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Exploiting The Chaos
It's not easy to get foreign policy right. The world's a very messy place, after all. And the Israel-Palestine quarrel's among the most intractable disputes on the geopolitical Risk board. It's also a religiopolitical dispute, which makes it all but impossible to adjudicate. Religious disputes are, by definition, irrational.
Joe Biden's hardly the first person to mismanage Israel-Palestine tensions and he won't be the last. This conflict vexed two generations of US diplomats, going on three. Bi
Great article. thanks
Yes excellent article.
Nearest metaphor I can come up with is: Quagmire located in a tar pit surrounded by piles of feathers.
I had all but expunged Donald Rumsfeld from my pocked brain until I started having to see Hagari’s dead-eyed, often-propagandized reports on a regular basis.
You can only tell someone it’s raining while pissing in their face till they kick you in the balls. I don’t think Netanyahu quite understands what it might be like if Biden does kick him in the balls.
Chaos is ubiquitous where the US annually gives $70B in economic and military aid. That was before the additional $15B approved for Israel – so I think the total is $85B in 2024.
Where exactly has US financial aid improved the situation?
Certainly not in Sudan, where the US only gives just under $1B in aid. At last check, since the civil war started in earnest about 12 months ago, 8.5M have been displaced and the death toll is about 16,000. Hundreds of thousands are starving.
Yes, the October 7 attack should be viewed from a wider context. Decades of Israeli oppression and counterattacks out of proportion to whatever pinpricks Gazans were able to inflict.
There’s a lot of history there, most unknown to the US.
https://www.amazon.com/Hamas-Contained-Pacification-Palestinian-Resistance/dp/1503632628/
This is a fantastic discussion on the Israel/Palestine situation:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/05/podcasts/transcript-ezra-klein-interviews-tareq-baconi.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb
Ezra has done at least half a dozen incredible episodes on the war. More generally, his podcast is just outstanding. I’m not one to heap praise on people, but I’m continually amazed at the quality of that podcast. Every, single episode is good. I never miss one.