Biden administration dramatically softens the sanctions it imposed on the seven Israelis from the Israel Defense Forces and makes it clear that they will be able to use their bank accounts.
If I'm reading this correctly, this decision was made because Smotrich threatened to sever all Israeli banking relations with the Palestinian Authority, which since the PA depends on Israeli banks to function, would have ruined the Palestinian government in the West Bank. I don't like that this is how it's going down, but definitely see the rationale, and don't think the Biden Admin is wrong to protect the PA. There's plenty criticism to heap on the US for their relationship with Israel, but I don't think this is one of them. The problem here is Smotrich and the Netanyahu government.
The PA is pretty much entirely controlled by the Israeli military now. It being shut down might actually allow orgs that actually serve Palestinian interests to take power.
Regardless, this is obviously just an excuse to stop the sanctions. Israel is entirely dependent on the US and these "threats" are toothless. If Biden gave a fuck at all, he would simply threaten to cut off funding to Israel in return.
The "might" in that sentence is doing some heavy lifting. I think the collapse of the PA would lead to worsening chaos in the West Bank, especially financially, and would directly harm Palestinians.
The problem here is Smotrich and the Netanyahu government.
Can they just send a few killer drones after the two guys mentioned? It's fair game, USA uses those outside of its territory, Israel uses those outside of its territory.
Of course there's going a shitfest of indignation from Israelis, but that'll be in any situation which is not successful ethnic cleansing with no consequences.
If people took half of the energy they spend shaming people for not adhering to the two-party system and turned it to pressuring Biden to be a better candidate he'd have switched positions by now
But how do you pressure him into being a better candidate when the only threat you have against him, i.e. voting him out, is held hostage by the fact that if you do vote him out an even more extreme radical will get in power?
When the Lobby has such pull on the White House over blatant genocide, do not doubt who is in or is trying to be in real control. So much for conspiracy theories.
Just don't blame the voters with spines when he loses the election.
Edit: To all the geniuses saying Trump is worse, you are no different than MAGA. Saying you'll vote for Biden regardless of a fucking genocide means that he'll get away with anything. If you morons actually cared you would have protested instead of trying to make people vote for a genocidal zionist cuck. Yet here we are.
Joe Biden isn’t catering to me and my friends
Apparently not wanting to fund a genocide with my tax dollars is the same as me bitching about gas prices. The funniest part is that these people think that they are so much better than MAGA.
You already did that with Hillary, really worked out great for everyone, huh? I do not understand how anyone can consider a second Trump presidency preferable to Biden just not doing as much as they would like.
What exactly do you think Trump would be doing in any way better in this situation?
Being bitter about your choices so letting others make the choice for you is way more spineless.
Progressives held their noses and voted for Clinton, and again for Biden, and some are finally realizing as long as they vote "blue no matter who" the people running the DNC will never give a shit about them.
And while "vote in the primary" used to be common advice, NH lost their delegates for something Dems in NH have zero control over after voting progressive over party favorite against Clinton and Biden.
And lots of us live in states that don't have primary votes before the party names their leader.
If your mad things changed, be mad at the DNC for taking away primaries.
Not voters who decided acting like Republicans the last 30 years hasn't helped anyone
Not voting is still voting, friend. Fix the system after Biden gets reelected, rather than end up in bigger shit than we're already wading through. Not voting has never fixed anything.
I detest them both. I'm still voting for Biden (though I did just send another email to the White House threatening not to).
Donald Trump getting elected will be bad for labor rights, abortion rights, voting rights, LGBTQ rights, among a ton of other freedoms. I should do the simple thing and vote for Joe Biden even though I disagree with some of his policies and he hasn't taken a strong enough stance on others that I support. I understand he has to compromise and can't tailor his policies exactly to my niche beliefs. Even if I don't vote, Biden or Trump will be president; I should vote for the one that will at least do some of the things I support.
The brave freedom fighters on Lemmy with a spine:
Joe Biden isn't catering to me and my friends, I'm not voting for that capitalist neo liberal pig Joe Biden. Surely the Democrats will call me next time they nominate a candidate, after all we should be catered too even though we're an extremely small community.
No one's complaining about a candidate not "catering" to them. They're complaining about Biden being a zionazi and committing a genocide. Even going as far as to bypass congress to send "isreal" weapons faster.
We're getting the orange anyway because the Democrats would rather preserve their AIPAC funding than win an election.
And besides; the Socialist Party is an FBI front organization, the PSL is content to ignore Russia's war on Ukraine, and even though the Greens have decent politics they're still being used by everyone as a wedge to split the Democrat vote in favor of Republicans. There's no way to vote for socialism that isn't self-defeating.
If anything, the PSL is a front for Russia, given that Russia has featured them on Russian state media. But I don't see them as being a threat to the Democrats. A quick look at their Wikipedia page shows that the most percentage votes they ever got in an election was 40%, and that was just 57 votes in a college town.
It's a pity the US doesn't have a parliamentary system. It would make so much more sense to have something like Greens, Socialists, and Democrats forming a coalition.
Trump 2024 anyone (edit: I'm not cheering him on, just stating a fact)?
Edit: I only read the headline then came back and read the article and just... What the actual fuck?
Did Biden, the president of the most power country in the world, just listen to a threat from their protectorate? What the fuck is going on here? How do people see shit like this and think "oh yes this is fine"?
Yes, but the idea that he threatened at all in public is ridiculous. For better or worse if this was any other country that man would be in deep shit. See: Pakistan.
People still going to act like somehow Israel controlling Dems is completely different than Russia controlling republicans.
If we had standards we could have politicians that dont belong to foreign genocidal fascists.
But when you say that, assholes that defend either party no matter what both accuse you of stupid shit online. Because they literally can't fathom having standards instead of blind loyalty. They're so far gone they can't process that's a valid option.
No one's "controlling" either party of the most powerful country in the world. This is how right-wingers think instead of analyzing things materially.
Supporting the US colony in Palestine is bipartisan for obvious reasons (more tools for imperialism in the region, and keeps the middle-east less stable and unable to unite against the US). And the only reason republicans are more open to Russia right now is because they want to change focus to China, because they (correctly, imo) see China as the current biggest threat to US hegemony rather than Russia.