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Israel-Gaza Megathread #2

This is a refreshed megathread for any posts on the conflict between (so far, and so far as I know) Hamas and the Israeli government, as well as related geopolitics. Culture War thread rules apply.

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What's up with Senate passing a resolution affirming support for Israel 97-0? As a flyover pleb I'm genuinely confounded by this. I do not give a single shit about either Palestinians and Israelis, and I honestly have a negative feeling towards both of them since I'm pretty sure they would abuse me if I lived in there country and they probably despise my race/religion/way of life. My preferred response to such a proposed resolution by my elected officials would be "lol who cares," but somehow nearly everyone across the entire political spectrum feels either conviction or pressure to signal support for one side of this ugly foreign conflict.

What's going on here? I know there's the "Jews secretly control the government" thesis, but a massive global conspiracy has never seemed like the most parsimonious explanation. What's the motivation of, say, a senator from Mississippi or Oregon to affirm their support? My hunch is that the political calculus is simply that "supporting" Israel bears little to no political costs, whereas opposing/ignoring Israel might have a remote risk of negative publicity or loss of campaign funding.

Is there a more nuanced explanation?

This has much less to do with Jews than it does with evangelicals.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/05/14/half-of-evangelicals-support-israel-because-they-believe-it-is-important-for-fulfilling-end-times-prophecy/

What kick-starts the end times into motion is Israel’s political boundaries being reestablished to what God promised the Israelites according to the Bible,” Pastor Nate Pyle told Newsweek in January. This is not an uncommon view.

The LifeWay poll found that 80 percent of evangelicals believed that the creation of Israel in 1948 was a fulfillment of biblical prophecy that would bring about Christ’s return.

There's no Muslim lobby to worry about by comparison.