The law ( the Leahy Law) requires that the US vet any foreign military receiving US arms. However, that doesn’t happen with Israel
I think a lot of U.S. politicians and legacy media outlets were genuinely caught off-guard by the backlash. Prior to the Netanyahu era, support for Israel in the U.S. was basically non-controversial. But he fucked that up just like he fucks up everything else.
Netanyahu has been an unmitigated disaster in every conceivable way, for a long time. The Israeli people really need to kick him to the curb.
I mean, at this point he’s squandering good will and sympathy generated for Israel after a terrorist group specifically targeted civilians for rape, torture, and murder. It feels like something that should be impossible - I mean, it’s not like anyone sane would side with freaking Hamas.
If you’re opposed to Hamas, it should be trivially easy to maintain the moral and political high ground over them. Yet he’s somehow failing even that.
Cripes, what a clusterfuck.
I think for a lot of Israelis, and Bibi as well, it’s also a question of whether maintaining moral ground and PR is worth letting Hamas and such continue to do their thing. How many of us would really continue to turn the other cheek once a terrorist group keeps killing your friends and family?
Shrug, the US elected Trump and are acting like they want to do it again…
No one is defending the United States. People are saying the nexus of U.S. corruption and Israeli corruption is proving itself to be a plague on humanity.
It’s less the backlash and more the attacks on Jews that are surprising.
The US has always had a small, vocal minority that hates Israel.
Yeah, and the “vocal minority” gained strength when Netanyahu spoke before a joint session of Congress and insulted everyone to the left of Mussolini. And then the 2014 Gaza War was disproportionate and all over social media. And then Netanyahu named a fucking settlement after Trump, America’s worst president since Andrew Johnson. And now he’s razing Gaza and belongs at The Hague.
I didn’t even think about the whole, entire Levant much prior to that shit. I have no connection to the wider Mideast and frankly, still don’t think it’s interesting. I like nature more than religion so there’s nothing in Jerusalem for me. (Tel Aviv sounds nicer.) But now I’m like, “Please stop bombing civilians using the weapons I apparently have to pay for. For some reason? Is Israel strategically important? Why?”
And Likud-ass people are accusing me of hating Israel. I didn’t have an opinion but now I do. Fuck all religious nationalists with a broomstick no one has sanded down.
