Israel is escalating its bombardment of Lebanon, leveling numerous buildings, including the offices of Lebanese news station Al Mayadeen. The Israeli military has also attacked the ancient city of Tyre, a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site, and killed three Lebanese soldiers in a strike in southe...
This will blow back way harder on Israel than America.
Ignoring all politics, logistically this war is a rounding error in the Pentagon's budget. America can and often does absolutely anything it wants to anyone at any point in time - and the only thing stopping it is how it feels about a subject at any given moment.
Israel is tiny and surrounded by enemies who they are pissing off.
For the record I am entirely opposed to Israel committing genocide and America funding it.
And absolutely gaslighting anyone who calls anyone out for it.
I'm really sick of the whole "criticism of Israel is antisemitism" rhetoric. NO IT ISN'T. And pushing this rhetoric harder isn't going to make me support them either. If anything, I'm going to see it as an increasing threat to my First Amendment right to free speech.
My criticism of the Chinese government is not hateful towards the Chinese Americans in my community. It's also not hateful towards the Chinese people living in China or anywhere else in the world. It's a criticism of the leadership, which is fair game. Ditto for criticism of Iran, Russia, or any other nation I can think of.
But criticize the Israeli government and suddenly it's a problem. There's less pushback for criticizing the U.S. government!
I'm really sick of the whole "criticism of Israel is antisemitism" rhetoric.
It's just playing dirty. Israel, much like modern conservative politicians, doesn't care about how it achieves its goals. World War II has much of the western world hypersensitive to antisemitism, so conflating criticism of the Israeli government with antisemitism has been an easy way to stifle discourse.
Yeah I'm not sure people realize how bad this is for long term American interests in the area. The Saudis and the Iranians are actually talking to each other again.
This will blow back way harder on Israel than America.
I dont think the US will walk away from this free of any consequences at all. The chickens will come home to roost. You dont kill that many people and leave that many affected victims and just saunter off into the sunset with no consequences whatsoever.
The only real chance the US had to not get caught up in the quagmire would have been to unload a battalion or three of marines and go Hamas-hunting themselves, keeping an eye on the IDF. Make sure humanitarian aid arrives. Ignore the Israeli government where necessary (after all Gaza isn't Israel) in favour of re-iterating that you're Israel's friend and simply taking some load off their plate, make sure to work with Israeli lefties when it comes to pretty much everything humanitarian on the ground, or in media.
But that would've necessitated more wherewithal and understanding of Israel than the US could've ever hoped to muster.
9/11 happened because of US involvement with Israel. Bin Laden clearly listed his grievances with the US, which the media purposely ignored. I've been expecting another terrorist attack because we never learn. America has to do everything the hard way regarding foreign policy. Huge sigh.
"They hate us for our freedoms" was such a ridiculously stupid thing for Bush to say, but people lapped it up and just assumed it was truth. Not the USA's most impressive moment.
Quite the opposite. The US is demonstrating that it is above any international law and will do what it wants regardless of any standing agreements. It's demonstrating that the only rules that matter are the ones it makes. Israel is our dog on our leash and we're letting it bite someone. But if anyone hurts our dog, we'll go full John Wick on their country. That's why Israel bombs schools and hospitals without warning and Iran gives a few days notice before they attack.
Theres far far far more anti muslim violence than anti jewish. ADL has been counting people saying mean things online as a spike in anti semitic violence. Words are not violence. Holding a sign objecting to Israeli actions are not violence. And objecting to Israel is not anti semitic.
Israel is the market leader in hacking and spying tools such as Pegasus. These are used for ethical purposes such as chopping journalists reporting negatively on Saudi Arabia in pieces. There is no reason to doubt their credibility.