evan

evan, 6 days ago

@evacide @kete I mean, the Kach party was on the US terrorist watchlist until 2022. They were banned from Israeli politics, until members formed new successor parties. It's absolutely unbelievable that former members hold the ministry of finance and national security in the Netanyahu cabinet, and that they hold the balance of power in the government.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kach_(political_party)

evan, 6 days ago

@liaizon @tomcoates I am happy to take it and glad they are supporting our work. I think one thing we need to do is get them on the Fediverse.

evan, 6 days ago

@tehstu That's an interesting question! The Conversation says mostly Iran, although interestingly there is (was?) some domestic production of weapons in Gaza.

https://theconversation.com/where-do-israel-and-hamas-get-their-weapons-220762

Reuters says funding comes mostly from Iran and Qatar.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/hamas-cash-to-crypto-global-finance-maze-israels-sights-2023-10-16/

evan, 6 days ago

@panos I guess I don't understand what you're saying. I haven't heard anyone making this case before; I started thinking about it when I skated past an article about the October Surprise theory on Wikipedia. If you think that I have shared this idea to deflect blame from the current administration, I can assure you that is not the case. I was just thinking about it, and then the Russian interactions in 2016, and thought, is this crazy? Maybe I should make a poll.

evan, 6 days ago

@panos That's a good point -- there is high-level coordination by the Biden administration with the Netanyahu government all the time. Secretary Blinken was just visiting and consulting. So, it would only be colluding in the parts where the Netanyahu government is ignoring the Biden administration's requests, like with humanitarian aid or the attack on Rafah.

evan, 6 days ago

@FLGLchicago @augieray the question of whether a candidate and campaign should change their policy or platform to garner more votes is a difficult one. On the one hand, responsiveness to public opinion is one of the goals of representative democracy. On the other, standing firm on principle is sometimes necessary even in the face of losing an election. I guess the question is, is support of the war in Gaza a principle worth losing an election over.

evan, 6 days ago

@FLGLchicago @MikeImBack @augieray I think that's unfair, given the similar tone in the post I was replying to, but if you find it so bad, I will change it.

evan, 6 days ago

@augieray I don't think there is a worse possible outcome than the Kahanist goal of eradication of Palestinians from Gaza.

evan, 6 days ago

@augieray @Amoshias I hate Donald Trump, but I don't know if what you say is strictly true. His form of nationalist populism largely withdrew the US from overseas interventions. He did, however, support provocative activities in Israel like moving the embassy to Jerusalem.

evan, 6 days ago

@textualdeviance @augieray @Amoshias who said that? I'm just saying, having lived through some hawkish administrations, I don't think that a Trump administration is as likely to find reasons to go to war as, say, the first Bush administration. You make a good point that a less engaged US may result in more wars between other parties, though.

evan, 6 days ago (edited 6 days ago)

@Amoshias @textualdeviance @augieray whew. Not sure. He was really bad, but we survived as a country, which I wasn't always confident of. I'd say, he was not quite as bad as my worst fears, but he got close.

evan, 6 days ago

@textualdeviance @Amoshias @augieray I meant, there is still a United States.

evan, 6 days ago

@XDarwinAwardsX @yith @Amoshias @seb321 @augieray This is good news.

evan, 6 days ago

@Amoshias @textualdeviance @augieray Wow, that sounds terrible, to be chased out of your own country.

evan, 6 days ago

@yith @Amoshias @seb321 @augieray They vetoed three ceasefire resolutions, and the resolution to recognize the State of Palestine.

evan, 6 days ago

@FLGLchicago @augieray It's OK to change your mind and engage in a better way.

evan, 6 days ago (edited 6 days ago)

@adriano @seb321 @augieray there are hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Americans. Probably only a small subset have children in Gaza right now, but they probably care about people in Gaza in the same way Korean Americans care about their family in Korea or Portuguese Americans care about their family in Portugal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_Americans

evan, 6 days ago (edited 6 days ago)

@MikeImBack @FLGLchicago @augieray That's interesting. I'm not entirely sure that's the case; the withdrawal agreement had already been negotiated by the previous administration. However, an adamant warmonger could have breached the agreement and kept troops in Afghanistan, so not doing that is definitely a point in the Biden administration's favour.

evan, 6 days ago

@MikeImBack @FLGLchicago @augieray I do think that Biden is part of the 20th century interventionist consensus in Washington politics. He is comfortable with using military power, directly and indirectly. As I mentioned in another thread, he voted for every major war since Vietnam, with the exception of the secret contra warfare, which again, is a point in his favour.

evan, 6 days ago

@bananarama @FLGLchicago @augieray So, just to be clear: I am not anti-Zionist. I believe in the right of the Jewish people to self-determination, and I believe that they can and should exercise that right in Israel. I believe the people of Israel have a right to live in peace and safety in their home.

evan, 6 days ago

@bananarama @FLGLchicago @augieray I wish I could say that I don't have any antisemitic prejudices, but I have as many as anyone raised and educated in the United States on the Western canon, which means probably a lot. I try to proactively correct them myself, and I appreciate getting called out on them.

evan, 6 days ago

@bananarama @FLGLchicago @augieray I also think the Netanyahu government, and especially the Kahanist faction -- Smotrich, Ben Gvir, and others -- are conducting an ethnic cleansing in Gaza with the goal of expelling or killing as much of the Palestinian population as possible. I can't find a way to accept that.

evan, 6 days ago

@Amoshias @textualdeviance @augieray I'm not. Nobody should have to go through that.

evan, 6 days ago

@textualdeviance @Amoshias @augieray Sorry to hear that.

evan, 6 days ago

@textualdeviance @augieray So, @Amoshias asked if Trump has lived up to my expectations. I thought about it sincerely, and tried to think back to 2016, and about how bad I expected things to get under Trump, and that they didn't quite get as bad as I was worried they would.

I am not trying to say that Trump was not very, very terrible and that he did, and continues to do, extreme damage to the USA and the rest of the world.