Joe Biden and Kamala Harris would say they stand for the 2 State solution while vetoing the United Nations resolution which would have seen Palestine be created as a State
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They said they cared about innocent civilian life while continuing to send the bombs that Israel was dropping on all those innocent civilians
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They said they opposed Israel's plan to starve Gaza to death yet when the entire state department found Israel to be using starvation as a weapon of war they lied in an official report to Congress (look up Stacy Gilbert)
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They said Rafah was a red line then did nothing when Benjamin Netanyahu proceeded to flatten Rafah
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The rhetoric was different than Trump but the policy was exactly the same. Not only did Joe Biden oversee a genocide, he and Kamala Harris lied about it every step of the way
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I have no doubt Kamala Harris would have capitulated to Benjamin Netanyahu in the same way Donald Trump has. The rhetoric and fake concern for civilians would just be different.
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Genuinely if she would have said this statement that you wrote she would be President right now
“Israel is an apartheid state joyfully committing genocide…in Gaza, and that’s why we’re not giving them another penny”
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This is not at all a story of leftist's pushing purity politics to an extreme.
The moral red line of not supporting a genocidal extermination campaign is not extreme.
This is a story of the Democratic Party base saying starving children to death is a moral red line and Kamala Harris saying she was more committed to Israel than she is to human rights and she couldn't care any less about what her own party voters thought.
When she had the chance to show a basic level of empathy, she instead refused to even allow a Palestinian to speak at the Democratic National Convention
I was right when I wrote Kamala Harris & the Uncommitted Movement
And it is still right. She would be President if she followed the advice I wrote about. Instead she showed greater loyalty to Israel than American values and that cost her the election.
Stopping Israel's ongoing genocide is also incredibly important so I suggest looking up Mosab Abu Toha to hear from the Palestinian perspective and check out my post "Israel's Genocide in Gaza"
Hilarious. You actually think Kamala Harris would be President if she adopted the "genocide" narrative? Hilarious. You are deluded. Completely deluded. It's inadvertent comedy gold.
And while we are on the topic of you being deluded, here are some studies and facts to counter your "genocide" nonsense. (The only "genocide" in history where (i) the target population grew; (ii) the target population could stop the war but refuses to; and (iii) the supposed genocidaires innoculated the entire target population from polio during the war/"genocide. But why let facts stop the virtue signaling and support for a religio-fascist Islamist movement, amirite? LOL.).
You won't read the links below; you will find some twee and stupid reason to ignore it all (you'll say "it's zio fascist hasbara!!!!!!!!!!" no doubt or some such.) But maybe someone who cherishes ignorance and empty arrogance a bit less than you will read the links below.
This kind of juvenile response to a heartfelt comment basically tells us all that you have no response and, at some level, constitutes an admission that your position is indefensible both morally and under international law. For you politics seems to “trump” everything, even widely recognized genocide.
Yes, this is correct, except for the part about it making a difference in the election; I think you're wrong there. The problem is exactly that she and Biden said good, reasonable-sounding things and wagged their fingers at Israel while looking very stern, and meanwhile the arms and the money and the UN security council vetos kept flowing. It's the mismatch between the Biden/Harris smarmy rhetoric and the administration's unqualified material support that rightfully infuriated a large chunk of the Dem base. The writer can carte blanche dismiss that large swathe of pro-Palestine voters as The Unreasonable Left, but fella ... bad news. The Democrats are the left-of-center party in the US, so that's the party base. Sorry.
Unfortunately, Harris would have lost no matter what her position on the Israel/Palestine issue, and let's be honest -- she probably would have lost worse. If you think otherwise, you're deluding yourself.
My wife actually lost a friend over her refusal to support the Uncommitted movement. We don't even live in a state where "uncommitted" is an option on the ballot! But the friend made her friendship contingent on taking a purely symbolic stand against "Genocide Joe" rather than doing literally anything that might have had a positive impact. (And it's worth adding that this friend doesn't even live on the United States anymore.)
This is what really made me distance myself from the far-left. So many of the people I knew were willing to completely throw the election to Trump just to prove a narcissistic point. They care more about ideological purity and social media virtue signaling than they actually care about Palestinians. One friend in particular who voted third party said his conscience was clear in doing so… I’m like, really? Seeing everything going on right now under Trump? It’s almost sociopathic behavior.
My stance on this isn’t even about Israel vs. Palestine it’s just about the dumbass behavior of chronically online leftists.
They stated their position, made clear the consequences of not offering any concessions, then followed through when no concessions were offered. You consider the consequences to be their fault.
Which would be fine, if you didn't need them to vote for your guy next time.
When the results of the Law of Unintended Consequences are either ignored or enshrined as evidence of courageous righteousness. There's a huge difference between virtue signaling for the ideal and getting actual hoped for results, however incrementally.
Incrementalism isn't though. New Deal, Great Society, sufferage, civil rights- none of those were incremental, and they cover most of the progress we've made in the last hundred years.
“Leftists “? That figure of speech had me disbelieving the rest of your argument. I was not wrong. I’m Jewish and I don’t support Israel’s stance on Gaza. That does not make me antisemitic. It makes me human. You are promoting divisive ideology, just like trump does.
Actually if you're an antizionist you're actively supporting a genocide and ethnic cleansing of the biggest, most diverse, most dynamic Jewish community in the world - the 7.7 million Israeli Jews. That definitely makes you an antisemite, to say the least.
Israel's "stance" on Gaza is fighting the war launched by savage Palestinian death squads to its conclusion of neutering the ability of those Palestinian Jihadists to wage the same type of invasion, torture, rape, wounding, murdering and abducting of Israeli civilians. Truly a giant crime for Jews to fight back. Noted.
Destroying a population and annexing their land really isn't fighting back. Especially when you kill 100 times as many people in the process as they do.
Wrong, again. I am not antisemitic. I’m against genocide. The IDF has murdered so many innocent children and women. They do it willingly and willfully. If you support that, you’re condoning genocide. Do not respond to me again.
