"Is Lebanon part of Israel's promised territory?" — Jerusalem Post, 5 days ago
They've removed it since. Too mask-off to release in english I guess.
"promised territory" hmm where have I heard that before...
Rabbi Shay Tahan, the Rosh Kollel of Shaarei Ezra in Brooklyn, NY, graciously opens the gates to understand them.
White dude from Brooklyn: "God promised me Lebanon"
I've read The Guardian article about the situation, and what stuck out to me was this:
The US president, Joe Biden, said he was aware of Israel’s plans to launch an operation into Lebanon as he urged against such a move. “I’m more aware than you might know and I’m comfortable with them stopping,” he told reporters at the White House. “We should have a ceasefire now.”
Thank you Biden, just wag your finger and keep feeling "comfortable with them stopping", that is ought to give you some moral victory points which is all that matters (and not thousands of civilians being killed by Israel that's funded by US).
the worst part is that Biden saying that is like the most you'll ever hear any american politician say. Thats "Radical" to them. "Hey maybe don't invade lebanon" "omg are you an antisemite?"
i had to listen to an absolutely unhinged dude yesterday, who thinks biden/kamala not saying "KILL THEM ALL KILL KILL KILL GO BIBI GO KILL" means they're going to "betray" israel...
it was bad.
Imagine being either more bloodthirsty or more incompetent (or both) that Reagan.
These kinda of things are why the US supports Israel. It helps destabilize the neighbors that don't fall in line with US interests. The US fears a sovereign Middle East where they get to choose what to do with their own countries and resources, not just for the usual Imperialist reasons, but because of the importance of the petrodollar system.
That's too 5-d chess for "the US" to pull off. I find it more plausible that the US supports Israel because Israel has a lot of powerful supporters in the US who manipulate public opinion and government policy.
It's not 5-d chess, it's simple politics of weakening potential rivals. If you look at history literally the same thing was done even by ancient hegemonies, it has even popular Latin name - "Divide et impera". USA is global hegemon and acts globally.
That's too 5-d chess for "the US" to pull off.
It is not a complicated strategy. It just requires a large group that cares about the petrodollar. The US has a ton of those people in high places in government and finance.
The US invented the petrodollar.
I find it more plausible that the US supports Israel because Israel has a lot of powerful supporters in the US who manipulate public opinion and government policy.
Israel has powerful supporters in the US because it is in the interests of capital to support Israel. The higher interests of capital do understand why the Middle East must be destabilized for their own gain. They are fully aware of and influence, for example, the invasion to control Iraq's oil fields and depose the government of Iraq that was acting too sovereign about it. Same for the Syrian oil fields seized and controlled by the US to this day. This is also why the US promotes the Saudis as an ally - they stabilize the petrodollar system. It is no coincidence that they also target an independent Yemem.
Powerful supporters are just the middlemen for capital, as are major media campaigns. It is not explanatory to say that powerful people support a country or policy. Of course they must do so, that is how every policy decision happens: the powerful people fall in line with the decisions of capital, decisions that may have been made decades ago but are now entrenched. Capital also leverages its close collaboration with the highest levels of the state. The White House is constantly consulting finance, economic advisors from finance, think tanks built to advance the interests of finance, etc (finance is the dominsnt wing of caoital in the US). And in the other direction, capital is constantly making threats and PR pushes.
that's just antisemitic "the jews are secretly in control" shit by another name
As demonstrated by @theangryseal@lemmy.world the zionists in America are not all Jewish. In fact, there are likely many more evangelical zionists in the USA than Jewish zionists. Also, most of the jews I know (especially younger ones) are anti-zionist.
But cheers on the Israel=Judaism hasbara
yes i am aware of all of this. none of that in any way interacts with my point, which is that "actually israel is secretly pulling the strings of the U.S. via shadowy manipulation" fucking reeks and it has the distinction of not being true
via shadowy manipulation [...] and it has the distinction of not being true
Yeah I agree with this part. Because the manipulation is obvious and in your face and absolutely not "shadowy".
