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Senators Have a Chance to Halt Weapons Sales to Israel. Will They Take It? (theintercept.com)

submitted 1 week ago by Keeponstalin@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

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“The truth is that from a legal perspective, these resolutions are not complicated,” Sanders said during a press conference Tuesday, alongside Sens. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.; Peter Welch, D-Vt.; and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. “They are cut and dry. The United States government is currently in violation of the law, and every member of the Senate who believes in the rule of law should vote for these resolutions.”

Despite aid groups reporting that Israel has continued to block humanitarian aid into Gaza, the White House overlooked the blown deadline last week, saying that it will continue to provide weapons to Israel. The decision stands in direct violation of existing U.S. law preventing the government from sending weapons to countries that block U.S.-backed humanitarian assistance.

With the Biden administration unwilling to act and legislation targeting pro-Palestinian nonprofits still advancing, pro-Palestinian advocates and their allies in Congress argue that passing the joint resolutions is likely the last real opportunity for Democrats to address the crisis in Gaza before Republicans take control in January.

Despite Democrats’ unwillingness to vote for conditioning military aid to Israel in the past, Araabi hopes that at least some of the lame-duck senators who won’t be returning in January will take this opportunity to cement an anti-genocide record.

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[-] Zak@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

Probably not. US international relations is heavily driven by an amoral power calculus.

Israel is a major foil to Iran. Iran is an ally of Russia and China and a threat to US interests in the region. Barring an extreme amount of pressure from constituents, which has not reached that threshold as far as I can tell, most US politicians will tolerate almost any human rights abuse from Israel.

[-] BMTea@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

This is superficial. Neither Russia nor China are particularly antagonistic to Israel or the Gulf states, even if they see the US as a foe in their own region. Russia for example is very careful about balancing its relations with the Gulf, Israel and Iran. China, views Iran as a potential foothold to the region, but China actually benefits from the US presence, it is far more energy import dependent than the US and has no desire to fuel instability by helping Iran pursue offensive goals.

The actual reason that Iran and the USA are enemies has to do with the US' sectarian alignment with Sunni powers and Jewish nationalism, and more complicated reasons relating to politicial and religious struggles in the entire region that Iran happens to be one side of (i.e anti-monarchism, clericism, etc). And an institutional (and not necessarily rational) hatred of Iran in the US top brass due to its role in helping Iraqis and Lebanese fight American soldiers.

You cannot talk about this issue in terms of "Russia-China-Iran" balancing without mentioning the deeper and much more relevant issues that make US-Israel relationship exceptional on a globsl level: post-Holocaust philosemetism, anti-Islamism, anti-Arabism and (very underreported) Christian piety that actually motivates US-Israel policy. And the Israel lobby, which is so deeply engrained that Israel is treated more or less like the 51st state.

Politics goes far beyond amoral power calculus. You could have justified a ceasefire and even an embargo on Israeli arm transfers in accordance to amoral power calculus, but for Biden, Blinken and the rest, this is a moral question relating to a transcendent moral and religious cause, steeped in centuries of historical memory.

I have zero doubt that Joe Biden believes that by helping murderous racist Netanyahu slaughter and expel the people of Gaza, he has placed himself in the company of Cyrus the Great and other deliverers of Jews rather than Idi Amin and Radovan Karadzic. The GOP puts such things in explicitly religious terms and thus appear less rational or calculating. But it's not even that well-hidden in the case of Biden and Blinken given what we know of their careers and lives.

[-] Keeponstalin@lemmy.world 0 points 1 week ago

That's a great analysis. Do you have any books or articles to share on the subject?

[-] nonailsleft@lemm.ee 0 points 1 week ago

It's more like choosing to stand with Israel against Iran(ian proxies). The same reason they stood with Saudi-Arabia killing so, so many children in Yemen.

These top dog politicians don't care for religious or moral matters, that's just for show

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[-] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 week ago

If the logic is "selling these is causing war crimes" they'd have to defined the entire US military. The US regularly breaks the same laws.

[-] yeahiknow3@lemmings.world -3 points 1 week ago

Can you give an example from, say, the last decade? Just one example will do.

[-] Carmakazi@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

Not this decade, but during the battles of Fallujah we gave the civilians there 24 hours to evacuate, and then after that the official rules of engagement were pretty damn close to "everyone left is presumed to be an Al Qaeda militant." They were allowed to shoot people with phones or radios in their hands on sight. We also bombed the fuck out of that city, including with white phosphorous. We know WP was used because there was a recorded friendly fire incident with it.

And all of this was basically reprisal for the killings of those four Blackwater mercenaries.

[-] yeahiknow3@lemmings.world 0 points 1 week ago

Not this decade

So, no?

I can answer for you. The US betrayal of their Kurdish allies was evil and that was fairly recent.

[-] Rapidcreek@lemmy.world -1 points 1 week ago

The reason white phosphorus was used in Fallujah. If you've ever been to an Arab city, you'll note that sometimes in markets, cloth is hung over the streets. This cloth provides shade to shoppers. Fallujah had more of that than usual, it masked movement from sight overhead. So, to get rid of it, they dropped white phosphorus to burn it away.

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[-] ReiRose@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

https://archive.ph/Lig2F/again?url=https://theintercept.com/2024/11/20/sanders-joint-resolution-arms-weapons-israel-gaza/

[-] octopus_ink@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 week ago

[-] TheFriar@lemm.ee -1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

lol

They definitely will not.

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this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2024

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