As human rights groups continue to call out war crimes committed by the Israeli military, we speak to the only U.S. diplomat to publicly resign from the Biden administration over its policy on Israel.
We first spoke to Hala Rharrit when she resigned from the State Department in April, citing the illegal and deceptive nature of U.S. policy in the Middle East. “We continue to willfully violate laws so that we surge U.S. military assistance to Israel,” she says after more than a year of Israel’s war on Gaza.
Rharrit says she found the Biden administration unmovable in its “counterproductive policy,” which she believes has gravely harmed U.S. interests in the Middle East. “We are going to feel the repercussions of that for years, decades, generations.”
I really want to know what the actual reason is that we’re so boneheaded, so obstinate, so relentless in our “support” for Isreal no matter how fucking crazy they get…
Is it really just more money for defense contractors? It’s it really fear of AIPAC? Is it even more fucking absurd and we have actual Christian dominionists trying to bring Armageddon whether it’s the Democrats or Republicans?
I just don’t understand it…
tldr: the US is still supporting Israel is because Israel has historically been extremely beneficial to US interests.
full:
The reason is that Israel has been a steadfast ally in advancing and defending us interests for half a century, and there is no one else in the Middle East who could play that role half as effectively or reliably.
there was zero chance of the US immediately cutting off aid after 50 years of aid, especially while dozens of other countries have also been providing aid and are still providing aid to Israel.
that was never an option and should not have been an expectation from the public, who only has that expectation because most people have only recently learned about the Palestinian invasion by Israel that’s been happening for over half a century.
One year is not much time internationally or diplomatically. it’s not much time for intelligence agencies to determine what is happening, especially in the fog of war, and it isn’t much time for effects of actions to be seen, no matter what actions are taken.
in israel, The US has an attack dog to deal with US enemies in the Middle East, and now the attack dog has broken its leash and isn’t responding to commands. Netanyahu is aging, centralized power, and is acting literally insane.
while I have been loyal, this completely separate nation has saliently chosen to have been loyal, although they were and are under no obligation to be loyal to the demands of the United States, as is now being seen.
it’s only been one year, and regardless of what you hear, diplomatically the US is continually trying different tactics to stem the violent efforts of a nation with plenty of resources that has no obligation to listen to the US other than continued financial support, that it has plenty of already and has many other sources of aid.
So to counter basically your whole point: You know how Reagan stopped the Israeli bombing of Beirut in 20 minutes with a phone call in 1982? That’s how someone who actually wants Israel to stop does it. Biden isn’t stopping them because he doesn’t want to, not because his administration is “diplomatically the US is continually trying different tactics to stem the violent efforts of a nation…”.
Don’t defend genocide support, it’s not a good look.
there was zero chance of the US immediately cutting off aid after 50 years of aid, especially while dozens of other countries have also been providing aid and are still providing aid to Israel.
Those other dozen countries are only doing because they follow the USs lead. And maybe Germany being hysterical about it instead of learning from its past, that never again must mean never again for everyone…
The reason is that Israel has been a steadfast ally in advancing and defending us interests for half a century
what a load of crap. Israel almost always has right wing leadership and those leaders run far more billboards celebrating their relationship with Putin that with the US. We have no operational bases there. They havent participated in any of our military conflicts. They are not an extension of US power. If they were, we have operations happening out of there.
I overheard a brief conversation between Trump-supporting veterans last week. Youngish guys, so not your average Vietnam boomer. It was startling to hear them talk about what’s going on in Israel in two stark terms:
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They talked about Israel being savagely “attacked” by Iran. Not Hamas, but literally Iran.
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They hope the military turns Iran to glass.
No mention of Palestine or Gaza at all, nor of the history of Israeli aggression. All they see is that Arabic nations launched an attack on Israel, and Israel is “fighting back.” It’s a mini holy war to these guys, and I’d guess a sizeable bipartisan coalition within the military industrial complex sees it exactly the same way. Palestine, to them, is just collateral damage in a broader war that was started by “them.”
That’s not a point of view singular to the military. It’s a pretty stock conservative take.
Pretty sure OP is asking why the US gov relentlessly supports the genocide, not maga morons.
