alt text: A “xit” from user @ChrpngBrd in which he responds to another “xit” from @BlueBoxDave that says “If Israel falls then America falls. It’s that simple.” @ChrpngBrd’s response is a thumbs up emoji, and two stills from The Simpsons S02E19 “Lisa’s Substitute.” In which, the first image is Martin Prince putting up a poster saying “A vote for Bart is a vote for Anarchy!” and the second image is Bart Simpson putting up a poster that says “A vote for Bart is a vote for Anarchy!”

  • megopie
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    142
    ·
    6 months ago

    Deranged logic, Israel is not a strategic keystone to the survival of America.

    Like, even if one has drunk the Flavoraid enough to think that what Israel is doing is ok and that it’s not an apartheid state that needs the South Africa treatment; in what fucking reality is Israel not eminently replaceable in the role it plays in US foreign policy? if anything, it is a net negative, a dead weight dragging down US relations with the rest of the region.

    It routinely takes unilateral action to throw gas on the metaphorical fires of the region. Like, allies have their own goals and ambitions that diverge sometimes, but you’d expect them to converge occasionally and not actively attempt kneecap each others diplomacy.

    • humorlessrepost@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      63
      ·
      6 months ago

      You’re thinking of real-world geopolitics. These people tend to me more along the lines of “God only blesses the US because we’re helping to bring about the prerequisite conditions for the apocalypse”.

    • Glytch@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      19
      ·
      6 months ago

      I appreciate that you used the correct brand of drink mix rather than continuing the Kool-aid slander.

      • Mirshe@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        6 months ago

        And they only used that because it was cheaper. The entire massacre was carried out with a total of about $16 worth of ingredients.

    • Ranger
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      6 months ago

      Israel isn’t even America’s most important playmate in the middle east.

    • Neato@ttrpg.network
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      6 months ago

      Israel isn’t easily replaceable in US foreign policy for the Middle East. I.e. the US uses Israel as a base of operations in the area. But the US definitely doesn’t need Israel for it’s survival or even to exert influence on the Middle East: it just makes it easier.

      • megopie
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        29
        ·
        edit-2
        6 months ago

        The US didn’t have a base in Israel till 2017, it’s never really been a significant base of operation for US forces. Us forces have more presence in basically every country in the region with the exception of Yemen, Egypt and Iran. Hell, there’s even a base Syria.

        • Ranger
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          11
          ·
          6 months ago

          And there’s a nato member a little bit north of Israel.

            • ✺roguetrick✺@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              4
              ·
              edit-2
              6 months ago

              NATO can always rely on Turkey because Russia will always want the black sea to itself. That’s been true from the Tsar, to the USSR and now to the federation. It’ll never change.

              Turkey just plays a strange game with powers it has proxy fights with, like Russia and Iran.

      • frezik@midwest.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        14
        ·
        edit-2
        6 months ago

        With declining importance of oil, the US has less reason to give a shit about the Middle East. We’re a ways off from that point, but it’s coming.

        If you think the Middle East is fucked up now, just wait until there’s a power vacuum from nobody caring about oil anymore.

    • catfishsushi@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      19
      ·
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      The US doesn’t support Israel for our safety. We do because historically being anti-Israel alienated the following groups.

      • Evangelical votes in the US
      • Jewish voters in the US
      • A strong Pro-Israel lobby, who would give a LOT of money, and therefore a lot of votes, to opponents of an anti-Israel candidate.
      • xantoxis@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        6 months ago

        The historical context is changing rapidly, though.

        These days, Jewish voters are more likely to support safety for Palestinians than the ongoing genocide. By polls, they don’t like Netanyahu and, while most think US support of Israel is “about right”, more US Jews would prefer decreasing US involvement than increasing it, so the pendulum is swinging away. So, even among Jews, it’s not clear that the US should be involved.

        And AIPAC is just one among many lobbies. If you ask a random Republican what we should do with Israel, “nuke it to glass” is likely to be the answer, so they can only really influence Democrats and they still have to promise more money than the opposition lobbies do.

        • FakeGreekGirl
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          6 months ago

          I don’t think most Republicans want to nuke Israel to glass these days. Of course, that’s more because they need it for their batshit end-times prophecies than any sort of humanitarian or rational reason.

      • regul@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        6 months ago

        Evangelicals only really started voting in the 80s. Their support of Israel is only significant recently.

    • frezik@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      18
      ·
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      There was a cold war argument that the US needed Israel and the Saudis to counteract the more Russia-aligned Egypt and Iran. We have guns here because they have guns over there.

      Now its mostly because oil, which will be important for a lot of products for a long time to come, but not for the one thing that drives American policy in the region: the price at the gas pump.

      Oh, and then there’s the Christian Zionists who want to kick off the Rapture. That group is vestigial, diseased, and needs to be cut right out.

  • kingthrillgore@lemmy.mlOP
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    34
    ·
    edit-2
    6 months ago

    If Israel falls then America falls. It’s that simple

    the dude can’t even use a comma, what the fuck?

  • ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    28
    ·
    6 months ago

    Two words: Power vacuum.

    Once the US is gone, its place in the world will be filled in with China, Russia, India, etc., none of are any better (if not outright worse) than the current status quo.

    • Sootius@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      Count some numbers: Out of the US, Russia, China and India, how many millions of deaths of innocent civilians have each caused or significantly contributed to? I’m fairly sure the US tops that list by some ways.

        • 100_kg_90_de_belin @feddit.it
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          6 months ago

          Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, we know the spiel. Anyway, the US were built on the genocide of indigenous people, have you conveniently forgotten about that? Do they not count because they don’t belong to your ethnic group?

          • Hemuphone@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            6 months ago

            I would argue that Europeans are mostly to blame for the genocide of the indigenous people in the Americas. Or can we not blame Europe because that does not fit your narrative?

            • 100_kg_90_de_belin @feddit.it
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              6 months ago

              European people’s hands are soiled with blood, but they don’t harp as much about manifest destiny. And they haven’t fought a civil war over the rights to treat people like poverty.

        • HACKthePRISONS@kolektiva.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          6 months ago

          are we attributing deaths from lack of access to food, medicine, and shelter to the countries in which tehy occurred, or just active murder by the state? also, whatabout occupied territories: do we attribute deaths there to the military occupation?

          however you do the math, america is bad, and abolition of the state is ideal.

    • SchizoDenji@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      6 months ago

      none of are any better (if not outright worse) than the current status quo.

      Please tell me what good US does at all in this position?

  • AItoothbrush@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    26
    ·
    6 months ago

    I really hate the us but you just have to accept that china being the largest world power would be even worse.

    • CheesyFox@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      6 months ago

      china may have the largest businesses in the world, but they lack cultural leverage. US still stays where it is solely due to its cultural influence on the world. China’s culture is alien to us, especially in terms of labor culture.

        • CheesyFox@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          6 months ago

          you know, what happened to a country when it tried to force its ideas noone else shared?

          Nuremberg trial

          Wait, it wasn’t the last one! The last one who tried it ceased to exist in 1991, destroyed collectevely by western countries even without a war, well, a direct one

    • skye
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      6 months ago

      (genuine question) what’s the intended pronunciation? exit? that’s so dumb lol. i’ve still been calling them tweets

        • skye
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          6 months ago

          ya i’m definitely going to either keep calling them tweets or start calling them zits/shits like you lol