Well said Punditman! I totally agree. It's bizarre how people are letting Israel get away with their genocide in Gaza and now south Beirut yet people are afraid to condemn it including Trudeau. Finally Singh is beginning to be more critical and is calling for the recognition of the Palestinian state. But the IHRA definition offers criticism of Israel as an example of anti-semitism. Too many people see what Israel is doing and abhor their attempts to repress those they've colonized and take even more land such as south Lebanon if they can add more land to the Golan Heights. It's known as the "third rail" for a reason. Now they want to push their escalation beyond Lebanon to Iran in the hopes that the US will back them. There has been a lot of discussion recently about who wags the tail or does the tail wag and the dog, as Mearsheimer puts it. Where Doctorow and Berletic think that the US runs Israel, Mearsheimer (and Johnson agrees) argues instead that the Israeli lobby group AIPAC has already bought congress, the President and the House of Representative members and so Israel calls the shots. Netanyahu does his murderous civilian killing thing and the US makes it happen with their weapons. He does what he wants to do come hell or high water. He and his far right fascist government must be stopped!
Thanks as always for the comment, Glen. It's impossible for one person to keep up these days, so I appreciate that added info. There is indeed a lively debate as to the nature and the power of the Israeli lobby. I just heard Mearsheimer recount how when he and Walt wrote their book on that topic, they encountered disagreements with Chomsky and Finkelstein about which side is in the driver's seat.
I don't know. I always thought the US could rein in Israel whenever they want, but increasingly it is starting to look like that's not quite how things work anymore.
Great summary! At this point, it's being generous to assume that Biden is so demented he can't do anything but continue with the same course of "back what Israel does no matter what." The chronic warhawks are always blathering about "showing resolve" and "deterrence." But when we're getting headlines like this - "Biden Says He'd Consider Alternative to Striking Iranian Oil Fields if in Israel's Shoes" (Haaretz)" - it's hard to imagine the policymakers in other countries thinking anything but, "Is anybody actually driving this car?" Instead of, you know, Biden saying: "Look, Netanahu, you bomb the Iranian oil fields and we're cutting off your supply until you step down and we have someone who's not a warmongering fanatic to work with in Israel." If Israel blasts Iranian oil fields, one obvious option - which Iran has the capacity to pull off - is to wreck the Saudi oil fields. Just the prospect of that happening started driving up oil prices immediately. The US policy right now is morally depraved and pragmatically disastrous.
Thanks Bruce. I heard Chris Hedges say the other day that Antony Blinken is the leading candidate for worst Secretary of State in US history. Quite a statement.
Foreign policy is a real achilles heel for Harris and I just don't understand why the Democratic establishment have left themselves so vulnerable in this regard. I can't think of much success other than some prisoner swaps with Russia. They seem incoherently hawkish. The Biden doctrine of democracy versus autocracy has too many bullet holes in it to be taken seriously.
When I think of success in foreign policy, I think skilled negotiators, ceasefires, treaties, agreements, bridging gaps between adversaries, a transparent vision of hope.
It seems clear that Americans are fed up with perpetual war—whether direct or by proxy—and the distortions caused by Pentagon economics. The frightening reality is that Trump can point to the chaos across the globe, and claim, "The world is on fire, and you’re all useless," and position himself as the solution. We've seen the danger, instability---and as the Medhi Hasan video I linked to above shows---the unhinged hawkishness that he offers.
Meanwhile, the Democrats seem to be betting on Biden's domestic record, hoping it will be enough to distract from the multiple boiling crises abroad. Can they maintain that balancing act before something truly catastrophic occurs?
Good stuff - we’re all feeling it’s a bit of a twilight zone situation where those of us who look beyond the mainstream media are seeing a different world than those who couldn’t be bothered and don’t think that stopping a genocide is any of their concern - or they’re in lockstep with the crooked Israeli narrative. Strange world and a tough go to change minds, but it’s essential work.
Wonderful perspective as always, Punditman, but let me push back gently on the idea that it's wrong to give Israel the benefit of the doubt. We should...because of historical wrongs, because there's always hope for a pluralistic kibbutzim-based land of brotherhood, and because it's just better.
All those diligent and humane exercises conducted, however, we end with genocide. And one might well ask what can be done. This is an inexplicable experiment in traditional rape-and-pillage when the powers that be could accomplish their strategic ends much more efficiently by just corrupting the other regional centres of strength. So why do it this way? I don't have an answer, but this has to be the question. Outsource violence just to keep fit for when we need it back home? Flex so other nascent forces know we're still up to it? Maintain a catastrophe lab so we're ready when we need to use it elsewhere?
I think it's a mistake to blame Netanyahu, which all this tail-or-dog talk amounts to. This is an inevitable consequence of how we've organized our geopolitics around proxy wars, and I can't see it getting any better. But here we are.
I don't get it either.