This is ridiculous. Even if we believe the Hamas propaganda office numbers, they themselves announced 50,000 kids were born in this “genocide”. Genocide is intent to wipe out a people, and no such thing happened. What you’re talking about is called war, and I know it’s super offensive to the Free Palestine cult when Jews fight back after Arabs attack it and carry out yet another genocide attempt. You’re a useful idiot of Islamist terrorists.
A vote for Harris was a vote for someone you could argue with. A vote for anyone else or no vote at all was a vote for a guy you cannot argue with. Simple. Protest votes and non-votes are way overrated as a tactic. Youre just handing the government to people who want you gone.
Indeed. For better or worse, the US has an entrenched two-party system. There is little to no upside for coalition building like you see in parliamentarian systems. Now that the GOP has decided scorched earth/take no prisoners is the order of the day, even less. I’m an independent that’s never belonged to either party, and have voted both ways in differing circumstances.
I’m ready to stop giving Israel weapons. It would be nice if pro-Palestinian activists tried to persuade the Republican Party this was a good idea so that it has a chance to be realized.
Too many are more interested in purity. Wouldn’t even support No Other Land because of Israeli involvement, missing out on a potential powerful tool of persuasion.
Also, you left out that Trump uses “Palestinian” as an insult. And his too 1st term foreign policy advisor and son-in-law suggested making Gaza into a beach resort.
Right, the politically correct stance, a-la brain-damaged academic far-leftists, would have been to immediately cut aid to Israel after the Palestinians invaded and murdered more Israeli civilians than anyone since the Nazi SS (most of those Israeli civilians were socialist peace activists, but who cares - they're Jews!), on October 7th, just as the kind humanitarians of the far-left were celebrating rape, massacres and torture.
The aid to Israel has in most cases been a jobs program for the US, as it all has to be spent in the US. The US spends far more to subsidize the defense of the EU, which can afford to pay for its own defense, and South Korea, Japan, Saudi Arabia and various Gulf States - ditto, all of which can afford to pay for their own militaries large enough to defend their territory. So that sleight of hand of yours is kind of a lie, but then that's kind of the schtick of the Free Palestine cultists - to lie constantly about everything.
It's okay though, your antics lost many of that stalwart group of Democratic Party voters - you guessed it, American Jews. Progressives are deep, deeeep strategic thinkers, on top of being oh so moral in supporting the genocidal Jihadism of the Palestinians, Hezbollah, the Houthis, the Islamic Republic of Iran. Win-win-win-win.
It is not a lie that the U.S. has contributed 12.5B in direct military aid to Israel since the Oct 7th attack. Generally, the second biggest beneficiary of direct military aid is Egypt and has been since Egypt agreed to peace in 1979. Basically a bribe to lock the Egyptian army into peace with Israel.
Your “subsidize the defense” comparison is about US forces that provide protection world wide. U.S. forces provide a similar protection to Israel. Even more does U.S. diplomacy. And those U.S. forces would still protect Israel whether we stopped giving direct aid or not. Last year, US planes as well as French and British planes shooting down Iranian drones.
I don’t hate Israel. Israel was definitely justified in responding to the Oct 7th attacks. I don’t support Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis or Iran. The pagers attack was brilliant.
And the Israeli government is likely committing war crimes regularly and that is not conducive to peace and shouldn’t be supported by US tax dollars.
If you have an argument why the U.S. should contribute direct military aid to Israel I would be happy to hear it.
Sorry, you have your facts wrong. This war has been the first one ever where the US shot a single round in defense of Israel, ever. I agree that the US spent several billion dollars firing SM-2, SM-3 and THAAD missiles to help Israel shoot down the many hundreds of ballistic and cruise missiles and explosive drones fired at it by the Islamic Republic of Iran and its many proxies (all armed, trained and funded by it). In comparison, please let me know how many tens of billions of direct military aid the US gave Ukraine, which isn’t a strategic ally nor a partner of the US. Then add up how much the US gave Ukraine in budgetary assistance. If you won’t, I can do that for you. Let’s make that comparison. Israel fights and dies in its own wars, forced on it by your Pals and assorted Arab Supremacist and Islamist terrorist scum. But hey, it’s progressive to cut arms to Israel in a genocidal war launched by Palestinian Jihadists, and while Iran tries to hit Israel exactly the same way the Nazis bombed British cities in WW2. The US abandoned European democracies for 2 years because of similar ‘progressive’ concerns, or some such.
Nice dodge with the amount of money the US spends on subsidizing the defense of Europe, South Korea, Japan, Saudi Arabia - all developed countries with massive economies and more than double the number of people in them than the US. You’re worried about how much Israel costs the US, not Europeans who fund their welfare states by shifting defense cost onto US citizens, right? In 2018 the US spent $29.1 billion on US bases in Europe, $6.53 billion on the European Defense initiative, and $6.74 billion in funding for NATO. I haven’t even gotten to Japan nor South Korea, nor bases in Saudi. That’s in a single year, before the Ukraine war. Are you seriously going to harp about the one-time increase defense assistance to Israel? In the case of Israel and Egypt that defense assistance was part of the peace agreement brokered between them by the US, because both were now enemies of many Arab countries heavily funded by the Soviet Union. Both remain the enemies of the Russia-Iran-China axis, which heavily fund and arm massive Islamist terrorists armies such as Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, Iraqi Shia militias and the massive armies of Iran. See, with ‘progressive’ history being taught to US high school and university kids, the trick is to cut out every enemy of the US out of history, repackage it as “US Bad” and “US vs poor civilians” in all wars, just as that propaganda trick tries to turn the Gaza war into “Israel Bad” and “Israel vs poor Palestinian civilians” - simplistic ahistorical bullshit sold to dimwits by propagandists. But hey, it works on progressives, that much is true. Never mention Hamas in the news and somehow it evaporates from the mind of those allegedly educated progressives.
