Good. Not a fucking dime until Ukraine gets much needed funding. And then still not a fucking dime because Israel has proven to be quite capable of leveling Gaza with the resources they already have and are at absolutely 0 risk of losing any territory whatsoever.
What if we fund Ukraine's defense instead of Israel's offense?
I was under the impression there was Ukraine aid in this bill. But I agree, I'd rather fund them separately.
Edit: And Israel not at all, at the moment.
The Senate bill has Ukraine aid, border security stuff, and "aid" for Israel. Mike Johnson was throwing a tantrum that the GOP/Dem Senate leadership didn't include him in their negotiations (seriously, he sent out a letter to the House yesterday morning whining about it) so he decided to bring a bill up with just "aid" for Israel.
As you can see, he is continuing the proud tradition of effective GOP Speakers. 🙄
The speaker of the house is mad that he wasn't involved in senate business? Sounds like a fucking excuse to me.
I imagine that during bipartisan Senate negotiations it'd be prudent and/or courteous to include the House leadership as well, to avoid this exact kind of embarrassment.
The speaker doesn't have to be involved in all things. They aren't on every committee.
Yes, the speaker of the house really shouldn't be involved in senate business. That's what I was saying. It was a bullshit excuse on the speaker's part.
The Speaker typically has major sway over the budget even though they aren't on the Ways and Means Committee.
That said, it is usually tradition for the Senate to come up with the compromise when the House and President are at odds and can't negotiate their own deal.
Could someone explain what's the argument in favor of US funding Israel with these amounts other than securing a geopolitical partner in middle east?
Israel is not even a good geopolitical partner in the Middle East. Nearly everyone hates them so whenever we do operations over there we keep them out because we know even their presence will increase tensions and lose hearts and minds. They're good for spying on Iran but you have to take everything with a grain of salt because they could be lying in order to try and get us to be more confrontational because they despise Iran.
The reasons the U.S. government overwhelmingly supports Israel is:
evangelicals think the Jews taking over Israel will cause the rapture, which they want...
Sheer inertia
the idea that Israel is "an island of liberal democracy" in a sea of authoritarian Arab states
Heavy lobbying from organizations like AIPAC, and if you don't follow their line they'll spend millions on you opponent's campaign.
Military industrial complex loves sales to Israel
military industrial complex relies on technology and equipment from Israel
Islamaphobia and the idea that they're fighting the good fight against the evil terrorists
residual guilt for the Holocaust and the west's antisemitic past
Your list is spot on, and what's interesting about it is the strange bedfellows it creates. You have a coalition of literal Nazis, Orthodox Jews, and Intelligence Agencies calling for more bombs to fight fascism and spread democracy.
The thing about American Nazis is, yes they are virulently anti-Semitic but they also are usually fiercely steeped in their twisted version of Christianity, which says the Jews have to be in Israel for Armageddon to happen. Then they'll get their heavenly rewards while the rest of us are punished forever, since they see us as the cause of all their problems.
They're perfectly willing to tolerate Jews' existence, as long as it's not here in America.
APEC
I think you mean AIPAC.
Yeah your right, got it confused with a conference around here that they still have ads up for. Edited
Modern day Christianity is a death cult begging for the end of the world to happen and according to their mythology, Israel has to occupy that particular piece of dirt, regardless of whoever is already there. And since a still-significant portion of the American electorate are superstitious and arms manufacturers are so wealthy, our politicians are more than happy to pander to the one to take donations from the other.
It's even more sinister than that even; not only are they looking forward to the world ending, they think that they are the only ones getting into "heaven" and everyone else will be tormented in "hell" forever.
They look forward to the few million of them getting a "reward" while the other 10 billion people burn. That's the mentality of a lunatic that doesn't deserve to be allowed in civilization, but instead, society had deemed their lunacy a protected class.
Nevermind that their own Bible says specifically that only 144k people will get into heaven and even then it's only male Jewish virgins.
Besides the religious angle, the funding we give to Israel tends to come right back into the pockets of US military contractors. This is great if you like military contractors. I'm not one of those people, but they apparently exist.
Because they are the only reasonable geopolitical partner in the middle east. Every other country there is fucking with oil prices every 4 years for political gain. Also passively or actively supporting terrorism.
