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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 4, 2023

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Israel has been in a stalemate situation with Palestine for a long time. One has to wonder why Israel has not been able to impose their will on Palestine even though they are the superior State and they have the backing of the global hegemon. However, maybe this stalemate is a feature of the incentives. Imagine you are a US congress critter and there are companies in your state that are supplying weapons to Israel as part of the US->Israel defence aid. If the Palestinian question was resolved then a bunch of people in your district may no longer be employed making weapons. Is this is a possibility? Are congress critters actually intelligent or machiavellian enough to carry out this policy. People assume the current situation is a result of 'commies' in the state department but maybe its because of 'capitalists' in the state department.

The Palestinians also have the backing of the global hegemon, though they are backed by a different faction within it.

This is a bizarre situation and it is the reason why we hear about this war constantly from the press- in stark contrast to for instance Yemen or Azerbaijan.

Ultimately both sides are at the mercy of the US navy, and they behave accordingly.

The faction that backs Israel is the one that has complete control of the government, military and big business. The Palestinian side has thrown a few protests and made some TikToks but it's not like they can ship over crates of missiles or billions in foreign aid like we do for Israel.

The pro-Palestinian faction, or rather the faction with some ethnic and/or religious loyalties to Palestinians, represents many key US allies in critical regions of the world for great power rivalry (eg in the Middle East and South East Asia).

Malaysia, for example, is one of the most pro-Palestinian countries in the world and isn’t even close to the Levant. You’d be surprised at how zealous they are in support of Palestine, how glued they are to the TV about how many Gazans are killed, how much they desperately LARP as Arabs and aspire to be great Muslims. And Malaysia is a key ally with a large Chinese minority and extensive Chinese political and economic influence. Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world. Pakistan is a key player in China’s new silk road stuff.

So for wider geopolitical reasons giving full license to Israel to do what they want with the Palestinians - even if the Gulf Arabs and Egyptians are fine with it - isn’t in the US’ interests.