As for “likely committing war crimes”, I know, I know, repetition of lies is the ‘progressive’ way of information warfare. Repeat a lie enough times, it must be true right. That’s when all this time the Palestinians commit so many actual war crimes that we’re supposed to lose track of them, and forget they’re still ongoing. That invasion of sovereign Israeli territory on October 7? Illegal by international law. Raping women and children? I know it’s very feminist to deny, but those are war crimes. Torturing civilians, maiming them, murdering them? I’m quite sure Amnesty will whitewash it, but those are in fact war crimes. Kidnapping civilians, holding them in inhuman conditions, torturing them, intentionally starving them, preventing the ICRC from visiting them - all Palestinian war crimes. Let’s go back a bit - how about firing rocket artillery from beneath Palestinian civilians (using them as shields) indiscriminately at Israeli civilians tens of thousands of times? A double war crime. Killing Palestinians with a 20% misfire rate is a war crime. Attributing those deaths to Israel, well that’s not a war crime, that’s just Free Palestine cult members in legacy media selling Hamas propaganda to their progressive useful idiot audience.
Snatching the bodies of civilians and holding them - definitely a war crime and one the Palestinians are still engaged in.
Repeating lies like “genocide” and “famine”, none of which ever happened is semanticide - the progressive way of draining words of their meaning. I highly recommend this article talking about this phenomena in the context of the Hamas initiated October 7 war. https://open.substack.com/pub/futureofjewish/p/how-to-steal-the-meaning-of-genocide
And your conclusion is that we should deny arms to Israel. Logic is your strong card.
I’m sorry, I forgot that when the other side is committing war crimes, you get to commit them too.
Wading through Israeli and Palestinian propaganda requires persistence, cross referencing, and reading between the lines. I expect as AI generated videos get better and better, it will be next to impossible. But as it stands, there are incidents that the Israeli government no longer disputes. Just no accountability for the soldiers who committed them or investigation into why those soldiers thought it would be ok.
Killing first responders and bulldozing the evidence is a probable war crime. So it targeting the World Central Kitchen convoy. As is targeting journalists. When an Israeli sniper killed Shireen Abu Akleh it was murder.
You are free to rant about arguments/views I have never made. I have not stated those arguments and views, nor do I hold them.
As you note, the U.S. has been giving direct military aid to Israel for decades. Same with giving direct military aid to Egypt. Certainly a worthwhile deal! Direct to Ukraine is much more recent. Ukraine is damaging Russia and we only have to send $. Doesn’t harm our political standing and upholds our commitments to freedom and democracy. Also indirectly reduces the chance of a war in the Pacific.
Our bases in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East are about projecting American power. They protect Israel as well as American allies around the world. Hence Israel’s enemies being reduced to proxy groups over the last several decades.
Israel has been a longtime ally of the United States. They are a democracy in a region that lacks democracies. They are also a counterweight to Iran and to Islamic terrorism. All important to the United States.
The current Israeli government under Netanyahu has been working against peace for years and has done more to increase support of Palestine in the United States than all the pro-Palestinian activists and professors put together. Moreover, continuing unqualified support of Israel hurts the United States. Selling defensive weapons, encouraging diplomacy with Arab allies, and protecting Israel on the security council are all actions that the U.S. should continue to take on behalf of Israel. But direct aid should be conditional. If Netanyahu or the next Israeli Prime Minister becomes interested in peace then surely direct military aid will be part greasing the wheels toward an agreement.
If you were unaware before this comment that we give Israel military aid (as well as, yes, selling them arms too) then maybe you need to consider whether you know very much about the situation there at all
I distrust pundits who use such jargon repeatedly to discredit their ideological opponents. Since the wider world is finally, alas belatedly, declaring Israel a Criminal State; something that Biden-Harris refused to do; mainstream Democrats are still reluctant to take a stand, and publicly reject AIPAC’s designated talking points and $$$.
Support for Israel and support for Palestinians is an existential issue, not merely another subtle point of argument within the Democratic Party, the “progressive” wing of the Party; or one separating Democrats, Republicans and Independents. For some, even many mainstream Democrats, their conscience is not compromised by their diehard support for Israel. But for many, Israel vs Palestine is the decisive issue, for which compromise is a conscience defying issue. Democrats who fail to take this seriously are responsible for their Party’s failure to confront Trump head on.
I'm pretty left and so especially hate the fat left for being so deeply delusional and stupid. Marxism is some insightful anthropological and economic observations about mid 19th century western europe buried in imaginary utopian bullshit that's pesticides cover for the murder of millions. Give it, the fuck, up!
But come on. Israel is a genocidal, apartheid state. It's fucking embarrassing that they get undying support from all US politicians. A few of them expressing concern but literally never doing anything makes no difference. Are you pretending Kamala would've cut off military sales and aid? Enacted financial sanctions? Done literally a single thing, ever, that Israel didn't like except express concern before literally doing everything Netanyahu asks? You're feeling sanctimonious about effectively arguing as if it's 1937 and it's idiotic for democrats ever to oppose American nazis or Hitler because lots of Americans like America first as a slogan.
LOL, so much dumb stated with such conviction. Only genocide where the defender refused its civilians shelter so they can be good human shields and the attacker notifies civilians how to evacuate, sends them aid, and helps the UN vaccinate the children of the defending force, which started the war with an invasion and massacre causing thousands of Israeli civilian casualties.
Support for Israel and support for Palestinians is an existential issue, not merely another subtle point of argument within the Democratic Party, the “progressive” wing of the Party; or one separating Democrats, Republicans and Independents. For some, even many mainstream Democrats, their conscience is not compromised by their diehard support for Israel. But for many, Israel vs Palestine is the decisive issue, for which compromise is a conscience defying issue. Democrats who fail to take this seriously are responsible for their Party’s failure to confront Trump head on.
If the us stopped providing aid to Israel, that would force Israel to use dirtier weapons, which would result in more Palestinian dead. And no, I don’t believe the left cares.
Israel is a big economy, they can make them, they can buy them from Russia or China or some other completely immoral or amoral source. And the more you squeeze them, the more psycho far right the government will get, and the more likely the psychos are to continue to win more elections
But I know, Feeling The Solidarity is more important than those inconvenient type of concerns.
Larpers.
(that's not even getting into however much anti-Jewish civilizational tendencies really are involved in opposition to Israel and how Israel is perceived and assessed, because that's not likely to be a productive topic in this moment in this comment section.)
But look on the bright side: if Israel gets far right enough, they might actually commit a real genocide, and then the left gets to say "I told you so."
