Human rights hate this simple trick!
I wonder if this one thing will actually pass through or if it will be like the negotiations from a few days ago, where Biden got Netanyahu to compromise on not attacking Iran again in exchange for letting them attack Rafah, and then Israel attacked both Iran and Rafah.
And we are still going to give Israel billions of dollars in aid while they laugh in our face and do whatever the fuck they want. Biden has no spine needs to fucking go. A fucking golden retriever would command more respect than Biden at this point.
I appreciate your passion but the relationship with Israel is more complicated than Biden saying "Israel stop or we can't be friends anymore".
Israel is a strong strategic partner that provides a lot of value to the United States in terms of intelligence and military support, which is not a bridge we want to burn if there are other options.
Aside from that, Israel has a lot of backing from Americans across the political spectrum. Since America isn't a dictatorship Biden has to rely on congress if he wants to get anything done. Since Biden has to rely on congress to get anything done, and Israel has broad support from American voters and thus their Congressional representatives, Biden has to make sure he doesn't piss off congress. So burning diplomatic relations with Israel would probably hurt Biden much more than it would hurt him at this point.
As a last point, a lot of people are advocating for withholding arms sales to Israel. This is the "nuclear option" of diplomacy and once it's executed we don't really have any more leverage. So if the United States stops arms sales to Israel, and they don't stop the invasion of Gaza, we don't really have anymore carrots left to influence Israel.
Our complex relationship with Israel is a problem that the United States needs to solve, but it is incredibly complicated and is something that will take years to sort out effectively.
On the one hand, its very obvious that the US has no interest in checking Netanyahu's quest for an endless spiraling multi-front war in the Middle East.
On the other, I think its worth noting that the Israeli economy took a 20% plunge over the last 6 months. Netanyahu's popularity is plummeting domestically, and a big part of the appeal of Endless War is that there won't be any elections to remove him from office well into 2027 if things continue at pace.
A lot of people are blaming Netanyahu for Oct 7th and a lot more just don't like him for being the most corrupt piece of shit to run the country since its founding. But the bulk of the Knesset recognize that they can't get into a "Oops! No Prime Minister!" logjam like they had after the last time he was removed from office.
So its not really clear how long the Israeli state can keep this shit up before it starts seeing open revolt from within the state itself.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/02/world/middleeast/israel-netanyahu-protest.html
Thousands of demonstrators marched in Jerusalem outside the home of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, calling for early elections and his ouster.
The Israeli police clashed with antigovernment protesters outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in Jerusalem overnight, on the third day of demonstrations calling for early elections and his ouster.
The chaotic scenes drew an appeal for calm and unity from Mr. Netanyahu’s chief rival, Benny Gantz, on Wednesday morning.
“We must not accept violence from any side, we must not accept ignoring police instructions and breaking barriers as we saw last night in Jerusalem,” he wrote on X. “A protest is legitimate, the pain is also understandable, but the law and the rules of the game must be respected.”
Blinken is actually going through the process to cut a particular unit off from US weapons.
So a small ray of hope.
That was the offer not the deal. Israel didn't make the deal.
Am I being detained, Mr. Secretary General?
Gensecs. Gensecs everywhere.
True foreign policy, lmao
He's getting his weapons in the hammock district.
It’s current year
No means no
Hank Scorpio for President!
