BLUF: "Republicans have been united in blanket criticism of Congressional Democrats, particularly progressive members who disapprove of Israeli policy but also a growing number of center-left Democratswary of Netanyahu's policy."
Of possible interest (see article below). But it needs to be placed in “context.” So while this doesn’t tell the whole story of the partisan divide, minimal as it is, over Israel in this country and distorts how close the Democrats and Republicans in fact are in supporting Israeli genocide, it does illustrate whose “in the lead” in defending Israel’s interests. “Interests” as defined by Israeli fascists like Ben Gvir, Bezalel Smotrich, Netanyahu/Likud, and their US and Israeli "coalition partners;" the Republican Party and the National Conservative Movement.
This quote from the Haaretz article below however distorts the actual position of the so-called “isolationist camp” in the Republican Party, which doesn’t exist in fact. Believing there is one is to fail to see the “nuance” of their position. Here’s the quote: "While the GOP's more traditional, hawkish wing (correct) has advocated unwavering support for the country and its war in Gaza, the more isolationist camp has advocated for the U.S. to leave Israel to fight its own battles.”
That would be the “Liberal/Never-Trump” interpretation. As to denounce someone as an “anti-militarist” in today’s USA is effectively to declare them as “traitors” (as in Germany 1932-1945), and is usually a winning campaign strategy in the U.S. As we saw in 2004. But not in 2008 or 2012, as even a few Republicans came to understand that we could not “win” the Iraq War. Anymore than we could “win” the Vietnam War, though few Republicans ever “awoke” to that reality. So Oligarghs Adelson, Koch, and Peter Thiel principally devised a deception campaign for Trump, “suggesting” he wanted to “end the endless wars.” Omitting he wanted to escalate to Peer Competitor Warfare, against Iran first, and China, and Russia, and leaving the rest of the Mideast to the Israelis to “win.” Especially Israel’s war against the Palestinians!
Quote: "Anton explained that the Trump administration’s approach to the U.S.-Israel relationship fits within such a mold in part because of Israel’s critical position in the U.S.’s security strategy.
“But so many foreign relationships can’t be reduced to dollars and cents,” he added. “America has allies out of shared conviction and shared interests… Some of these alliances that you have are simply because of a natural affinity to democracies that share common values, and so on and so forth, and relationships built up over decades. And you don’t necessarily ask the question, ‘Hey, what am I getting out of this today?’ It’s not a calculation at every step of the way in foreign policy.” . . . "Anton acknowledged that the Trump administration’s peace proposal is not, and cannot be, a final peace deal, but laid blame on the Palestinians for the lack of progress — criticizing Palestinian leaders for walking away from the negotiating table after the U.S. moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.” End Quote
Israeli Cognitive Warfare Master Yoram Hazony explains what that really means here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVNCl4c-hLM, beginning at the 26:00 mark. Hazony is such a master propagandist that it is impossible in anything less than a book to point out all his “errors and omissions” (Propaganda by Omission). But one big one is what he says about Reagan not sending troops “8000 miles” to the Falklands, letting Thacher do that. After first describing Reagan as entering into a “co-belligerency” with Britain. So why wouldn’t he send U.S. troops is moot, as Hazony admits if he is to be believed (always a big “if”). As with what Reagan provided Britain made us co-belligerents without putting “boots on the ground.” As we are in Israel’s current escalated genocide. But even if Reagan had wanted to send US troops for direct combat in the Falklands in 1982, he had other “fish to fry,” in the Mideast. With two competing factions in his administration, one for unlimited support of Israel and the other not so much. So what he did do was to send US troops to the Mideast at about the same time as the Falklands War, to Lebanon, and off its shores to shell inland positions of Muslims. Which a lot of people in Lebanon took as evidence that the US was supporting Israel. As we saw with the Marine Barracks attack.
So “strange historical distortion” is correct, as Hazony puts it, but for himself, and Right-wing revisionists affiliated with him. But don’t take my word for it; listen to him. “China is America’s big problem,” he says, and the U.S. “should let Israel take care of its region.” And protect them from the imposition of “International Law,” as developed with the Enlightenment he despises so much (I’ve read his books!).