First you say that if we stopped supplying them they'd be forced to use dirtier weapons. Now you say they can just make them or get them from others. One of those statements is definitely wrong. But in truth, they both are.
What would a "more" psycho Israel look like?
Would more than all the people in Gaza be starving now? Would Israel have destroyed 100% of their buildings instead of 80%.Would they have bombed 100% of their hospitals and schools instead of 94% Would they have destroyed 100% of their cropland instead of 98% ?
Would they be killing 10's of thousands more women and children ?
Interesting that you think Israel can be so easily forced to commit genocide by merely "squeezing" them.
It seems you think what they are doing is justified. If they were "squeezed "into crossing the line into committing genocide , as you see it, would you think them justified? Would you blame their actions on other people, and absolve them of the responsibility ?
Stop with the histrionic grandstanding rhetoric, it's so tired, and it's not saving a single Palestinian life. You're practically creaming your pants with the joy your taking in your outrage. You can smell it on people like you. I don't think you would care about a single Palestinian life if anyone other than Israel could be blamed for it.
I don't support this Israeli government. I think it is a venal self-interested gallery of rogues. I'm with the probably 80% of Israelis who feel the war should end now, in exchange for returning the hostages. I think it should have ended months ago. If I were in charge of the government, I'd start making major deals with all of the relatively sane governments in the region - elements in the PA, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, - to try and create some incentive structure to help out in Gaza to rebuild it and get Hamas out of power. quid pro quo. With a lot of IDF oversight to make sure tunnels and so forth aren't rebuilt. But I'm not a military expert. IF this is impossible... let's just say: there is no other country that would put up with this. But if you think Israel shouldn't exist, well tough, it's going to continue to exist, with its nukes, so the world should grow the fuck up about this and stop making everything worse. They are more to blame even then this awful government for continuing to feed this "anti-Zionist" delusion.
As far as what they should have done after Oct 7, they needed to do a significant amount of damage to Hamas' infrastructure, and war was the only way. This is just hard geopolitical reality. Hamas is to blame for that. War is hell. The combatant to non-combatant ratio is probably indeed the best any government has ever gotten with a fighting situation this complicated. Look at Mosul, which wasn't as difficult, and how many innocents died, and how little outrage there was.
Because I don't think the IDF - distinct from the government, btw - is a Julius Streicher style caricature, I think it is possible for them to use smarter weapons to kill fewer noncombatant Gazans then they have killed as a predictable side effect of their main goals. A predictable side effect that they and their supporters blame on Hamas, for not giving up the hostages and fucking off. I happen to agree that the main responsibility does indeed lie with this very fucking evil organization.
If everything went completely horrible and the most racist parts of the government actually took control of everything and decided to actually wipe out Gazans, I would say that that government is at fault, that Israelis who voted such a government in were also to a lesser extent share some of the blame, though not Israelis who voted against it. And Jews who opposed that government but still wanted Israel to exist? I wouldn't have a problem with them. Turkey still exists. Germany still exists.
But of course it would be a monstrous tragedy.
But no, it's not a genocide when the population is growing on net. Stop it. But you won't. Because this isn't about facts and reason. Not even close.
You think I'm being overly dramatic and theatrical? Look in the mirror.
I point out your illogical statements and you go on a paragraphs long personal attack laced with insults and false assumptions. My, you are easily triggered.
I'm not going to engage in defending myself from your paranoid demented imaginary image of me, but I will address this part of what you said...
..."But no, it's not a genocide when the population is growing on net. Stop it. But you won't. Because this isn't about facts and reason. Not even close....."
This tells me you don't know what the definition of genocide is..
The UN's Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, defining it as "acts with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group." Jewish museums, like the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, use this internationally recognized legal definition.
I think the The Holocaust Memorial Museum knows better than you do.
I think you are completely unaware or dismiss the "facts" of what Israel has done and are doing to Gaza. It's astonishing that you think the population of Gaza is growing.
You have to be in a small info bubble to believe that "The combatant to non-combatant ratio is probably indeed the best any government has ever gotten" and believe that most of the worlds media has it out for Isreal.
Its telling that you characterized my lists of the verified damage Isreal has done as grandstanding and histrionics.
Also, You seem to be under the impression that some majority of the people of Israel are opposed to what is happening. But a majority do approve. A majority want the Palestinians ethnically cleansed from Gaza.
I say all of this knowing that you can't accept it. I feel sorry for you.
I hope one day that you will come to see that you have been deeply (and willingly ) deceived. But probably, despite when it is all laid bare, you will either come to think of what they have done as justified, or spend the rest of your life in denial, believing the world had slandered Isreal just because they are Jewish. That would be very sad.
I'm done with you. The last word is yours if you want it.
I can send you links on why the world's media actually does, effectively, have it out for Israel. Not from Bibi, not from AIPAC. Look up Matti Friedman, Haviv Rettig Gur, Noam Dworman. That's a good start. Also, this - the English summary basically covers it, but you can run it through ChatGPT to get a good explanation. The Henry Jackson society - I know, evil right wing think tank - has good stuff. Andrew Fox. Who is opposed to the current Gaza operation.
If you have the stomach for it, check out those sources.
But other than that - yeah, "peace." As if that's what this is about. Cause it isn't.
Israel isn’t a genocidal apartheid state or whatever buzzword salad leftists are using these days anyway. I used to be a self described leftist but post 10/7 I’ve started to see the radical left more clearly and I want absolutely no part of it. The fringe has become mainstream.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris would say they stand for the 2 State solution while vetoing the United Nations resolution which would have seen Palestine be created as a State
.
They said they cared about innocent civilian life while continuing to send the bombs that Israel was dropping on all those innocent civilians
.
They said they opposed Israel's plan to starve Gaza to death yet when the entire state department found Israel to be using starvation as a weapon of war they lied in an official report to Congress (look up Stacy Gilbert)
.
They said Rafah was a red line then did nothing when Benjamin Netanyahu proceeded to flatten Rafah
.
The rhetoric was different than Trump but the policy was exactly the same. Not only did Joe Biden oversee a genocide, he and Kamala Harris lied about it every step of the way
.
