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Comment by Animats

2 years ago

Some of this information war seems to be intended from keeping the US from considering a third option - sitting this one out. One U.S. State Department official resigned over this when he saw Israel's weapons shopping list.[1]

The US could provide humanitarian aid, but not military aid. Cut military aid to Israel. Maybe still provide Iron Dome reloads, but that's about it. Bring in a hospital ship off Gaza, to care for the injured. Send a few frigates to protect it from all parties. Discourage outside interference. Then wait to see how this plays out. It's not the US's fight, after all.

Creating a lot of noise over the issue tends to force people to choose a side and eliminates middle options. That may be part of the intent of this campaign. "Are you with us, or against us". No, we're fed up with both of you.

[1] https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/why-a-sta...

16 comments

Animats

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esjeon  2 years ago

AFAIK, US cannot just "sit out", because the Israel-Palestine conflict can negatively impact the US-Saudi relationship. Even though Saudi shares some common interests with Israel (i.e. Iran), it simply can't look away from the sufferings of Muslims in Palestine, given its role as a major power in the Islamic world.

Also, if Israel takes the control of the Gaza Strip, a lot of refugees will spread in the region, creating more tension in the long-term. I deem this more sensitive than the religious strife, because it can leave concrete, direct, and explicit marks on the neighboring societies.

I think the best scenario for US is that Israel eventually stands down and falls back to the pre-war state - that is, no Israel control over the Palestinian territories. Israel won't have much choice here.

HDThoreaun  2 years ago

The problem with cutting aid to Israel is that the only thing stopping Israel from committing even more violence is the western support they receive. The current Israeli government is as right wing as the country has ever seen. The defense minister is a proud supporter of terrorism against palestinians and even israeli's who support palestinians. He believes god gave the west bank and the entire levant to the jews. If Israel's international relations soured they would quickly come to the conclusion that they have nothing to lose and no reason not to enact their "final solution to the palestinian problem".

stefan_  2 years ago

Wait until this State Department official finds all the weapons sold to Saudi Arabia

fxd123  2 years ago

[flagged]

  • dragonwriter  2 years ago

    > Recall that Palestine's goal is to eliminate all Jews.

    No, that's not Palestine’s goal.

    Its not even clearly the goal of the Palestinian Islamist extremist group Israel fostered specifically to have a less sympathetic enemy to deflect pressure for peace with Palestine to use as a pretext for perpetual war, though it may be, and whose fault is that?