Let’s keep it simple. From retired IDF geneneral Yitzhak Brick:
“All of our missiles, the ammunition, the precision-guided bombs, all the airplanes and bombs, it’s all from the U.S. The minute they turn off the tap, you can’t keep fighting. You have no capability. … Everyone understands that we can’t fight this war without the United States. Period.”
Note the source here is a pro-Israeli one. Brick goes on to say:
Brick went on to explain that President Joe Biden’s demand that Israel permit “humanitarian aid” to enter Gaza means that he is demanding that Israel keep Hamas fully supplied with food, water and fuel.
His demand that Israel minimize Palestinian civilian casualties endangers IDF soldiers and renders the expansion of the ground offensive into central and southern Gaza, where the bulk of Hamas’s force is now located, almost impossible to carry out
So Brick isn’t putting responsibility on the US because he’s against the war or the atrocities. He’s all in.
The genocide is not possible without America’s support. That makes Biden and any politician who isn’t willing to stop sending Israel weapons and ammunition 100% a participant. If I supply the gun without which a murder cannot happen, knowing that it will be used for murder, I am directly responsible for the murder.
If Harris is not willing to cut off the supply of weapons and ammunition, she is not against the genocide, no matter how much she bewails the deaths.
And not just the deaths. It has become undeniable that Israel is systematically torturing and raping Palestinians, most of whom are non-combatants.
Palestine is the moral litmus test of the day, just as Iraq and South African apartheid were in their day. Eventually everyone will either pretend they were against it, or mea-culpa “how could I have known?”
But just as with Iraq, everyone who wanted to know, knew.
You’re either against genocide, rape and torture or you aren’t and there are no excuses which make any of it acceptable.
dave -- just dave
Harris has already signaled no change in Gaza or Ukraine policy if she is elected.
elissa3
“Palestine is the moral litmus test of the day”.
Succinct and perfect. Black and white in a world of mushy grays. Thank you, Ian.
adrena
Harris will do what she’s told by the Deep State – she’s just a puppet.
mago
Spot on. There’s no middle moral ground, no ‘well, it’s a complicated situation so I don’t know.’
Rape and murder are just that. No denial allowed.
How long has this been going on? I’m referring to this particular barbarity. Not referencing, oh, say Charlemagne. History is replete with instances.
One notable difference is this one is being broadcast live. But as Gil Scott Heron mentioned, the revolution will not be televised.
Ha ha. No revolution on the immediate horizon, but when and if it happens, may it be a spiritual revolution.
A year or two ago our host stated the obvious about Israel being an apartheid state. That was prior to the current savagery. He lost big time donors as a result.
I recall the sudden loss of certain commentators after that.
While lacking financial resources, I support in spirit, for what it’s worth.
Go man go. . .
Ian Welsh
There’s nothing more dangerous to talk about than Israel. Even back at FDL I came under serious pressure to tone it down/stop. That was during “Cast Lead.” Major donors were unhappy. I was told that other coverage was OK, but that mine was making them feel bad.
Dan Kelly
I just follow the money and her entire career to this point. I know the power of The Jewish State of Israel and its agents and actors inside the US over the US govt, media (mainstream and alternative and all major publishing houses), and major corps, NGO’s, ‘non-profits’ etc.
Kamala Harris’ husband is ‘entertainment litigator’ Doug Emhoff, who is the first Jewish spouse of a vice president or president. Emhoff is not Norman Finkelstein. He is a dyed-in-the-wool Zionist ‘Israael-firster.’ The following is an example of the boilerplate Hasbara nonsense he spews about the Jewish State’s Genocide:
“When Jews are targeted because of their beliefs or identity, and when Israel is singled out because of anti-Jewish hatred, that is antisemitism, and it must be condemned.” Speaking about pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses, Emhoff supported the right to protest, but said that “calls for genocide” and the murder of Jews are “completely unacceptable and must be stopped.”
The Jewish State is committing an actual genocide and Doug Emhoff-Harris changes the subject to non-existent ‘calls for genocide.’ He knows what Israel is doing. He supports it and is personally proud of the genocide. it’s not that he’s indifferent and doesn’t care. He cares very much. He wants to see Palestine extinguished and largely erased from the history books.
This is part of the Zionist plan for the region. In order to continue to build and then to maintain Eretz Yisrael – The Land of Israel – as an exclusively Jewish State/Region, the people must be permanently removed and their history erased/altered in the interest of The Jewish State.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump recently said that the United States used to be occupied by Israel and AIPAC et al, but that it isn’t anymore. He said AIPAC needs to be stronger so they can ruin politicians’ careers again like they could 15 years ago. I am not making this up. Alleged uber-Nationalist Donald Trump said this.
The United States is owned and occupied by Israel.
I think the US should set up agencies inside Israel the way Israel does here. Or maybe Russia or China can do it. You know,, you’ll have an ‘ADL’ for all the defaming the Jewish Israelis do to gentiles the world over. You infiltrate their police and you have your own groups on Israeli campuses and within Zionist groups the world over who monitor and intervene in their internal affairs.
Oakchair
Eventually everyone will either pretend they were against it, or mea-culpa “how could I have known?”
—-
Of which my answer will be “by listening to what the Israel government and military said over and over and over from the start.”
—–
Palestine is the moral litmus test of the day,
—–
The Palestinian genocide is the ultimate litmus test of how much evil someone will support because of how blatant it is. Israel admits and brags in public about how it will and is committing genocide. If you still support that what atrocity won’t you support?
bruce wilder
Yes.