I have no doubt Kamala Harris would have capitulated to Benjamin Netanyahu in the same way Donald Trump has. The rhetoric and fake concern for civilians would just be different.
.
Genuinely if she would have said this statement that you wrote she would be President right now
“Israel is an apartheid state joyfully committing genocide…in Gaza, and that’s why we’re not giving them another penny”
.
This is not at all a story of leftist's pushing purity politics to an extreme.
The moral red line of not supporting a genocidal extermination campaign is not extreme.
This is a story of the Democratic Party base saying starving children to death is a moral red line and Kamala Harris saying she was more committed to Israel than she is to human rights and she couldn't care any less about what her own party voters thought.
How can you find time to post comments on substack when there’s an active genocide taking place?
When she had the chance to show a basic level of empathy, she instead refused to even allow a Palestinian to speak at the Democratic National Convention
I was right when I wrote Kamala Harris & the Uncommitted Movement
https://philosophicalrebellion.substack.com/p/kamala-harris-and-the-uncommitted?r=211fuw
And it is still right. She would be President if she followed the advice I wrote about. Instead she showed greater loyalty to Israel than American values and that cost her the election.
Stopping Israel's ongoing genocide is also incredibly important so I suggest looking up Mosab Abu Toha to hear from the Palestinian perspective and check out my post "Israel's Genocide in Gaza"
Hilarious. You actually think Kamala Harris would be President if she adopted the "genocide" narrative? Hilarious. You are deluded. Completely deluded. It's inadvertent comedy gold.
And while we are on the topic of you being deluded, here are some studies and facts to counter your "genocide" nonsense. (The only "genocide" in history where (i) the target population grew; (ii) the target population could stop the war but refuses to; and (iii) the supposed genocidaires innoculated the entire target population from polio during the war/"genocide. But why let facts stop the virtue signaling and support for a religio-fascist Islamist movement, amirite? LOL.).
You won't read the links below; you will find some twee and stupid reason to ignore it all (you'll say "it's zio fascist hasbara!!!!!!!!!!" no doubt or some such.) But maybe someone who cherishes ignorance and empty arrogance a bit less than you will read the links below.
www.henryjacksonsociety.org
www.high-level-military-group.org
www.7octparliamentarycommission.co.uk
www.thedinahproject.org
OMG , you are a child ! LMAOAU.
This kind of juvenile response to a heartfelt comment basically tells us all that you have no response and, at some level, constitutes an admission that your position is indefensible both morally and under international law. For you politics seems to “trump” everything, even widely recognized genocide.
Yes, this is correct, except for the part about it making a difference in the election; I think you're wrong there. The problem is exactly that she and Biden said good, reasonable-sounding things and wagged their fingers at Israel while looking very stern, and meanwhile the arms and the money and the UN security council vetos kept flowing. It's the mismatch between the Biden/Harris smarmy rhetoric and the administration's unqualified material support that rightfully infuriated a large chunk of the Dem base. The writer can carte blanche dismiss that large swathe of pro-Palestine voters as The Unreasonable Left, but fella ... bad news. The Democrats are the left-of-center party in the US, so that's the party base. Sorry.
Unfortunately, Harris would have lost no matter what her position on the Israel/Palestine issue, and let's be honest -- she probably would have lost worse. If you think otherwise, you're deluding yourself.
My wife actually lost a friend over her refusal to support the Uncommitted movement. We don't even live in a state where "uncommitted" is an option on the ballot! But the friend made her friendship contingent on taking a purely symbolic stand against "Genocide Joe" rather than doing literally anything that might have had a positive impact. (And it's worth adding that this friend doesn't even live on the United States anymore.)
This is what really made me distance myself from the far-left. So many of the people I knew were willing to completely throw the election to Trump just to prove a narcissistic point. They care more about ideological purity and social media virtue signaling than they actually care about Palestinians. One friend in particular who voted third party said his conscience was clear in doing so… I’m like, really? Seeing everything going on right now under Trump? It’s almost sociopathic behavior.
My stance on this isn’t even about Israel vs. Palestine it’s just about the dumbass behavior of chronically online leftists.
They stated their position, made clear the consequences of not offering any concessions, then followed through when no concessions were offered. You consider the consequences to be their fault.
Which would be fine, if you didn't need them to vote for your guy next time.
When the results of the Law of Unintended Consequences are either ignored or enshrined as evidence of courageous righteousness. There's a huge difference between virtue signaling for the ideal and getting actual hoped for results, however incrementally.
Quite! Leftists do hate incrementalism; the best way to make progress we know of!
Thanks for reading!
Incrementalism isn't though. New Deal, Great Society, sufferage, civil rights- none of those were incremental, and they cover most of the progress we've made in the last hundred years.
The Death Cult offers purity, and through purity, salvation. Close your mind to the noise of deluded sheep and instead be tempted by my honeyed balm.
“Leftists “? That figure of speech had me disbelieving the rest of your argument. I was not wrong. I’m Jewish and I don’t support Israel’s stance on Gaza. That does not make me antisemitic. It makes me human. You are promoting divisive ideology, just like trump does.
Actually if you're an antizionist you're actively supporting a genocide and ethnic cleansing of the biggest, most diverse, most dynamic Jewish community in the world - the 7.7 million Israeli Jews. That definitely makes you an antisemite, to say the least.
Israel's "stance" on Gaza is fighting the war launched by savage Palestinian death squads to its conclusion of neutering the ability of those Palestinian Jihadists to wage the same type of invasion, torture, rape, wounding, murdering and abducting of Israeli civilians. Truly a giant crime for Jews to fight back. Noted.
Destroying a population and annexing their land really isn't fighting back. Especially when you kill 100 times as many people in the process as they do.
Wrong, again. I am not antisemitic. I’m against genocide. The IDF has murdered so many innocent children and women. They do it willingly and willfully. If you support that, you’re condoning genocide. Do not respond to me again.
This is ridiculous. Even if we believe the Hamas propaganda office numbers, they themselves announced 50,000 kids were born in this “genocide”. Genocide is intent to wipe out a people, and no such thing happened. What you’re talking about is called war, and I know it’s super offensive to the Free Palestine cult when Jews fight back after Arabs attack it and carry out yet another genocide attempt. You’re a useful idiot of Islamist terrorists.
