Yeah obviously “worst in history” is ridiculous. But Gaza is certainly worse than Ukraine, saying otherwise is asinine

Biden is under no obligation to provide thousands of bombs to a country whose leader has consistently ignored him as Israel wages a brutal war that has leveled much of Gaza and caused children to die of starvation. “We need to stick to our own values,” Ford said. “If our values say, ‘Starving children is way beyond the pale,’ then we need to react to that and take stern action, whether or not it changes Israeli policy.”

Woah woah woah you mean have principles and actually stick to them? In an election year? Outrageous. /s

I like how the article points out in a couple of places how Ronald fucking Reagan took more action against Israel than Biden has.

And for posting this you get downvotes. Not because anything is wrong with it or because it isn’t relevant to the community, just because Biden is failing on this issue and there is a hardened cadre of pathetic tribalist babies who can’t handle an ounce of criticism of a president sending weapons to a genocidal government.

Sticking your heads in the sand will not win you the election.

History suggests that foreign policy issues end up as a minor motif in presidential politics unless American soldiers are dying in combat as they were in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2004.

History does suggest that but we are in the present. It’s now rated one of the top issues facing the country. Maybe voters will forget all about it by November, but it seems pretty important as things stand now.

Best hope for Biden is for this nightmare in Gaza to end. Obviously Trump is worse, but it’s not a good look for Biden in any case. He could stop supporting Israel but I don’t know what the death toll would have to reach for that to happen

I would say albums as an art form overall. Yes of course some bands and musicians will still write an album in this way, but music has been playlist-ified to the point where most people won’t listen to it like that. You take a song or two from it and forget the rest exist. My perception is that it’s been a dying thing for some time now.

I also pick off my favourite songs from most albums, to be fair. But there are some albums that are best viewed as a single piece of art and I feel like that understanding from both listeners and artists is dying. If you just listen to Money and Breathe (In the Air) when they show up in your shuffle, are you really listening to Dark Side of the Moon?

They are at 1.5% of the population of Gaza and daily death tolls have fallen month after month. If that’s the goal shouldn’t the killing apparatus become more effective and not 20% less so each month?

If Israel was stupid then yeah they’d ramp up the killing after the ICJ ruled that it was a plausible case of genocide. If they were not stupid maybe they would slow down.

So the question is: do you think Israel is stupid?

This is embarrassing dude, stop

Do not run, we are your friends!

What about this one ?

Both US and Israel are democratic countries

Doubt. Can you be an apartheid state and democratic at the same time? Can you approve illegal settlements in Palestinian territories while giving the Palestinians no say in this and truly be a democracy? Seems suspect at best.

The US also clearly does not agree with this. So I would say their values do not appear to be so close either.

I’m also not sure that siding with a country that is hated in the entire region is the best defense against Iran. Would that not push everyone else in the region to a more anti-US position? I’m sure the US would deter Iran from becoming a nuclear superpower just fine even without Israel’s “support” (in quotation marks because I am not sure what exactly they do for the US specifically).

whilst Israel’s actions may not be ideal

Well we agree here at least, lol. Not “ideal,” yes quite. Ideally we wouldn’t be starving children to death but boy aren’t you happy the Iranians are slightly less bullish, maybe.

Regarding Jordan, their values are not so close to the ones of US. Also, not that long time ago they were in a war and in the last days, they seem to get closer and closer to Iran.

I think the US has good relations with Jordan though? Also I haven’t heard about the recent thing with Iran.

But overall, I think it’s questionable at best to support Israel right now because of “Iran” when you know full well that any weapons you send will be used to kill innocents within a few days. Why not support Israel against Iran, when relevant, but not support them when they’re doing a genocide?

It seems so basic I feel like I’m going insane. Are these the people you share values with, seriously? Yeah you’re a monster but the enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that.

The US seems to be changing tack on this and my only complaint is that it didn’t happen months ago. Too many people have died and too much suffering has taken place. Israel deserves to be a pariah state

But we just went over that. The Jewish community has a plurality of opinions, and even though it may be more likely that they support Israel in general, that doesn’t mean they (e.g.) don’t want a ceasefire or think that weapons sales should stop during a plausible genocide. Assuming otherwise is antisemitic, unless you have evidence?

As for the partner in the middle East I really think this point is bullshit. Why have a partner that’s been committing war crimes for 5 straight months now? Well longer, but you know. Does the US actually have bad relations with Jordan, for example? Plus their influence in the region would grow substantially if they openly opposed the apartheid state (which basically all of the middle East doesn’t like) and sent that money to someone else instead. I’m sorry I know this is the common wisdom but I really don’t get it. “No influence whatsoever” is obviously taking it too far, but even the general point I find questionable

So someone said, “why does Biden keep supporting Bibi?”

You said

Because USA is the 2nd most jewish country in the world.

But now it’s

for Jewish people, the probability of supporting Israel is higher compared to non-Jewish ones.

Which is thankfully no longer antisemitic but then now we’re back to the original problem: how is that worth it for Biden?

This article discusses the issue. We have to assume that this recent bout of war crimes has made less jewish people supportive of Israel as well.

As the article says, they are not a monolith

Again, as a monolith? Like “they” all hold this position? Hopefully you see the issue here. Many jewish people absolutely do not support Israel at all

And Jewish people are a monolith and all support Israel? Ironically this is closer to actual antisemitism than someone who hates Israel as a state because of their horrendous actions.

$14 billion in funding for Israel and $100 million in humanitarian support for Palestinian civilians

So he wants to give the people being killed 140 times less the the people doing the killing? Wow.

I suppose bombs are more expensive than bread. Maybe one is easier to go without and maybe one is a humanitarian necessity while the other is a crime against humanity but we can’t say anything about that because something something Trump

It almost seems like Republicans want potential voters to imbibe neurotoxins that will negatively impact their IQ, harm their ability to concentrate, and make them more easily swayed by emotional appeals. I wonder why that could be?

This is my tin foil hat explanation. Also poor areas with more black and ethnic minority people are more likely to have lead pipes and it leads to increased crime and violence, thus further stoking racial tensions and increasing support for racist policy and therefore republicans

Around 400 Palestinians seeking aid have been shot dead by the Israelis in the last two weeks since the so-called “flour massacre” in late February, when 112 people were killed and some 760 injured in Gaza city.

This is evil. There is no excuse and the world should never forgive them.

Many of us appreciate the option to avoid those mods 🖖