The Biden administration last week put a hold on a shipment of U.S.-made ammunition to Israel, two Israeli officials told Axios.
Why it matters: It is the first time since the Oct. 7 attack that the U.S. has stopped a weapons shipment intended for the Israeli military. The incident raised serious concerns inside the Israeli government and sent officials scrambling to understand why the shipment was held, Israeli officials said. President Biden is facing sharp criticism among Americans who oppose his support of Israel. The administration in February asked Israel to provide assurances that U.S.-made weapons were being used by Israel Defense Forces in Gaza in accordance with international law. Israel provided a signed letter of assurances in March.
And suddenly, Israel seems much more interested in diplomacy.
Let’s hope.
I believe they’re throwing a fit about it right now but we’ll see. They don’t have a lot of room to complain about literal tons of free guns getting shipped to them.
Looks like protesting still works.
Let’s hope all of this diplomacy also works.
Great, now stop all money and weapons to Israel entirely. Every day Biden doesn’t do this we get closer to a criminal orange man as president.
While I’d love to see that, it would be unprecedented in the history of US-Israel relations. If it does happen at all, it will definitely come slowly.
Also, you may want to stop putting election abstinence out there as a consequence. We’re all aware that Trump will make things worse for Palestinians as well as everyone who isn’t a rich white American industrialist male.
I’m just making sure everyone knows what the consequence is, whether I like it or not. It’s Biden’s job to do right by the people who voted for him no matter how bad the alternative may be.
His job is to represent all Americans, not just Democrats. Many Republicans and Evangelicals believe in supporting Israel in eradicating Palestinians.
So is Trump’s job to represent all Americans, even Democrats? Sure as hell doesn’t fucking feel so.
That’s the funny thing about being President. They tend to do a better job when they’ve held office before. It turns out that real estate con men and actors do a pretty terrible job of representing the average American.
It’s in the job description for president, so yeah in theory. We just all know, based on years of actions and rhetoric, that Trump has no intention of representing anyone other than himself. He doesn’t even care about his own supporters. Don’t let that cloud what the job is supposed to entail though.
it would be unprecedented in the history of US-Israel relations
Not unprecedented. Ronald Reagan used the threat of halting arms exports to Israel in '83, in order to end PM Menachem Begin’s terror bombing of Beirut.
Yes. He then sold arms to Iran, known as the Iran-Contra scandal, which in turn went to Hezbollah, inciting the Israel-Iran proxy war we’re protesting today. Then he provided military aid to Israel under agreement that they use it to attack Hezbollah in Lebanon. He literally is the father of this proxy conflict. Do not glorify his actions.
Do not glorify his actions.
I don’t think I’m glorifying anything. Merely pointing out a moment in history in which a President threatened arms sales to Israel, prior to this one.
He withheld all aid, not just military, and then provided exclusive military aid with directive for application. He wasn’t “being tough” on Israel. He was telling them where to point the guns. It’s not an example of what we need from Biden, or any president for that matter.
How is this the response to a post directly pointing out what you said is wrong.
“Yes I was wrong, but he was horrible so it doesn’t count.”
Ronald Reagan was a piece of shit. He also did the thing you said no one had done before.
No, again, he didn’t. He only withheld aid in order to direct the use of the subsequent military aid. That’s not being “tough on Israel.” It’s telling them where to shoot.
No, he didn’t. The saturation bombing of Beirut was a step too far, especially as it was fucking with the US’s attempts to broker peace in Lebanon. It also actually pissed Reagan off who described it in the phone call as ‘a holocaust’
You have the weirdest, most demented, view of American history as it relates to Israel I think I’ve ever seen.
But what about the profits? You can’t go around not profiting just because a few thousand children are being killed, disfigured and orphaned! It’s like you don’t understand neoliberalism at all.
Sarcasm aside, stopping the money and weapons isn’t enough to stop the genocide because Israel never needed any of it in the first place. But if you funnel hundreds of billions of dollars to defence contractors, there’s nothing the US government won’t consent to.
Orange man won’t be any different. He’s not even trying to pretend it’s not a genocide, just coming out and saying Israel should “finish the problem”.
stopping the money and weapons isn’t enough to stop the genocide
“This thing isn’t good because it doesn’t do the thing all the way, so the thing isn’t worthwhile”.
Have a nice day political agitator, now get blocked.
I’m not advocating doing nothing, I’m advocating doing more you dildo.
Same to you trump staffer.
Great, now stop all money and weapons to Israel entirely.
Can’t do that, it would be antisemitic.
It’s a sticky wicket, because Israel is the USA’s only ally in the Middle East. All options are terrible.
That was true when Israel was created after WWII. It’s no longer the case. The US is also allied with Saudi Arabia and Egypt as non-NATO nations, and also with the NATO partners UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait.
and also with the NATO members UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait.
??? Those are not NATO members!
You’re correct. They’re partners in NATO’s Istanbul Cooperation Initiative. I mistyped. I’ll correct it.
We spent how much money and how many lives to make Iraq our ally, and people STILL pull this “only ally” b.s.?
Eh. I’m not sure if most Iraqis would agree that they’re out “ally”. We kinda fucked the dog on that one. And in Afghanistan.
We’re pretty good at regime change, not so great at lasting change.
It took 35,000 lives for the US to finally do this?
Nah. That’s happened before, and everything just continued. It took nationwide protests all over the news, as well as several outspoken members of Congress to make this happen.
Well, well…
Anyone taking bets for how long until Poohbear starts offering ammunition to Netanyahu to “build diplomatic relations”?
Not a snowball’s chance in hell. Putin backs Iran, which in turn backs Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthis. The Israel-Iran proxy conflict has been a US/Russia proxy conflict since Reagan and Gorbachev.