FUAH.
A vote for Harris was a vote for someone you could argue with. A vote for anyone else or no vote at all was a vote for a guy you cannot argue with. Simple. Protest votes and non-votes are way overrated as a tactic. Youre just handing the government to people who want you gone.
Refusal to keep your coalition together has much the same effect.
Indeed. For better or worse, the US has an entrenched two-party system. There is little to no upside for coalition building like you see in parliamentarian systems. Now that the GOP has decided scorched earth/take no prisoners is the order of the day, even less. I’m an independent that’s never belonged to either party, and have voted both ways in differing circumstances.
You could have stopped at "Leftists are Completely Delusional".
I’m ready to stop giving Israel weapons. It would be nice if pro-Palestinian activists tried to persuade the Republican Party this was a good idea so that it has a chance to be realized.
Too many are more interested in purity. Wouldn’t even support No Other Land because of Israeli involvement, missing out on a potential powerful tool of persuasion.
Also, you left out that Trump uses “Palestinian” as an insult. And his too 1st term foreign policy advisor and son-in-law suggested making Gaza into a beach resort.
I think we sell them weapons. But yes, I agree. It’s a shame it’s purity politics all the way through right now.
And yes, you’re right. I forgot about that one!
Thanks for reading!!
We do sell weapons, but we give an enormous amount of military aid. At least 12.5B since the October 7th attacks.
https://www.cfr.org/article/us-aid-israel-four-charts
Thanks for writing
Correct. Good catch.
Right, the politically correct stance, a-la brain-damaged academic far-leftists, would have been to immediately cut aid to Israel after the Palestinians invaded and murdered more Israeli civilians than anyone since the Nazi SS (most of those Israeli civilians were socialist peace activists, but who cares - they're Jews!), on October 7th, just as the kind humanitarians of the far-left were celebrating rape, massacres and torture.
The aid to Israel has in most cases been a jobs program for the US, as it all has to be spent in the US. The US spends far more to subsidize the defense of the EU, which can afford to pay for its own defense, and South Korea, Japan, Saudi Arabia and various Gulf States - ditto, all of which can afford to pay for their own militaries large enough to defend their territory. So that sleight of hand of yours is kind of a lie, but then that's kind of the schtick of the Free Palestine cultists - to lie constantly about everything.
It's okay though, your antics lost many of that stalwart group of Democratic Party voters - you guessed it, American Jews. Progressives are deep, deeeep strategic thinkers, on top of being oh so moral in supporting the genocidal Jihadism of the Palestinians, Hezbollah, the Houthis, the Islamic Republic of Iran. Win-win-win-win.
It is not a lie that the U.S. has contributed 12.5B in direct military aid to Israel since the Oct 7th attack. Generally, the second biggest beneficiary of direct military aid is Egypt and has been since Egypt agreed to peace in 1979. Basically a bribe to lock the Egyptian army into peace with Israel.
Your “subsidize the defense” comparison is about US forces that provide protection world wide. U.S. forces provide a similar protection to Israel. Even more does U.S. diplomacy. And those U.S. forces would still protect Israel whether we stopped giving direct aid or not. Last year, US planes as well as French and British planes shooting down Iranian drones.
I don’t hate Israel. Israel was definitely justified in responding to the Oct 7th attacks. I don’t support Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis or Iran. The pagers attack was brilliant.
And the Israeli government is likely committing war crimes regularly and that is not conducive to peace and shouldn’t be supported by US tax dollars.
If you have an argument why the U.S. should contribute direct military aid to Israel I would be happy to hear it.
Sorry, you have your facts wrong. This war has been the first one ever where the US shot a single round in defense of Israel, ever. I agree that the US spent several billion dollars firing SM-2, SM-3 and THAAD missiles to help Israel shoot down the many hundreds of ballistic and cruise missiles and explosive drones fired at it by the Islamic Republic of Iran and its many proxies (all armed, trained and funded by it). In comparison, please let me know how many tens of billions of direct military aid the US gave Ukraine, which isn’t a strategic ally nor a partner of the US. Then add up how much the US gave Ukraine in budgetary assistance. If you won’t, I can do that for you. Let’s make that comparison. Israel fights and dies in its own wars, forced on it by your Pals and assorted Arab Supremacist and Islamist terrorist scum. But hey, it’s progressive to cut arms to Israel in a genocidal war launched by Palestinian Jihadists, and while Iran tries to hit Israel exactly the same way the Nazis bombed British cities in WW2. The US abandoned European democracies for 2 years because of similar ‘progressive’ concerns, or some such.
Nice dodge with the amount of money the US spends on subsidizing the defense of Europe, South Korea, Japan, Saudi Arabia - all developed countries with massive economies and more than double the number of people in them than the US. You’re worried about how much Israel costs the US, not Europeans who fund their welfare states by shifting defense cost onto US citizens, right? In 2018 the US spent $29.1 billion on US bases in Europe, $6.53 billion on the European Defense initiative, and $6.74 billion in funding for NATO. I haven’t even gotten to Japan nor South Korea, nor bases in Saudi. That’s in a single year, before the Ukraine war. Are you seriously going to harp about the one-time increase defense assistance to Israel? In the case of Israel and Egypt that defense assistance was part of the peace agreement brokered between them by the US, because both were now enemies of many Arab countries heavily funded by the Soviet Union. Both remain the enemies of the Russia-Iran-China axis, which heavily fund and arm massive Islamist terrorists armies such as Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, Iraqi Shia militias and the massive armies of Iran. See, with ‘progressive’ history being taught to US high school and university kids, the trick is to cut out every enemy of the US out of history, repackage it as “US Bad” and “US vs poor civilians” in all wars, just as that propaganda trick tries to turn the Gaza war into “Israel Bad” and “Israel vs poor Palestinian civilians” - simplistic ahistorical bullshit sold to dimwits by propagandists. But hey, it works on progressives, that much is true. Never mention Hamas in the news and somehow it evaporates from the mind of those allegedly educated progressives.
