By Robert Inlakesh
Antony Blinken has defended Israel’s actions to the hilt and provided diplomatic cover for their every action in Gaza.
While anti-war protesters in the United States have labeled their president as “Genocide Joe”, the title may more accurately describe US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, who has served as Israel’s right-hand man in attacking the people of Gaza.
All while posing as an innocent bystander who is doing his best to pressure the Israeli government to change its tactics and reach a temporary ceasefire.
Hawkish on Military Intervention
Antony Blinken was born in 1962 to a wealthy and distinguished family, his father a co-founder of an investment bank named Warburg Pincus and who later served as US Ambassador to Hungary.
Blinken would later move with his mother to Paris and study at the École Jeannine Manuel private international school, before moving on to university where he would become a qualified lawyer.
Entering into politics and having served in positions within US Democratic Party governments dating the Clinton Administration, he built his record as a well connected foreign policy expert, known over the years for being hawkish on military intervention and a staunch supporter of Israel.
After serving in the State Department and in senior positions on the National Security Council from 1994 to 2001, he then went on to become a senior fellow at the Washington based Think Tank entitled the ‘Center for Strategic and International Studies’.
Iraq Invasion
Blinken was a strong advocate for the 2003 invasion of Iraq and reportedly in favor of NATO’s military intervention in Libya.
Holding various positions under the former Obama Administration, including Deputy Secretary of State, he argued that the American project to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad failed due to lack of enough force.
Antony Blinken also notably backed the catastrophic Saudi-led intervention in Yemen, in 2015, which led to some 400,000 deaths during the war that now remains as a frozen conflict.
Under US President, Joe Biden, he pledged to work towards pursuing policies that he has historically been less hawkish on, such as reviving the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal, yet failed to deliver.
When it came to Saudi Arabia, Blinken was supposed to have enforced Joe Biden’s strong stance against Riyadh, over human rights abuses and the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, along with ending the war in Yemen. Instead, the Secretary of State refused to take the issue of Yemen seriously and coxied up to the Saudi leadership.
‘I Come before You’
Blinken, having put the issues of the Iran Nuclear Deal, the Palestine-Israel conflict and the war in Yemen, all on the backburner, decided to pursue a Saudi-Israeli normalization deal instead.
Placing all his enthusiasm on this singular goal in the Middle East, he was quickly struck with a nightmare scenario on October 7.
Instead of pursuing a policy position which reflects balance, the Biden administration’s secretary of state took an immediate trip to meet Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, at the beginning of the war with Gaza, stating “I come before you not only as Secretary of State, but as a Jew”.
From this moment onward, Antony Blinken, has defended Israel’s actions to the hilt and provided diplomatic cover for their every action in Gaza, offering words of light condemnation on occasion.
He has repeatedly visited the Israeli leadership to consult them on their war effort, helping to send Israel weapons which bypass the need for congressional approval on two separate occasions.
Despite occasionally putting on public displays of regret for the lives lost in Gaza, Blinken avoids ever condemning Israel for its countless civilian massacres, along with various other documented crimes such as rape, torture and manufactured famine.
The US secretary of state often appears to speak in a manner which reflects an inability to act to stop the war, yet is the only man capable of actually doing something.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
– Robert Inlakesh is a journalist, writer, and documentary filmmaker. He focuses on the Middle East, specializing in Palestine. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle.