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Joined 1 year ago
Cake day: April 25th, 2025
  • AltMediaGuyOPMAtoAltMedia•Oil does not explain the US commitment to Israel
    31·
    4 days ago

    I hope you take it easy and feel better…

    I’m not convinced by Biden’s argument. I believe that in those quotes he’s tap-dancing for his donors. The US has (or had) other aircraft carriers in the Middle East that are closer to the Persian Gulf: the military bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, UAE, and Saudi Arabia. Actual aircraft carriers and American troops were stationed there. And that’s where all the oil is - Israel is a thousand miles away from the oil, American troops are on top of it. It doesn’t make sense how Israel would be this precious, essential piece in the system. They don’t even deploy troops beyond their borders. None of the Arab monarchies are given billions in unconditional aid in exchange for troop presence either, and they don’t object to the US presence, which stabilizes their regimes. Edward Said was pointing all this out in the 70s, it’s in Question of Palestine…

    It doesn’t make sense that the US would benefit from ethnic cleansing of the Levant. It doesn’t make the oil flow faster. This isn’t Monster’s Inc, where screams can be turned into energy. The US would much prefer to be a quiet, invisible, extractive presence supporting the monarchies.

    I would need to see evidence of the US actually extracting value from Israel. And not just a little value either, like “police training”, but value which is worth the billions of dollars that are sent there. Value that compensates for US spending on air defense missiles to protect them. Value that compensates for UNSC vetos protecting Israel’s genocide. Value that compensates for the loss of the Strait of Hormuz. I don’t think there’s any evidence that the US is extracting value from Israel in any capacity close to that order of magnitude.

    Think about how the aid to Israel is unconditional - i.e. they do not have to constrain their behavior in any way to receive it. The US has no other relationship like that.

    For those reasons I have a hard time letting go of the idea that Israel has strong advocates in the United States who are able to manipulate the large country into doing ITS bidding.

  • AltMediaGuyOPMAtoAltMedia•While Distancing from AIPAC, Most 2028 Democratic Hopefuls Are Still Embracing Israel
    2·
    7 days ago

    “It’s not just avoiding AIPAC money,” Congressman Ro Khanna told me. “It’s the guts to take them on with clear policy.” Khanna has stressed that “what matters more is the clarity of calling what happened a genocide and stopping military sales to Israel used to kill civilians in Gaza and Lebanon.”

    The governor getting the most attention for 2028, California’s Gavin Newsom, has offered assurances that he will never take AIPAC money. In an early March interview, he seemed to compare Israel to an “apartheid state”—but later emphatically backtracked, expressing regret over using the word “apartheid” and declaring: “I revere the state of Israel. I’m proud to support the state of Israel.” That expression of reverence came more than three weeks after Israel had initiated its current wars on Iran and Lebanon.

    Another governor eyeing the Oval Office who has vowed not to take AIPAC funding is Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania. He became controversial during the intense carnage of the Israeli war on Gaza when he called for a crackdown on peaceful campus protests.

  • AltMediaGuyOPMAtoAltMedia•Marjorie Taylor Green condemns Trump
    327·
    8 days ago

    I think she’s sincere. Trump’s whole candidacy in 2016 was based on destroying Jeb Bush by associating him with the Iraq war and how Americans need to spend money at home, not on “stupid wars in the Middle East”. So he has done a 180 on that, like he just talked about how we can’t pay for day care because we need money for the Iran war. For voters that were taken by this lie it’s understandable that they would have vertigo.

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