For the second time this month the Biden administration is bypassing Congress to approve an emergency weapons sale to Israel as Israel continues to prosecute its war against Hamas in Gaza under increasing international criticism.
I feel like I once again have to ask why? Why does Israel need these weapons so badly that you have to bypass even Congressional approval? Republicans wouldn’t exactly oppose such an approval, they haven’t shown any lack of support for supporting Israel, just Ukraine. And Israel certainly doesn’t need the weapons for defense, as claimed by the State Department in the article.
Israel is very handedly and with minimal resistance killing thousands of Palestinians. They don’t really need any additional arsenals.
Unless this is in preparation for Netanyahu’s claimed invasion of Lebanon and beyond? Is Biden openly supporting the expansion of the conflict?
I think there are two main reasons
One, support for Israel is a huge part of wasp-end-of-the-world-prophecy and has been a life-time project for many boomers that are now very elderly. They will go all in on this last push before they die
Two, Israel is an American military base located in the middle of three continents. Congress will print infinite money to maintain it and Israel knows it
The whole thing is fucked
Two, Israel is an American military base located in the middle of three continents.
Is it actually though? It seems like all our invasions in that region have been supported by bases in allied Arab countries. I can’t remember a time when the Israeli military or Israeli territory has been used for an American military effort. I’m really at a loss for what they actually provide to the United States.
Israel and the US have a long history fighting “communism”. If America ever goes to war with Russia, Israel will almost definitely remain an ally and allow the US to conduct military action from inside their territory. The same goes for America vs China. Other allies in the region are less likely to. Especially if its US vs China.
Personally I think its dumb, but its going to take a long time to shake almost a century of red-scare propaganda. The west still views Russia (and China) as the Soviets - godless commie atheists. ie Israel is ostensibly on the side of capitalism and the christian god. Russia and China are not.
I feel like I once again have to ask why?
Biden has spent literal decades telling Israel he’ll support them no matter what and he’ll never stop supporting them.
It’s right up there with “nothing will fundementally change” on the short list of campaign promises he’s never broken
Republicans wouldn’t exactly oppose such an approval
But they did oppose it.
Republicans oppose Israel military aid unless Democrats support new anti-immigration laws. For now it’s an impasse, so Israel isn’t getting military aid. Thus Biden has to sell Israel military equipment instead of donating it.
And it’s a relatively small spend, about $100 million. That’s roughly one day’s worth of funding for the IDF (the Israeli military budget is $24 billion a year). The US says Israelis are mostly buying spare parts.
Ukraine needs immediate aide. This focus on sending aide to Israel is frankly infuriating. Ukraine is fighting for its existence. Israel is committing genocide (not the Jewish people, but the Israeli government under the leadership of Netanyahu). Can we please at least see the difference in terms of where resources should be allocated? This should not be political, but practical.
This focus on sending aide to Israel is frankly infuriating.
It’s important to distinguish aid from sale.
Biden didn’t approve aid to Israel, he only allowed them to purchase weapons with cash.
If Ukraine showed up tomorrow with a billion dollar check, they too could buy whatever they wanted immediately.
That said, it is treasonous that Republicans blocked aid to Ukraine. Ukrainians are dying protecting America from Russian aggression.
You’re really not getting it, are you? With the assault in Ukraine, the US MIL got the opportunity to clear out some old stock and potentially divert world war 3 into a stalemate. It was great for a bit. The gaza conflict gives the US a greater opportunity to really play to its strengths and pursue a thread of great historic national interest… Bombing brown people.
There’s potentially oil there that needs freedom, and nobody exports more freedom for oil than the US
/S …I think? I’m having a bit of an Idiocracy moment right now.
You’re not wrong. There’s nothing more American than killing brown people. Nothing. Just ask the Native Americans.
Wait, you can do that? Why not bypass Congress to sell arms to Ukraine then?
Because Ukraine needs a weapon donor, not a weapon vendor.
That said, Ukraine just received $250 million in weapon donations, approved by the previous Congress.
It’s a fucking embarrassment that he’s doing this for Israel.
It’s also a fucking embarrassment that he’s not doing this for Ukraine.
It’s neat how congress goes from an insurmountable obstacle to an insubstantial suggestion.
That only works when Congress intentionally leaves a loophole, in this case allowing weapon sales but not donations.
What sale? We fund Israel. They do not pay us anything and never will. At least Ukraine is promising repayment for the weapons we supply and are backed by the World Bank. Israel, on the other hand, recieves billions from us annually and will continue to be our welfare recipients long after the Gazan genocide is complete.
Also, sale or no sale, we are openly participating in genocide now. We should not be supplying jack shit to Israel under any financial circumstances.
The OP is about Biden selling weapons to Israel, which they had to pay for.
Originally they were supposed to receive billions in emergency funding instead. That funding is stalled in Congress, partly due to Israel’s conduct in this war.
So neat watching the mountains of excuses evaporate into nothingness when there’s a genocide to fund.
It only seems extraordinary because you just tuned in.
Presidents have recently used loopholes in the past to ban Muslim immigrants, build a Southern wall, require masks in airports, require hospital employees to get covid vaccines, halt evictions, cancel student debt, and now sell weapons to Israel. All without an act of Congress.
But not everything has a loophole. There is an equally long list of things that they thought they could do without Congressional approval, but actually couldn’t. For example require other employees to get covid vaccines, stop oil drilling, forgive farm loans, and cancel even more student debt.
