June 17 (Reuters) - Two key Democrats in the U.S. Congress have agreed to support a major arms sale to Israel that includes 50 F-15 fighter jets worth more than $18 billion, the Washington Post reported on Monday, citing three unnamed officials.
Representative Gregory Meeks and Senator Ben Cardin have signed off on the deal under heavy pressure from the Biden administration after the two lawmakers had for months held up the sale, the Post reported.
That’s encouraging; I haven’t seen those polls, and it’s great they’re moving in the right direction. Thank you for the link.
While I would never say the US can’t influence policy in Israel, you are implying that Netanyahu is some sort of hand-puppet that the president of the US can control. A dozen US presidents have worked to achieve lasting peace in the region and have failed; all that effort has led to this situation: Israel perpetrating genocide in Gaza. Decades of US presidents have failed to prevent the slow theft of land by Israeli settlers in the Gaza strip. Why do you think that Biden could wave his hand and stop the Israeli invasion? The Presidency is not a Royal kingship; it’s one of three controlling powers in the US, intended to be balancing each other. And yet everyone blames Biden as if he had the sole discretion - even if Israel was a puppet state we could control. Which they aren’t.
Well, two things.
First, opinion polls - especially in recent years - are notoriously unreliable. They’ve failed to accurately predict national elections, and even Nate Silver has said they’re broken and untrustworthy, and new sources are necessary. Importantly, they fail to tell the while story, and in this case, there are a bunch of mitigating factors: Israeli lobbying and funding; decades of partnership essentially opposing Arabic interests in the region; and the very real that that America will get itself re-involved in another Middle East conflict in the near future and well need Israel’s unwavering support.
Second: I utterly agree with you. We do need third parties, better voting systems, changes to how elections are handled, and even changes to how Congress is composed. However, I don’t believe there is a feasible path. Jill Stein will not be president; her only agency in the coming election is as a spoiler to take votes from Biden, thereby improving Trump’s chance of winning. And Trump is no option, not if you care about Palestinians. Trump would, and has, encourage Israel to accelerate the genocide of Palestinians.
So, what’s your suggestion? We’re months out from the general election - how do you purpose we fix this, and get a president in office who will fight congress to cut off aid to Israel unless they withdraw? He can’t unilaterally cut off aid, you know. It has to be negotiated with Congress, which is almost exactly 50% full of people in the House who are controlled by Trump and would like to see Israel building gas chambers, and over 50% in the Senate. What’s your solution?
she can’t take votes from biden, because they don’t belong to biden. they belong to voters, and it is up to politicians to earn their votes
Your pedantry aside, I’m referring to the spoiler effect.