Anti-muslim Racism has been pretty common and accepted in the West since even before 9/11 (though it definitelly exploded in the aftermath of it) plus Jews are seen as Whites Of A Different Religion (it’s not for nothing that Zionists since the very beginning constantly repeat the “Israel has Western values” mantra).
So for those people the entire reading of the situation, judgment of the actions of the participants and definition of what’s an acceptable or unaccetable response is anchored on what their anti-Muslim and pro-White prejudices tell them is the character of everybody in each of the sides involved (or, in simple terms, who are the “good guys” for whom everything is justifiable and the “bad guys” whose actions are always evil).
This is why so many Liberals ended up siding with American Fascists in their defense of an ethno-Fascist (i.e. Nazi-like) regime commiting ethnic Genocide - they too aways judged people based on their etnicity, differing only from one another in the list of “presumed good” and “presumed bad” ethnicities, and in this specific case both shared “Jews” in their list of “good ethnicity” (the Fascists because they saw them as Westerners - i.e. White - and the Liberals because they saw them as Victims following the Holocaust, a view heavilly propagandized by Zionists) and “Muslims” in the list of “bad ethnicity” (curiously both because they’re not White, and both via the cultural differences between them and “Westerners”, though Fascists and Liberals disliked different elements the culture of “Muslims” - I use quotes because whilst they see it as a single culture, it’s not, not even close).
To add on to what others have already said, Israel also supplies the US with a lot of advanced technology and biotechnology. All the cellbrite scanners used to hack into phones come from them, medical equipment like sleep study equipment, drugs, and other things.
Although it seems an area that would be good to just bring in house for national defense in the event a partner nation goes rogue.
We should never have given any of that responsibility to a non NATO country in the first place. We’ve been tied to this country by lobbyists.
Quite easy really:
In the past they were a strategic counter against the islamic regimes aligned with the USSR & Today they are a strategic counter against Iran
Allowing Iran to destroy Israel and having them expand their influence in the region is considered worse
It’s pretty simple.
There is an election in November and noone wants to anger the power AIPAC lobby or Jewish voters.
theres about 7.5 jewish voters split between republicans and dems. Theres about 3.7 arab american voters which are part of the 4.45 million muslim voters. Jews arent a voting block of a size to be overly concerned about. And the dems probably lose more votes supporting israel than they gain. So this is about money, not votes.
Epstein didn’t kill himself
I’m just screwing around but you want to talk about fear and power in Washington? Leverage? Who has them tapes?
It’s not nuts to say here a lot of politicians are implicated right? I wonder who’s gottem?
Not that any exuse needs to exist beyond the rampant corruption, cowardice, and lack of compassion we see daily on garish display
Geopolitics, i was curious so I looked it up. Seems like Israel is one of the only friendly countries in the middle east, which gives us access to oil in the region.
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Israel does not give us access to ‘oil’.
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The number of unfriendly countries in MENA is much smaller than the number of friendly countries. The Saudis, repulsively, are our close allies. Turkiye is literally part of NATO. Egypt has been with the US for the past 40 years. Jordan is one of our closest allies in the region. Iran and Syria are our only real enemies in the region.
I used to think that too, but the geopolitical reason was always “stability.” We’ve gone and spread our access to oil well enough that no one source should hinder our ability to get what we need.
I think their geopolitical reasons are just lies at this point.
Also, I’m pretty sure Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan, and Egypt have all pretty much done everything the US wanted them to for years now
It’s not about oil, it’s the use of their military bases for staging and transit.
We have something like 15 bases in MENA. There’s absolutely no reason to transit through Israel and we do not do so. DOHA, Kuwait is the largest transit point for the US Military as a whole. Bahrain has the largest naval base and Saudi Arabia has the largest air force base.
Israel has an outpost that’s not used logistically at all, and could easily be put in Egypt, Turkey, Jordan, or Iraq. All allies, and some of them with actual US military bases.
A little of everything, I think. Plus I don’t think Biden has the mental capacity to competently evaluate what’s going on. The man is positively geriatric, and he’s no Jimmy Carter. But he’s useful, in the same way that Dianne Feinstein’s staff kept her as a puppet right up until her death. Frankly, it’s elder abuse.
I wouldn’t put this 100% on Biden though, even in the interview they state that Kamala is 100% on board with the same plan. There is something about the so-called American interest that demands we continue.
