mariacallous
I think it’s kind of insane to think that blocking defensive aid like Iron Dome would mean that Israel would be *less incentivized* to engage in military offenses, or be more restrained in what it does.
inlowearthorbit
It's born of a severe lack of understanding of what motivates Israel and Israelis.
imyourbadjew
They really do believe that if not for the iron dome and bomb shelters Israel would just steamroll all over the Middle East and create the grand judean empire…
The only thing that will happen is that more innocents will die and Israel will be incentivised to more aggressively eliminate threats. The iron dome is what allows it to have MORE restraint.
But I guess it’s too much to ask AOC to actually understand geopolitics.
chutzpahchesed
thequeeranachronism
I left this as a comment but I wanted to add on. Without the Iron Dome Israel would need to be more aggressive not less. Israel would need to take out the governments trying to bomb them into oblivion. The Iron Dome allows them to be more moderate not less.
I keep thinking about this quote from the Politico article:
that's fine, I even agree, but it's not what's being done.
for example:
Israel is not being treated like other countries, and not being held to a standard set for other nations, including for the United States itself. instead, it's being held to a much higher, much more exacting and demanding one, and the threats against it are minimized or legitimized as Israel itself becomes seen as a global pariah.
I don't absolve or excuse Netanyahu and his right wing government for their actions and contributions to that, but the problem is...even if he were a dovish prime minister, in the aftermath of 10/7, I believe what we've seen happen in the world would still be the response, no matter what Israel did. we saw this in the reactions beginning on 10/8. because it's not about Bibi, it's far more existential than that. if it weren't, these politicians would support defense apparatus (the Iron Dome isn't even a weapon, it's a shield. it just stops more civilians from being killed), and they wouldn't align themselves with virulent antisemites or support an isolationist's bill that would even negatively impact aid for the people they pretend to care about. the dignity and safety of Palestinians is not their driving motivation.
the symbolism here to appease the loudest of their constituents is not really about curtailing weapons or moral standards or a response to conduct in war or affordability (which foreign aid doesn't impact domestically at all) or whatever else they're pretending it is. they don't simply want Israel to "live up to standards" set for other countries, the problem they have is with Israel's existence.