That’s true, but also a little more complicated than that I think. At least one of the reasons Israel was able to extract so much aid from the US to begin with was the threat they could align with the Soviet Union (initially one of the biggest supporters of Israel, and first to recognize them as a state officially in 1947, though they had a few others had unofficially recognized them by then). Stalin had a zionist foreign policy, despite (or maybe because of) being antisemitic himself. Though Soviets and Israel largely schismed in 1967 and the Soviet union began throwing its funding behind the surrounding Arab states.
Relations warmed in the 90s again but have been up and down since. But there has been a lot of Russian immigration to Isreal. Russian is the third most spoken language in Israel.
2011, Putin said: “Israel is, in fact, a special state to us. It is practically a Russian-speaking country. Israel is one of the few foreign countries that can be called Russian-speaking. It’s apparent that more than half of the population speaks Russian”.[38] Putin additionally claimed that Israel could be considered part of the Russian cultural world, and contended that “songs which are considered to be national Israeli songs in Israel are in fact Russian national songs”. He further stated that he regarded Russian-speaking Israeli citizens as his compatriots and part of the ‘Russian World’
Israel at times has been quite friendly to Russia. It took a neutral stance on the Crimea annexation, infuriating the United States. Russia recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in 2017. Israel refused to recognize Russians assassinating people abroad, infuriating the UK. Netanyahu has spoke often about his friendship with Putin. Israel refused to impose sanctions on Russia or send defensive weapons to Ukraine.
I mean you could go on, it’s a complicated relationship, with especially Netanyahu favoring closer relations with Russia and trying to play both sides. Iran’s relationship with Russia certainly presents complications, but I don’t think Israel getting closer to Russia or at least using the threat of it to extract more from the United States is out of the question. They’re often trying to “play both sides” of the Russia and US divide to their benefit. Especially if Netanyahu remains in power.
https://www.axios.com/2022/10/25/ukraine-russia-israel-netanyahu-putin-lapid-kuleba
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel–Russia_relations
China and Israel have had surprisingly good relations too. And again, Netanyahu has consistently tried to make those closer, possibly to help keep US aid flowing.
Not saying the US shouldn’t cut off Isreal, please do, but the results may be surprising if that were to actually happen. I don’t think putin harbors any particular concerns for the plight of the Palestinian people.
That all changed when Reagan played both sides by selling arms to Iran in the Iran-Contra scandal while providing military aid to Israel with the mandate that they attack Hezbollah in Lebanon. Gorbachev then reinforced the relations that Russia had with Iran since the Persian Empire, and the Israel-Iran proxy conflict was born.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran–Israel_proxy_conflict
Any diplomatic words from Putin should be seen as coercive agenda. He recently stated that he’d prefer Biden in office over Trump because he’s more predictable, while circulating communication with direction to support and encourage the Republican Party.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/04/08/russia-propaganda-us-ukraine/
Yes not disputing at all that there’s a proxy war (though Soviet Israeli relationship deteriorated long before that started with Soviets funding Israeli opponents since 1967), just that despite or partially because of this, Israel is closer to Russia than most western countries. Isreal doesn’t want to upset Russia and give them more incentive to fund proxies against them, and some Israeli governments, like Netanyahu’s especially, have helped provide cover for Russian actions. And Russia at times will often take surprisingly pro Israeli moves despite also funding proxies.
I don’t think it would be impossible for Israel to switch alignment to Russia, and I think you would quickly see Russia providing cover and stopping any assistance with proxy conflict against them. It would be essentially accomplishing Russia’s goal, so what would they have to fight Israel about anymore? Putin is a real politic great powers kind of leader who has no qualms about butchering civilians by the thousands. He’s certainly not aligned with Iran because he’s concerned about Palestinians. Israel becoming fully aligned with Russia would be accomplishing a 77 year in the making goal for the Soviet Union and Russia.
That’s a fair point. I could see it if Biden cut Israel off for longer enough he’d effectively push Netanyahu into Putin’s arms, like paying protection from the mob. That would also require Netanyahu to remain in office, and he’s polling at 15% favorability as of January. I’m sure that’s gone down since the Iranian retaliation. Elections tend to be reactionary when following tragedy and disaster, so I’m hoping they finally get a more liberal Prime Minister this time around.
Yes totally agree, there’s no way this goes anywhere but worse somehow as long as Netanyahu remains in power. Hopefully elections (or just being hauled off to jail hopefully) push him out soon, for everyone’s sake.
Funny detail is that Israel was the one that shipped their weapons to Iran, with the US supplying them with replacements
We had better hope hell stays hot and China stays out of it, then. Genocidal assholes don’t care where they source their weapons, and I wouldn’t put it past him to bend over for any country willing to support his campaign.
Considering Biden repealed his settler sanctions, I’d actually bet this eventually gets approved after Israel promises to pay shipping fees in exchange for breaking the SLA stating they can’t do a genocide
You have that reversed. Trump repealed the 50-year-old sanctions on Israel settling on Palestinian territory. Biden restored it.
Although Netanyahu was so grateful for Trump’s favor, he named a town after him in Golan Heights.
Keep doing good work. Democracy can’t let the rat fucking provocateurs win.
Thanks. Trying to provide factual sources to discredit disinformation is an uphill battle. There sure is a lot of it.
It’s the asymmetric bullshit principle
Thank you for this. It’s incredibly validating.
There sure is a lot of it
Literally COUNTRIES worth!
Im just happy you provided facts and stopped there
Not those sanctions lol, I was talking about the recent ones a few months ago.
four Israeli men it accused of being involved in settler violence in the West Bank,
Which he half walked back on
Indeed. I have no faith this hold will actually hold for long, given how many times they’d lied or misled about actions they were willing to take.
