Netanyahu has been in power for a long time. Every other president in the past was able to handle him even though they didn't really like him. Biden's lack of control of the situation to me shows his lack of leadership and ability to take charge. Not a good quality for POTUS.
Sundial
joined 6 months ago
No arguments on those points from me. What I'm just saying is that the amount of influence America was capable of exerting on Israel has diminished substantially.
Not saying all of Israel's money is coming from the US. I'm saying the main reason Israel still exists is because of the money and arms America sends to them. If it weren't for that I would seriously question Israel's ability to survive given how hated they are in the region. This level of support let's the US exert it's influence on Israel. My original point was that recent years have shifted the dynamic where the US can no longer control Israel and it feels as if is Israel is playing the US.
Perhaps it feels like that because we don’t actually have vassal-like proxies, we have allies
I see where you're coming from and you're logic as well. But I would disagree. Israel get's a huge amount of funding from the US and in turn the US is able to exert it's influence on the region through Israel. To me, that's a proxy.
They still attacked Rafah, just in a smaller scale. It's not much of a comfort to the civilians killed because of it. I wouldn't actually count that as a win in my opinion.
“Social media made y'all way too comfortable with disrespecting people and not getting punched in the face for it.”
- Mike Tyson
The US has a lot of power and sway with regards to their proxies like Israel, or should at least, but lately it feels like it's the other way around. The US also has a lot of soft power for other countries they can use when they feel like they need/want to and a lot of countries have respected that up until recently. For example, Iran's first attack on Israel a few months back was largely for show and they actually warned the US via back-channels before attacking. The latest one that happened last week was not the case. It was a message to the US and it's allies that said "If you don't do something and control this, we will.".
Also, I’ll remind you Biden withheld arms over Rafah, stemming a large scale Israeli attack into the region.
I remember. But like the sanction Biden imposed on a few Israeli settlers these actions are more symbolic than trying to actual pivot the flow of events. It's Biden's way of saying "See I'm doing something" and meanwhile Israel continues doing what it does best. Also, Israel still ended up attacking Rafah, which further invalidates that point.
As of August, AIPAC has already spent over $100 million on lobbying breaking previous records. And the election isnt even over. They spent a significant amount of money to replace 2 Democratic congress members who were vocally pro Palestine to be replaced with pro Israel advocates. Biden has received more money than any other US senator from pro Israeli advocates. And now he is ignoring the voice of the majority in favor of these lobbyists. If you're going to sit there and tell me this is business as usual and this isn't a problem, then you're going to have to actually explain your reasoning here.
Then an independent Senator, Joe Libberman from New Hampshire without whose vote the bill could not proceed to the floor, killed it.
So in essence، a body of elected representatives ignored the voice of the majority of their constituents in favor of corporate interests. Do you not see how you just proved my original point?
Lobbying is basicly as it’s been for years and years by foreign countries.
That is false. It's been trending upwards for some time and has never been so high.
The majority of Americans don’t know what Universal health care is. You could ask why it was defeated, but instead you jump right to congress not listening to their constituents.
The reason's are irrelevant. Fact is, majority wanted it and continue to not get it due to corporate lobbying. This is a common and growing trend within American politics. Again, because of lobbying.
It's not a tangent, it's my whole point. How can you honestly expect people to actually respect the POTUS when they fail to even control their own proxies? Foreign lobbying has never been so bad. Trump should have been the oddity in this case but Biden is normalizing it. Keep in mind the US has military bases all over the world and is the only country to be able to launch a full scale offensive anywhere in the world at any moments notice. Not to mention the fact that they have the most advanced and largest arsenal of weapons. Recent years have signaled to the whole world that the might of the American military is open to the highest bidder, and there's a lot of deep pockets around the world. That doesn't exactly scream credibility and respectable now does it?
Universal health care was discussed in congress and was rejected.
It was rejected in defiance of the majority of American's opinion. The same as the inaction when it comes to Israel. That's been my point. Congress doesn't always act in the interest of it's constituents like you claim they do.
Instead of being chastened, Poilievre and his fellow Conservatives embraced the term to describe policies and ideas with which they disagree. (After not being used more than three times in the House in any given year between 1994 and 2023, the word "wacko" has so far been uttered 79 times in the House in 2024.)
This right here is their goal. They copied the GOP handbook to cater to the outrage of people and normalize personal attacks without actually standing for anything yourself.
Biden has lost no credibility on the world stage, only on your very small stage.
If you want to believe that then that's your choice. Just don't act surprised when other American proxies decide to lobby American politics so heavily in their favor like Israel is currently doing. The past year has shown the world just how susceptible American politicians are to foreign interference, and that includes presidents.
Congress is a representation of the people. So, the people have spoken and you don’t like what they said.
If that were true then US would have had things like universal healthcare a long time ago.
No doubt, it's still a huge failure on Biden to rein him though.