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Notes -
So apparently after 40-some odd years, US military aid to Israel is ending. (Or at least Trump announced he is ending it. Arguably it's a decision for Congress)
In any event, this is interesting to me for a couple of reasons. First, even though I am generally pro-Israel I am against US military aid to Israel. With its advanced economy, Israel doesn't really need it, it gives ammunition to various people who like to claim that (AIPAC; the Jewish Lobby; da Jooz; etc.) control everything, and it allows the US to exercise a lot of control over Israeli military spending and sales.
Unfortunately, I am not optimistic that those who harp on the issue of this military aid will dial down their complaints about Israel. It seems to me that the military aid is more of an excuse to attack Israel as opposed to the actual objection.
I would analogize these criticisms to Trump's famous they/them attack ad. Spin doctors may have claimed that the ad was really about budgetary priorities, but it was pretty obvious that in reality, Trump was capitalizing on widespread American opposition to gender ideology.
So I guess my question is this: Among people who complain a lot about US military aid to Israel (and in fact there have been complaints here just in the last week or so), and assuming that the aid is stopped, to what extent will this satisfy them?
As one of the critics of US support of the Israeli government you mentioned, I will admit that the direct military support is just the tip of the iceberg. Argumentatively, it is convenient to point to the tip to argue for the existence of the iceberg, because that part is rather hard to dispute while the parts below the water line are less obvious.
I think US support for Israel takes many different forms, among them the direct military aid, preferential access to US weapon systems, the US using diplomatic pressure to intervene on Israels behalf with third countries, liberally using terrorist designations to cut their enemies from the global finance system, direct military interventions on their behalf, use of their UNSC veto to block resolutions against them, disincentivizing individuals and third countries from boycotting them economically, sanctioning the ICC, use of military means to defend them in case of attack.
I believe that there could be an Israel worth defending, one which is genuinely pursuing a two-state solution with the moderate Palestinians, demolishes the illegal settlements in Area C and whose military operates with Western thresholds for civilian casualties rather than Russian ones. However, this is not the Israel which the majority of their electorate prefers, clearly.
Israel is unfortunately not the only militarist-expansionist country in the world, Russia is clearly worse in scale
by orders of magnitude. But with Russia, the free world is doing its best to exert economic pressure to dissuade them from violating the norms of international law, with Israel, the free world is enabling them.What I would prefer to see is the US-Israeli relationship sink to the same level as the US-Uzbek relationship. If they refrain from any atrocities for a while, I am fine with selling them the same military tech the US would sell other non-aligned states in the region. If they do not, they should get sanctions. Make it clear that any beef they have with their Muslim subjugated populations or neighbors is their own beef, not a Western one -- though there are doubtless very good reasons for Westerners to have a separate beef with countries like Iran or Saudi Arabia over their human right records.
AIPAC forgoing the direct military aid is clearly damage control. Scott Alexander has argued persuasively that AIPAC is very effective as a lobby organization. I have no doubt that as long as they control Congress, they will remain very effective in continuing to enable the Israeli government's current expansionist agenda. The fix seems to be to make their brand so toxic that it becomes net negative for candidates to receive funding from them.
Conflict theory, perhaps?
As a side note, this is about as wrong as wrong can be. But I guess one could say that "argumentatively" it's convenient to label Israel this way? Ditto for the accusation of atrocities?
Seriously, if you object to America's treatment of Israel, or of Israel's conduct, it's best to lay your true objection plainly. Like, if you don't think Israel should be making war in Gaza, please just say so. Implying that Israel is trying to take Gaza as if it's a game of Risk is just silly. Obviously tomorrow morning Bibi could have breakfast in Gaza City; Cairo; Damascus, Anman; or Beirut if he wanted to. Probably within a month Israel could take over each neighboring country if it wanted to.
Sorry, I still remember the three months you thought you were winning the Iran war. You spent the whole time trying to convince us that now Turkey is the new great satan and threat to the free world.
Could you link to that post? I think you are confusing me with someone else.
I mean the whole journalistic-military-industrial-@Dean complex, not you specifically.
That's quite a gotcha you found. But to the extent you have (1) invented a group; (2) attributed a position to that group; and (3) claimed a "gotcha" against me for (allegedly) contradicting that group's position, it kinda shows that I'm not actually a part of that group.
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