Title: The Israel Gaza War Source:
[None] URL Source:[None] Published:Oct 9, 2023 Author:A K A Stone Post Date:2023-10-09 21:40:45 by A K A Stone Keywords:None Views:3327 Comments:31
This thread is to document the war in Israel.
Feel free to post news articles, opinions and videos.
The Democrats SUPPORT the war in Ukraine, 77-23. It's the Republicans that are 51-49 against it.
77+49 = 126/200, a blended 63%, which is a nice majority in a democratic republic. So we will provide aid to both, and both Ukraine and Israel will win in the end, as will we with them.
Those who oppose funding these wars, well, the wars would have to go much worse for Ukraine, and much longer for Israel, for the majority to change its mind. And I have to say that the minority are not helping themselves here either. Their arguments against helping Ukraine (nobody is arguing against Israel yet - that will come in time as the Israelis do what they have to do to kill Hamas, which means a lot of destruction and death among Palestinian civilians - their arguments are pretty weak. "We don't want to spend the money." What? 1% of the budget, to stop geostrategic threats? How about a pay-freeze for two years in the federal government? That will save 1%.
Oh? Well, I get the numbers for Ukraine from a constellation of neutral polls: 77% of Democrats and 49% of Republicans support continued aid to Ukraine, and 60% of Independents. There are no polls out on Israel yet, but the polls don't matter. The country is alive with anger at Hamas, and the politicians are falling over themselves to support Israel.
So, there is support for Israel, which is obvious, and there is broad support for Ukraine, which is sensible. Perhaps you and your circle are part of the 51% of Republicans who don't want to keep supporting Ukraine. Ok. That's fine.
But to say that the majority of the population doesn't support the war effort in Ukraine is simply not true. You don't. But they do.
And given that, what moves through Congress will reflect that. There will be an aid package for Israel AND we will continue to support Ukraine, for the time being, because that's what American democracy wants. (I think the people are generally right on this: crush Hamas AND crush the Russians, and use our money and arms but not our blood to do it. Good strategy! Proceed!
I don't think we'll support either, fully, forever.
To defeat Hamas, Israel is going to have to destroy a lot of the Gaza Strip, and invade it, and there will be a lot of blood. And a lot of Western people will be turned off by that and urge more and more "restraint" on Israel, which will eventually stop the Israelis.
Obviously the Ukrainians have to really put in a convincing win for the aid to keep flowing. People understand that they haven't had the offensive weaponry to do it. But by the spring they will have F-16's and probably ATACMs, and Biden will still be in office. So they have to make vast gains before the US elections. If they do, support will continue. If they don't, and Trump wins, they will be forced into a negotiated settlement and probably never get back the Donbass or Crimea. Ukraine does not have unlimited time.
