Biden administration dramatically softens the sanctions it imposed on the seven Israelis from the Israel Defense Forces and makes it clear that they will be able to use their bank accounts.
Sanctions just 7 settlers instead of the state directly backing settlements and can’t even keep that up. Fucking pathetic.
Because Israel will blackmail the USA and expand their genocide even more.
The American folding comes in the wake of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s threat to collapse the Palestinian economy, as revealed in Israel Hayom
And now these fascists will use that as a threat to extort the USA at every step. They must be completely cut off from US aid.
And now these fascists will use that as a threat to extort the USA at every step. They must be completely cut off from US aid.
Absolutely spot on! #NoWarButClassWar ✊️
BDS is the only way
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The world power needs to understand that it has crossed the line
So showing any backbone is crossing the line? Wow.
I think for a world power such language should have been a reason to double down on punishing those little punks.
If I’m reading this correctly, this decision was made because Smotrich threatened to sever all Israeli banking relations with the Palestinian Authority, which since the PA depends on Israeli banks to function, would have ruined the Palestinian government in the West Bank. I don’t like that this is how it’s going down, but definitely see the rationale, and don’t think the Biden Admin is wrong to protect the PA. There’s plenty criticism to heap on the US for their relationship with Israel, but I don’t think this is one of them. The problem here is Smotrich and the Netanyahu government.
The PA is pretty much entirely controlled by the Israeli military now. It being shut down might actually allow orgs that actually serve Palestinian interests to take power.
Regardless, this is obviously just an excuse to stop the sanctions. Israel is entirely dependent on the US and these “threats” are toothless. If Biden gave a fuck at all, he would simply threaten to cut off funding to Israel in return.
The “might” in that sentence is doing some heavy lifting. I think the collapse of the PA would lead to worsening chaos in the West Bank, especially financially, and would directly harm Palestinians.
Not at all. You can remove that first paragraph entirely and my point comes across just fine.
There wasn’t a second paragraph when I responded lol.
I still seriously disagree with you, a disruption of the Palestinian Authority would 100% be worse for the Palestinian people in the West Bank. Which “orgs” do you think are suddenly going to step in and be better?
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Not in the west bank
You got downvoted, but you are correct.
Israel is entirely dependent on the US
Israel has a robust economy and is quite capable of conducting the war it wants all on its own.
This is just a little something to keep in mind the next time some Israeli tries to argue that “it’s not an occupation.”
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I think you misunderstand, Netanyahu and his allies want extremists in charge. They have spent the last two decades trying to delegitimize the PA because they are a moderate Palestinian government, and the same two decades propping up Hamas. When extremists are in charge, Netanyahu knows he can more easily justify killing Palestinians and taking Palestinian land
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The problem here is Smotrich and the Netanyahu government.
Can they just send a few killer drones after the two guys mentioned? It’s fair game, USA uses those outside of its territory, Israel uses those outside of its territory.
Of course there’s going a shitfest of indignation from Israelis, but that’ll be in any situation which is not successful ethnic cleansing with no consequences.
More concisely, the problem is Israel.
Just don’t blame the voters with spines when he loses the election.
Edit: To all the geniuses saying Trump is worse, you are no different than MAGA. Saying you’ll vote for Biden regardless of a fucking genocide means that he’ll get away with anything. If you morons actually cared you would have protested instead of trying to make people vote for a genocidal zionist cuck. Yet here we are.
Joe Biden isn’t catering to me and my friends
Apparently not wanting to fund a genocide with my tax dollars is the same as me bitching about gas prices. The funniest part is that these people think that they are so much better than MAGA.
As long as they didn’t vote for the fascist who intends to start a dictatorship and also supports Israel just as strongly.
Trump also has a plan to end birthright citizenship & deport Muslims starting on day one of his rule in 2025.
They already have the list thanks to the census.
Put on your own oxygen mask before worrying about helping others.
I’m voting Biden in 2024 strictly so that I can vote at all in 2028.
Lol I love this take.
