Ex-president says decision threatens to worsen humanitarian crisis, undermine peace effort and erode global support for Israel
Some of Israel’s decisions in its war against Hamas – including cutting off food and water for Gaza – could “harden Palestinian attitudes for generations” and weaken international support for Israel, Barack Obama said on Monday.
In rare comments on an active foreign policy crisis, the ex-US president said any Israeli military strategy that ignores the human costs of the war “could ultimately backfire”.
“The Israeli government’s decision to cut off food, water and electricity to a captive civilian population [in Gaza] threatens not only to worsen a growing humanitarian crisis – it could further harden Palestinian attitudes for generations, erode global support for Israel, play into the hands of Israel’s enemies, and undermine long-term efforts to achieve peace and stability in the region,” said Obama.
I mean, I do understand him saying: “don’t cut off water and power to over a million civilians, because it will be counterproductive in the long term”.
But what he should really be saying is “don’t cut off water and power to over a million civilians because that’s fucking evil”.
How did we get to this position where no leaders of the West will stand up and call this out for what it is?
I understand it’s a complex situation, but treating an entire people like they’re subhuman is morally unacceptable. And I can’t fucking believe that the sodding Israelis - of all people - don’t know this.
“Evil” is incredibly subjective and doesn’t convince people well enough. Next time you’re in an argument with someone, call them evil and see how quickly you’ve convinced them.
I saw an interview a while back where Obama said he makes these exact types of statements because if you want other countries to do things you perceive as “good” it’s more effective to convince them that it’s beneficial for them.
You’re probably right, but take a step back for a moment and think about how psychotic it is that “starving civilians is evil” is considered an unconvincing argument?
As soon as you have to explain why starving civilians is evil, or how not starving civilians will be a more beneficial, profitable, or productive outcome for the non-starved, you’re already living in a dystopian hellhole that doesn’t deserve to exist.
Denouncing Israel would be bad for business. And money rules.
That a d it would circle back to the fact the only reason Israel exists in its present form is due to the US militarily propping it up, so it’s a problem the US has ensured continues with its policy decisions, and the equipment killing civilians in the west bank right now are us funded.
This clip of Biden tells you everything about why America supports Israel.
Take a victory lap, you are on fire lately.
Thanks. Would you be my friend on MySpace? :)
I’m not on Myspace, had a falling out with Tom. I did track down your LiveJournal though, so I’ll add you on the ol’ LJ, as the kids say.
Can I add you on friendster?
elftown anyone?
“I use Elftown because it’s green.” / [SirWaka]
Also, in this case, some mostly unreasonable people in this country would love to yell “B-B-B-BLACK MAN IS ANTISEMITIC!”
And possibly more than a few supposedly more reasonable people would find themselves voting for Jill Stein again over it.
How is it bad for business?
Appeasement is a tactic used by the west in the hopes that authoritarian genocidal cunts will just stop doing what they are doing. It has always worked.
You dropped your ‘/s’
It has
alwaysnever worked.I try to help
You see why calling someone evil before asking them to do something might not elicit the desired effect, right?
People are generally more receptive to arguments that benefit them than arguments that don’t, unfortunately. Governments… doubly so.
Is this antisemitism? 🤔👉🦋
Excellent work; I’m gonna have to add this to my emoji meme collection (which up until now has consisted entirely of one meme)
“wait, it’s all projection?”
“Always has been”
🌎 👨🚀 🔫 👩🚀
Man, idk, I like this meme too but if everybody involved knows the meme, I think the open hand plays better. Good one, though… I’m going to use: Is this _____ ? 🤔🫴🏻🦋
Yeah it’s definitely improvable, what with the glasses and the book… Perfection demands mucho toil as they say… probably somewhere
🤓📕🫴🦋
👨🏫🫴🦋
Ooo, I like the first one even better, thanks
The US led Coalition procedures for a siege are more or less what Israel is doing. (if you want to read about Fallujah the US military procedure includes firing white phosphorus at tunnel entrances to smoke out the people in the tunnel by consuming all the oxygen. Even Israel thinks that’s fucked up to do and restricts White Phosphorus to its legal usage as range finding for artilery during the current Gazan war.)
There are US military advisors OKing the plans and have been for a while.
Fact of the matter is urban sieges fucking suck and the govs of the world all undertake them in what the UN labels as fucked up. Ukraine blew up a major energy pipeline for the rest of Europe causing a lot of people to struggle to pay their bills to keep their homes warm in winter.
Even critical leaders like Macron flipped their tune and are now pushing for an international coalition. The context that Israel was always on the hook for Gaza’s Water and Power situation before thousands of bombs started falling on the area is important. The Israeli water and power workers can and have striked when asked to go into Gaza to fix their power lines after Gazan rockets blew them up (high failure rate remember). There is a very real “hostages thing” amongst the tribes and people native to the region, such that even the Unions will continue to strike while there are hostages even after the IDF has agreed to a ceasefire. The water situation was exacerbated by Hamas and associated groups digging up pipes to turn into rockets.
Hamas posted hype videos of them turning humanitarian aid pipes into rockets. https://youtu.be/MvvqBcA-9yA?si=EUH85MQeaR8IQkbt
Concerns about fuel were confirmed when Hamas stole an estimated 6 days worth of running the Gazan water system from the UN.
How did we get to this position where no leaders of the West will stand up
Colonialism. That’s how. You know… that thing “western civilization” cannot exist without?
Evil is unfortunately a word and concept that a lot of people don’t like being brought up today.
Capitalism (and the military by proxy that protects it) is like a big ship. You can make small adjustments easier (like drone strikes and invasions) than bigger adjustments like long-term planning and developing nations. Obama understands that a ground invasion in the short term benefits the interests of capital (defense contractors). But he also understands that lasting peace takes long term planning. He is trying to thread the needle, like he always has, between short-term profits and long-term development. He still hasn’t learned that capitalism doesn’t allow long-term thinking. This has always been his shortcoming.
CEOs frogs are turning a blind eye to the world coming to a boiling point because shareholding frogs want to profit a little more.
It’s not that complex… Israel is a fucking apartheid state and seems a little too eager for the excuse to cut off basic necessities
Since when do we have anyone worth calling a leader around here?
Bernie would have made a great leader. I mean, he wouldn’t have been able to get anything done, but he would have swayed public opinion in the right direction, and that counts for a lot.
That’s fair.
He already has, then
