Abandoning my support for Israel

I have long been an ardent supporter of Israel's right to defend itself. The Palestinians could have accepted the 1948 partition, as the Jews did, and lived ever since in peace, but instead they rejected the partition and vowed to destroy the state of Israel and "drive the Jews into the sea". Hence my lack of sympathy for the Palestinians.

But what Israel is doing in the Gaza Strip goes so far beyond any legitimate right of self-defense that I have to abandon my previous support. By inflicting unspeakable damage on innocent civilians it is creating more future terrorists than it is destroying. The idea that killing all Hamas supporters is the answer makes no sense. You cannot destory an ideology by killing its advocates.

Israel's claim that it is taking every precaution to avoid killing innocent civiians has been exposed as a complete joke by the fact that they killed three of the hostages that they were supposedly trying to free, killing them even though those hostages were shirtless, with their hands up and waiving a white flag of surrentder, and calling out in Hebrew.

The United States becomes increaingly isolatd in world opinion the more it supports the Israeli genocide againt the Palestinian people. Since 1954 the U.S. has vetoed 34 resolutions in the UN Security Council concerning Israel. Our arrogance in ignoring world opinion is disgusting.

President Biden's continuing support of Israel in the face of Israel's war crimes is wrongheaded and will cost him in next year's election, espoecially among young Democratic voters, many of whom will simply stay home home on election day. Biden should do more than lobby Israel in private, as he is doing now. He should announce publicly that the U.S. will no longer support the Israeli war crimes.

Trump will stress in next year's election that two wars have arisen under Biden, while there was no war during his presidency. While this is a superficial statement, it is true information. and most voters cast their vote based on superficiality (like the current gas prices). Biden botched Ukraine support in the opposite direction, denying Ukraine any weapons that might possibly be used inside Russia. In both instances Biden has been guilty of timidity. And then there is the withdrawal from Afghanistan, which many think Biden botched, and the problems at our southern border.

Trump has a solid example of his exercise of restraint. When an American was killed somewhere in Europe, the military wanted to do a strike in response. Trump asked what the civilian casualties would be, and the answer came back "about 150". With ten minutes to go before the mission was to start, Trump vetoed it, saying the response wasn't "proportionate". I haven't seen a better example of a U.S. president implementing the principle of proportionality to veto a military mission.

Those, like Trump, who are troubled by the U.S. interference in the affairs of other countries are on the right side of history. There is no reason for the U.S. to have a military presence in over 150 countries, 3/4 of all the countries of the world. There is no reason for the U.S. to have a "defense" budget as large as the next ten countries combined. When are we going to come to our senses? And when is Israel going to come to its senses? The only people benefiting from this madness are the arms manufacturers.