In yet another reality-denying ritual of fealty to the pro-Israel lobby, members of Congress absurdly voted to say Israel was neither an apartheid state nor racist. Only a few progressives, including members of the Squad, stood firm in opposing the measure.
Yeah, the issue is that Israel lost the the global public relations war decades ago. Law makers in the US generally understand the facts, which is why they almost universally support Israel, but trying to get the public to understand an issue this nuanced is impossible.
Meanwhile, all the unwaivering, mindless, ignorant hatred of Israel has made it so that Israel perpetually in a “damned if they do, damned if they don’t” situation.
If they ignore rocket attacks, no one gives them credit for restraint. If they do surgical attacks, they get vilified for collateral damage.
It’s there any other county other than Israel that CALLS THEIR ENEMY ON THE PHONE AND GIVES THEM TIME TO EXIT A BUILDING BEFORE BLOWING IT UP? Israel literally does this when they find terrorist headquarters. No casualties, just blowing up a building… And yet they are accused of genocide.
Remember when they built a fence along their border to keep out suicide bombers? They were vilified them, too.
Truly, it doesn’t matter how passive or defensive their actions are… a ANYTHING they do is met by accusations of apartheid and genocide.
If the international community won’t reward or even ACKNOWLEDGE Israel’s restraint, is it any wonder that their government is becoming more right-wing and hardline?
These ignorant attacks on Israel are having the opposite effect. Accusing Israel of evils they aren’t guilty of means that we aren’t having honest and productive conversations about what behaviors they are engaged in that really do have the potential to be changed by international pressure.
Yeah I’m gonna distance myself from you here. I’m not pro Israel. They have done and continue to do some horrible shit and I’ve seen first hand the effects of that. The unfiltered hatred some people there possess shocked me. They did not lose the public relations war, their actions alone have made their public relations what it is.
I was just advocating for nuance and honesty.
Not the guy you replied to, and I honestly disagree with you, but thank you for approaching this subject in a sane way.
There are many hateful people in Israel (and everywhere else really) but there are also many who truly want this conflict to end in a peaceful way, and people like many of those in this thread only serve to radicalize them IMO.
Man I’ve been saying this for years, kinda shocked it took this long for this to happen.
You can only falsely claim genocide so many times before some shithead reaches the conclusion it gives him a free pass to actually commit genocide.
Thankfully we still aren’t there yet, but I fear I will live to see the day Israel becomes as extreme as most of the world seems to think it already is.
I tihnk lawmakers in the US are paid a shit-load by Israeli Lobbyist, much like how they all support privatized healthcare and oil production despite the obvious problems those things have. As for Apartheid, what is this law? https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israels-knesset-passes-law-barring-palestinian-spouses-2022-03-10/
This law is the only good example IMO (I can also kinda see how someone will say the law of return is also problematic, though I disagree).
However, even though I personally think this law violates basic human rights and has no place in a democratic country (and this is coming from an Israeli on the right side of the political spectrum), one law doesn’t make a country an apartheid.
“One of, if not the most, powerful international issue lobby is that of the pro-Israel crowd.”. More background is available here.
Some of the top recipients 2021-2022:
When looking at the overall numbers for all Pro-Israel bribe money to congress, there are 16 members of congress who have received over $1M USD. Here are the top 10:
I’m gonna distance myself from you here… What Israel has been doing is wrong. They haven’t "list the