And Trudeau is so sneaky in his support for Israel.
Well said Punditman! I totally agree. It's bizarre how people are letting Israel get away with their genocide in Gaza and now south Beirut yet people are afraid to condemn it including Trudeau. Finally Singh is beginning to be more critical and is calling for the recognition of the Palestinian state. But the IHRA definition offers criticism of Israel as an example of anti-semitism. Too many people see what Israel is doing and abhor their attempts to repress those they've colonized and take even more land such as south Lebanon if they can add more land to the Golan Heights. It's known as the "third rail" for a reason. Now they want to push their escalation beyond Lebanon to Iran in the hopes that the US will back them. There has been a lot of discussion recently about who wags the tail or does the tail wag and the dog, as Mearsheimer puts it. Where Doctorow and Berletic think that the US runs Israel, Mearsheimer (and Johnson agrees) argues instead that the Israeli lobby group AIPAC has already bought congress, the President and the House of Representative members and so Israel calls the shots. Netanyahu does his murderous civilian killing thing and the US makes it happen with their weapons. He does what he wants to do come hell or high water. He and his far right fascist government must be stopped!
Thanks as always for the comment, Glen. It's impossible for one person to keep up these days, so I appreciate that added info. There is indeed a lively debate as to the nature and the power of the Israeli lobby. I just heard Mearsheimer recount how when he and Walt wrote their book on that topic, they encountered disagreements with Chomsky and Finkelstein about which side is in the driver's seat.
I don't know. I always thought the US could rein in Israel whenever they want, but increasingly it is starting to look like that's not quite how things work anymore.
Great summary! At this point, it's being generous to assume that Biden is so demented he can't do anything but continue with the same course of "back what Israel does no matter what." The chronic warhawks are always blathering about "showing resolve" and "deterrence." But when we're getting headlines like this - "Biden Says He'd Consider Alternative to Striking Iranian Oil Fields if in Israel's Shoes" (Haaretz)" - it's hard to imagine the policymakers in other countries thinking anything but, "Is anybody actually driving this car?" Instead of, you know, Biden saying: "Look, Netanahu, you bomb the Iranian oil fields and we're cutting off your supply until you step down and we have someone who's not a warmongering fanatic to work with in Israel." If Israel blasts Iranian oil fields, one obvious option - which Iran has the capacity to pull off - is to wreck the Saudi oil fields. Just the prospect of that happening started driving up oil prices immediately. The US policy right now is morally depraved and pragmatically disastrous.
Thanks Bruce. I heard Chris Hedges say the other day that Antony Blinken is the leading candidate for worst Secretary of State in US history. Quite a statement.
Foreign policy is a real achilles heel for Harris and I just don't understand why the Democratic establishment have left themselves so vulnerable in this regard. I can't think of much success other than some prisoner swaps with Russia. They seem incoherently hawkish. The Biden doctrine of democracy versus autocracy has too many bullet holes in it to be taken seriously.
When I think of success in foreign policy, I think skilled negotiators, ceasefires, treaties, agreements, bridging gaps between adversaries, a transparent vision of hope.
It seems clear that Americans are fed up with perpetual war—whether direct or by proxy—and the distortions caused by Pentagon economics. The frightening reality is that Trump can point to the chaos across the globe, and claim, "The world is on fire, and you’re all useless," and position himself as the solution. We've seen the danger, instability---and as the Medhi Hasan video I linked to above shows---the unhinged hawkishness that he offers.
Meanwhile, the Democrats seem to be betting on Biden's domestic record, hoping it will be enough to distract from the multiple boiling crises abroad. Can they maintain that balancing act before something truly catastrophic occurs?
Good stuff - we’re all feeling it’s a bit of a twilight zone situation where those of us who look beyond the mainstream media are seeing a different world than those who couldn’t be bothered and don’t think that stopping a genocide is any of their concern - or they’re in lockstep with the crooked Israeli narrative. Strange world and a tough go to change minds, but it’s essential work.
Wonderful perspective as always, Punditman, but let me push back gently on the idea that it's wrong to give Israel the benefit of the doubt. We should...because of historical wrongs, because there's always hope for a pluralistic kibbutzim-based land of brotherhood, and because it's just better.
All those diligent and humane exercises conducted, however, we end with genocide. And one might well ask what can be done. This is an inexplicable experiment in traditional rape-and-pillage when the powers that be could accomplish their strategic ends much more efficiently by just corrupting the other regional centres of strength. So why do it this way? I don't have an answer, but this has to be the question. Outsource violence just to keep fit for when we need it back home? Flex so other nascent forces know we're still up to it? Maintain a catastrophe lab so we're ready when we need to use it elsewhere?
I think it's a mistake to blame Netanyahu, which all this tail-or-dog talk amounts to. This is an inevitable consequence of how we've organized our geopolitics around proxy wars, and I can't see it getting any better. But here we are.