cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/20919616
Senior White House figures privately told Israel that the U.S. would support its decision to ramp up military pressure against Hezbollah — even as the Biden administration publicly urged the Israeli government in recent weeks to curtail its strikes, according to American and Israeli officials.
Not everyone in the administration was on board with Israel’s shift, despite support inside the White House, the officials said. The decision to focus on Hezbollah sparked division within the U.S. government, drawing opposition from people inside the Pentagon, State Department and intelligence community who believed Israel’s move against the Iran-backed militia could drag American forces into yet another Middle East conflict.
Officials in the intelligence community, in briefings and talks with members of Congress last week, had said they were increasingly worried about the potential for a direct ground confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah. Similar conversations were occurring in the State Department, where officials were concerned about the mounting civilian death toll in Lebanon.
The internal administration division seems to have dissipated somewhat in recent days, with top U.S. officials convening Monday at the White House with President Joe Biden to discuss the situation on the ground. Most agreed that the conflict, while fragile, could offer an opportunity to reduce Iran’s influence in Lebanon and the region.
Still, the White House is walking a fine line, U.S. and Israeli officials said. The Biden administration wants to support Israel’s actions against a U.S.-designated terrorist group that has killed Americans and threatens the region. But it is not comfortable endorsing Israel’s campaign completely — or publicly — because it is worried it will creep too far into Lebanese territory, instigating an all-out war, one of the U.S. officials said.
Oh you mean the glass the West thing.
I guess I didn’t even think of that as being a solution to the Israel problem because it just removes countries with their shit together. And the only real country that could glass the West is probably China given that Russia threatening nuclear consequences so often has clearly painted them as not having any that function.
If China did that, it wouldn’t really be fair to the Chinese due to the massive amounts of IP and funds they rely on external to their country. Not to mention all the other companies that depend on globalization.
I mean if you think shits bad now wait until it’s just countries where there is absolutely no voting, no education, and it’s run by cults. I don’t think that’s very fair. Plus, you’re talking billions of lives of one side of an issue rather than 10 million equally distributed between sides.
Getting people out of the way is precisely the problem. Netanyahou wants his opposition out of the way. To do that he intends to distract by getting Palestinians out of the way. Iran has some connection to that I don’t understand still so they fund Hezbollah to get the IDF out of the way, which then Israel wants to get Lebanon out of the way to get to Hezbollah out of the way. At which point it becomes Iran and Israel trying to get eachother out of the way. If total nuclear annihilation was your solution, that seems far more fair than just the West.
I’m not gonna read all that but no I don’t mean “the West” I mean people like you whose opinions are not useful. It can be glassing, shutting up, or otherwise fucking off for all I care.
Adults are speaking
You’re hardly speaking, you’re just saying I’m evil for offering up a terrible yet balanced solution.
And if you’re not going to read my arguments I can tell you don’t actually have anything to gain or lose in this conversation, you’re merely here to stroke fire.
Maybe that’s what I’m doin? Maybe I’m trying to infuriate you? Or maybe I’m trying to get your mind to stop being so emotional about this and realize that feelings are going to get in the way the whole time. Deescalating any of this requires calm.
And my solution would certainly calm things down there. Maybe not from Iranian allies or Israel allies, but in the area they would be.
what is this Thanos-ass argument you’re trying to legitimize by your persistence? No one takes it seriously and you’re unwell for suggesting it. I’m glad you’re nobody.
Trying to legitimize? I want you to come up with a better solution that involves less death since that seems to have set you off.
The personal attacks are a bit odd. Unwell and a nobody?
If that were truly the case, I assume you wouldn’t have continued this conversation. You see some benefit in continuing to engage.
Or, you have a personal policy to always have the last say. Which means we could go on forever, and personally, that might be fun to try.
To be fair your solution has to be among the top for most deaths, at least in the short term. And you can only justify it by precluding any long term solution thats less violent. I just don’t agree with the assumption everything less violent has been tried and failed. Its a lack of creativity maybe, or you’ve lost faith that most people have positive motivations.
There has been a distinct historical lack of potential solutions being tried. Because of that we have the modern day shit show where no one is willing to try to come up with potential solutions.
The first and most vital component is to remove Netanyahou and zionists from power. Only Israel can do that. (Through non violent means).
Without that all the evidence shows that violence will contribute.
The reason nothing works is because to negotiate with someone you have to have something they want. Israel doesnt want anything, and won’t negotiate.
Normally when diplomacy fails to this degree, violence is the only remaining solution, but then the western nations supporting israel, help them fight off any attack and then punish any nation who dared to try.
So even the last step of violence fails. The west needs to fuck off from Israel and let them fight their own wars. They wouldnt swing their dick around the way they do without America’s wallet in their pocket. That’s fuck you kind of money.
I don’t disagree with that. I learned about this conflict in like 2012-2013. Never heard of it being a problem first.
$3b/year at the time in arms to Israel, and the U.S. received nothing. Well I thought so at the time. The problem is that some big intelligence assets are there - ballistic missile detection and interception systems. The US essentially is using Israel as an area to guard international anti-nuclear weapon facilities in one of the already fairly unstable regions in the world.
The US faces a choice. Stop sending the arms and risk losing that technology, or continue to send them and risk Israel belligerently killing its neighbors.
Given that the Eastern part of the world still holds hostility towards the West simply because we have a view that people are allowed to dissent from their governments and that they are presumably nuclear armed, the US will never let that technology go, unless it is replaced with something better.