I’d put my money on money as that’s pretty much always the reason and the military industrial complex always gets what it wants. There’s never been an administration that saw a war it didn’t like until it goes far enough to risk the party’s reelection prospects. They’re being blind to the importance of this one this time.
The self-proclaimed anti-racists were never against racism, they just had different lists of ubermenschen and untermenschen that the traditional racists.
If one is running around with the idea that people’s worth is defined by their ethnicity and that one can presume they’re oppressors or oppressed based on that alone they’re still a racist and still operating on the same fundamental prejudices about the worth of people as the Nazis.
Because of how the Zionists in Israel worked so much and so successfully to entrenched the idea that Israel represents all Jews, an ethnic group which the new-age-racists collectively deemed “victims” and “good people” (remember, the racism is classifying people on their race, not being positive or negative in your classification: after all, the Nazis too deemed all Arians as better than the rest) what the Israeli Genocide did was put in focus the racism of the Racists passing themselves as anti-Racists when those who they believe represent one of the “good races” started openly doing the very same kind of ultra violent racism as the Nazis.
People who genuinely were against racism reviewed this stance whilst those who still operate on the same racist principles as the Nazis - that people’s worth is defined by their ethnicity - came up with all sorts of excuses in defense of “the good race”, very much like Nazi supporters defended the Arian race because it was a white race like theirs.
Basically Liberals made it plain as day they’re just another kind of Fascist who support all other kinds of Fascism unless they themselves are its target.
It’s not just one reason, it’s many reasons, all weighing together. That’s pretty standard for how govt decisions are made, an attempt is made to tally up and weigh all the pros and all the cons.
One reason seldom discussed is US reputation as standing by its allies after attacks. The US is allied to all of NATO, almost all of S America in the Rio Convention, along with a slew of other, individual alliances like Israel and Morocco. The idea that if you’re an ally and you are attacked, we will help you, is an important one in preserving our network of global allies. We have seldom historically made distinctions that you have to be on the right side of history.
Coupled with domestic factionalist opinions, AIPAC money, MIC money, hamas and Hezbollah themselves being oppressive, genocidal movements, etc etc, balanced against Israel throwing out the two-state solution post Oslo Accords in favor of illegal settlement, Apartheid and now openly advocating for an ethnic cleansing, and there’s a lot of weight on the scale pulling each way. Really heavy fucking scale, one of the heaviest in the world, and with a century+ of backstory that is far from one-sided.
Big, big mess basically. Historically epic clusterfuck. Biblical proportions, even.
Hamas and Hezbollah are anti-colonialst resistance movements, not genocidal ones. They exist due to Israel’s ethnic cleansing of local populations.
Both Hamas and Fatah have agreed to a Two-State solution based on the 1967 borders for decades. Oslo and Camp David were used by Israel to continue settlements in the West Bank and maintain an Apartheid, while preventing any actual Two-State solution
How Avi Shlaim moved from two-state solution to one-state solution
‘One state is a game changer’: A conversation with Ilan Pappe
One State Solution, Foreign Affairs
Hamas proposed a full prisoner swap as early as Oct 8th, and agreed to the US proposed UN Permanent Ceasefire Resolution. Additionally, Hamas has already agreed to no longer govern the Gaza Strip, as long as Palestinians receive liberation and a unified government can take place.
During the current war, Hamas officials have said that the group does not want to return to ruling Gaza and that it advocates for forming a government of technocrats to be agreed upon by the various Palestinian factions. That government would then prepare for elections in Gaza and the West Bank, with the intention of forming a unified government.
Yes, I’ve heard that rhetoric before. I apply the same skepticism to hamas as I do Israel, though, given both are engaged in outright warfare. Political maneuverings are to be expected during times of war. I am not surprised they would offer a prisoner swap, the only surprise is that they would think any chance exists that Netanyahu might actually agree, after given such a clear casus belli and opportunity to enact his long-term goals.
Ultimately, language like this is legitimate cause for suspicion, though: https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2023/10/hamas-covenant-israel-attack-war-genocide/675602/
Additionally, you can point to the indiscriminate attacks on Oct 7th against nonmilitary targets to give evidence to their lack of distinguishment between Israeli people and the Israeli military. It’s not just language about the destruction of a country of people, they exhibit actions to back it up.
