All Posts Tagged With: "Israel-Palestine"
Failing to Lead on Israel
There are a lot of political incentives for Israel to drop bombs on Palestinians and kill hundreds of them: there’s an Israeli election coming up in February, and Hamas has been firing rockets aimlessly into Israeli territory (killing nobody). There are also a lot of political incentives for Hamas to welcome this bombing: the more brutal Israel becomes, the more radicalized the Palestinian population becomes, and therefore the more supportive of Hamas.
An escalating conflict that kills hundreds (i.e., what’s been going on the past few days) would therefore be unsurprising. That’s obviously not in the best interests of the United States, nor is it in the best interests of the Israeli or Palestinian people. But because the political interests of the Israeli government and Hamas are, in this instance, at odds with the interests of their respective people, it’s unlikely that they will arrive at a peaceful solution. Unless, of course, some influential third party could put pressure on Israel and/or Hamas.
The United States has a great deal of influence over Israel. Israel is bombing Gaza and killing hundreds in a disproportionate response to rocket attacks that have killed nobody. The US could therefore probably prevent a lot of Gazans getting blown up if it told Israel to knock it off. Such a resolution would be in everybody’s best interests.
And yet we’re not doing that.
It’s obviously antisemitic to say this, but it’s almost as though an irrationally pro-Israel group of people – let’s call them a “lobby” – is exerting an undue amount of influence over American political leaders, preventing them from practicing responsible foreign policy.