I’m very unhappy with Biden’s stance toward Israel. What strategic significance does that state have that outweighs what increasingly looks like genocide? It has to be something so important yet unpalatable to the voting public that it’s worth appearing to come down on the wrong side of history.
Does anyone have any ideas? Is having a western democracy in the middle east that we can work with worth giving said government carte blanche to exterminate their neighbor?
The US has a long track record of supporting some of the most brutal regimes all around the world if it serves their geopolitical interests. In that way its support for Israel isn’t much of an anomaly.
More specifically though, Israel serves as a base from which the US can project military power. That prevents other states in the region from taking full advantage of their natural or geographic resources.
For example, the US wants to ensure oil is traded in US dollars. That creates demand for the dollar which inflates its value relative to other currencies. In that way, US financial capital is given an advantage over the rest of the world. This arrangement isn’t necessarily ideal for oil rich countries as it essentially means some of the value of their oil is getting siphoned off. However, the threat of military intervention may keep these states in line. However, many of them have started to experiment with trading in other currencies which might make the US uneasy.
The second thing I can think of is the US wants to ensure Egypt does not use the Suez Canal as a political weapon like it has historically. In such cases, Israel has been used as proxy through which western countries invaded Egypt to try and take back control of the canal. Since the canal remains very important trade route from which the US and its allies benefit, the US needs some sort of leverage to ensure it stays open to them.
I really appreciate the insight. I don’t think those things are worth US maintaining power in that region, but I imagine if I’m in the shoes of a world leader I might see things more ambiguously.
Hey in case any Brits need to hear this: he will not receive a fair trial here in the USA. It is a fully corporate state with a democratic facade. Slavery is still legal here, just restricted to prisoners.
If you mean “turn out to protest” I don’t disagree but would note that this is made exceedingly difficult by the conspiracy theorists who don’t think he should be sent to stand trial in Sweden either. I strongly disagree with the decision to extradite him to the US but I can’t make common cause with the conspiranoids who insist that Sweden was a set up. He got himself into this predicament by trying to evade trial on credible charges of rape and sexual assault. Two things can be true but his supporters almost universally insist that they can’t and it is exhausting.
@shreddy_scientist Trying to water it down so they can vote for it without upsetting Israel? That’s not going to work. There is no way to have this both ways. Either everyone will feel the same as they do already or everyone will be upset.
You nailed it!! I’m thinking they are basically trying to neuter the proposal so they don’t have to veto it again while still keeping Lockheed and friends happy…
@shreddy_scientist If they can secure funding for Ukraine they can pull aid for Israel (Israel doesn’t actually need it, a lot of people don’t understand that) and then transfer that business to Ukraine. It will keep Lockheed et. al. happy, and get them invested in lobbying to set up a permanent stream of aid/military support to European countries bordering Russia.
This tactic works with great regularity. If it works, Biden will look like he’s helping to his low-information voting base, without significantly restraining Israel.
Siege warfare is one of the oldest and most indiscriminate strategies of war. It wasn’t invented by the Nazis, and there’s nothing science fiction about it.
I love the implication that Gaza is fighting back harder when all that’s happening is that Israel ramped up their genocide. That’s why the “war” framing is so dishonest and fucking evil, it puts the two parties on an equal footing when it’s one overwhelmingly oppressing the other.
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