Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said policy differences toward Israel between her and President Biden won’t stop her from supporting him in the November general election.
“Of course,” Omar said Tuesday, when asked by CNN’s Abby Phillip on “NewsNight” whether she would vote for Biden if the election were held that day, in a clip highlighted by Mediaite. “Democracy is on the line, we are facing down fascism.”
“And I personally know what my life felt like having Trump as the president of this country, and I know what it felt like for my constituents, and for people around this country and around the world,” Omar continued. “We have to do everything that we can to make sure that does not happen to our country again.”
The reason why Israel and US have such a strong relationship is very logical. Both US and Israel are democratic countries, both have one of the most advanced technology industries in the world. For american companies, Israel is their entry way to the Middle East. In addition, both have a common enemy - Iran and Israel is a partner with quite a strong military, so there exists a counter force to Iran.
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.
So whilst Israel’s actions may not be ideal, stopping funding it would end in a catastrophe. Israel would be weaker and groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah could take it (at least it would be far easier than with US’s money). Then there would be nothing to complicate Iran’s goal of becoming a nuclear superpower and I don’t think I have to continue why that would be terrible.
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).
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.
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
US needs Israel more than you think. US alone would have huge problems dealing with Iran due to the proximity, so it is usually Mossad that leads proxy war with Iran. Furthermore, had Israel not been present, there would be no one in the middle east sharing intel with USA and no one else will organise operations such as these: https://iranprimer.usip.org/blog/2022/aug/11/timeline-israeli-attacks-iran
I also don’t believe that stopping the support of Israel would help stabilize the situation. If US wanted to have normal relations with Iran, they would have to stop supporting Ukraine against Russia, Taiwan against China, etc (Russia and China are Iran’s close allies). These 2 countries are simply on the opposite side of the spectrum and weakening Israel would only give bigger space to Iran.
Also the claims of apartheid are not necessarily correct because Palestinians are not Israeli citizens. They have their own administration.
So I think it’s very improbable for the West (and US especially) to stop supporting Israel even if it commits war crimes. Deciding between tolerating Israel’s war crimes and Middle east full of terrorist groups with nuclear weapons is quite an easy choice for most western countries.