A dozen members of Congress led by Sen. Bernie Sanders sent a Tuesday letter demanding the Biden administration open an independent investigation into an Israeli attack on journalists, including U.S. citizen Dylan Collins, in Lebanon last year.

Collins, a Vermonter working for Agence France-Presse, was the only American in a group of reporters who endured Israeli tank fire on October 13, 2023, just days after the Hamas-led attack on Israel. He and five others were injured, and Lebanese Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed.

The journalists were covering cross-border fire between the Lebanese political and paramilitary group Hezbollah and Israeli forces—armed with diplomatic and weapons support from the Biden administration and Congress—during the early stages of a retaliatory assault on the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip for which Israel is now on trial for genocide.

“To date, Mr. Collins has received no explanation for the attack, and there have been no steps toward accountability,” the letter states, taking aim at Israel’s leader. “Given the inaction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, the United States must open an independent investigation into this incident.”

  • sub_ubi@lemmy.ml
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    12 days ago

    It’s not really that complex, Israel is a US vassal state that has killed more journalists than any country during any war in living memory.

    The slaughter of journalists and civilians is rarely mentioned by the Harris / Biden administration, who otherwise applaud Israel’s terrorism.

    • MagicShel@lemmy.zip
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      12 days ago

      No. They don’t applaud it. Israel is a geopolitical ally. It is in our best interest to maintain a good relationship. But no one is happy about what Israel is doing. We just don’t want to yank the leash too hard. Getting Israel wiped off the map isn’t in US interests. Nor is them forsaking us and finding some other sugar daddy.

      And even if all the worst things you could say about Harris were true… Trump would still be 100x worse, so it doesn’t matter. I’d crawl across a mile of broken glass to vote for Harris. I’d crawl across a mile of glass to vote for fucking Hillary, and that’s saying something. Because I know what the alternative is.

      • sub_ubi@lemmy.ml
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        12 days ago

        It’s a vassal state, not an ally. An ally means there’s a bi-directional relationship. Israel is a colony created under Truman, and the relationship is unidirectional. They cannot exist without direct US support, and their economy isn’t going to run without foreign investment.

        Here’s Biden celebrating the war he’s responsible for: https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/2024-09-28/live-updates-822145