Finian Cunningham
It's a wonder the parachutes have not got a picture of a smiling Biden emblazoned on them with the slogan: "A gift from the White House".
It's a classic American public relations stunt. All show and drama signifying nothing else. President Joe Biden ordered U.S. military transport planes to airdrop food aid into Gaza purportedly to save starving people.
Well, they're starving to death because the United States is supporting the genocidal siege by the Israeli regime of 2.3 million people for nearly five months.
The situation is unprecedented, invoking the worst crimes of Nazi Germany. Babies dying in hospitals from lack of food and water. And all due to American support for the Israeli regime carrying out this genocide.
But, hey, come on, drop those food parcels. It sort of looks good. The C-130 cargo planes throw bails of ready-made dinners into the sky, which slowly descend on parachutes to the desperate masses on the ground. It's the kind of Hollywood narcissistic depiction of American greatness always riding to the rescue. Pass the popcorn and soda.
Only when you think about it, the whole airdrop mission is absurdly inadequate. The U.S. Air Force has parachuted in 38,000 dinners to Gaza so far, and more are reportedly on the way. That's only crumbs for millions of people who are starving to death because the U.S.-backed Israeli regime has blocked the hundreds of food aid trucks that should be entering Gaza daily.
When a trickle of aid deliveries are permitted on the ground, the Israeli military has opened deadly fire on hungry Palestinians clambering for relief.
International aid agencies have slammed the airdropped relief supplies as an inefficient way to meet the dire humanitarian needs in Gaza.
Besides, the real target of the Biden administration's relief effort is the American people who are disgusted by the complicity of Washington in genocide.
The public relations exercise of parachuting food into Gaza is meant to appease the growing criticism of Biden's White House.
As Joe Biden squares up to Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election this November, the incumbent Democrat is in real danger of losing. Biden's poll ratings have been flagging anyway, and especially over the horrendous disaster in Gaza.
Younger voters and Muslim Americans who would normally vote Democrat are alienated by Biden's craven complicity in the Israeli siege of Gaza.
For months, Biden has refused to call on the Israeli regime of Benjamin Netanyahu to implement a ceasefire and let humanitarian aid into Gaza. The U.S. has blocked three UN Security Council resolutions demanding a cessation of military operations.
In recent days, however, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris finally voiced support for a ceasefire. And then we see the American Air Force dropping off food supplies.
The belated moves are as cynical as they can get. They're only motivated by Biden's political need to bolster his electoral campaign.
This week, it was reported that the Biden administration has secretly overseen over 100 separate weapons supply deals to Israel since it began its offensive on Gaza in October. Those sales amount to thousands of munitions including bunker-buster bombs, artillery shells, and other types of lethal ordnance. The transfers have been deliberately kept quiet by Biden owing to the potential public outcry.
President Biden and his senior aides like Secretary of State Antony Blinken have refused to impose any conditions on Israel for the use of American weapons.
Thus, Israel has the green light from this White House to commit the worst and most flagrant genocide since the Second World War. Not only merely permission but actual material support to enable the horror that has killed over 30,000 people - 70 percent of whom are women and children.
Biden may be suffering from senile dementia but he and his handlers are savvy enough to know that he could lose the November election because of the complicity in genocide. Not that Trump would be any better given his servile dedication to supporting Zionism. But the public protest against Biden's involvement in Israel's crimes could cost him more politically than Trump.
"Genocide Joe" is getting desperate as his electoral doomsday looms.
Cynical, insincere calls for a ceasefire by Harris and Blinken are part of the charade. Blinken is making out that American shuttle diplomacy is working overtime to try to produce a ceasefire from discreet talks in Cairo with Arab envoys. Blinken says it's up to the Palestinian Hamas group to agree to a truce. This is while the Israelis have repeatedly rebuffed any proposals and are blocking virtually all humanitarian relief efforts.
Dropping meals into Gaza by parachute from U.S. military transport planes has nothing to do with humanitarianism. It's Biden's electioneering. It's disgusting and obscene.
Given the American shamelessness, it's a wonder the parachutes have not got a picture of a smiling Biden emblazoned on them with the slogan: "A gift from the White House".
Biden and the American government are guilty of genocide owing to their deliberate and systematic political and material support for the Israeli regime. No amount of airdropping of food aid and belated empty calls for a ceasefire can mitigate the criminal responsibility. Indeed, the cynical and self-serving attempt to lessen the image of culpability makes it all the more despicable.