The absurdities roll off his tongue continuously, or at least everytime he opens his mouth. So even though Hazony is popular here and I always get chastised for criticizing him, someone has to in the total silence otherwise, as he wages cognitive warfare against the U.S. to neutralize any criticism of Israeli genocide and their many other serial war crimes. His analogy of what happened after George Floyd was killed to what the “Left” is doing to Israel today, is perverse in the extreme. As however much the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing merits condemnation, and what Hamas did, the correct analogy is that the US has been sending police officers to Israel to be trained for years, with them returning to the US applying the same Israeli tactics against the US population. And as graffiti in Belfast still says “Repression Breeds Resistance,"we’ve seen that in all its horror as “Blowback,” in both situations Hazony disclaims any responsibility for! And if you don’t think Israel is teaching US police officers tactics of repression, as the only kind of tactics they know, and that will predictably generate blowback, no matter the guilt or innocence of those on the receiving end, you can’t understand why Gaza “exploded,” again, after decades of Israeli repression of the worst kind. Now having fully risen to the level of the WW II Warsaw Ghetto.
So when Hazony goes beyond 33:00, and gets into US domestic matters, that has to be seen as artfully making it appear as if Israel and the US are confronted with the identical “Enemy” so that their fight, is our fight; the most artful of propaganda. And now accuse me of “Wokeism, as someone did recently, for my defense of the “Left,” for defending the Palestinians,” as if it was Hazony himself denouncing me.
P.S. He also supports US support to Ukraine in that U.S. proxy war.
President Joe Biden pauses as a protester interrupts him at an event on the campus of George Mason University in Manassas, Va., Tuesday, January 23, 2024.Credit: Alex Brandon/AP
WASHINGTON – Leading Republicans in Washington are increasingly taking cues from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in opposing the Biden administration's vision for a post-war Gaza, taking direct aim at the Palestinian Authority and placing billions of dollars in emergency aid at risk.
The Republican Party has become increasingly defined by its divisions on foreign policy, with Israel playing a central role in the rift. While the GOP's more traditional, hawkish wing has advocated unwavering support for the country and its war in Gaza, the more isolationist camp has advocated for the U.S. to leave Israel to fight its own battles.
While this rift hasn't significantly affected Israel's standing within the party, the general divisions have dramatically impacted efforts to reach a bipartisan compromise on border security and immigration.
Such a deal would ostensibly clear a path toward the package providing more than $14 billion in emergency aid to Israel, though former U.S. President Donald Trump is egging on House Republicans in an intraparty feud that could potentially derail efforts to provide the aid.
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a primary election night party in New Hampshire, January 23, 2024.Credit: Pablo Martinez Monsivais /AP
This mirrors the major challenge caused by House Speaker Mike Johnson last year when he attempted to condition the standalone aid to Israel on cuts to the Internal Revenue Service. This was met with unanimous opposition from Democrats, whose efforts to pass aid were blocked by Republicans who insisted on it including new border security stipulations.
Republicans have been united in blanket criticism of Congressional Democrats, particularly progressive members who disapprove of Israeli policy but also a growing number of center-left Democrats wary of Netanyahu's policy.
Criticism of the Biden administration has centered on its Iran policy, with some members and key party stakeholders offering rare praise for U.S. President Joe Biden's support for Israel in the weeks and months following October 7.
As the administration has begun pushing Israel toward the war's next stages, urging it to better mitigate civilian casualties and empowering the Palestinian Authority over current and future considerations, mainstream Republicans are quickly speaking out and falling into partisan ranks.
The Republican Jewish Coalition offered its first official criticism of Biden since October 7 earlier this week, with National Chairman Norm Coleman and CEO Matthew Brooks saying they were "deeply troubled by the Biden administration's growing pressure on Israel to commit to the creation of a Palestinian state.
Palestinians gather near the rubble of a family home, demolished by Israeli forces earlier during a raid in Hebron in the West Bank on January 21, 2024.Credit: Mosab Shawer- AFP
The Republican Jewish Coalition offered official criticism of Biden this week. "The administration is wrong to assume that Jewish Americans support its pressure on Israel. We urge members of Congress to use all the tools at their disposal to prevent the nightmare scenario of a terrorist state on Israel's borders."
"The Biden administration vaguely admits that the Palestinian Authority is not currently up to the job of administering a Palestinian state when it says that the PA must be 'reformed' or 'revitalized.' But let's be clear: As long as the Palestinian Authority is still rewarding terrorist murderers through its massive 'pay-for-slay' subsidies and refusing to condemn the October 7th atrocities, it remains unfit to administer a Palestinian state," they said.
