Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu railed Sunday against growing criticism from top ally the United States against his leadership amid the devastating war with Hamas, describing calls for a new election as “wholly inappropriate.”
In recent days, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish official in the country and a strong Israel supporter, called on Israel to hold a new election, saying Netanyahu had “lost his way.” President Joe Biden expressed support for Schumer’s “good speech,” and earlier accused Netanyahu of hurting Israel because of the huge civilian death toll in Gaza.
Netanyahu told Fox News that Israel never would have called for a new U.S. election after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, and denounced Schumer’s comments as inappropriate.
“We’re not a banana republic,” he said. “The people of Israel will choose when they will have elections, and who they’ll elect, and it’s not something that will be foisted on us.”
It’s not a zero sum game - you can simultaneously be against both Trump and Biden regarding their Israel policy.
That said, I do agree that a lot of people don’t realize that Trump is even more hawkish in his support for Israel than Biden is, and actively contributed to the rising tensions between Israel and Hamas during his administration. So when it comes to Israel, as surprising as it might be to some, Biden is in fact the lesser of two evils there.
This isn’t Trump or Biden’s policy - it’s US policy and has been since the 70s.
Yes that’s true to a large extent, but a President does have some executive power in terms of leverage and how they choose to engage diplomatically with Israel:
Reagan famously threatened to cut off aid funding during the Lebanon War, which lead to a withdrawal of Israeli troops.
Obama was very critical of settlements in the West Bank and his administration chose not to veto the UN resolution condemning then.
Trump’s administration was very supportive of Israel, officially recognized Jerusalem as it’s capital, and also brokered the Abraham Accords.
So yeah, you’re right in that the US government as whole has more or less guaranteed to ultimately support Israel no matter what, the President can still have an effect by themselves.
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No. They weren’t/aren’t.
I keep saying this, if u had a president Sanders, i guarantee u 70+ senators would be tripping over themselves to overturn any presidential veto on the arms that Congress would then be approving.
Much like how if everyone got what they wanted and Manchin and Sinema fucked off, youd find another couple corporate democrats around to fulfill their role. In the Gaza situation, youd have Schumer telling Bernie hes an antisemite for not helping our brothers or some such shit.
There are certain policies in this country (e.x. the overinflation of our Military Industrial Complex, for one) that are too deeply ingrained. I dont understand why its easy for ppl to call out Status Quo Joe’s “harsher” words against Israel as performative, but cant understand that half the Congresspeople who are feigning outrage right now are no different. The bunch in question are bought and paid for by the same interests. American sustained presence in the Mid East in a country more than friendly towards said interests is not up for debate. Especially when not selling arms to a very longterm ally that bends over backwards for the US led hegemony would erode US soft power substantially, doubly so since weve been seen as unreliable by our allies since 2016.
Unfortunately, the Palestinian people’s right to exist does not outweigh that. Weve supported the Apartheid state of Israel throughout their ongoing oppression of Palestinians, why would now suddenly be different? Honestly, after a lifetime of personally bitching about Israel, hearing US leadership say anything acknowledging that whats going on is wrong has thrown me for a loop.