Although personally in favor of Palestinian independence and critical of war crimes committed by Israel in its siege of Gaza, I attempted to explain in a back-and-forth discussion with a user (only afterwards learning was one of the community’s two moderators) why protest voting in the 2024 election to “punish” the democrats in favor of the republicans harmed the ultimate interest of reigning in Israeli violence in Palestine.
To further emphasize the damage caused by such a protest vote, I argued that not only is Palestine worse off with Trump elected instead of Harris, but as are a myriad of other social issues. The other user disagreed, arguing that Trump’s return to office facilitated the ceasefire, rather than my argument that Netanyahu deliberately delayed it to help Trump get elected.
After my fourth reply post in a reply chain that stemmed from my initial reply to the moderator’s comment, I was banned from !palestine@lemm.ee. Having at no point advocated in favor of the violence perpetuated by Israel in Gaza, I think the ban was unjustified, and demonstrates a bad precedent for maintaining echo chambers of moderator opinions, rather than communities that foster discussion.
Also he literally sent his golf buddy to tell Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire. This is a power that America has had over Israel all along, and Trump wielded it before he even got inaugurated, while Biden refused to use it.
What, the power to make a meaningless performative gesture while he allows the killing to continue unabated? Biden had that power too, and used it frequently. Trump also undid even some of the pitifully weak things Biden actually had done to oppose Israel’s slaughter, like pausing shipments of 2,000 pound bombs or putting sanctions on settlers. And Israel has continued happily killing people in both Gaza and the West Bank during the “cease fire,” with no sign of concern from the State Department.
This alternate reality where Trump is a skilled enough diplomacist to effect a change in Israel’s behavior, and cares enough about the Palestinians that he would want to use it if he did, is a very bizarre thing to see on Lemmy. I think people are buying into it because they want badly enough to criticize Biden that they’re willing to believe absolute nonsense about Trump if it makes Biden look bad by comparison.