Normal people:
Donald Trump getting elected will be bad for labor rights, abortion rights, voting rights, LGBTQ rights, among a ton of other freedoms. I should do the simple thing and vote for Joe Biden even though I disagree with some of his policies and he hasn’t taken a strong enough stance on others that I support. I understand he has to compromise and can’t tailor his policies exactly to my niche beliefs. Even if I don’t vote, Biden or Trump will be president; I should vote for the one that will at least do some of the things I support.
The brave freedom fighters on Lemmy with a spine:
Joe Biden isn’t catering to me and my friends, I’m not voting for that capitalist neo liberal pig Joe Biden. Surely the Democrats will call me next time they nominate a candidate, after all we should be catered too even though we’re an extremely small community.
Joe Biden isn’t catering to me and my friends
No one’s complaining about a candidate not “catering” to them. They’re complaining about Biden being a zionazi and committing a genocide. Even going as far as to bypass congress to send “isreal” weapons faster.
I understand that you’re angry, but do you think Trump will protect Palestinians? He also wants to maintain US military might in the middle east, and he’s also beholden to Zionists.
Work on getting third parties on the ballot so we can actually get a choice next time around. Find a minor politician who you generally agree with and see what they think would help fix our process. Join a union.
Wanting to stop Israel from murdering children: “catering to me and my friends”
Genocide is just such a niche issue I don’t see how you expect Biden to care /s
even though we’re an extremely small community
You’ll see how “small” this community is in November.
I’m sure your little club is just big enough to get Donald Trump elected, that’s how margins work.
Unfortunately for you there a magnitudes more voters that would be alienated by your fringe politics, so most elected officials aren’t going to give your ideas priority. To think otherwise is the attitude of a petulant child that wants a happy meal when the rest of the family wants to go to sushi.
Despite all that I think you’ve convinced me. The best way to stop the genocide in Gaza now, in March of 2024, is to make sure that the Zionist, single state solution, ban on Palestinian immigration candidate gets elected to be our president in from 2025 through 2029. That will definitely teach those damn establishment Democrats to listen to us, and will 100% improve the lives of the people in Gaza and the west bank. I’m sure that Trump is just joking about immigrants tainting the blood of America. He’s surely not serious about project 2025, or enacting a nation wide abortion ban after 6 weeks. We have to get this guy elected in November to stop the genocide today.
What are you in favor of? I get that you are sick of Biden’s status quo, but are you actually in favor of Trump?
I’m in favor of people voicing their concerns. Because they expect you to vote regardless of anything. And nothing is going to change with that mind set. You can’t expect a reaction without an action.
Actually, they don’t expect you to vote. What percentage voted in the last presidential? The midterms? Now break that down by age. Numbers are low. The Democran and the Republicrat powers that be have perfected a system in which most people feel powerless and unheard. The binary works great for that, and they keep each other in power.
True change will only be possible when 3rd party candidates become viable. There’s no single way it can look: ranked choice voting, parliamentary representation, whatever. But until we get actual choices about who governs us…
I understand that people want change. I do too. But to me, voting for Trump is one of two options presented by those in power, and might result in real losses in future voting rights, along with real losses to our judicial system. Can’t we come up with something better than that? Electing Trump is not a solution to anything. Neither is Biden, but at least he’s not an active threat to voting rights.
People suck at collectivizing. It’s still what we need to do. Direct democracy, proportional representation, and more than two choices. I’m not sure how we get there, but it’s where we need to be.
And who do you imagine these spine-wielding voters will be voting for exactly?
Third party or nobody. Maybe Mr. Literally Anybody Else.
Unfortunately, that just makes it easier for Trump to win.
Skeletor I suppose.
BADUMM TSS
I’ll blame the voters that voted for a christofascist.
Not voting is still voting, friend. Fix the system after Biden gets reelected, rather than end up in bigger shit than we’re already wading through. Not voting has never fixed anything.
I detest them both. I’m still voting for Biden (though I did just send another email to the White House threatening not to).
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How about this: I more mean to fix the system after Trump DOESN’T get elected. That guy wants to be dictator, and we’ve got enough problems without also living under a dictatorship. What do you think will happen if you vote in Trump?
