They update the accounting spreadsheet, eager to see if some new folks have signed up online as sustainers.

President Joe Biden declared Saturday that U.S. support for Israel is “ironclad” as more than 300 slow-moving Iranian drones and missiles meandered across the sky toward Israeli military installations. With assistance from the U.S., Britain, France, and Jordan, it's estimated that 99% of the weapons were destroyed in the air before reaching their targets. There were zero people killed.

“De-escalation” is probably the most repeated word in television news broadcasts and newspaper commentary columns over the past 48 hours. But is anyone doing any actual de-escalating? Israel bombs an Iranian embassy, killing more than a dozen officials.

Last week, I wrote to our readers sounding the alarm that the People's World Fund Drive was in trouble. Unfortunately, it still is. But there is some good news to report!

WASHINGTON—Splitting President Joe Biden's bonus war budget bill into several pieces proved to be the winning formula to getting (most of) it passed in the House after months of trying to clear the package as a whole repeatedly hit a wall.

Content filed under the war profits taxonomy.

So many bombs, tank shells, bullets, drones, and warplanes have been shipped to Israel by the U.S. in the months since Oct. 7—and over the last several decades—that if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right government want to destroy Rafah and exterminate its Palestinian inhabitants, they could do so. They have more than enough armaments for the job.

The Middle East is a region of refugees—Palestinian refugees spread out across the land for the past 76 years. Across the region Wednesday, Palestinians are marking the anniversary of their mass expulsion from what is now Israel with protests and other events. Israeli forces, meanwhile, are carrying out fresh attacks and yet another expulsion in Rafah, the last place of refuge for some 1.4 million Palestinians.

Content filed under the Nakba taxonomy.