Now poll Congress, and then explain to me how America is a democracy
Wich means that 59% believe it is…
It’s the unsinkable aircraft carrier, the tip of the spear that the empire uses to prevent Arab sovereignty and the cork on land migration out of Africa. It’s the laboratory of empire where border and surveillance technologies are battle tested. It’s one of the biggest customers of the military-industrial complex. It’s the 51st state.
I absolutely is in the US national interest to support Israel, there’s a reason it’s bipartisan.
If this is true, the US also has a responsibility to rein it in when Israel commits genocide. They could simply withhold arms and they’d stop immediately, which means the US is complicit.
Take it farther: the US isn’t attempting to rein Israel in because it fully supports the genocide, because the genocide is necessary for the Israeli settler-colonial project to continue. Indigenous resistance makes indefinite occupation and apartheid impossible.
Look what happened to South Africa once apartheid was defeated, now they’re taking Israel to the ICJ and are a member of BRICS. That would be Israel’s future if its occupation and apartheid are defeated, a democratic river-to-the-sea nation would not be a reliable US ally.
a democratic river-to-the-sea nation would not be a reliable US ally.
So much so it would cripple, if not collapse, US Hegemony in the gulf region and beyond
The US is speedrunning this fascist death cult, which is also unstable and prone to collapse, as is the fate of all fascist regimes
Without the us, palestine would already be free decades ago.
Doesn’t make sense given that the US has bases all over the Persian Gulf, and Israel is the only thing risking those bases existing with the consent of the local government. Edward Said said this argument lets the Israel lobby off the hook, way back in the 70s in Question of Palestine.
The Israel lobby is just a tool that the US uses to control it’s own representatives, it ultimately answers to US interests. Israel is a tiny country and can’t even exist independently, it can’t possibly be the one controlling the US behemoth.
Also consider that Israel is a Western settler-colony, just like the US. They’re basically sister countries, Zionism is Manifest Destiny. The white supremacist core plays a critical role in supporting Israel, which is why most Zionists are white Christians. It’s a modern crusader state so that Europeans can occupy Jerusalem.
Do you have any evidence that the Israel lobby answers to anyone besides themselves?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reagan_peace_plan
Israel is the US’s right hand, not the puppet master. How do you propose a country less than 1% the population of the US while also being completely militarily and financially dependent on the US is somehow controlling the US? It’s absurd. Israel isn’t even a real country, it’s just the 51st state and the US forces the world to pretend Israel is real and not actually just three cities in a trench coat.
The existence of the Reagan peace plan, at a time of extreme public outcry in the aftermath of Israel’s brutal invasion of Lebanon, is not evidence that the Israel lobby is controlled by the president. In fact this is a great example of how the Israel lobby works against the president. AIPAC immediately got to work to undermine Reagan’s plan, including opposing restrictions on aid to Israel and opposing forcing Israel to withdraw from Lebanon (https://archive.ph/Olfz6). It was effective because Congress completely sided with the lobby, funding for Israel continued to be increased and Israel remained in Lebanon until they were forced out in 2000 by Hezbollah. If AIPAC was controlled by the president, they would not work to undermine his plan. They would reinforce the president’s plan.
In order to show that AIPAC answers to the president or anyone else, you would need to show that AIPAC’s behavior is generally steered by the president. There is simply no evidence of this. However, there’s lots of evidence that they are steered by Israel’s president - for that I would recommend The Israel Lobby by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt.
How do you propose a country less than 1% the population of the US while also being completely militarily and financially dependent on the US is somehow controlling the US?
“Controlling” is a very strong word that I never said, so don’t put words in my mouth. I think it is accurate to say that they “exert profound influence” in DC. In the United States there are a great many wealthy individuals who have strong personal feelings for Israel because they are Jewish ethnonationalists. Examples include Larry Ellison and Bill Ackman. There is a grassroots Christian Zionist movement as well - but Christian Zionism is a right wing movement and doesn’t explain rigid bipartisan support for Israel. These groups provide lots of funding for lobbying groups such as AIPAC which act forcefully to make sure that no one in Congress opposes their Israel policies. Examples of actions include dumping over $14 million in a Democrat primary to defeat Israel critic Jamaal Bowman, and dumping over $9 million in another primary to oust Cori Bush. These are unprecedented sums in primary elections, and are just the most recent examples. These actions work to create a culture of fear in Congress, as Barack Obama would state: “Those who criticised Israeli policy too loudly risked being tagged as ‘anti-Israel’ — and possibly anti-Semitic — and confronted with a ‘well-funded opponent in the next election.” (in A Promised Land). Obama’s statement predicted the future for Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush. The result is that roughly 80% of Congress is funded by AIPAC, and AIPAC wins 95% of the elections it backs.
This is how the profound influence is mediated. Size of the country has nothing to do with it.
And to say that this is an elaborate kayfabe, with the President only pretending to oppose the lobby’s goals, is a bigger conspiracy theory than simply saying AIPAC does what it publicly says it is doing, on its own accord.
I didnt thing 40% had an opinion either way.
At least 20% think earth is flat and there is no Israel and no Gaza thats just what’s printed on the firmament and the oceans are fake.
47, down from 69 in Oct 2023
