Recently, a lot has been made about Joe Biden’s statement that if Israel launched an invasion of Rafah, he would hold back some war materiel from Israel. (Rafah is the city in Gaza whose inhabitants have swelled to about a million people, most of them living in tents, after fleeing from other parts of Gaza which Israel, backed and aided by the U.S., has made unlivable through its massive destruction of people and structures—including homes, schools, and hospitals—throughout Gaza.) Along with the fascists of the Republican Party (whose support for Israel I discussed in message number Thirty-One), a number of Democratic Party politicians have criticized, or even sharply denounced, Biden for this statement about holding back additional aid to Israel (some Republicans have even talked about impeaching Biden for this).

In light of this, it is important to keep some basic facts very clear.

Biden has always been a bloodthirsty supporter of Israel, going back to his time as a Senator decades ago, and right up to now.

As president, Biden has already provided a tremendous amount of “military aid” to Israel, including the 2000 pound bombs that have slaughtered huge numbers of Palestinian civilians, including children. The latest military spending bill that Biden and the Democrats in particular fought to get through Congress, was not just aimed against Russia, as well as China, but also contained additional material aid for Israel in its slaughter of the Palestinian people.

Even if Biden actually holds back some additional military aid to Israel, the genocidal leaders of Israel have themselves made clear that they already have enough weapons—largely provided by the U.S.—to carry out a massive invasion of Rafah, and its completely vulnerable masses of already desperate Palestinians. In fact, Israel has already begun an attack on Rafah.

An important article by Alan Goodman at revcom.us, has made clear that, despite Biden’s talk of cutting off some military aid to Israel “if” it invades Rafah:

All military experts say that Israel currently has enough U.S.-supplied bombs, missiles, tanks and tank shells, and guns to massacre the people of Rafah many times over. And the terror resulting from Israel’s bombing has already driven more than 300,000 people out of the city.

But Biden has been hit with the fact that the genocide Israel is perpetrating against the Palestinian people, with massive military aid and “diplomatic cover” provided by the U.S., has exposed the actual bloodthirsty nature of not only Israel but the U.S. as well. This shines a glaring light on the hypocritical efforts of the U.S. imperialists to present themselves as a force for decency, democracy, freedom, and so on—in opposition to those terrible “autocratic” rulers in countries like Russia and China, who oppress their own people and carry out destructive violence against other countries! It is very important for the ruling class of this imperialist country (the “good ole USA”) to attempt to cover over its own monstrous crimes, throughout its history and right down to today, as sharply manifested now in U.S. support for Israel in its war against the Palestinian people, with a death toll in Gaza that already exceeds 35 thousand, including 15 thousand children, and is continuing to mount every day.

To distract attention from the role of the U.S. in this genocide—while attacking those righteously protesting against it—that is what Biden is now doing. No one should be fooled by this.

The resistance against this U.S.-Israeli genocidal slaughter of Palestinians needs to become even broader, stronger and more determined.