Biden begins backing the resistance to Netanyahu and his war

Stop doing business with Israel until the genocide stops

105

Israel is happy to keep buying our arms but it more than capable of carrying on without us for several years. They've armed to keep pace with Iran and have done a good job at doing so - far surpassing them in nuclear capability. We'd have to do considerably more than just not do business with them.

26
- Not doing business is something we can do first while we work on the rest.
  
  50
Ideally yes, but unfortunately even if Biden does want to do that, existing US doctrine won't allow it. Israel is basically Americas proxy in the middle east and protects "American interests" in the region from traditionally Russian backed states like Egypt and Iran.

Then there's all the more kooky stuff like the amount of important and rich people in the US that are either zionists themselves, are Christian zionists who belive Israel needs to exist to bring forth the second coming, or just simply have vested interests in the military industrial complex.

Which all make it so opposing Israels genocide extremely costly in terms of political capital.

10
- Our doctrine is whatever we say it is. We control our foreign policy not the other way around. And if we let our previous policy set us up to support dictators and genocidal regimes then our kids are going to be reading about us in text books. Just like we read about our parent's generation doing that.
  
  Come to think of it, the Silent Generation was in charge back then too. the fuck is going on with them?
  
  4
- Israel is basically Americas proxy in the middle east
  
  It wasn't until too recently that I realized this, and it rapidly dispels a whole lot of neo-nazi propaganda that I heard early on in my life (WAY more effectively than "hating Israel is antisemitism" or some BS)
  
  1
- I'm pretty sure that if Biden just decided to withhold (conditionally or otherwise) weapons for Israel that had already been flagged for that purpose by Congress, he'd be running a foul the same rules Trump violated by withholding aid from Ukraine. And regardless of whether he was doing it because he had a legitimate change-of-heart, it would totally look like it was for political gain after the uncommitted votes in the primary.
  
  1

Overdue.

57

Overdue, but still welcome. I'm gonna assume/pretend it was the less than stellar showing in Michigan that finally got to him.

81
- Maybe, but going against Isreal has been political suicide up until now. The more protests, the easier it makes deviating from unconditional support, which again, has been unbroken US policy since the beginning of Isreal.
  
  Add to that how important our foothold in Isreal is to the US both militarily and economically (in the form of ensuring the safety of shipping down the seas), it's a huge deal to go against Isreal.
  
  So yeah, protests help give an excuse. It doesn't mean it's changed anyone's minds on the morality of it all, but that it frees them to actually act on something previously untouchable.
  
  38
- And, in a roundabout way, you can thank the Electoral College. Because if the popular vote was all that counted, he might decide that the 100k votes in Michigan were worth staying uncommitted so he could pick up the pro-Israel lobby elsewhere, like on Long Island and in NYC. But Biden is all but guaranteed to win NY, while Michigan is a toss-up.
  
  23
Still is overdue.

We blocked yet another thing in the UN from criticizing Israel.

14
- I assume that threat is on the table at this point. If we blow our whole wad at once, we won't be able to ratchet up the pressure each time we need to. Between letting Netanyahu's political rivals meet with the US government and the VP speaking up now, too. The pattern of incremental pressure is pretty apparent. We don't want to end up in a situation where we have no leverage left and the war continues.
  
  Meanwhile, Trump is saying Israel should "finish the job" in Gaza.
  
  1
I understand that it's a really hard situation to navigate through. It's not easy to just unilaterally go against a long term ally overnight. It's a horrible situation that I'd hate to be in charge of.

7

Look who wants to get reelected!

42

Haven’t heard as much from people who were supporting Israel at the beginning of the war. I think that means some of them have realized Israel went a bit too far.

27

Try r/worldnews. Whatever it is that is happening there, it isn't very palatable.

11
- Worldnews and Politics on Lemmy and Reddit are probably singlehandedly responsible for 20% of the daily AstroTurf® Premiumizzle™ API access.
  
  I subscribed to a couple politics subs yesterday here on Lemmy. I had to unsubscribe this morning.
  
  2
Guess the percentage of Americans who think Israel went too far. .
.
.
It's 42%

I don't know about you but from my social media feed I would have guessed higher. 19% said Israel hasn't gone far enough. This article is from 2 days ago.