As for “likely committing war crimes”, I know, I know, repetition of lies is the ‘progressive’ way of information warfare. Repeat a lie enough times, it must be true right. That’s when all this time the Palestinians commit so many actual war crimes that we’re supposed to lose track of them, and forget they’re still ongoing. That invasion of sovereign Israeli territory on October 7? Illegal by international law. Raping women and children? I know it’s very feminist to deny, but those are war crimes. Torturing civilians, maiming them, murdering them? I’m quite sure Amnesty will whitewash it, but those are in fact war crimes. Kidnapping civilians, holding them in inhuman conditions, torturing them, intentionally starving them, preventing the ICRC from visiting them - all Palestinian war crimes. Let’s go back a bit - how about firing rocket artillery from beneath Palestinian civilians (using them as shields) indiscriminately at Israeli civilians tens of thousands of times? A double war crime. Killing Palestinians with a 20% misfire rate is a war crime. Attributing those deaths to Israel, well that’s not a war crime, that’s just Free Palestine cult members in legacy media selling Hamas propaganda to their progressive useful idiot audience.
Snatching the bodies of civilians and holding them - definitely a war crime and one the Palestinians are still engaged in.
Repeating lies like “genocide” and “famine”, none of which ever happened is semanticide - the progressive way of draining words of their meaning. I highly recommend this article talking about this phenomena in the context of the Hamas initiated October 7 war. https://open.substack.com/pub/futureofjewish/p/how-to-steal-the-meaning-of-genocide
And your conclusion is that we should deny arms to Israel. Logic is your strong card.
I’m sorry, I forgot that when the other side is committing war crimes, you get to commit them too.
Wading through Israeli and Palestinian propaganda requires persistence, cross referencing, and reading between the lines. I expect as AI generated videos get better and better, it will be next to impossible. But as it stands, there are incidents that the Israeli government no longer disputes. Just no accountability for the soldiers who committed them or investigation into why those soldiers thought it would be ok.
Killing first responders and bulldozing the evidence is a probable war crime. So it targeting the World Central Kitchen convoy. As is targeting journalists. When an Israeli sniper killed Shireen Abu Akleh it was murder.
You are free to rant about arguments/views I have never made. I have not stated those arguments and views, nor do I hold them.
As you note, the U.S. has been giving direct military aid to Israel for decades. Same with giving direct military aid to Egypt. Certainly a worthwhile deal! Direct to Ukraine is much more recent. Ukraine is damaging Russia and we only have to send $. Doesn’t harm our political standing and upholds our commitments to freedom and democracy. Also indirectly reduces the chance of a war in the Pacific.
Our bases in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East are about projecting American power. They protect Israel as well as American allies around the world. Hence Israel’s enemies being reduced to proxy groups over the last several decades.
Israel has been a longtime ally of the United States. They are a democracy in a region that lacks democracies. They are also a counterweight to Iran and to Islamic terrorism. All important to the United States.
The current Israeli government under Netanyahu has been working against peace for years and has done more to increase support of Palestine in the United States than all the pro-Palestinian activists and professors put together. Moreover, continuing unqualified support of Israel hurts the United States. Selling defensive weapons, encouraging diplomacy with Arab allies, and protecting Israel on the security council are all actions that the U.S. should continue to take on behalf of Israel. But direct aid should be conditional. If Netanyahu or the next Israeli Prime Minister becomes interested in peace then surely direct military aid will be part greasing the wheels toward an agreement.
If you were unaware before this comment that we give Israel military aid (as well as, yes, selling them arms too) then maybe you need to consider whether you know very much about the situation there at all
“Leftists” “Leftists” “Leftists”
I distrust pundits who use such jargon repeatedly to discredit their ideological opponents. Since the wider world is finally, alas belatedly, declaring Israel a Criminal State; something that Biden-Harris refused to do; mainstream Democrats are still reluctant to take a stand, and publicly reject AIPAC’s designated talking points and $$$.
Support for Israel and support for Palestinians is an existential issue, not merely another subtle point of argument within the Democratic Party, the “progressive” wing of the Party; or one separating Democrats, Republicans and Independents. For some, even many mainstream Democrats, their conscience is not compromised by their diehard support for Israel. But for many, Israel vs Palestine is the decisive issue, for which compromise is a conscience defying issue. Democrats who fail to take this seriously are responsible for their Party’s failure to confront Trump head on.
Preach
And in that photo of Netanyahu and Harris used to highlight the essay, check out the cat-that-just-ate-the-canary look on Bibi’s face. A symp.
I noticed that too LOL dude was scheming.
I'm pretty left and so especially hate the fat left for being so deeply delusional and stupid. Marxism is some insightful anthropological and economic observations about mid 19th century western europe buried in imaginary utopian bullshit that's pesticides cover for the murder of millions. Give it, the fuck, up!
But come on. Israel is a genocidal, apartheid state. It's fucking embarrassing that they get undying support from all US politicians. A few of them expressing concern but literally never doing anything makes no difference. Are you pretending Kamala would've cut off military sales and aid? Enacted financial sanctions? Done literally a single thing, ever, that Israel didn't like except express concern before literally doing everything Netanyahu asks? You're feeling sanctimonious about effectively arguing as if it's 1937 and it's idiotic for democrats ever to oppose American nazis or Hitler because lots of Americans like America first as a slogan.
LOL, so much dumb stated with such conviction. Only genocide where the defender refused its civilians shelter so they can be good human shields and the attacker notifies civilians how to evacuate, sends them aid, and helps the UN vaccinate the children of the defending force, which started the war with an invasion and massacre causing thousands of Israeli civilian casualties.
Support for Israel and support for Palestinians is an existential issue, not merely another subtle point of argument within the Democratic Party, the “progressive” wing of the Party; or one separating Democrats, Republicans and Independents. For some, even many mainstream Democrats, their conscience is not compromised by their diehard support for Israel. But for many, Israel vs Palestine is the decisive issue, for which compromise is a conscience defying issue. Democrats who fail to take this seriously are responsible for their Party’s failure to confront Trump head on.
If the us stopped providing aid to Israel, that would force Israel to use dirtier weapons, which would result in more Palestinian dead. And no, I don’t believe the left cares.