If you can’t figure this one out, there really is something wrong with your moral compass.
The rage and bloodlust among Israeli Zionists is something to behold. No self-awareness of how amoral they have become. It is not as if Haaretz, for example, does not publish in Israel, but do any of the enraged read?
Some American Jews protest, which is to their credit, but how did they come to be so ineffectual within the institutions that purport to represent Jews and Israel? Within the Democratic Party even?
It is frightening to me how little power true righteousness wields in this case, this unambiguous case. In the world at large, of course, some countries have found politicians willing to lead internationally. But, Germany? the political establishment in either U.S. party?
Remarkable and distressing but not surprising I guess.
someofparts
Did not realize Ian lost some significant money donors over being honest about Israel. Really sorry to hear that. I need to prioritize chipping in what I can here.
someofparts
I am pleased for the Muslim world if, as Scott Ritter and others tell me, Israel’s days are numbered. I don’t know how a person lives their life in a way that honors the memory of so many martyrs, but figuring that out is going to shape how I think about things for the rest of my life. I guess it shows the power of marinating in life long brainwashing that only at this late age do I notice what is missing in the phrase Judeo-Christian. The awful thing I realized today is that, whatever becomes of Israel, these crazed people will still be around. How is that going to play out I wonder.
Willy
What motivates a leftist to be pro-Israel? And why don’t they want to speak about it?
Feral Finster
If Harris is elected, liberals and democrats will pile on the glib excuses.
If Trump is elected, liberals and democrats will suddenly rediscover a passionate concern for human rights, only to drop this passion like a hot turn the moment a democrat is again in the Oval Office.
Willy
There are differences between Harris and Trump which go well beyond any Iron Laws of Tribal Supplication.
I see many leftist influencer/opiners appalled by American Middle Eastern policies and their opinions are quite clear. Their problem lies in not being single issue influencer/opiners. They have many other nits to pick and sometimes Gaza gets lost in the mix. They then have to choose priorities.
And why are you selling that Trump will be elected to then have a democrat again in the Oval Office? The biggest current nit I see every other leftist influencer/opiner picking is that if Trump achieves power again that he and his will not be releasing it for a very long time.
I’m still wondering about those leftists alluded to in the mago, Ian, and FDL parts of this conversation.
Ian Welsh
You?
Soredemos
@Willy
I would suggest that anyone genuinely on the left is by definition anti-Zionist.
And not in some vague ‘I arbitrarily define what a leftist is’ way; if words are to have any kind of consistent meaning, being on the left by definition includes all that Lenin-style stuff about imperialism being a stage of capitalism and so being opposed to colonialism. Morality doesn’t even have to enter into it. Settler colonialism is an aspect of capitalism, and is ultimately detrimental to the material well being not just of the colonized, but of the working people (eg the vast majority of the population) of the Imperial power as well.
Mark Level
Yeah, I’m with Sorodemos, mago & others, Willy. If you have a humanistic bone in your body, you cannot subscribe to doctrines like “Some races (Ashkenazi Jews) are better than all others” or (good for a few laughs, anyway) “God gave us everything in Palestine in a sacred Contract 3,000 years ago.”
Incidentally, if you accept the latter (which I am not saying you do), you join the likes of your hated Orange object, Trump, with his psychotic “Abraham Accords.” The Germans are on board of course!! But even the French & other “allies” (sic– these people are all Subs in a Dom-Sub Hegemonic US Imperial project, & they know it. As Vicky Nuland, so influential among both branches of the Uniparty put it, “Fuck the EU”) refuse to take a literalist approach to Genesis. You cast yourself with the likes not only of Trump but of the insane fetus-fetishist American Taliban Mike Pence if you do.
Either humans have rights, or not. The right to Live, & not to be ethnically cleansed or obliterated because some Fascists (like Kamala) have signed on to the principal that you are subhuman . . . well, Ian made the point. These people will not be forgiven by history or by the rest of the world.
Many of us have followed the recent debate in Israel where it is now agreed by the Knesset no less, that you can (on camera) rape Palestinian “terrorists” (sic) with burning rods or other blunt objects & get off scot free. As sick as the Nazis were, they tried to destroy the evidence of their monstrosities as the Reich collapsed. The Israelis revel in their atrocities & share them openly with the world.
In the meantime, Kamala sponsors a “documentary” film (slanderous) that calls Hamas “systematic rapists” peddled by ultra-Zionist Sheryl Sandberg in the White House. And this is “left” or acceptable moral practice to you, how exactly?
Inquiring minds would like to know. Please enlighten us, if you are able.
Willy
Good god. I never said that I agreed with their “political realities”. I just that they exist.
On the one hand we have Ian, with his “The genocide is not possible without America’s support. I doubt that few, even any diehard Zionists, would disagree.
On the other hand we have many millions of dollars going into powerful hands to maintains the agitprop that Israel has the right to defend itself by whatever means necessary.
So how exactly does getting me to repeat “Kamala is a genocide enabler and no better than Trump”, get that level of bribery to stop?
bruce wilder
the inverted totalitarianism of American politics is exemplified by the Democratic Party apparatus for channeling money from billionaires and their corporate executive lackeys into professionally run propaganda operations, sourced in part from the intelligence agencies and military industrial complex, with the distribution of lies and deceptions handled by legacy mainstream media and social media platforms. it is all about overwhelming narrative signal with narrative noise as a poster put it.
all any of us as individuals can do to resist is to stop accepting the torrent of bull excretions and obfuscation as “reality”
look and see and tell the truth and simply admit to uncertainty where there is not enough reliable information to judge