Ultimately, it does not matter why they want to destroy Israelis, that is not a pre-requisite to fighting against occupation. Do Ukrainians seek to destroy Russia? Or merely battle its military to liberate their land? This is a key distinction, the following of the laws of war.
Just like somebody giving weapons and ammo to the Ku Klux Klan whilst they’re actively using them to kill afro-americans is a fucking extreme racist KKK supporter, so is anybody giving weapons and ammo to a white ethno-Fascist state actively genociding people of another ethnicity because of their ethnicity is a fucking extreme racist ethno-Fascist (the same variant of Fascism as Nazism) supporter.
Unless you’re a fucking racist yourself who judges actions differently depending on the ethnicity of the victims or the perpetrators, those two are equivalent.
So any self-proclaimed anti-Racist liberal supporting Israel with actual weapons and ammo is not only by their own actions the worst, most raciste violent and genocidal kind of Fascist there is - one similar to Nazism, no less - they’re also a massive hypocrite.
So yeah, based on the leaders they vote for Americans are by association the modern Nazi supporters.
this is one of the most ignorant comments I’ve ever read.
you think that the US is under Israel’s thumb?
you fundamentally misunderstand international power dynamics.
“All that the Biden Administration had to do was cease giving weapon!”
this would do nothing. Israel is supported by dozens of countries and has a huge stockpile from having been supported financially and materially for half a century.
The US can influence Netanyahu and Israel, but this is a crime that has been perpetuated for 50 years that is still going on, recently ramped up to a concluding chapter, and the US does not control the idf or Netanyahu.
that is a separate nation with ample resources that is making this decision to continue the genocide.
and no, the Biden administration hasn’t moved “backward” with regard to israeli support, from full support they moved to warnings, after warnings they moved to sanctions, then Biden publicly stated that the US won’t continue to support Netanyahu in an indefinite war and met with his political adversary, now they’re threatening to cut weapon shipments if Israel continues bombing civilians and they’re calling for ceasefires.
they’re moving way too slowly, but they aren’t moving backwards.
they’re moving way too slowly, but they aren’t moving backwards
Name one single action they’re taken other than ask Israel nicely. You said sanctions but they never actually sanctioned anyone. And the threat you’re referring to was specifically stated to not be meant as a threat.
"Name one single action they’re taken…’
“never actually sanctioned anyone.”
action:
https://www.reuters.com/world/biden-administration-sued-over-sanctions-israeli-settlers-2024-08-07/
The Biden administration is getting sued over all of their sanctions,
Just Google the things I write, you will find sources for them.
action:
publicly declared that the US won’t support an indefinite war.
action: met with netanyahu’s political ally after Netanyahu refused to de-escalate
action: cut down the weapons shipments they already agreed to send.
action: Biden is actively calling for a two-state solution
action: Biden has called for a halt to Israeli colonization of Palestinian land(that’s why those sanctions you didn’t r know about happened).
you may not value diplomatic actions, but diplomacy is important, and is what the US is going to try first with one of their oldest active mutual defense allies in the world.
The naive belief that US presidents have a switch in their office that lets them turn the actions of other countries on and off is inaccurate in the extreme.
there are dozens of countries financially and materally supporting Israel.
If the US stops supporting Israel, they
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lose one of their most valuable allies in a part of the world very hostile toward the US.
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have zero impact on the capability of Israel to continue waging the genocide. Israel has enough weapons and support to continue this as long as they want to.
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push Netanyahu even further away; Netanyahu is under no obligation, as the leader of a sovereign nation, to follow the dictates of other countries.
should the US do more?
yes.
are they doing anything?
Yes, they are repeatedly trying various diplomatic and material actions and censures with which to deescalate the concluding chapter of an invasion that nearly the entire world has supported for 50 years that finally you are aware of and justifiably angry about while maintaining an ally that is crucial to US interests and national security.
The measures taken by the US against Israel are ramping up, and have consistently been ramping up for a year.
too slowly for many people’s taste, especially if they don’t understand how international diplomacy functions, but the spectators’ political blind spot doesn’t mean nothing is happening on the world stage.