We could stop providing them with "dirtier weapons" too.
Le sigh.
Israel is a big economy, they can make them, they can buy them from Russia or China or some other completely immoral or amoral source. And the more you squeeze them, the more psycho far right the government will get, and the more likely the psychos are to continue to win more elections
But I know, Feeling The Solidarity is more important than those inconvenient type of concerns.
Larpers.
(that's not even getting into however much anti-Jewish civilizational tendencies really are involved in opposition to Israel and how Israel is perceived and assessed, because that's not likely to be a productive topic in this moment in this comment section.)
But look on the bright side: if Israel gets far right enough, they might actually commit a real genocide, and then the left gets to say "I told you so."
First you say that if we stopped supplying them they'd be forced to use dirtier weapons. Now you say they can just make them or get them from others. One of those statements is definitely wrong. But in truth, they both are.
What would a "more" psycho Israel look like?
Would more than all the people in Gaza be starving now? Would Israel have destroyed 100% of their buildings instead of 80%.Would they have bombed 100% of their hospitals and schools instead of 94% Would they have destroyed 100% of their cropland instead of 98% ?
Would they be killing 10's of thousands more women and children ?
Interesting that you think Israel can be so easily forced to commit genocide by merely "squeezing" them.
It seems you think what they are doing is justified. If they were "squeezed "into crossing the line into committing genocide , as you see it, would you think them justified? Would you blame their actions on other people, and absolve them of the responsibility ?
Stop with the histrionic grandstanding rhetoric, it's so tired, and it's not saving a single Palestinian life. You're practically creaming your pants with the joy your taking in your outrage. You can smell it on people like you. I don't think you would care about a single Palestinian life if anyone other than Israel could be blamed for it.
I don't support this Israeli government. I think it is a venal self-interested gallery of rogues. I'm with the probably 80% of Israelis who feel the war should end now, in exchange for returning the hostages. I think it should have ended months ago. If I were in charge of the government, I'd start making major deals with all of the relatively sane governments in the region - elements in the PA, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, - to try and create some incentive structure to help out in Gaza to rebuild it and get Hamas out of power. quid pro quo. With a lot of IDF oversight to make sure tunnels and so forth aren't rebuilt. But I'm not a military expert. IF this is impossible... let's just say: there is no other country that would put up with this. But if you think Israel shouldn't exist, well tough, it's going to continue to exist, with its nukes, so the world should grow the fuck up about this and stop making everything worse. They are more to blame even then this awful government for continuing to feed this "anti-Zionist" delusion.
As far as what they should have done after Oct 7, they needed to do a significant amount of damage to Hamas' infrastructure, and war was the only way. This is just hard geopolitical reality. Hamas is to blame for that. War is hell. The combatant to non-combatant ratio is probably indeed the best any government has ever gotten with a fighting situation this complicated. Look at Mosul, which wasn't as difficult, and how many innocents died, and how little outrage there was.
Because I don't think the IDF - distinct from the government, btw - is a Julius Streicher style caricature, I think it is possible for them to use smarter weapons to kill fewer noncombatant Gazans then they have killed as a predictable side effect of their main goals. A predictable side effect that they and their supporters blame on Hamas, for not giving up the hostages and fucking off. I happen to agree that the main responsibility does indeed lie with this very fucking evil organization.
If everything went completely horrible and the most racist parts of the government actually took control of everything and decided to actually wipe out Gazans, I would say that that government is at fault, that Israelis who voted such a government in were also to a lesser extent share some of the blame, though not Israelis who voted against it. And Jews who opposed that government but still wanted Israel to exist? I wouldn't have a problem with them. Turkey still exists. Germany still exists.
But of course it would be a monstrous tragedy.
But no, it's not a genocide when the population is growing on net. Stop it. But you won't. Because this isn't about facts and reason. Not even close.
You think I'm being overly dramatic and theatrical? Look in the mirror.
I point out your illogical statements and you go on a paragraphs long personal attack laced with insults and false assumptions. My, you are easily triggered.
I'm not going to engage in defending myself from your paranoid demented imaginary image of me, but I will address this part of what you said...
..."But no, it's not a genocide when the population is growing on net. Stop it. But you won't. Because this isn't about facts and reason. Not even close....."
This tells me you don't know what the definition of genocide is..
The UN's Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, defining it as "acts with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group." Jewish museums, like the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, use this internationally recognized legal definition.
I think the The Holocaust Memorial Museum knows better than you do.
I think you are completely unaware or dismiss the "facts" of what Israel has done and are doing to Gaza. It's astonishing that you think the population of Gaza is growing.
You have to be in a small info bubble to believe that "The combatant to non-combatant ratio is probably indeed the best any government has ever gotten" and believe that most of the worlds media has it out for Isreal.
Its telling that you characterized my lists of the verified damage Isreal has done as grandstanding and histrionics.
Also, You seem to be under the impression that some majority of the people of Israel are opposed to what is happening. But a majority do approve. A majority want the Palestinians ethnically cleansed from Gaza.
I say all of this knowing that you can't accept it. I feel sorry for you.
I hope one day that you will come to see that you have been deeply (and willingly ) deceived. But probably, despite when it is all laid bare, you will either come to think of what they have done as justified, or spend the rest of your life in denial, believing the world had slandered Isreal just because they are Jewish. That would be very sad.
I'm done with you. The last word is yours if you want it.
Peace.
I can send you links on why the world's media actually does, effectively, have it out for Israel. Not from Bibi, not from AIPAC. Look up Matti Friedman, Haviv Rettig Gur, Noam Dworman. That's a good start. Also, this - the English summary basically covers it, but you can run it through ChatGPT to get a good explanation. The Henry Jackson society - I know, evil right wing think tank - has good stuff. Andrew Fox. Who is opposed to the current Gaza operation.
If you have the stomach for it, check out those sources.
But other than that - yeah, "peace." As if that's what this is about. Cause it isn't.
Israel isn’t a genocidal apartheid state or whatever buzzword salad leftists are using these days anyway. I used to be a self described leftist but post 10/7 I’ve started to see the radical left more clearly and I want absolutely no part of it. The fringe has become mainstream.