Phil Gordon, Assistant to US President Joe Biden and National Security Advisor to Vice President Kamala Harris, failed to condemned the Israeli killing Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a US citizen killed in the occupied West Bank.

In a post on X, Gordon said only that “we deplore the death of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi – an American citizen – in the West Bank, and we send our deepest condolences to her family and loved ones. We are seeking more information about this terrible tragedy,” Gordon stated without mentioning Israel.

Heartbroken and outraged by the killing of US citizen Aysenur Ezgi Eygi during a peaceful protest in the West Bank. Like Rachel Corrie in 2003 and many other US citizens, she stood for justice and paid the ultimate price. As we fight to dismantle Israel’s settler colonial regime,… pic.twitter.com/64khq1clvb

— Medea Benjamin (@medeabenjamin) September 6, 2024

Poll Shows Voter Support for Harris Would Grow If She Backed Arms Embargo on Israel

Common Dreams reports:

Survey data published Thursday shows that U.S. voter support for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris would grow if she heeded calls to support an arms embargo against the Israeli military, whose Gaza assault has relied heavily on a steady supply of American weapons.

Commissioned by the Arab American Institute (AAI), the online poll of 2,505 American voters conducted between July 31 and August 1 found that 44% of U.S. voters would back Harris, 40% would support Republican nominee Donald Trump, and 11% would vote third party “if the election for president of the United States were held today.”

But if Harris were to endorse a suspension of U.S. arms shipments and diplomatic support for Israel “until there was a cease-fire and withdrawal of forces from Gaza,” her national support would grow from 44% to 49%.

A majority of Democratic voters say the Gaza crisis is either very or somewhat important in determining how they vote in November, according to the AAI poll.

Biden-Backed Israeli Assault on Gaza Helped Drive Doubling of Global Hunger in 2024

Common Dreams reports:

Israel’s war on Gaza has helped drive a more than twofold increase in the number of people facing catastrophic hunger in 2024 compared to last year, according to a report released by United Nations agencies and partner humanitarian groups on Thursday.

The report, a mid-year update of the Global Report on Food Crises, says that Gazans face “the most severe food crisis in the history” of the GRFC, which was first published in 2017.

The global number of people facing Phase 5—”Famine/Catastrophe,” the highest level—in the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system went from 705,000 in 2023 to about 1.9 million this year, including projections through September.

Though the Gaza famine numbers peaked in April, the situation remains extremely dire, according to Víctor Aguayo, UNICEF’s director of child nutrition, who visited the besieged enclave last week.

“I walked through markets and neighborhoods—or what is left of them,” Aguayo told reporters on Thursday. “I listened to the struggles of mothers and fathers to feed their children. And there is no doubt in my mind that the risk of famine and a large-scale severe nutrition crisis in Gaza is real.”

Aguayo called for a cease-fire and humanitarian intervention, saying that “it’s important to remember that the nearly half of Gaza’s population suffering from this devastation are children.”

“The nutrition situation in Gaza is one of the most severe that we have ever seen,” he added.

Girl in Gaza dies of malnutrition amid ongoing Israeli aggression

WAFA reports:

The Wild West Bank: Where Palestinian Lives Are Cheap and Israeli Chaos Reigns Supreme

Ha’aretz lead editorial:

The West Bank has become a wild and lawless area, with no accountability for what transpires there. The lives of Palestinian inhabitants, with the responsibility for their security, according to the law, lying squarely with the occupying force, which is the State of Israel, have been abandoned to reckless behavior – even when they are children.

The Palestinian health authorities reported that a 13-year-old girl was shot and killed on Friday by Israel Defense Forces fire in the village of Qaryut, in the central West Bank.

Amjad, the child’s father, said Bana Laboum was hit while inside their home.

Even before October 7, Israelis were, as a rule, indifferent to the lives of Palestinians in the occupied territories.

Apathy is the fertile ground on which violence flourishes, whether committed by IDF soldiers or by settlers. Who in Israel cares if a 13-year-old girl who was sitting in her room was shot to death, allegedly by the IDF?

In IDF “spokesmanese”: “Forces that were called to handle clashes between dozens of Palestinians and dozens of settlers, which included stone throwing, acted to disperse the people creating public disorder in the area, among other ways by shooting in the air.” Of course, we can’t avoid the empty promise that “the army is investigating the circumstances leading to the girl’s death.” So it’s investigating.

Along with the public apathy to what is happening in the West Bank, which allows chaos to run rampant, the light penalties imposed on soldiers harming Palestinians contribute to their sense that anything goes. Even the defense minister, the only responsible adult in the cabinet, isn’t instructing the army to treat rogue soldiers severely, and isn’t presenting a well-ordered position regarding the West Bank.

A direct line connects the killing of Bana Laboom and the killing of human rights activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi[see IAK coverage of her assassination in yesterday’s update], a young Turkish-American woman who apparently was shot dead by soldiers while participating in a demonstration in Beita, near Nablus.

In her case, a seemingly serious investigation will be launched. She was American – not just a Palestinian girl living under an occupation.

The truth regarding the circumstances of these cases is clear: When human lives are not valued, you shoot indiscriminately, even at human rights activists.

Security officials will continue to warn of an escalation and the opening of an additional front and the government will continue to ignore and occasionally encourage Jewish terror.

Everything continues as usual, with no one to stop Israel on its way to the abyss.

Read about other Americans recently killed by Israel – and ignored by the Biden-Harris administration – here and here and here. More American victims here.