I understand the notion of exploding the system, and like I said I’m not a fan of Biden. But you should have voted for Bernie Sanders in the 2020 primary. Trump isn’t a means for positive change.
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Yep, a dictatorship would definitely be different! Enjoy!!
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all palestinian violence against israel is self-defense.
If people took half of the energy they spend shaming people for not adhering to the two-party system and turned it to pressuring Biden to be a better candidate he’d have switched positions by now
biden has been a zionist for probably longer than you’ve been alive
you’re not going to push him left. ever.
I doubt it. Biden doesn’t give a hoot about what his voting base thinks or wants because they’re going to mindlessly vote for him no matter how many genocides he does
Disagree, if the centrists, liberals, and Vote Blue No Matter Who crowd worked him over half as hard at they work over us there’d be no reason not to give in.
Except for the main reason of “all of Biden’s donors would leave him.” Neoliberal democracy has nothing to do with voters, it has everything to do with fundraisers. If Biden loses his fundraisers to someone else, the voters will follow, because that money will buy the propaganda to move them. This is how neoliberal democracy works. To think otherwise is idealist; it has never worked that way and it never will work that way under the current system.
A chunk of the funders hedge their bets though, right?
And what organization that has spent potentially MILLIONS of dollars at this point is just going to walk away from their investment instead of allowing their pet capital critter a bit of slack on the leash to give some crumbs to the unwashed masses to quiet us down?
But how do you pressure him into being a better candidate when the only threat you have against him, i.e. voting him out, is held hostage by the fact that if you do vote him out an even more extreme radical will get in power?
Almost like we need ranked choice voting and eliminate the electoral college so we can have more than 2 choices.
Democrats consistently support & pass RCV, while Republicans repeal & ban it. If you want RCV, you need to support Dems in the meantime.
On March 28, a District of Columbia Superior Court dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Democratic Party to stop an initiative from qualifying. The initiative hasn’t even gathered the signatures yet, yet the Democratic Party had been hoping to block it. The judge said the lawsuit isn’t ripe, and could be filed again if the initiative qualifies and passes. The initiative also would change the law to let independent voters vote in partisan primaries, but it is not an initiative that abolishes the ability of parties to have nominees.
It wasn’t just Republicans who opposed the system. Democrats were in power in some cases and also opposed it. That’s why we got ranked-choice, it was done through a ballot initiative because neither party wanted to implement it or to pass a law that would implement it.
Fucking genocide loving liberal
He’s got a “complicit in genocide” reputation to upkeep after all.
More like co-author
Settler colonialism is one of the most vile, disgusting crimes against humanity, and it is our duty to move in favor of liberation for all peoples.
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Guess who’s taking about Trump here? NOBODY.
You have absolutely no idea how weak this line of argument makes Biden look. Oh you’d be better than literally the worst person to have ever been president? Wow omg I can’t wait to vote for you. Talk about a low fucking bar.
What your other choice, there, genius.
Is this post about the election? Or the fucking CURRENT PRESIDENT’S decisions?
Edit: the other choice, which should worry everybody, is not voting. Doesn’t matter if it’s illogical, lots of voters are illogical
Isn’t there a possibility to vote for a third / minor party?
If yes, this would be the best choice instead of not voting.
Yeah of course that is possible. With the US system though it seems like there is literally no point. If you don’t want trump you should vote for Biden, that is the only choice.
But the fact that this is brought up every time Biden does something shit or supports a genocide or whatever is what I take issue with. The election has made people too wary to criticise him and they are apparently blind to how stupid this looks. Like they learned nothing whatsoever from 2016.
Anyway I’m not American anyway so don’t worry about it. The situation is the same in the UK except Labour is comfortably going to win anyway despite having a dog shit candidate. Biden I’m not so sure, and that worries me.
The third (minor) parties are just spoiler candidates put in place or at least supported by the two major parties.
That’s odd, because if you bothered to look any further down you actually would see comments talking about Trump, and there were more before.
But that aside, you’ll find that’s because I’m not advocating for Biden - any more progressive candidate would’ve been better, but that’s not what we got. What I AM advocating is against Trump - I hardly think I need to explain why.