"The Biden administration is wrong to assume that Jewish Americans support its pressure on Israel. We urge members of Congress to use all the tools at their disposal to push back against the Biden administration's misguided efforts and prevent the nightmare scenario of a terrorist state on Israel's borders," they added.
This follows Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's sharp rejection of the Biden administration's "renewed fixation with rushing to a two-state solution," mirroring Netanyahu's own recent rejections.
"Why would any of us think it's a good idea to reward Hamas and the Palestinians who rejoiced on October 7th with a state?" McConnell asked. "Who, I might ask, do our colleagues expect is ready to govern such as state? We know the answer is not Hamas. Every time those terrorists have faced a choice between improving the lives of Palestinians and taking the lives of Israelis, Hamas has chosen the later," he said.
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell takes part in the Republican Caucus lunch press conference at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, January 17, 2024.Credit: Leah Millis/Reuters
"Hamas certainly doesn't want a two-state solution. It wants to destroy Israel 'from the river to the sea,'" McConnell added.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, widely recognized as the most stalwart pro-Israel advocate within the Republican Party, made waves last month when he stressed that a two-state solution would be a demand for Israel's eventual regional integration.
"We have two choices: continue the death spiral, or use October 7 as a catalyst for change. I think the Arabs are going to demand some form of two-state solution to recognize Israel. I think Israel's going to demand security buffers different than before, and they need to make those demands. I don't know how this ends, but I'll tell you this. If we don't get this right this time, we're talking about another generation of just tit-for-tat death," he said on NBC's Meet the Press.
Days later, however, he clarified that the Palestinian Authority cannot and should not play a role in any future solution.
Sen. Lindsey Graham speaks during a news conference on border security on January 17, 2024 in Washington, DC.Credit: Kent Nishimura - Getty Images via AFP
"I would not invest 15 cents in a future Palestine where Hamas is still standing," Graham told ABC's This Week. "Their leaders need to be killed and captured, and I wouldn't invest 15 cents into the Palestinian Authority regarding a new Palestine. [PA President Mahmoud] Abbas' Palestinian Authority is dead to me. So, when we get to the day after Israel has ceased military operations because Hamas has been destroyed, the new Palestine cannot have Hamas, and it cannot be governed by the PA."
No Republicans co-sponsored a Democratic resolution to the national security supplement reiterating U.S. support for a two-state solution, largely motivated by Netanyahu's recent comments. 49 Democrats backed the motion, with only Sens. Joe Manchin and John Fetterman not joining.
Republicans have also taken Israel's lead on criticizing the Biden administration's continued support of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Top GOP lawmakers have demanded clarification on reports that Hamas is diverting humanitarian aid from the UN agency, which is accordingly failing to prevent such incidents, despite the U.S. being UNRWA's single largest donor.
A truck, marked with UNRWA logo at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, during a temporary truce between Hamas and Israel, in Rafah, Egypt, November 2023.Credit: Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters
Republicans have also taken Israel's lead on criticizing the Biden administration's continued support of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
"UNRWA does important work. They are doing a lot of heavy lifting right now in terms of trying to get food, water, medicine to the people of Gaza up and down the strip. They're doing a lot of work and they're doing it in harm's way," said U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby earlier this month in response to the criticisms.
"You can't hold them accountable for the depredations of Hamas and the way Hamas uses civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, for command-and-control and storage of weapons and holding of hostages," he added.
According to the director of UNRWA Affairs in Gaza, nine Palestinians were killed and 75 were wounded on Wednesday when two tank rounds hit the building that was sheltering around 800 people in southern Gaza. The U.S. soon issued a rare statement expressing its "grave concern" with the reports.
"The United States is unwavering in our support for Israel's right to defend itself, consistent with international humanitarian law, against Hamas terrorists who hide among the civilian population and want to annihilate the State of Israel," said National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson. "But Israel retains a responsibility to protect civilians, including humanitarian personnel and sites."
On Friday, the U.S. announced it is suspending funding to UNRWA due to an investigation into 12 employees suspected of involvement in the October 7 attacks in Israel by Hamas. It has since been joined by the United Kingdom, Australia, Finland, Italy, and Canada.
