Many Israelis feared and continue to fear a two-state solution because the Palestine "territories" wouldn't be crushed and could self-govern. That would terrify the "Israelis" that the nation needs the most to thrive economically: the tech sector, the university professors, the doctors, lawyers, judges, engineers, diplomats, etc. both keep the economy going, are also the ones who have the easiest pathway to flee. People tend to forget that the reason that Ian Smith's White Minority Rule coalition lost in the elections was not because the white Rhodesians all of a sudden grew a heart and decided to help liberate the poor oppressed black Zimbabweans, but because the African Bush War had decimated Rhodesia's economy due to a massive brain drain. All of these people left and the average white Rhodesian hated black people but was willing to vote for anything to stop the bleeding. If anything farmers refused to give up the racist fight even after the whites in government had agreed to end the white minority rule, these farmers told the new government that the natives would have control of their farms "over my dead body!" and they obliged.
RedColossus
I remember how every single US newsmedia were faithful attack dogs for the lead up to the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and then when things went south they issued no mea culpas, they just pretended they were always against it and the public just accepts that it’s true.
They try to concoct this narrative that Trump is somehow a unique evil and once he loses again, “he’ll totally go away this time”, despite him losing in 2020 and his popularity staying the same or getting better with alt-right having gained near total control of the GOP and even part of the Democrats.
I honestly think that they had nothing else to do with the character, the moment the fanbase of the first movie got too toxic, they decided to bury this incarnation of the Joker. So what to do with a non-canon Joker?
A shitty cashgrab movie, of course.
Russia literally has nukes. Hell, even without The Bomb, Russia has 10x the population, all Putin needs to do is declare Total War and initiate a general mobilization of troops.
Ukraine exists only insofar as Putin’s patience allows.
The typical socdem/communist divide. Morality only exists within “my nation”, and Ethan has identified himself as Israeli, for a bunch of different (shitty) reasons.
There’s a lot of Jewish communists that have written a lot about how crippling to leftist values the existence of Israel has become. Many early communists were Jewish, I mean look at Marx and Trotsky, but in general it’s a lot easier for people to support a stateless and uniform world when you have no state and feel (correctly so until the modern British born, then American run colony of “Israel”) masqueraded are always the victim. Much like the persecuted religious sects kicked out of England to the US, prisoners in Australia, etc. we see how fast the bullied can become bullies once they’re given their own place, money and weapons to bully.
Once Israel seemed like a project that wasn’t inevitable to collapse, there were people who advocated against nationalism, that were brutalized by ethnostates, being given an ethnostate they quickly go from “nobody should be a target, because we’re all humans” to “WE shouldn’t be a target because we’re amazing, all the propaganda I grew up listening to says the same thing.”
I live in NYC, I have never personally done this but I know people who have struggled, and the best thing is to maybe not dress in a suit but your nicest clothes, showered, and groomed enough so people think you’re middle class plus going through one unique moment of poverty and not someone chronically poor… and just go to a food place (not a restaurant, somewhere that sells food… deli, grocery store, maybe even a food cart) ideally in a nice neighborhood. Ask to see the manager or ideally the owner (since they have way more leeway than employees) and without giving this huge sob story, politely ask for food.
They will almost never say no, and in fact you might get lucky and be given a month’s worth of food. It sucks that we have more sympathy for a moment of difficulty for the better off than a lifetime of suffering for the poor but here we are. It reminds me of the state Senator in Wisconsin or Michigan or wherever arguing against free food in schools because kids that don’t get enough sustenance in their youth have a lifetime of reduced intelligence and even charisma and if they gave every kid food, “we’d have no mechanics or bricklayers!”.
When Israel says something warlike (although the truth is usually just in Hebrew) believe them. They’ve made up their minds that they want a wider war in the WA/NA region and will do whatever is necessary to start one. But they have an image to keep up, that’s critical to their national strategy, of acting like the perpetual victim… so they can’t straight up invade anyone.
Other than that EVERYTHING is on the table.
Unless their plan includes creating an army of soldiers raised from the dead (they don’t have access to glorious Juche necromancy) they simply have no plan that can compete with Russia’s tenfold population. And that’s that Ukraine has had a general mobilization and has switched to a war economy… of which Russia has only had to moderately elevate their conscripts and their economy is fine or even better than before the war.
Realistically they are hoping to drag the American military to put boots on the ground, a very very unpopular position. Even for liberals that hate Russia with every fiber of their being.
A conversation with an actual higher up in the American DoD that I know in my personal life has succinctly stated that the US is in a bind that really doesn’t seem capable of overcoming. The power of the US is the dominance of the US dollar, which allows the US to buy actual goods and services with pieces of paper that is printed out of thin air.
When the American Empire overstretched itself trying unsuccessfully to crush Korea and Vietnam, the gold standard became impossible to maintain. Then it decided it could just maintain the petrodollar… but that would mean that Israel, Saudi Arabia and to a lesser degree the other bribed petrostates have to stay in the US’s power bubble. Western Asia/North Africa (commonly known as “The Middle East”) needs to stay poor, crushed and divided to keep oil prices cheap and sold exclusively in US dollars.
What is happening is that Israel and Saudi Arabia were fine allies for the American Empire when the US was strong but as its power is waning, its becoming increasingly impossible to keep Israel and Saudi Arabia content with just being an American pawn knowing that the US needs them so desperately. The truth is that it’s inevitable that Israel, that is openly a belligerent fascist state is going to drag the US into a WW3 scenario, because they know that if their neighbors aren’t annihilated they will inevitably go the way of Rhodesia and apartheid South Africa… there were some voices in those nations who also advocated for broad African genocide but they lacked the hard and soft power to do it.
Israel is a Western cultured and loyal ally of the US willing to do whatever Uncle Sam needs in the region, now other than peace, in the MOST important region for American power. The US’s back is against the wall and CANNOT abandon Israel no matter how much world and domestic upheaval is against them.
Israel will spell the end of American power.
Edit: Which is why neither Kamala nor Donald can promise anything on Israel, the CIA would rather kill them… if Empire was Chess and the US is the King… Israel is the Queen. They’re basically early USA.
It’s wild to think that so many high ranking university officials legitimately thought this was some passing antisemitic fad and it was going to pass. A lot of them thought that the fad ended and that there’s no reason to believe the protests would start again after summer break. Many of the leadership being perplexed that the students would actually be defending Palestine… because “who cares about them?!”
What might lead them to be so blind?
May Korea be freed from the American occupation in the South.