Where did I say it was beyond anyone’s feeble comprehension? I’m just pointing out that it is complex and people are treating it like it isn’t. “Peace in the Middle East is a difficult and complex topic.” shouldn’t be a controversial statement.

it’s complicated, so shut up" isn’t an answer.

Funny how that’s almost the exact opposite of encouraging people to get involved with protests, which was my actual answer to that question.

You have a vivid imagination, but that’s not what I said.

The question was what can we as individuals do? Anyways, US aid generally accounts for around ,15% of Israel’s defense budget, and there are plenty of other countries from which to buy bombs.

Israel is only a regional power by virtue of the US propping it up.

Where did you pick that nonsense up? Annual US aid amounts to around 15% of Israel’s military budget. That’s $3.8b compared to a GDP of $500b. It is a regional power with or without the US. US aid is in exchange for maintaining a major US military base in Israeli territory and access to Israeli intelligence. Israel spends more money on purchasing US weapons than it receives in US aid. US weapons also rely on technology designed and produced in Israel.

Why on earth would either Russia or China want to take that on, when they could just do nothing and watch Israeli power plummet.

Why on earth would Russia or China want to watch Israeli power plummet when they could use it to project power into the Middle East and access it’s resources? Why do you think the US is there?

And a lovely bit of whataboutism

It’s not Whataboutism, I was just explaining how foreign policy works. It’s clearly a topic of which you know very little. I’m not saying it’s OK that Israel commits a genocide because others do it, I’m saying that the international community doesn’t react to genocide like you or I do. They will praise, condemn, or ignore it based on their own national interests. That’s not how I think it should work, it’s how it does work.

You don’t think Russia and China stand to benefit from Israeli knowledge of US arms technology? What about the massive PR win for Russia? They already use an imagined Nazi threat to justify their wars of aggression.

There are three regional powers in the Middle East. The US has Israel and Saudi Arabia, and Russia has Iran. You don’t think Russia wants to flip that math? Controlling that much oil would eliminate whatever vulnerability they have to sanctions.

Israel is hardly discredited, whatever the hell that means. Maybe in Internet culture, but not in geopolitics. Russia is doing almost exactly what Israel is on a much broader scale right now. The International community cares about as much about the Palestinians as they do about the Rohingya or the Darfuri, both of which are suffering ongoing genocides that I bet you didn’t even know about. The world should care, but it really doesn’t.

The problems in the Middle East are about a lot more than US meddling. Much of it goes back to before the US even existed. Not that the US has helped much, but it was the British Empire that setup ridiculous borders that all but guaranteed eternal conflict.

The US abandoning Israel would throw the whole region into turmoil. Iran and/or it’s proxies would become far more hostile and Israel would no longer be willing to even pretend to tolerate a hostile force within its own boarders. Both Gaza and the West Bank are just gone. Israel would start cutting deals with US rivals which would have global implications.

US pulling out of Israel would be the most chaos inducing event in world history.

I don’t know where you got that 300k number from, but I clearly said that I disagree with much of Biden’s response.

Saving Palestinian lives is sadly not a strategic goal of US foreign policy. This is true for Biden, his election opponents, and every US President since WWII. However, general stability in the Middle East is very much a strategic goal, and that is not well served by Israel’s recent actions. So yeah, the US is going to support it’s ally Israel while working towards peace. This is not out of altruism, it’s in service to it’s own strategic interests. Everything in foreign policy eventually comes down to competing interests and power, and that’s not just an American thing.

But I’m not either, as I made quite clear.

Just the fact that he felt the need to address them himself on TV is evidence that he feels pressure. I never claimed they were changing the course of history, but if you have better suggestions then please make them.

Trump’s gang has given populists a bad name. The only requirements for being a populist are that you believe there is a wealthy class that dominates our politics to serve their own class purposes, and you think that is a bad thing. I consider myself a left wing populist.

The college protests actually seem to have raised the pressure on Israel, and have started to spread in Europe. I think that joining with that effort is probably the most impact that average citizens can have. That and donate to charitable organizations bringing aid to Gaza, even if that aid is currently being blocked.

The majority of Palestinian deaths came after the last ceasefire. The UN Security Council demanded another ceasefire exactly like the armchair diplomats demanded, and yet it made no difference at all. At what point do people realize that foreign policy is complex as fuck and that knee jerk solutions, however well intended, are not the real answer?

We don’t need a ceasefire, we need a peace. That requires careful application of power and influence across multiple warring cultures with a crazy web of often contradictory alegences. That’s the goal that the Biden administration has been working towards, and abandoning Israel would be a disaster for everyone.

With or without US support, Israel can destroy Gaza. Israel has twice the population of Palestine, is far better armed already, and their people are better educated and have access to food and medicine. Israel also has a right wing Prime Minister who’s entire political image is based on anti-Palestinian racism. Throw in the fact that he might face trial as soon as he leaves office, and it becomes clear he is not backing down.

The new shipments recently announced are for some time in 2026 at the earliest. They are of no assistance to Israel until then and, until that time, they are leverage.

I make no defense for Israel’s actions in this conflict, the illegal settlements, or the apartide system they benefit from. I also disagree with a whole lot about the Biden administration’s response to this conflict, and to the protests within the US. However, it’s a far more complicated situation than many understand. People should also keep in mind that foreign policy strategies often collapse if talked about publicly.

I have a hunch that “working” would not exactly be a top priority.

That’s what happens when the establishment uses their stranglehold over mainstream media to strong arm a primary. The right wing is going to right wing, and misinformation is their whole game. Democrats can learn to be a party that can win in that environment, or they can let institutional inertia destroy the country. They seem to be leaning to the latter.