AIPAC has made it clear repeatedly that they will carpet bomb any candidate no matter how minor with money if they support BDS or are even BDS-adjacent. Nina Turner, Cori Bush, and Jamaal Bowman have all had their political careers cut short for being even slightly critical of Israel.
If there was an organization like AIPAC for, say, Russia, an ARPAC, it would be illegal and its officers would be hauled off to prison because foreign influence in American elections is illegal. Yet even though it says right in the name that AIPAC is a foreign influence organization, they are allowed to not only operate but yield enormous power.
On the other side of the isle, Thomas Massie has said that every single member of the US congress has an "AIPAC Minder" who watches over them at all times and he's even heard in meetings of Republican members statements like "I need to clear that with my AIPAC guy."
It is illegal to boycott a foreign country in 37 US states. The state governments of a majority of American states actually passed a law saying "this foreign country in particular, if an American citizen boycotts or advocates for boycotting it, they can be prosecuted." Can you guess which country that is? (hint: it's not Canada)
It self-consciously is the reason: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYLNCcLfIkM
Israel only has lobbying groups that are allowed to operate in American politics because the US was already dedicated to zionism. Otherwise there'd be, like, a Chinese AIPAC lobbying for the PRC or something.
exactly what the us allows them to do. I can only guess that kind old uncle sam has been feeding its billions in war change to israel for reasons more compelling than mere genocide (but that would suffice for some). a middle east ground "incursion" may be it.
because nothing could possibly go wrong with this. nothing at all.
99% of genocidal fascist settler states give up right before winning a 4 front war, FACT
I am so so so expecting a nuclear exchange in or around the middle east witin 12 months - possibly after a "dirty nuke" attempt somewhere.
I am clutching at straws to even excuse this out of my top 3 worst case black swans.
only positive news is that nuclear winter will sure fix up that global warming thing real good.
There won't be an exchange; only Israel has nukes; it'll just be genocide in a different location
more than a few actors may (likely?) have very low yield devices. only takes a few to panic people and governments into stupid actions.
This was always going to happen after the pagers exploded. Netanyahu is finalizing his legacy before he loses the next election. He’s taking out all of Israel’s enemies’ ability to wage war.
Netanyahu is ensuring October 10 doesn’t happen again in the foreseeable future and also expanding land grabs at a rapid pace. He doesn’t give a single fuck about civilian death tolls to achieve his goals.
...and this ensures it will happen again. with greater magnitude. the machine needs more meat.
The recent military attacks on the people of Lebanon have increased Netanyahu's popularity. When people talk about Netanyahu being unpopular, they often forget that this is because his government isn't sufficiently meeting demands for blood and retribution and making the Israeli Ubermenschen feel like they are perfectly safe and dominant at all times. Attacks on Lebanon checks all 3 boxes, at least in their minds.
Countries typically have the highest approval ratings when waging war.
George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush had the highest approval ratings among US presidents at 89% and 90% respectively when the US was invading Iraq and Afghanistan (source), so this is to be expected.
IIRC, there were members of his administration who resigned due to how slowly he was genociding the Gazans.
Yes and particularly from his special little Gazan genocide task force.
Where will "I'll attack them coz they attacked me coz I attacked them coz they attacked me..." finally lead to? Anything can be justified based on when you start looking at the history, and each new attack only fuels the next.
Where will "I'll attack them coz they attacked me coz I attacked them coz they attacked me..." finally lead to?
The end of Israel as an apartheid genocidal settler-colonial state. You can look to South Africa for an example.
Go look at the northern ireland troubles. There are other similar situations in history but that's a good example. Essentially you have to get people talking until they agree to peace. Violence of any type just fuels more conflict.
I suspect Israel just wants to wipe out its enemies. That can't be done so they will have to stop one way or another.