Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu railed Sunday against growing criticism from top ally the United States against his leadership amid the devastating war with Hamas, describing calls for a new election as “wholly inappropriate.”
In recent days, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish official in the country and a strong Israel supporter, called on Israel to hold a new election, saying Netanyahu had “lost his way.” President Joe Biden expressed support for Schumer’s “good speech,” and earlier accused Netanyahu of hurting Israel because of the huge civilian death toll in Gaza.
Netanyahu told Fox News that Israel never would have called for a new U.S. election after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, and denounced Schumer’s comments as inappropriate.
“We’re not a banana republic,” he said. “The people of Israel will choose when they will have elections, and who they’ll elect, and it’s not something that will be foisted on us.”
I still remember Netanyahu bitching about Obama in front of the US Congress. He’ll call anyone on their bullshit but doesn’t like it when he’s called on his.
And he was best buddies with Trump
But for some reason people that claim to be pro Palestine very often seem to be anti biden…
It’s not a zero sum game - you can simultaneously be against both Trump and Biden regarding their Israel policy.
That said, I do agree that a lot of people don’t realize that Trump is even more hawkish in his support for Israel than Biden is, and actively contributed to the rising tensions between Israel and Hamas during his administration. So when it comes to Israel, as surprising as it might be to some, Biden is in fact the lesser of two evils there.
both Trump and Biden
This isn’t Trump or Biden’s policy - it’s US policy and has been since the 70s.
Yes that’s true to a large extent, but a President does have some executive power in terms of leverage and how they choose to engage diplomatically with Israel:
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Reagan famously threatened to cut off aid funding during the Lebanon War, which lead to a withdrawal of Israeli troops.
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Obama was very critical of settlements in the West Bank and his administration chose not to veto the UN resolution condemning then.
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Trump’s administration was very supportive of Israel, officially recognized Jerusalem as it’s capital, and also brokered the Abraham Accords.
So yeah, you’re right in that the US government as whole has more or less guaranteed to ultimately support Israel no matter what, the President can still have an effect by themselves.
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No. They weren’t/aren’t.
I keep saying this, if u had a president Sanders, i guarantee u 70+ senators would be tripping over themselves to overturn any presidential veto on the arms that Congress would then be approving.
Much like how if everyone got what they wanted and Manchin and Sinema fucked off, youd find another couple corporate democrats around to fulfill their role. In the Gaza situation, youd have Schumer telling Bernie hes an antisemite for not helping our brothers or some such shit.
There are certain policies in this country (e.x. the overinflation of our Military Industrial Complex, for one) that are too deeply ingrained. I dont understand why its easy for ppl to call out Status Quo Joe’s “harsher” words against Israel as performative, but cant understand that half the Congresspeople who are feigning outrage right now are no different. The bunch in question are bought and paid for by the same interests. American sustained presence in the Mid East in a country more than friendly towards said interests is not up for debate. Especially when not selling arms to a very longterm ally that bends over backwards for the US led hegemony would erode US soft power substantially, doubly so since weve been seen as unreliable by our allies since 2016.
Unfortunately, the Palestinian people’s right to exist does not outweigh that. Weve supported the Apartheid state of Israel throughout their ongoing oppression of Palestinians, why would now suddenly be different? Honestly, after a lifetime of personally bitching about Israel, hearing US leadership say anything acknowledging that whats going on is wrong has thrown me for a loop.
Maybe because Biden is the current president whose administration is giving weapons to Israel and is a Zionist himself?
Would be great if Biden returned the favor
Best we can do is a bear hug.
describing calls for a new election as “wholly inappropriate.”
You know what’s wholly inappropriate? Genocide.
which hamas is soley responsible for
Say it if it makes you feel better, but it doesn’t make it true👎
Nah.
Maybe learn what a genocide is first before commenting.
Oh look… a kapo.
🤮
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ok they’re trying to kill every arab in their country and steal their homes.
I suppose it’s more of an ethnic cleansing? is that better?
“I mean they are only letting the Irish starve while selling potatoes to the rest of the world. Nobody is trying to wipe out all Westerners here.”
Palestine is a distinct people and culture, attempting to destroy a national group is genocide.
“We’re not a banana republic,”
If that is the case then they should refuse US foreign aid.
That was surprising to read. What a racist statement.
I simply quoted what he stated. If it wasn’t for US financial aid Israel probably couldn’t exist as a country so they are not going to stop accepting aid. Hamas couldn’t have reasonably expected to win, so they must have had a different goal, most likely to turn the world against Israel and Netanyahu has pretty much stomped right through that door and has no issue pushing forward. If that was their goal they appear to be succeeding.
I simply quoted what he stated.
Yes, I know. That’s what I was referring to.
