WASHINGTON: A US military service member has died, after setting himself on fire in an apparent act of protest against the war in Gaza, outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington on Sunday (Feb 2
The middle east is an extremely geopolitically important region for the US because of all of the oil it has. The US therefore wants a country that it can use as basically a base of operation and client state in the region. Israel as a european settler colonials state is the client state that America wants because it largely is culturally closer to the US than the surrounding arab states. Consequently, the US defends Israel to the hilt regardless of the constant stream of atrocities that it commits.
Perhaps that was the initial impetus, but it is also 50 years out of date. Now-a-days, Israel is self-propagating even if they had zero strategic value for US interests, they are the number one donator’s to many top Republican and Democrat campaign funds. In addition they represent a useful tax-haven for all the “high-tech” industries in the US. They are allow by law to develop for the MIC both hardware and software without being restricted by the usual import/export restrictions for national defense. Israel is considered international so corporations aren’t taxed on income from Israel, and Israel will pay large subsidies to American corporations to open offices there. Of course those subsidies are just money the US Government pays to Israel anyway. It’s grotesque, and even if Israel weren’t an apartheid state, the incestuous relationship the country has built with the US ruling class should give anyone with morals pause.
Both of these takes are extremely cynical, and should be taken with a grain of salt. Israel’s actions with Gaza and the extremely right-wing PM in charge should not define Israel as a country and the reasons why the US has them as an ally, just like how Trump does not define the US as a country.
To be clear, I’m not suggesting that they shouldn’t be criticized. But, let’s criticize the actions, instead of making up reasons that the US is involved with Israel in the first place.
You mean actions like being the number one bipartisan campaign contributors to a large portion of American Leadership? You mean spending more on lobbying then any other industry? You mean Israel isn’t a tax shelter for American Firms that are normally restricted to being located on US Soil? What exactly am I “making up” here?
Are these numbers fake?
Biden, Joe (D) $5,223,313
Menendez, Robert (D-NJ) New Jersey $2,500,005
Clinton, Hillary (D-NY) New York $2,358,112
Kirk, Mark (R-IL) Illinois $2,294,469
Lieberman, Joe (D-CT) Connecticut $1,996,274
McConnell, Mitch (R-KY) Kentucky $1,953,160
Schumer, Charles E (D-NY) New York $1,725,324
McCain, John (R-AZ) Arizona $1,494,066
There’s no way China would just let North Korea do anything like Israel is doing. The difference is that Israel has outsize political influence in the US through AIPAC and the like.
Whether or not this is true, which I’m not going to address, DPRK is 1) not a settler colonial state, 2) not doing apartheid, and 3) not in the process of growing their own borders into neighboring territory, which are three very large and important differences to consider no matter how you feel about DPRK
Can anyone Eli5 us and Israel connection.
I don’t know much about politics.
The middle east is an extremely geopolitically important region for the US because of all of the oil it has. The US therefore wants a country that it can use as basically a base of operation and client state in the region. Israel as a european settler colonials state is the client state that America wants because it largely is culturally closer to the US than the surrounding arab states. Consequently, the US defends Israel to the hilt regardless of the constant stream of atrocities that it commits.
Perhaps that was the initial impetus, but it is also 50 years out of date. Now-a-days, Israel is self-propagating even if they had zero strategic value for US interests, they are the number one donator’s to many top Republican and Democrat campaign funds. In addition they represent a useful tax-haven for all the “high-tech” industries in the US. They are allow by law to develop for the MIC both hardware and software without being restricted by the usual import/export restrictions for national defense. Israel is considered international so corporations aren’t taxed on income from Israel, and Israel will pay large subsidies to American corporations to open offices there. Of course those subsidies are just money the US Government pays to Israel anyway. It’s grotesque, and even if Israel weren’t an apartheid state, the incestuous relationship the country has built with the US ruling class should give anyone with morals pause.
Both of these takes are extremely cynical, and should be taken with a grain of salt. Israel’s actions with Gaza and the extremely right-wing PM in charge should not define Israel as a country and the reasons why the US has them as an ally, just like how Trump does not define the US as a country.
To be clear, I’m not suggesting that they shouldn’t be criticized. But, let’s criticize the actions, instead of making up reasons that the US is involved with Israel in the first place.
You mean actions like being the number one bipartisan campaign contributors to a large portion of American Leadership? You mean spending more on lobbying then any other industry? You mean Israel isn’t a tax shelter for American Firms that are normally restricted to being located on US Soil? What exactly am I “making up” here?
Are these numbers fake?
Biden, Joe (D) $5,223,313 Menendez, Robert (D-NJ) New Jersey $2,500,005 Clinton, Hillary (D-NY) New York $2,358,112 Kirk, Mark (R-IL) Illinois $2,294,469 Lieberman, Joe (D-CT) Connecticut $1,996,274 McConnell, Mitch (R-KY) Kentucky $1,953,160 Schumer, Charles E (D-NY) New York $1,725,324 McCain, John (R-AZ) Arizona $1,494,066Removed by mod
There’s no way China would just let North Korea do anything like Israel is doing. The difference is that Israel has outsize political influence in the US through AIPAC and the like.
Removed by mod
Whether or not this is true, which I’m not going to address, DPRK is 1) not a settler colonial state, 2) not doing apartheid, and 3) not in the process of growing their own borders into neighboring territory, which are three very large and important differences to consider no matter how you feel about DPRK
Question: Have North Korea ever shoot a Chinese military ship, killing 34 crew members and wounding 171 more?
Yes.
Removed by mod
They’re not bombing them, it’s ‘just’ gulags and death penalties.
The communist style abuse.
We in the west prefer fire and fury typa ops against “enemies of the people”
OT: what’s with all these “removed by a mod” posts I keep seeing? I thought lemmy was an anti censorship effort, was I wrong?
Different places censor different things