Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said policy differences toward Israel between her and President Biden won’t stop her from supporting him in the November general election.

“Of course,” Omar said Tuesday, when asked by CNN’s Abby Phillip on “NewsNight” whether she would vote for Biden if the election were held that day, in a clip highlighted by Mediaite. “Democracy is on the line, we are facing down fascism.”

“And I personally know what my life felt like having Trump as the president of this country, and I know what it felt like for my constituents, and for people around this country and around the world,” Omar continued. “We have to do everything that we can to make sure that does not happen to our country again.”

  • Deceptichum@sh.itjust.works
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    8 months ago

    We don’t understand why Biden doesn’t stop supporting Israel.

    Its like supporting Bibi would lose Biden votes, but not supporting him wont. Yet he still goes out of his way to support them.

    • 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      You could understand if you wanted to. It’s the majority view held by the intelligence and foreign services of most western powers and virtually everyone in Washington. It’s not like they are hiding the explanation.

      Try to see the bigger picture and what this proxy war means for the world. If thirty thousand deaths make you too sad to vote for Biden and that results in reelecting Trump, how sad will you be when Iran shoots its shot against Israel and we’re here on Lemmy talking about thirty million deaths and a cascade of failed states throughout the Middle East and eastern Europe fueled by the unprecedented humanitarian crisis and masses of refugees?

      What does it mean for the world and for human rights everywhere if the western powers allow the only democracy in the middle east to fall to actual, for-real, far right religious extremists, who will actually, for-real genocide every Jew in the middle east in favor of an Islamic religio-ethno dictatorship?

      How does ceding Israel to actual fascists advance the interest of lasting peace or human rights, especially if it ends up reelecting Trump, who will never leave office if he gets in again?

      Maybe instead of throwing away democracy in America and the middle east, we can maybe appreciate that 30,000,000 is more than 30,000?

      Maybe it makes more sense if we use America’s persuasive power to see Netanyahu and his party defeated at the ballot box? Wouldn’t that be much better for the world?

      Biden isn’t the roadblock to peace in Gaza. He didn’t cause the situation or prolong it in any way. Israel has all the weaponry and fighters it needs to turn Gaza and the West Bank into a sheet of glass in about ninety minutes if it wanted. Even with conventional weapons, they could carpet bomb the entirety of Palestine many times over before the loss of US support disrupted Israeli’s defensive posture as to Gaza.

      It is Israel’s posture as to Iran that dictates America’s course, and frankly it’s not that hard of a choice given the stakes. Continued support is continued leverage, whereas ending support ends any leverage America may have over what Israel deeply considers to be, more or less, a local police matter.

      • ???@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Excusing Palestinian deaths by saying 30,000 had to die so that 30 million in the future don’t get killed in some fantasy scenario that has not happened and is unlikely to happen.

        This is what you are doing here.

        Emotionally protecting yourself from 13 thousand dead children.

        (Btw kids, please don’t vote for Trump, but also don’t allow bs like this to cheapen Palestinian blood)

      • juicy@lemmy.today
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        8 months ago

        lol. Israel is not a democracy. 5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are non-citizens without a vote. The PA is entirely under the thumb of Israel, and Palestinians in the West Bank live in apartheid. Gaza has been besieged and abused for 20 years. Your precious “Only Democracy in the Middle East” is a last bastion of proud European colonialism. The one colony that is still establishing new settlements and clearing “savages” from new land. America long ago divested itself of the Phillipines, but we pour money and weapons into our client colonial state between the river and the sea.

          • juicy@lemmy.today
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            8 months ago

            When a third of your population aren’t citizens, and in fact most of their families have lived there since the Ottoman Empire, while your citizens have mostly immigrated from abroad in the mid-1900s, and have pushed the non-citizens who predated them into ghettos, you can call it whatever you want. But it’s repugnant.

            • 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              That’s great, let’s agree that all of that is true; nothing will erase the original sin will it?

              The starting point to peace is right now. How we got here does not have to dictate where we go from here.

              What is it that you’re advocating with the land records line of reasoning, that the Israel government is evicted, that democracy in the middle east ends, and gets replaced with an Islamist caliphate, because the Jews did not inhabit the Levant during the Ottoman empire? Hmm, where were they again?1 But moreso, who were the inhabitants at the beginning of recorded history? I mean if you want to go back to the records and do a title search, go back to the first record. Why would you stop less than halfway?


              1. https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/faq/dhimmi (“A dhimmi refers to a non-Muslim subject of the Ottoman Empire. Derived from Islamic legal conceptions of membership to society, non-Muslims ‘dhimmis’ were afforded protection by the state and did not serve in the military, in return for specific taxes. The dhimmi status was legally abolished in 1839 with the Hatt-ı Şerif of Gülhane and was formalized with the 1869 Ottoman Law of Nationality as part of wider Tanzimat Reforms. Regardless of these official changes, in various places within the Empire non-Muslim subjects faced various forms of institutional discrimination.”). https://web.archive.org/web/20181214221418/http://jewishhistory.research.wesleyan.edu/i-jewish-population/5-ottoman-empire/ (“As the dhimmi, Jews and Christians were subject to: A special tax (the jizya); A prohibition against carrying arms; A prohibition against riding horses; A prohibition against building new houses of worship or repairing old ones; Prohibitions against public processions and worship; A prohibition against proselytism; A requirement to wear distinctive clothing; A prohibition against building homes higher than Muslim ones.”).
              • juicy@lemmy.today
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                8 months ago

                Nothing will erase the original sin, but Israel can abide by international law and allow the Palestinians to return to their homes and give them equal rights. We are not talking about ancient history. The Naqba was just 75 years ago.

    • Natanael@slrpnk.net
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      8 months ago

      https://www.axios.com/2024/03/14/us-settler-sanctions-west-bank

      The U.S. Department of Treasury announced new sanctions Thursday against two illegal outposts in the occupied West Bank that were used as a base for attacks by extremist Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians, three U.S. officials told Axios.

      Why it matters: It is the first time U.S. sanctions are being imposed against entire outposts and not just against individuals.

      The move comes as the Biden administration ratchets up pressure on the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over a range of issues, including settler violence against Palestinians and the war in Gaza. There were nearly 500 Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians between Oct. 7 and Jan. 31 of this year, according to the UN humanitarian office (OCHA).

      If they fully drop all support for Israel then multiple countries are likely to start war against Israel, possibly Iran and 2-3 others. That will cause the entire region to destabilize

      • OccamsTeapot@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        And Jewish people are a monolith and all support Israel? Ironically this is closer to actual antisemitism than someone who hates Israel as a state because of their horrendous actions.

      • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Jews are not Israel. Israel is not Jews. Stop being a Zionist freak. No one cares what the makeup of the US is. Jews aren’t supposed to support genocide, so if anything, there being many Jews in the US should mean Netty’s behavior should be even less agreeable.

      • lennybird@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        If I understand correctly, you’re noting that the Jewish people in America lean supportive of Israel and because they comprise a larger population pool than the vehemently strong pro-Palestinians, Biden must then carefully toe the line between the two groups to court the largest % of votes to ensure the far-worse guy doesn’t get in power?

        • Natanael@slrpnk.net
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          8 months ago

          “ironically” it’s actually Christian far right nationalist evangelicals (a bunch of self contradicting terms if you ask me) who support Israel most in USA, not Jews living in USA (who often left or refused to move there for a reason!).