We only read the comments!
Why would you expect anything else from Bibi and the LIKUD?
I guess it was just him commenting on the western hemisphere that surprised me.
“You can’t force an election on us, what do we look like to you, a bunch of Latinos?!”
You’re right though, no surprise there. Rascists gonna racist.
Bibi, you are a total asshole. You have destroyed any possible goodwill you might’ve gained for Israel. I now have nothing but bad feelings for ANY Zionist sentiment. Before I had some sympathy. Not any longer. You are the Hitler of the Jews.
any possible goodwill
White supremacist settler-colonialist states do not deserve any good will.
Before I had some sympathy.
NO JUDGEMENT but I am very curious about why. Although this incident is pretty egregious, it’s not unique to the history of the country.
Zionism, expressed in the most favorable way, is the belief that Jewish people deserve their own state where they need not fear oppression.
Thus Biden telling a Jewish American group that he is a Zionist.
The problem started when it turned out all the land everywhere already had people living on it, so to make that state and make it democratic, well, turns out a bunch of Holocaust survivors and their descendants don’t actually mind forced displacement that much when it’s not them. Not to mention that while being Jewish is half tribal identity and half religion, a Jewish state can not help but ultimately turn into a theocracy, otherwise it’d just be a secular state like most everyone else.
I’m sympathetic to this line of thinking but it ignores the expulsion of Jews from nearly all the other Arab countries after the foundation of Israel, and these are significant numbers, around 900,000 people until the 1960s. Around 700,000 Palestinians were likewise forcibly displaced in 1948. This is more or less like the population swap that took place in India after the British left, leading to the creation of Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Yeah. This.
Schumer (re: Israel) “losing their way” Biden (re: huge civilian death toll in Gaza) “hurting Israel”
You weak, pathetic sons of b*tches. Your government is contributing militarily and financially to a genocidal ethno state and THIS is the best you can come up with? This is what your “criticism” looks like when someone’s got you by the balls.
The alternative is for them to become a Democratic version of Trump. There’s a reason why politicians are careful with their words under most circumstances.
Netanyahu told Fox News that Israel never would have called for a new U.S. election after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, and denounced Schumer’s comments as inappropriate.
Does anyone other than fascists think anything about the response to 9/11 was good?
I remember seeing people getting swept up in the transient sense of belonging and power that came with all the xenophobia and nationalism that followed. There are probably many who pine for that feeling, and fail to recognize its part in our undoing.
Oh yeah, absolutely. I remember feeling that to a degree myself (and I’m not even American), though I also remember thinking the “freedom fries” shit was dumb. But the fervor was still popular enough that Bush got his second term.
But I’ve been under the impression that it has since faded.
I think the word is “metastasized”
“metastisized fries” doesn’t have the same ring to it.
I hated the whole damn reaction from the beginning, and young me became quickly jaded about the world watching the brainwash in America happen so fast. Our governments, especially the American government, don’t seem to operate in the best interests of their people. In America, we don’t care about our own, why would we ever care about others?
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The people of Israel will choose when they will have elections
Well, that is not really how it works, is it? They either have elections after 4 years OR they can be called early (and often are) by the President or a majority of parliament member. They had elections in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. Furthermore the US doesn’t have such a system, so it is silly to draw a comparison.
Yeah, but the banana republic comment isn’t about when elections can be held. He’s basically saying that the US can’t tell Israel when to have elections, that’s for Israelis to decide.
I just meant that it isn’t a vote to call for elections, so it felt like he was implying some democratic system in place. Plus external pressure can be leveraged to effect in their system.
Israel is a fascist ethnocracy.
Fuck him and fuck Israel.
Who cares what Netanyahu thinks about whether Netanyahu should be removed from power? “Netanyahu opposes being removed from power” isn’t exactly a revelation. Tell me what other key Israeli politicians and the Israeli public think.
Bibi, welcome to the other side of US foreign policy!
Oh, you’ve become a liability during election season.
How unfortunate…
For you.
Israeli Trump has got to go. If you don’t place value on human life, you have no business running a hot dog stand, much less an entire country.
“losing his way”
that’s . . . that’s quite a rhetorical triple axel there, Chuck
Sure Butcher Ben has “lost his way”… he slaughtered so many Palestinians that white western liberalism started being inconvenienced by all the bad press.
I’m a little confused by the calls for a re-election. Netanyahu was just re-elected a few years ago, and they’re in the middle of a war and he’s a constant.
Won’t he likely be reelected?
This is a pretty good rundown of why you shouldn’t count netanyahu out of re-election:
https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/01/29/netanyahu-is-a-failure-and-israels-next-winner/
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Thirteen years, i think? I’m not sure, but it’s been a long time
