Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a US representative, said on Wednesday that she will oppose any future US military aid to Israel, including for defensive systems.
In a statement on social media, Ocasio-Cortez said that Israel was fully capable of funding “Iron Dome and other defensive systems”, and that “consistent with my voting record to date, I will not support Congress sending more taxpayer dollars and military aid to a government that consistently ignores international law and US law”.
Her remarks on Wednesday follow reports that she pledged to oppose any future military aid to Israel during a New York City Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) forum on Tuesday evening.
“Our allies who need our military aid must understand that we will provide it consistent with the Leahy amendment and the foreign assistance act”, Ocasio-Cortez added, referring to a law which prohibits the US from providing military support to army units that violate human rights.
According to City & State, which obtained a partial recording of the DSA forum, Ocasio-Cortez told members: “I have not once ever voted to authorize funding to Israel, and I will never,” adding that “the Israeli government should be able to finance their own weapons if they seek to arm themselves.”
The problem is protection in this case also means protection from the consequences of their actions. As shit as it may sound there’s an active incentive to not causing problems when getting a city block leveled is a potential risk, the same thing can be said for the US which is protected by its relative remoteness from its foes.
So the Iron Dome isn’t just a defensive measure, it’s an emboldening one since it protects Israel from its consequences.
yes, I agree with this point - maybe not to the point of saying we should dismantle the Iron Dome from protecting civilians, but you are right that the Iron Dome acts as a kind of enabler - providing psychological safety to Israelis that undermines political will to end and avoid conflict.
But I’m not sure the civilians are necessarily the best targets in the first place - there have been massive protests against the current government, and I’m not sure we should really consider Israel a particularly democratic state.
Also, Israel has been genocidal for many decades now, including through decades under which many Israelis had to take cover under bomb shelters, so the Iron Dome is probably not the most relevant factor in whether Israel continues on its path.
I feel that the distinction between then and now is that the first generation of Israelis generally did have a reason to grit it out, a lot of them went through far worse than some bombing raids. But now only the youngest of them remain and even then they’re ancient, the majority of modern Israelis would most likely not like having to stick it out in a bunker due to their government being assholes.
But I’ll also admit my bias that I don’t think Israel should exist, the Arabs should’ve been allowed to level it decades ago. So my overall prevailing opinion on Israel is a vague sense of fuck it who cares blockade them and let em rot. So my opinion on any interaction with them is pretty much tainted by that constantly, meaning I’d only approve of the Iron Dome if they completely dearmed in totality and even then I may not care.
Point is I don’t think the Israelis should be traded with let alone given aid.
I agree the current state of Israel is illegal and shouldn’t exist, but political positions like this are separate from my view that most civilians are just normal folks and shouldn’t bear the primary burden - generally wars should be fought targeting military targets, not targeting civilians. I understand that’s a bit complicated when the conflict is asymmetric and one side is not a military as much as a guerilla resistance, their tactics do rely more on using terror to pressure political solutions in their favor.
But yeah, I agree with not funding Israel ✅ The US doesn’t have a special obligation to fund Israel, even if they have been a useful “attack dog” in the Middle East for us, I don’t think US intervention in pretty much most cases is helpful - the US is a big part of why Israel gets away with their crimes and is an unchecked genocidal, racist state.
The thing is that the Israelis don’t give a fuck about civilians and I am a firm believer in the golden rule even when it does bite me in the ass. So if they don’t give a fuck then neither should we, they want to do terroristic bombing campaigns then fine their civilians are valid now as well. You reap what you sow and all that.
But yeah we seem to agree at like 90 percent or so, it’s just where we draw the line and what we consider to be morally acceptable. You value civilians and I refuse to due to Israel not valuing them, though I would exterminate every settler community with the vigor of the US army in Vietnam but that’s more of a fuck them in particular thing.
You mean the massive protests supporting the right to rape Palestinians?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_hostage_deal_protests
I was talking about the massive protests against the gov’t handling of the post-October “war” in favor of a ceasefire and accepting a hostage deal
There are no more hostages being held at this point.
right, these protests happened in the past:
Demonstrating to get hostages back is not the same as demonstrating to stop the genocide.
I don’t know what to tell you, being furious with the government and calling for a ceasefire and opening humanitarian corridors doesn’t strike me as a citizenry that deserves to be bombed to death. I’m not even sure I feel fully comfortable with the Dresden Fire Bombs, not because I’m sympathetic to Nazism, but because I think civilian targets are not morally defensible targets.
Civilians don’t have to be prefect for me to think they shouldn’t be military targets.
I’m certainly not advocating that every civilian be bombed to death. But one shouldn’t ignore that the overall sentiment in Israel is that they want IDF soldiers to rape Palestinians to death, that they feel entitled to take over Gaza, and that their only care is for their own citizens while they bomb others.