this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2024
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Palestine
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blech, no it isn't.
Americans largely do not support this genocide.
The israeli government, most Israeli citizens, and the idf are supporting and continuing a genocide they have perpetrated for decades.
The US is one of many countries that sells weapons to Israel and provides them with aid, continuing over half a century of mutual support.
that does not make the US equally culpable as the Israeli government and military making the decision to continue genocide and defy the UN.
The Israeli government and the IDF are choosing to perpetuate this genocide.
"why isn’t the U.S. stopping Israel, as it surely could simply by pausing the constant flow of weapons?"
One of the reasons is that pausing us weapon shipments would not stop Israel at all.
The US is one of a couple dozen countries regularly supplying Israel with weapons.
Israel has a huge stockpile of weapons, and even if they had zero weapons, one country not selling them weapons would not stop the other two dozen countries selling weapons to them after fifty years or more of providing military support.
another reason is that playing this final card removes any tangible control the us has on the situation politically.
at this point, i personally think a sale of weapons pause is the right idea, but the joint Chiefs of staff highly value Middle Eastern stability that they maintain through strong Israeli military support and are not going to sever ties with their largest and most powerful ally in the Middle East without a reason to (go to the protests).
there are lots of reasons why the US hasn't paused weapons shipments, but this article isn't going to supply any real answers because they're pushing a short-sighted, ill-informed, inaccurate opinion piece rather than critically and realistically analyzing the situation.
Stopping weapons sales is not the "final" card the US can play. The US could also stop vetoing UN resolutions that seek to hold Israel accountable, it could stop providing economic aid, it could even divest funds tied to Israel or go as far as sanctioning them until they stop committing genocide. Israel cannot exist in its current state without the aid and protection the US provides it. The US holds the leverage in this situation to get Israel to comply with any demand, but Joe Biden would rather lie to the media (who happily and uncritically repeat the lies) via his State department and allow Netanyahu to continue slaughtering civilians unchecked. If the US actually wanted Israel to stop murdering civilians, it could have it done tomorrow.
"Israel cannot exist in its current state without the aid and protection the US provides it".
israel is a technologically advanced independent country with a functioning government, they have an enormous GDP across various industries, and they receive economic and military support from dozens of other countries.
it benefits Israel to receive billions of dollars every year from the US(as it benefits the US) as a historic mutual defense ally, but Israel is in no way entirely dependent on or explicitly beholden to the US.
"If the US actually wanted Israel to stop murdering civilians, it could have it done tomorrow."
how? there is no evidence for this.
The US is a third party to this conflict that, more obviously than ever, has limited diplomatic control over the actions of the current Israeli government and its military.
"The iron dome is funded and built with American hardware"
this is partly correct, as obama matched the billions of dollars israel spent on the iron dome.
"If the US disassembled it..."
the US has no right or obligation to "disassemble" another countries infrastructure any more than Nigeria has the right to disassemble the French metro; this is a non-starter.
"Israel would be unable to act with impunity towards its neighbors..."
this is entirely incorrect as Israel does not require US funding to maintain the iron dome, their military, or their aggression.
The annual GDP of Israel is something like 600 billion now, taking away the 3 billion the US gives them each year isn't going to make the difference you think it will, even ignoring all of the other countries that fund israel.