politics
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
view the rest of the comments
If Iran won a war against Israel at least some of the more extreme in Iran want extermination. You could potentially be trading an incredibly one-sided war with a possible second Holocaust. Many of the most extreme political factions in surrounding countries want Israel wiped off the map and replaced with a Muslim theocracy. If you destabilize the area you're risking worse than is currently happening.
I don't think that means the USA should be giving Israel a blank check, but I'm also not a foreign policy expert and I suspect the diplomatic situation is far more complex than you and I can comprehend sitting comfortably on our couch. Especially since holding Israel accountable is also not as popular domestically as it seems in online communities like this one. So any diplomatic pressure has to be behind closed doors.
Israel is already doing a genocide. I'd rather the genociders get hurt than innocents. Though there is zero reason to think Iran would actually genocide anyone. Like, that whole idea is very much a bridge we will cross when we come to it.
Words matter, war and genocide are 2 different things. I know it's in vogue to call it genocide right now, but killing 0.4% of a population is not remotely genocide. It's certainly a one sided retaliatory war that is grotesque and shouldn't be happening. But if Isreal fails there is a chance millions of Jews die, again, we're talking 22,000 vs millions. I suspect that is the impossible situation foreign policy analysts have to weigh when deciding what to do next.
They are very different, and if this was just a war I wouldn't care. Israel is the aggressor in this, the idea that this has to do with the defense of Israel is a vicious lie intended to justify genocide. Theoretical people do not matter compared to real people. The foreign policy decision for anybody that isnt genocidalis trivially easy: stop doing a genocide.
Let's say an extremist faction of Mexico, that had power and was integrated into the government came north and captured 240 people and killed another 1200. How do you think the US would respond? Would many in this country or other countries call our inevitable outsized retaliation genocide? If you don't say no you're a liar. One has to recognize the geopolitical lense people view Israel from and the desperate need for some to propagandize Israel as genocidal. That doesn't make it true, and neither does desperately repeating it as often as possible. If anything it weakens your argument because it makes you seem like a clown to any serious person.
The Likud in Israel needs Hamas as much as Hamas needs the Likud. They both derive all of their power from a protracted conflict. There is no incentive to culturally and ethnically destroy the Palestinian people, because the day that happens is the day the Likud cease to exist. Netanyahu has shown over his political career that opportunism and power are his only driving forces, not cultural homogeneity and genocide. If you're going to make an argument that it's genocide you need to back it with coherent thought beyond, "but innocent people are dying". If that's your metric then all wars are genocide and the word looses all meaning.
What Israel is doing is awful, but it's not genocide.
All wars are not genocide, but this one clearly is. Israel directly controls the number of calories going into gaza, with the goal of starvation. They have blown up every single hospital in Gaza, and prevent them leaving Gaza for treatment. They refer to them as beasts, and openly stated they want to kill every single one of them. THAT ain't no regular ass war.
I would certainly call your example genocide, assuming America went about it the usual way. Netanyahu wants Palestine to be Israel, nothing all that complicated.
One does not in any way have to recognize the geopolitical lens people view Israel through. There are lenses that present it as a genocidal state, and there are lies. It's a classic "Id agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong".
Where that lens starts to matter is in our reaction to Americans who are not enlightened. Certainly merely repeating the propaganda you heard on the news doesn't make you pro genocide, but we still have to demand Americans think critically about it. Because the fact is, it IS a genocide, and as Americans we bear significant fault for it collectively.