this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2024
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The difference is that those other genocidaires we've backed have had tangible benefits to American hegemony. For the record, every one of them is fucking atrocious and a stain on the US, but they are overwhelmingly "We're backing this brutal dictator because he's on 'our side'" - there is generally a realpolitik reason, ugly as it is, for playing such vile games.
Israel is a fucking canker sore that's managed to dig itself deep into the US's good graces by using the simple Iron Law of Institutions - institutions do not do what benefits them, institutions do what benefits the decision-makers.
By a mixture of active propaganda on the general public, peddling shite like 'the most moral army in the world', deliberately cultivating ties with apocalyptic Christofascist lunatics, and a staggering war-chest for electoral donations (objectively quite small as far as national expenditures go, but most countries aren't pouring in literal tens of millions of dollars to influence US elections), they've made opposition to Israel anathema in modern US politics. And that means that they can get away with doing immense damage to US interests on the world stage, because the politicians are acting according to what is rational for them to do, not for what is rational for the US government to do.
Hell, Israel used to be closer with the fucking Sovs than the US. This isn't some immutable thing, as much as Israel would love for everyone to believe it is.
They've definitely put in a lot of work to justify the position the US has, that's for sure and I ain't arguing that. What I am saying is that all of that is secondary to having American and European colonial nation strategically located in a conflict zone that has been a conflict zone for a long fucking time up to this point and will continue to be.
That's my whole point. That at the end of the day, money or no money, America would still support Israel. The inclusion of all that marketing makes it easier to justify. You could even say it changes the scale of that support. But with or without it, America is gonna do what America does. Back it's interests. Are we arguing over semantics here? Or are you really saying the #1 driving force of American support of Israel is this lobby group and it's surrounding antics? Or can we just admit that it's a supporting role?
Look. All I am trying to do is lessen a lot of the borderline Jewish conspiracies I have seen show up lately. I just dislike people playing into "Jews control the world" shit. I dislike that rhetoric and I believe it to be harmful as fuck to the people who don't know as much. I believe it confuses the motivations for the sake of being quippy and that blurry area that's created is filled with all the anti semitic shit people were exposed to all their lives. You're really going to sit and argue with me over all that? Go ahead. I made my point a few times over now. Take it away.
"American and European colonial nation"
Lord.
That's not even getting into the fact that a good 3/4s of the fucking region is already deep in our pockets. FFS. This "THE US NEEDS ISRAEL" is a convenient lie peddled by the Israeli government, which is desperate to keep its sugar daddy without having to do anything of consequence to earn its keep, conservatives who crave the death of more Muslims, and, bizarrely, certain online leftists who don't seem to realize that most of MENA is already a US base, and Israel is, in terms of strategic value, a liability more than an asset.
Why.
Do you think there's just some sort of sense of White Solidarity(tm) between the West and the Mizrahi-Sephardic Israeli majority and the Ashekenazi minority (which, as we all know, White Power types ADORE)?
I'm sorry you think that the Iron Law of Institutions is just something I made up on the spot. I might recommend a Sociology 101 course.
Yes, the #1 driving force of American support of Israel is the domestic benefit that American politicians recieve from it. I don't know why "All professions, but especially politicians, self-select for propagation of their own power and their continued status" is such a radical idea to you, but it's mainstream in most academia.
Oh yeah, you bet I'm gonna sit here and argue with you about that. "Antisemitism" is not a fucking excuse for downplaying Israel's behavior - which is exactly what you're doing. Israel is not all Jews - all Jews are not Israelis. I'm sorry that this is where your draw your line as to what is too complex to parse, but I assure you, it's true.