Politico reports:

The Biden administration doesn’t believe Israel’s current strategy against the Hamas militant group will lead to “total victory,” a top U.S. official said Monday.

Speaking at the NATO Youth Summit in Miami, Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said the U.S. has been “struggling over what the theory of victory is” in Gaza.

“Sometimes when we listen closely to Israeli leaders, they talked about mostly the idea of some sort of sweeping victory on the battlefield, total victory,” Campbell said. “I don’t think we believe that that is likely or possible.”

It’s the most blunt articulation yet from a Biden administration official that Israel may not be able to achieve the full victory over Hamas that it has promised in Gaza. U.S. officials have previously warned that Israel can’t defeat Hamas’ ideology. [Continue reading…]

The Daily Beast reports:

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) offered a baffling comparison of Israel’s war on Gaza to the U.S. decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan during World War II, telling Israel to “do whatever you have to do” to finish the military campaign.

Speaking to NBC’s Kristin Welker on Meet the Press Sunday morning, Graham made the argument that Israel would be justified in slaughtering civilians in Gaza by likening the situation to the U.S.’s war with Japan eight decades ago. He suggested Israel would be right to flatten the Gaza strip—home to 2.2 million Palestinians, half of whom are children—simply because the U.S. did it to Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the 1940s.

“So when we were faced with destruction as a nation after Pearl Harbor, fighting the Germans and the Japanese, we decided to end the war by bombing Hiroshima, Nagasaki, with nuclear weapons,” Graham began. [Continue reading…]

🚨 #LikudLindsey Graham has received >$1 MILLION from AIPAC and the Israel lobby. Now he wants to NUKE Gaza. https://t.co/1chcHC7O4L pic.twitter.com/Q63sng4h5W

— AIPAC Tracker (@TrackAIPAC) May 12, 2024