https://www.timesofisrael.com/dozen...for-aid-idf-opens-fire-blamed-for-deaths/amp/ Starving people without weapons posed a threat? Really?
The USA has sent 21,000 guided missiles to israel since the war started. The idea that the us will be strong-arming the israelis into anything is deluded. The Americans will make public gestures of displeasure to avoid what happened with the Michigan protest vote, but that’s about it. Netanyahu is publicly going against whatever Biden says, without any repercussions. But the Palestinians will know that empires ebb and flow, and that applies to the USA as much as it does to greater israel.
I already long ago, also in other threads, posted that in the long run Israel is going to pay the price. No empire has power forever. Jews have for at least 3 millennia seen the empires of Babylon, Persia, Mongols, Ottomans, Brits come, rise and fall. They most likely think their bully friend USA is the exception and last forever, thus their protection for their crimes committed too. That's foolish, so the last thing you should do is to create a feeling that will survive for centuries and will have the form of "someday will come the reckoning". That day may come faster than many think. The moment things get very hot in the Pacific, and that time can come sooner than expected, the ME becomes a backburner issue and Israel might find itself in the position it could become a global strategic liability instead of a must have/must protect ally.
Fair enough. The other difference is that pro-Israel people get worked up about what Palestinians say, whereas Pro-Palestinian people get worked up about what Israel does.
Yep, I can see through the public charades the US administration is going through to try and keep the Muslim community onside, it isn’t working for me and I’m sure a lot of Americans see it the same way.
Honestly, at this point, the damage is done: Biden isn't going to get many Muslims to vote for him, and frankly, he doesn't really care. The real question is how many stay home, how many vote third party, and how many vote for Trump.
To the extent that Prime Minister Bibi represents Israel (100%), Israel remains adamantly opposed to a two-state solution. In fact, with Bibi anywhere in the picture, this notion is sadly laughable. Even without Bibi, it's very unclear to me that Israel would elect a true peace maker. My impression is that these days Israelis stand behind Bibi in large numbers.
The reality is that doing something concrete to Israel like cutting aid to try and force its hand is way more domestically politically damaging for Biden than what he is doing now.
1. If Israel is required for Jews to feel safe, why do we constantly hear about how they're not safe because of all their scary Arab/Muslim neighbors? 2. If the Israeli gov't is interested in Jewish safety, why do they keep propping up Hamas, Al Qaeda, and ISIS across neighboring Arab countries, e.g.: Syria, Palestine, Libya, etc.? 3. What is this supposed safety worth if it comes at the expense of exponentially more others, often manifesting in explicit assertions they should kill any Palestinian/Arab because they fear hypothetically they could later kill them? 4. The Balfour Declaration for an Israeli state was written long before the Holocaust (1917), simultaneous to when the British Empire were waging the Mesopotamian Campaign of WW1 for (Anglo-Persian) Oil per their own archives. Safety for Jews, is in fact not why Israel exists for the people who actually had the power to create it. It's oil/resources and land. Classic imperialism/colonialism. They needed an excuse, and got it... 5. Pre-1967 borders is still a state, and it's the position of the vast majority of the UN. Some believers in a one-state solution, w/ equal rights, think any singular Palestinian state right now is fanciful, this far into the colonial project. I'm ambivalent. I can see downsides and upsides to both. Pick one and go with it. Certainly this odious project ain't working. It's not meant to work, rather expand, and plunder. 6. You say BDS is a cult, but then go on to say you don't really want it to work anymore, in part because religions (popular cults). If it's not feared, why did Israel lobby the US to make laws against it, including getting 43/100 senators to try to get Americans up to 20 yrs in jail for participating in it? The only reason it wouldn't work is the bribery of the world's superpower to work for their interests instead of against, which is the point, and circular logic. Get rid of the shills in US gov't.
That's my problem for decades now. I don't see the behaviour since 1967 as helpful in the survival of Israel in the long run. As a country you can't survive, unless you have good relations with your neighbours. You can bully them a hundred years (so another 25 to go), 150 years, but at a given moment the tables turn and this present way isnot viable anymore. You either kick the Book zealots into submission, who believe God is on their side and wants them to clean the land of non-Jews, or you will see a repeat of what happened before. That JWH dude was awol when the Babylonians made minced meat of them and wiped them off the land and also when the Romans did the same. To survive you need friends and this Gaza mass killing in progress is costing support. For the youngest generations in Europe the Holocaust is a faint historical fact, without the personal, emotional load it has for people like me. What is vivid though, is what they see on the news, tictoc etc. in gruesome detail and they're not stupid. They see what idf/Israel is doing is shooting at fish in a barrel, they recognize the discrepancy between what is being thrown at the civilians in Gaza and what Israel has to deal with in comparison. This is the generation that will be crucial to maintain friends in Europe, because they replace my generations and it's not going well. So to call what's being done in Gaza a survival act is at least dumb. Israel for the next 20 years has nobody in a radius of a 1000km who can throw anything at them that threatens the survival of the state. So Gaza/Palestines are the last to fear in that context.
I’m pretty sure this round of activity started with Israel getting worked up about something Palestinians did. I mean it’s right there in the thread title.
Umm....if by large numbers you mean 15%, then sure. https://www.reuters.com/world/middl...eep-job-after-gaza-war-poll-finds-2024-01-02/
after the Gaza war!? (a) that gives Bibi every incentive to prolong the war as much as he can so as to avoid going back to being defendant Bibi, and (b) who is the emerging peacemaker and what is his/her platform, any legitimate 2-state proponents? It is great to hear that though (when are next elections?), I think he's putting the whole country in a really tough spot, for years to come.
I'm not Muslim and it sure as heck isn't working for me. Of course, I'm well aware that Trump would be far worse for Palestinians, which presumably is what Biden's "strategy" relies on. Given that he likely has to win Michigan, it's a high risk strategy.
So the Palestinians continue to pay the price for a genocide committed by a European country and the domestic politics of the US...
I’m not an American so my calculation is that Trump will likely cause US hegemony to collapse faster than Biden, so that’s fine by me. Now, is Biden willing to accept those consequences, because he needs Michigan, he won it by 10k votes last time and a few days ago 100k Democrat voters just told him that they will stay at home in the general election - no ceasefire no vote. 'Uncommitted' protest vote in Michigan primary is warning Biden cannot ignore https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68427304 If Biden doesn’t take that seriously, that’s on him.
Bibi will do what 99% of politicians do when they want to stay in power....Anything and Everything. I'm not sure if there's one single lead....possibly Benny Gantz from the National Unity party. The regular election cycle is not for some time, but the thought is enough people will leave the coalition Bibi has formed, which will result in mid-cycle elections. That's the current hope.