US desires stability over all else. Israel is committed to stability as well because stability improves their ability to detect and subvert terrorism against them.
Israel allows the US to project power into the region.
Too many politicians support genocide for its own sake. Some of them are even Republicans.
Good. Not a fucking dime until Ukraine gets much needed funding. And then still not a fucking dime because Israel has proven to be quite capable of leveling Gaza with the resources they already have and are at absolutely 0 risk of losing any territory whatsoever.
What if we fund Ukraine's defense instead of Israel's offense?
I was under the impression there was Ukraine aid in this bill. But I agree, I'd rather fund them separately.
Edit: And Israel not at all, at the moment.
The Senate bill has Ukraine aid, border security stuff, and "aid" for Israel. Mike Johnson was throwing a tantrum that the GOP/Dem Senate leadership didn't include him in their negotiations (seriously, he sent out a letter to the House yesterday morning whining about it) so he decided to bring a bill up with just "aid" for Israel.
As you can see, he is continuing the proud tradition of effective GOP Speakers. 🙄
The speaker of the house is mad that he wasn't involved in senate business? Sounds like a fucking excuse to me.
I imagine that during bipartisan Senate negotiations it'd be prudent and/or courteous to include the House leadership as well, to avoid this exact kind of embarrassment.
The speaker doesn't have to be involved in all things. They aren't on every committee.
Yes, the speaker of the house really shouldn't be involved in senate business. That's what I was saying. It was a bullshit excuse on the speaker's part.
The Speaker typically has major sway over the budget even though they aren't on the Ways and Means Committee.
That said, it is usually tradition for the Senate to come up with the compromise when the House and President are at odds and can't negotiate their own deal.
Could someone explain what's the argument in favor of US funding Israel with these amounts other than securing a geopolitical partner in middle east?
Israel is not even a good geopolitical partner in the Middle East. Nearly everyone hates them so whenever we do operations over there we keep them out because we know even their presence will increase tensions and lose hearts and minds. They're good for spying on Iran but you have to take everything with a grain of salt because they could be lying in order to try and get us to be more confrontational because they despise Iran.
The reasons the U.S. government overwhelmingly supports Israel is:
Your list is spot on, and what's interesting about it is the strange bedfellows it creates. You have a coalition of literal Nazis, Orthodox Jews, and Intelligence Agencies calling for more bombs to fight fascism and spread democracy.
The thing about American Nazis is, yes they are virulently anti-Semitic but they also are usually fiercely steeped in their twisted version of Christianity, which says the Jews have to be in Israel for Armageddon to happen. Then they'll get their heavenly rewards while the rest of us are punished forever, since they see us as the cause of all their problems.
They're perfectly willing to tolerate Jews' existence, as long as it's not here in America.
I think you mean AIPAC.
Yeah your right, got it confused with a conference around here that they still have ads up for. Edited
Modern day Christianity is a death cult begging for the end of the world to happen and according to their mythology, Israel has to occupy that particular piece of dirt, regardless of whoever is already there. And since a still-significant portion of the American electorate are superstitious and arms manufacturers are so wealthy, our politicians are more than happy to pander to the one to take donations from the other.
It's even more sinister than that even; not only are they looking forward to the world ending, they think that they are the only ones getting into "heaven" and everyone else will be tormented in "hell" forever.
They look forward to the few million of them getting a "reward" while the other 10 billion people burn. That's the mentality of a lunatic that doesn't deserve to be allowed in civilization, but instead, society had deemed their lunacy a protected class.
Nevermind that their own Bible says specifically that only 144k people will get into heaven and even then it's only male Jewish virgins.
Besides the religious angle, the funding we give to Israel tends to come right back into the pockets of US military contractors. This is great if you like military contractors. I'm not one of those people, but they apparently exist.
Because they are the only reasonable geopolitical partner in the middle east. Every other country there is fucking with oil prices every 4 years for political gain. Also passively or actively supporting terrorism.
US desires stability over all else. Israel is committed to stability as well because stability improves their ability to detect and subvert terrorism against them.
Israel allows the US to project power into the region.
Too many politicians support genocide for its own sake. Some of them are even Republicans.