this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2024
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Joe Biden will not be the Democratic nominee in November’s presidential election, thankfully. He is not withdrawing because he’s being held responsible for enabling war crimes against the Palestinian people (though a recent poll does have nearly 40 percent of Americans saying they’re less likely to vote for him thanks to his handling of the war). Yet it’s impossible to extricate the collapse in public faith in the Biden campaign from the “uncommitted” movement for Gaza. They were the first people to refuse him their votes, and defections from within the president’s base hollowed out his support well in advance of the debate.

The Democrats and their presumptive nominee Kamala Harris are faced with a choice: On the one hand, they can continue Biden’s monstrous support for Netanyahu, the brutal IDF, and Israel’s genocide of Palestinians. That would help allow the party to cover for Biden and put a positive spin on a smooth handoff, even though we all know this would mainly benefit the embittered president himself and his small coterie of loyalists. Such a choice would confirm that the institutional rot that allowed the current situation to develop still characterizes the party.

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[–] Transform2942@lemmy.ml 14 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

Ronald Reagan made one phone call and the Israelis immediately stopped bombarding Lebanon. The vassal state has to do whatever the fuck the US president wants. It's a complete joke to think otherwise. Joe Biden could go on TV right now and publicly withdraw support for the occupiers and their government and military would collapse overnight.

[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world -1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Oh, awesome. Let's time travel back then and act like it's now, OH WAIT.

The Israeli state of 40 years only existed due to the US and it's money. That's not necessarily the same situation now. They can buy their own toys, and not be a puppet of the US if they didn't want to now.

[–] Transform2942@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

You seriously think the Israeli state could survive a loss of US support? They are just as much a vassal as they were then, if not more. They are completely isolated on the world stage and surrounded by geopolitical rivals. Their society is crumbling as we speak. Without the US playing defense, the international community would have come down on Israel decades ago. Do you remember how much they freaked out when Joe Biden kinda sorta hinted that he might possibly not send them all the bombs they wanted?

[–] SaltySalamander@fedia.io -1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The US gives israel what, like 3-4billion a year? Their defense budget was like 24b in 2023. They'd be fine without us.

[–] Transform2942@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 months ago

Ok, deal, let's do that and find out

[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world -1 points 3 months ago (2 children)

That's not the issue. In fact, if the US didn't pay their bills, we already know what will happen, and it's a national security scenario that is gamed and updated regularly.

So say Israel is like "fuck you, pay me" to the US, and we cut them off. They are surrounded by hostile territories that will immediately put all their resources into attacking them and trying to wipe them off the map. Russia and China will probably proxy war this out as well. Then what? Maybe a coalition is made from a few of the Middle Eastern countries, groups hostile towards the US are fully enabled and encouraged to fuck with us, so now you have a new Middle East united group aligned with Russia and China to fuck around with Europe and Africa. Doesn't sound super great to me. You're pretty much kicking off a precursor to another world war, and Israel knows this. I'm sure they've probably just flatly said it behind closed doors.

[–] Transform2942@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

"According to our simulations that we ran for ourselves, very bad things will happen if we are not in charge. Therefore anything we do to maintain hegemony is justified."

Forgive me for sleeping on some sort of Orson Scott Card geopolitics fantasy, based on assumptions that other countries will be just as imperialistic as the USA. I'm much more concerned about the current ongoing genocide of the Palestinians that has continued for over 50 years.

[–] Pfeffy@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

That is delusional. Israel has a shitload of nuclear weapons and they have already expressed complete willingness to use them against Innocent civilians. If Israel is ever going to be destroyed by its neighbors they will try to nuke everyone they can on their way out. It's called the Samson option.

When they lost the Yom Kippur war, they openly armed nuclear weapons and used them to force Nixon into replacing their Air Force and help recover from the loss.

[–] PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee -2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Israel has in many ways closer ties to Russia today than to the US. Roughly a million Israelis are from Russia.

[–] SaltySalamander@fedia.io -1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

And almost 3 million Americans are from Russia. What's your point?

[–] Honytawk@lemmy.zip 3 points 3 months ago

1 million out of 11.4 million = 8.7%

Or 3 million out of 335 million = 0.9%

[–] FenrirIII@lemmy.world -2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

A lot has changed in 40 years. Jewish money in politics, for one.

[–] Transform2942@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I wouldn't personally go with "Jewish Money" as the terminology...😬

That aside, certainly the effect of AIPAC and friends is a part of the pathology. That doesn't change the fact that Joe Biden could end the genocide anytime he wanted. The Zionist entity cannot survive without US hard power backing.

[–] FenrirIII@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I mean, it comes from people who identify as Jewish and who support the state of Israel. How is that not correct?

Joe Biden cannot stop Israel. They have openly and repeatedly made known their plan to conquer Gaza. They're already allowing "settlers" (terrorists) in to attack the local Palestinians and steal their land. American citizens, including many who donate to AIPAC, are getting involved in land deals for the conquered territory.

The entire powerbase of the western world is either taking part in the genocide and/or profiting from it or unable to do the right thing because of the political and financial power of the former.

Even if that wasn't the case, Israel is the only friendly nation in the middle east for western powers. Iran regularly starts shit and Saudi Arabia committed 9/11 (which we ignore because they have oil). A Jewish state is much friendlier to the (mostly white, Christian) government of the US.

[–] Transform2942@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 months ago

Joe Biden could order a blockade on the single functioning port. Joe Biden's Treasury department could instantly destroy the occupier economy with sanctions, as they should be doing under US and international law. Joe Biden could signal to the Iranians and Hezbollah that Israel is no longer allowed to operate with impunity.

Don't make the mistake of confusing pretend impotence for true impotence.

I agree that the entire West is complicit in the genocide.

Regarding "friendly nations," what happened to make the Iranians unfriendly to the United States?