Since it’s basically impossible for an independent to win, if you don’t want Trump, your only option is Biden. That’s it, whether we like it or not.
Since it’s basically impossible for an independent to win, if you don’t want Trump, your only option is Biden. That’s it, whether we like it or not.
I agree.
But this post is about a thing Biden has done. Surely you can see how so many people jumping right to this “lesser of two evils” argument in response to something like this might look like an attempt to shield him from criticism?
Honestly what could Biden actually do that would change the choice on election day? Unless he transforms into literally Hitler it is kind of a given that any reasonable person needs to vote for him, surely?
As I said before, I was focusing on all the replies that were around when I first commented that were commenting on/advocating for Trump - that is why I said “I’m surprised how many people think Trump of all people is going to somehow handle to both Ukraine and Israel better than Biden”, because that is the sentiment I saw.
I can see how that would look like an attempt to shield him from criticism, but at the same time I don’t think I’m wrong in saying it doesn’t really matter - unless you want Trump in the Whitehouse again, Biden is the only choice…
I’m not saying I like the fact that the only two candidates we have are basically “allow the genocide to continue for the foreseeable future” or “escalate the genocide, and let Russias do what they want to Ukraine”, but that is what we’re stuck with.
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Oh look, a completely fallacious and divisive comment
Damn, you must’ve dug deep for that scathing nickname - but do you seriously think I’m wrong?
It doesn’t matter what could have happened, who could have done what, the situation is that your choices are Biden or Trump, and one of those is a whole lot worse than the other, despite what some other people commenting on this post think.
Trump has literally done nothing as remotely as evil as Biden’s relentless support of Israel’s genocide. Would it be worse under Trump? Potentially, but Trump isn’t president right now
The word you’re looking for there is “yet”, and that “yet” would be doing a whole lot of heavy lifting.
I’ll defer back to my initial comment - if you want to let Trump in and find out, you’d better be ready to shut it when he does worse.
You cannot beat anyone over the head with a moral cudgel when you are supporting genocide. Period. Frankly, supporting Biden – perhaps the most ardent Zionist in American politics – is so morally despicable that it makes me feel physically ill. If you the status quo is acceptable to you, then by all means continue giving it your approval.
Don’t you fucking dare, however, suggest that people refusing to hand their vote to that evil cretin are somehow the ones OK with what’s going on in Palestine.
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Spoiler: they think the horsey is worth it
There’s useless and then there’s you people.
People still going to act like somehow Israel controlling Dems is completely different than Russia controlling republicans.
If we had standards we could have politicians that dont belong to foreign genocidal fascists.
But when you say that, assholes that defend either party no matter what both accuse you of stupid shit online. Because they literally can’t fathom having standards instead of blind loyalty. They’re so far gone they can’t process that’s a valid option.
No one’s “controlling” either party of the most powerful country in the world. This is how right-wingers think instead of analyzing things materially.
Supporting the US colony in Palestine is bipartisan for obvious reasons (more tools for imperialism in the region, and keeps the middle-east less stable and unable to unite against the US). And the only reason republicans are more open to Russia right now is because they want to change focus to China, because they (correctly, imo) see China as the current biggest threat to US hegemony rather than Russia.
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“Israel” was formed as a general western settler colony in Palestine using common british colonization tactics [III] because this region is a bridge between Africa and Asia, with companies literally named “Colonization Commission”, “Jewish Colonial Trust” and the like. And has been functioning mostly as US colony since, serving its imperialist interests in the region (against Syria, Iran, Yemen, etc).
Theodor Herzl, founder of the colonial ideology he called “zionism”, was himself also just a racist colonizer by his own admission, and saw it as bringing ‘civilization’ to ‘barbarians’ as the rest of Europe did when they were colonizing and enslaving Africa and Asia:
“We should there form a portion of a rampart of Europe against Asia, an outpost of civilization as opposed to barbarism. We should as a neutral State remain in contact with all Europe, which would have to guarantee our existence.” Source [II]
Only difference now is that the US has been the de facto leader of the imperial core since WW2, no longer UK in Europe.
