House Foreign Affairs Committee member Gregory Meeks called upon the Biden administration to pause the sale of arms that are protecting Israel from the rockets being launched from Hamas militants in the Gaza strip. This is a direct reversal of his policy from 7 days prior, when he claimed, “We know the extreme importance in the region to make sure that Israel has the right to defend itself, and the dollars that we give Israel to defend itself [are] absolute and unequivocal,” during a zoom call.
What was the trigger that caused this conflict that has been raging for eight days? The tensions between Israel and the Palestinians have been ongoing for several years, and the exact trigger is up for interpretation as there are several factors on both sides that contribute to this new rise in violence. No matter which interpretation one believes the instigator for this conflict is the terrorist group Hamas.
The Biden administration had been quietly giving aid to the Palestinians. In March it was reported that 100 Million dollars had been donated, although there has been very little reporting on this. The Biden administration "made no secret of its belief that Trump's approach, which alienated the Palestinians, was flawed and made prospects for peace less likely. The new assistance appears aimed at encouraging the Palestinians to return to negotiations with Israel, though there is no indication it will have that effect and Israel's response has yet to be gauged.
Giving the Palestinians 100 Million in aid has not encouraged the Palestinians to negotiate with Israel, rather emboldened them to launch rockets into Israel. The aid to the Palestinians was contingent upon a bilaterally signed bill called the Taylor-Force Act.
The law prohibits the government from giving aid to the Palestinian authority which encourages "pay to slay." However, the Biden Administration circumvented that law by giving money to the Palestinians.
There have been more than 3000 rockets launched at Israel in the past 8 days, and as the writing of this article, there are rockets being launched. The barrage of rocket fire has been non-stop according to the Red Alert app that tracks the rocket fire.
