The Washington Post’s Post

Question for Joe Biden: Who in the WH strongly encouraged you to publicise your decision to withold Congressionally approved military aid for Israel in a CNN interview? Knowing that your public comments would make it much more difficult to get Hamas to the negotiating table for the development of an actual fair and just deal to release as many hostages as possible as quickly as possible WHY did you make the decision to put the hostages in an even more precarious position? Knowing that the IDF has developed a plan to attack Rafah which factored in the movement of innocent Palestinians while enabling the IDF to move effectively and efficiently to take out Hamas leadership, and the remaining 4000 Hamas terrorists in four battalions why would you flat out reject the attack of Rafah which is the only way to irradicate Hamas from Gaza? What is your rationale and strategic thinking behind denying Israel access to Congressionally approved offensive military aid to be used to complete its actions to end the threat of Hamas terrorists against Israeli citizens but agree to allow ONLY defensive military aid - which basically tells Israel's many enemies to continue to attack Israel without fear of being counter attacked? Why did you SIGN INTO LAW the bill that provided aid to Israel, Gaza, and Ukraine if you knew that you would not be sending the approved military aid to Israel?

Question right on the spot.

It gets even worse, as this report describes. We have poured billions of dollars of military aid into Lebanon, to the immense profit of the U.S. oligarchs and the military-industrial complex of industries they control. Basically we are now providing the weapons used by all sides in these the Middle East conflicts. What do you think would happen if we told all of them that the United States is not sending another dime’s worth of military aid to anyone in the Middle East, and all promises of such aid are now rescinded?

The #Swedish government will provide #Ukraine with military support worth $2.3 billion annually ($7 billion in total) under a new three-year framework announced on Wednesday. According to Bloomberg News, the #Swedish government said this in a statement. The military aid in the 2024-2026 period could take the form of equipment donations as well as financial contributions and support for procurement of defense materials, the statement reads. “#Sweden will support #Ukraine's struggle for as long as it takes,” the statement said. Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Sweden has provided Ukraine with military and humanitarian support worth more than $3 billion. As Ukrinform reported, Ukraine and Sweden have begun negotiations on a bilateral security agreement. https://lnkd.in/dYY8Nzew

TVP WorldGermany to limit military aid to Ukraine due to budget cutsGermany is forced to scale back military aid to Ukraine due to budget constraints, as recent spending cuts by the chancellery and finance….8 hours ago #NewsGerman

New military aid from allies — what Ukraine will receive: 🇫🇮 Finland: Sending the 22nd aid package worth €190 million to Ukraine. The Ministry of Defense of Finland noted that the cargo meets Ukraine's needs, but the contents are not disclosed for security reasons. The aid package also includes products purchased from Finnish producers, with separate financing of €30 million allocated for its acquisition. 🇳🇴 Norway: The government proposes to the parliament the purchase of ten new launchers and four control points of NASAMS air defense systems for Ukraine, at a cost of NOK 3.45 billion ($250 million). This equipment is in addition to what has already been transferred to Ukraine as part of military aid. 🇺🇸 USA: Despite funding delays, Washington continues to supply Ukraine with weapons for air defense under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), according to Pentagon spokesman Patrick Ryder. 🇱🇹 Lithuania: Handing Ukraine a new aid package consisting of winter uniforms and equipment, announced Defense Minister Arvydas Anušauskas.

Canada will provide Ukraine $1.2B in military aid and a soft loan of $300M. Over five years, Canada will provide CAD 1.6B (about $1.2B) for various lethal and non-lethal military aid packages to Ukraine, according to a project contained within the budget that has been submitted to parliament. It is noted that this multi-year promise will provide predictability to Ukraine and the Canadian defense industry. Since the start of the war, Canada has pledged over CAD 4B ($3B) in military aid to Ukraine, part of the CAD 14B (over $10.7B) in total support given to Ukraine since February 2022. In addition, this year the Canadian government will provide Ukraine with another preferential loan of CAD 400M ($307M). In particular, the 2024 budget announces Canada's intention to provide Ukraine with CAD 2.4B in loans, of which CAD 2B was transferred on March 20 through a special IMF administrative account. Also, within five years the country will transfer €137.2M to the EBRD, which will be used to reconstruct Ukraine. https://lnkd.in/dGbGq-hc

Estonia proposes a plan to find €120B to help Ukraine. The allocation of €120B a year for Ukraine’s military aid is an approximate figure of what should be enough for Ukraine to win the war, said a representative of the Ministry of Defense of Estonia, Kusti Salm. He suggested that part of this amount could be financed through Eurobonds, where the EC could raise funds from financial markets and use the group of 27 EU member states as guarantors. Eurobonds would be a means to access the money as quickly as possible. It is noted that over the past few months, Estonian officials have repeatedly stated that to win the war Ukraine needs its Western allies to invest 0.25% of their GDP in military aid, based on a strategy developed by Estonia. If more than 50 countries from the Ramstein coalition spent that percentage, it would amount to "over €120B per year," Salm said. He added that with this money, by 2025 Ukraine will reach a point where it can impose exhaustion on Russia. https://lnkd.in/eCQgWAvV

Congratulations on the US Senate for demonstrating bipartisanship on issues that are in the US national interest. I hope this means the COFA funding for the Pacific Islands is part of the $8 billion for our region. ==> I'm just looking at the breakdown in funding: Breakdown of $95,000,000,000 in aid to Ukraine and Israel passed by US Senate: https://lnkd.in/gz6FTrHj. So, no funding for COFA. Australia should step up to the plate and fund COFA. Or partner with the USA and China to bring transparency to aid flow in the Pacific Islands region so that trust can be built. Because the volatility of US Aid flows into the region is ultimately value-destructive. Trade is a better solution for the Pacific Islands region anyway. Still, I have to say, that listening to the USA talk the talk of strategic importance of our region ... well, either it's going to adopt the model I proposed (transparency, trust, digital liquidity, cooperation, trade). Or, it's dribbling .... let's just say, the unavoidable consequence of aged Presidents. ==> It will be interesting to watch and see how Palau responds.

Pressure from America or international community may not be the reason for Israel to shrink the genocide effort, but there could be a few reasons: 1. US has to sponsor Israel, but US has to sell lots of weapons to Ukraine too, with not much inventory, the weapon supply from America may not be enough for Israel to sustain large scale genocide for long 2. Israel itself, with limited manufacturing capacity, cannot supply enough weaponries in real time 3. Israel doesn't have enough financial support to make the genocide last 4. Other forces in middle east, such as Iran, may get deeper involvement because of Israel's killing of Iranian military personnel 5. China and Russia are on the opposite side of Israel related to its occupation and genocide effort