U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has been a major war hawk during the Ukraine War, uncharacteristically called for a ceasefire in the early hours after Hamas carried out a major offensive on multiple fronts across Israel that has jolted the region. 

Blinken posted that he spoke with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, and “encouraged Türkiye’s advocacy for a cease-fire and the release of all hostages held by Hamas immediately.” 

Fox News reported that “pandemonium broke out” across the internet while the post was up. 

Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., posted on X in response, “The Biden Administration is showing its true colors. Once Israel indicated it was going on offensive in Gaza, Blinken encouraged a cease-fire. Israel has every right to respond to these horrific acts of terror.”

Blinken, himself Jewish, removed the post, and the new message was a statement declaring that Israel has the “right to defend itself, rescue any hostages, and protect its citizens.”

Previously, the State Department’s Office of Palestinian Affairs said on X that it “unequivocally condemned the attack of Hamas terrorists and the loss of life that has incurred. We urge all sides to refrain from violence and retaliatory attacks. Terror and violence solve nothing.”

That comment was also deleted and replaced with a more militant post stating that the U.S. “unequivocally” condemns the attack.

The New Republic noted that it was strange that the Biden State Department would allow Republican pressure to dictate its approach to the conflict. 

“The State Department flip-flopping on a ceasefire is confusing at best,” the magazine wrote. “The agency’s entire job is to promote diplomacy, so surely its ultimate goal should be an end to all fighting. Instead, it is letting right-wing backlash determine its next moves.”

James Zogby, the founder of the Arab American Institute, posted on X: “Outrageous: the US deletes two statements calling for ‘ceasefire’ or to ‘refrain from violence & retaliatory attacks,’ replacing them w/all-out support for whatever Israel wants to do. We are not a solution. We are the enablers of occupation & escalation. Thousands more will die.”

Blinken has come out in full support of Israel and said the U.S. would never abandon its ally and likened the attack to the U.S.’s 9/11, according to The New York Times.

“We remember the pain of being attacked by terrorists at home, and Americans across the country stand united against these evil acts that have once more claimed innocent American lives,” he said. “It is an outrage. And we will continue to show the world that the American people are unwavering in our resolve to oppose terrorism in all forms.”

At least 11 Americans were killed in the attack and the U.S. said there are a few Americans being held hostage.

Indeed the U.S. has already sent the Gerald Ford carrier group in the Eastern Mediterranean and promised to replenish Israeli weapons stocks.  

TRENDPOST: Tom Carter, a writer for WSWS, noted that President Joe Biden set the tone for the U.S. response to the attack by Hamas when he said Washington’s support for Israel is “unwavering,” before expressing that he was appalled by the barbarity of the attacks. (See “MIDDLE EAST NATIONS SAY HAMAS STRIKES ON ISRAEL WERE PROVOKED” 10 Oct 2023, and “WEST SELLS ISRAELI LINE THAT HAMAS ATTACK WAS ‘INTELLIGENCE FAILURE’ GLOSSES OVER FACT THAT NETANYAHU WAS FIGHTING FOR POLITICAL SURVIVAL” 10 Oct 2023.)

He noted that the feeling of support for Israel was shared by most imperialist countries that showed their approval for a major counterattack by projecting Israeli flags on government buildings in major cities. He noted that there is no real debate in these cities and those who did would be subjected to accusations of being anti-Semitic. 

But he asked in his article: who bears ultimate responsibility for the innocent Israeli civilians who died? 

He wrote, “Blame for these tragedies must be assigned where it belongs: in the first instance to the criminal Israeli apartheid regime and its U.S. backers, together with the whole reactionary lioness project of establishing exclusivist Jewish state by expelling Palestinians and confining them to big constantly shrinking set of open-air prisons and ghettos.”

He called the outrage from “imperialist powers” hypocritical because they never express any outrage over the horrible treatment of Gazans. 

Carter noted that Biden himself, a war criminal who voted in favor of the “illegal invasion” of Iraq in 2003 that led to over one million deaths, offered his “prayers” for the Israeli families impacted by the violence. 

But he said all oppressors have the same fundamental modus operandi.

They believe, “We, the oppressors, are free to use force whenever we decide that it serves our interests. We can bomb you indiscriminately, we can blockade and starve you, we can rob you and imprison you and kneel on your necks. That force is our monopoly and our sole prerogative. You, the oppressed, are not under any circumstances permitted to use force and response.”

He wrote that this is one of the reasons those who rise up against the oppressors are quickly identified as terrorists. 

Gerald Celente has long said there is only one political party in Washington: the War Party. 

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Congress is unified in its support of “what we need to do, whether it’s militarily, whether it’s diplomatically, whether it’s financially to help out our friends, the Israelis,” she said.  

Yousef Munayyer, the head of the Palestine/Israel Program at the Arab Center in Washington, told The Times that there are “few things that require less political courage in Washington than condemning Palestinians, sending Israel bombs, and then turning your back on dealing with the root causes of oppression that drives political violence threatening the lives of Palestinians and Israelis alike.”

He said those who actually care about peace and justice can easily see through the farce, but “unfortunately, there are a lack of them in this town.”

The Times noted that there were a few members from “The Squad” who spoke out against Palestinian oppression, but they were slammed by fellow Democrats as “uninformed.” 

TREND FORECAST: Peace is dead, and if there is not a movement in this country to powerfully condemn the government’s lust for war and geopolitical instability, it will lead to the end of human existence on Earth.