As for republicans, if you pay attention to the extreme anti-China rhetoric from Tucker Carlson, Trump, etc it’s pretty clear what they’re trying to do. Allying with China against the USSR on Kissinger’s recommendation was a large contributor to its overthrow, and it makes sense they want to do that against China now, what with both the US and Russia now being capitalist states.
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For those curious about that comment btw
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UN Report: Israel in Regular Contact with Syrian Rebels including ISIS
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In Syria, militias armed by the Pentagon fight those armed by the CIA
And now attacks on Russia and China.
Some more interesting events
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Israeli defense minister: If I had to choose between Iran and ISIS, I’d choose ISIS
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Members of ISIS and Nusra front also have been treated in Israeli hospitals.
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Former Mossad director, Efraim Halevy, defends Israeli medical assistance to Al Nusra Front fighters
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Ex-defense minister says ISIS ‘apologized’ to Israel for November clash
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Israeli think tank: Don’t destroy ISIS; it’s a “useful tool” against Iran, Hezbollah, Syria
Never said it’s “part of the US government”. But it’s obviously just become a US proxy in the region now, kinda like “israel”; no wonder the two help each other out then.
Name any colony that constantly insults their “mother country” and gets any demand they make including billions of dollars in aid every year.
You’ve got the power dynamic backwards dawg…
It’s an investment. The capitalist ruling class of the US get far more in return by keeping the middle-east subjugated to the US through “israel” than the money they spend on the colony. Biden agrees.
Did I say it was a colony? And even if I had, the reasons for those things are literally in the linked articles. We need them there.
No, someone else did…
I replied to them, and then you just posted a bunch of links in reply to my comment.
You literally didn’t say anything, so how did you expect people to guess what you meant?
I’m sure it was perfectly clear to you what you were doing, but no one else could do anything besides make assumptions
I edited it (my last reply above this), but we’re probably done here anyway.
Israel owns both the Republicans and Democrats. They probably have even more influence over the Republicans due to the evangelicals.
Genocide Joe is still a spineless bitch for not doing more, but Republicans would be worse.
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We’re getting the orange anyway because the Democrats would rather preserve their AIPAC funding than win an election.
And besides; the Socialist Party is an FBI front organization, the PSL is content to ignore Russia’s war on Ukraine, and even though the Greens have decent politics they’re still being used by everyone as a wedge to split the Democrat vote in favor of Republicans. There’s no way to vote for socialism that isn’t self-defeating.
What information do you have that the PSL is a front?
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All I could find is a sussy substack and Reddit posts. It could be true.
The PSL are state socialists, their entire reason for existing is to be a front for state-aligned interests.
That’s what I’m seeing too. They have to say that, or be labeled as domestic terrorists. Any openly revolutionary party is a threat.
Indeed. Parties which actually pose a threat to the current establishment aren’t permitted to organize.
Playing “Spot the Fed” was a popular passtime at Occupy.
If anything, the PSL is a front for Russia, given that Russia has featured them on Russian state media. But I don’t see them as being a threat to the Democrats. A quick look at their Wikipedia page shows that the most percentage votes they ever got in an election was 40%, and that was just 57 votes in a college town.
It’s a pity the US doesn’t have a parliamentary system. It would make so much more sense to have something like Greens, Socialists, and Democrats forming a coalition.
Is Biden the socialism?
Oh man, if socialism were on the ballot I’d happily vote for it. Maybe I’ll write that in when I go vote.
Trump 2024 anyone (edit: I’m not cheering him on, just stating a fact)?
Edit: I only read the headline then came back and read the article and just… What the actual fuck?
Did Biden, the president of the most power country in the world, just listen to a threat from their protectorate? What the fuck is going on here? How do people see shit like this and think “oh yes this is fine”?
Did you read what they threatened to do?
Yes, but the idea that he threatened at all in public is ridiculous. For better or worse if this was any other country that man would be in deep shit. See: Pakistan.
Dude, Pakistan had politicians openly saying they’d ethnic cleanse the country of Pathans and Pashto people.
Soy
Israel runs on American dollars, without American dollars Israel cannot exist.
Shekel barely counts as a seperate currency.