2
- What's the source of the poll? Because if it's 42% of Americans that answered a random number in the middle of the day and then were willing to talk about genocide, I'm surprised the number is as high as 42%
  
  Edit: yup it's exactly what I thought
  
  https://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/WSJ_Partial_Results_Feb_2024.pdf
  
  4
- APNews has it at 50% without WSJ's biased lens.
  
  1

I'll believe it when he actually does something about it. So far it's just been talk and allegedly looking frustrated.

11

I mean, that was certainly true a week ago, but they've definitely started doing something now. They're dropping aid on Gaza, Harris is calling for a ceasefire, and they invited Benny Gantz, who will probably be Netanyahu's next opponent for Prime Minister, to the White House. The aid drops are not sufficient, and the calls for a ceasefire have come far too late, but the Gantz thing is actually pretty great. Polls show Gantz would beat Netanyahu if there were an election today, and apparently this has seriously undermined him politically.

I'm very critical of Israel and the Democrats' enablement of it's genocide, and I have no illusions about the White House's motives here; the only reason Biden's doing anything is because he's scared shitless by the 100K uncommitted voters in Michigan. But Biden isn't just letting staffers leak that he called Netanyahu a, "bad fucking guy," anymore, he's taking actual action. You can argue that what he's doing isn't enough (God knows I think it's not enough), but we should acknowledge and encourage positive changes, even if they're small and insufficient.

7
- Promoting a political rival would be more substantial if that political rival actually differed in policy.
  
  1

Article is paywalled.

6

Here is an Archived Version.

Biden should never have said U.S. aid to Israel was unconditional. As the death toll of innocents from Israel's operations in Gaza quickly grew intolerably high, the U.S. should have slammed on the brakes, publicly condemned (rather than defended) Israel's actions, stopped military aid to Israel, demanded a ceasefire, supported efforts for a ceasefire in international institutions and begun aggressive aid measures for Gaza including sending a hospital ship and finding ways to deliver aid to Gaza via the sea.

Halfway measures like the sanctioning of West Bank settlers seem impotent. Dropping a few tens of thousands of meals to Gazans, given the scale of the crisis being faced, is little more than a gesture. It also put the U.S. in the position of supporting both sides in this war. That does not send the message that our approach is balanced. It makes it clear that it has been, best intentions aside, incoherent.

People who possess a modicum of decency or care about the people of Gaza or Israel or the region should hope the U.S. moves more quickly and decisively to a different policy – one that shows a policy guided more by wisdom, compassion, realism and genuine loyalty rather than one focused on superficial displays of misplaced support.

9
- Thank you
  
  3

Can't get around the paywall. Is this something that hasn't been reported elsewhere?

6

https://archive.ph/sTPeg

It’s an opinion piece. It summarizes some relevant events but is not new reporting.

13

If only he would try and find who is supplying them with the weapons.

3

"oh no, don't", whispers biden from the sidelines

1

My cousin from Boston says Biden’s the new Tom Brady. I’m not so sure.

0

That's a weird action for the #1 genocide maker in the history of the world to make.

It's almost like he isn't perpetrating a genocide at all and it's Israel and netanyahu calling those shots.

-2

The US has been supplying Israel with these weapons, knowing exactly what they are being used for, and defending Israel on the international stage by vetoing UN ceasefire resolutions repeatedly.

U.S. Aid to Israel in Four Charts

Full Monday Planned at UN with Focus on US Vetoes of Ceasefire, UNRWA 4th ceasefire veto

How the U.S. Can Rein In Israel

14
- Let's say I supply you with a tall glass of shut the fuck up™, it it your call how you use it. Even if you use it to glass an infant sitting next to you, that's your call to make.
  
  Unless you're saying Biden is the president of Israel?
  
  -7
Whose weapons are they using? Would they be able to do their genocide without those weapons?

Also, are you dumb?

5
- Whose weapons are they using?
  
  Their own, that's how giving weapons to allies works.
  
  If a kid shoots up a school who is held accountable?:
  
  The person shooting
  
  Or
  
  The retailer/distributor of the weapon used
  
  I'll let you take your time figuring it out, there are a Ton of case studies thanks to the USA.
  
  -10

Biden begins backing the resistance to Netanyahu and his war

Hamas?

Benny Gantz is in Netanyahu's war cabinet. He is not resistance. He aligns with Netanyahu very well.

-4