"For months, Netanyahu and his government have consistently ignored American counsel as to how to prosecute the war in Gaza against Hamas after the Oct. 7 terror attacks. Biden and his aides were repeatedly frustrated by Israel’s widening war aims within Gaza — with a devastating impact on Palestinian civilians — even at the cost of a deal to free the remaining hostages.

Biden deemed Israel’s response “over the top” and did stop one shipment of American arms to Israel. But even as pressure grew from fellow Democrats to create distance from Netanyahu, Biden’s reflexive instinct was to support Israel despite the swelling humanitarian crisis. As his influence over Netanyahu shrunk, the president’s anger grew. Phone calls between the two men were increasingly turned into shouting matches, according to one of the officials and one other senior official not authorized to discuss private conversations. Biden told confidants that he did not believe his Israeli counterpart wanted a cease-fire deal, arguing that Netanyahu was trying to perpetuate the conflict to save his political future and assist Trump in November’s election, the officials said."

    • Randomgal
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      4 hours ago

      But he made an angry phone call! What else can you expect from one of the most powerful officers in the world?

  • cabbage@piefed.social
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    9 hours ago

    Initially I was convinced Biden had the right intentions, and somehow I still like to believe he does. But his political weakness in this conflict is inexcusable, and will hang as a dark cloud over his legacy.

  • Sundial@lemm.ee
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    6 hours ago

    Phone calls between the two men were increasingly turned into shouting matches, according to one of the officials and one other senior official not authorized to discuss private conversations. Biden told confidants that he did not believe his Israeli counterpart wanted a cease-fire deal, arguing that Netanyahu was trying to perpetuate the conflict to save his political future and assist Trump in November’s election, the officials said."

    Assuming that this is true and the fact that Biden did absolutely nothing to stop this just goes to show you how weak of a man he is. He’s president of the richest country and commander in chief to the most powerful military in human history. If all it takes is political influence from one little colony halfway around the world to lose control of a situation when you can literally play the deck in your favor then you’re not a strong leader. You’re just spineless.

  • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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    11 hours ago

    He’s tried (almost) nothing and he’s all out of ideas. He’s most definitely not even tested the limits of his influence over Israel. He just doesn’t want that influence to involve anything more serious than “c’mon bucko!”.

    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      Yeah, Imagine how different Israeli aggression would be if the flow of American Money and Weapons stopped.

      But he doesnt want to do that, because Israel holds some weird fucking power over America.

      • IsThisAnAI@lemmy.world
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        7 hours ago

        Not like they have bilateral signed and legally binding defense pacts or anything.

        I’m not saying the US shouldn’t be twisting those levels levers and at least warning of decreased investment (which I believe is probably going on now for a few months privately) but immediately breaking ties, probably illegally breaking a defense treaty, and creating an immediate and huge power vacuum doesn’t seem like it’s going to save any more lives. I’d guess it would embolden Iran and full on war rather than this intensifying skirmishes would be happening.

        You don’t turn around 75 years of investment on a dime.

        I personally think there needs to be stabilization and the US/NATO work on improving relations with iran using divestment with Israel as the carrot over the next 10 years. Work to re-establish the nuclear deal and start to pull money from Israel over time.

        • archomrade [he/him]@midwest.social
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          7 hours ago

          Not like they have bilateral signed and legally binding defense pacts or anything.

          It’s not like the US has laws banning the delivery of weapons to states that are guilty of breaking humanitarian law, either

            • archomrade [he/him]@midwest.social
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              5 hours ago

              It’s actually extremely uncomplicated in this case. That’s why they had to present counterfactual evidence to congress to evade the explicit restrictions spelled out by the law.

              I swear there was actually a name for that… pur… purge… perjury? Is it perjury? Wow i’m having some wild dejavu, has this happened before?

        • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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          7 hours ago

          Yeah, you’re right.

          It’d totally be uncouth to step in and do anything to prevent the slaughter of tens of thousands, if not more, innocent civilians.

          We should really drag it out and make no substantive efforts until Israel’s genocide is complete, Then we can “punish” them by giving them all the land they’ve cleansed.

            • archomrade [he/him]@midwest.social
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              5 hours ago

              More Palestinians will also die if Iran and Israel don’t go to full scale war, especially if the western world keeps shrugging their shoulders as Israel keeps expanding the conflict unilaterally.

              • IsThisAnAI@lemmy.world
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                4 hours ago

                I don’t think that’s true in a full scale war. I think it is likely they cease to exist. I feel for them. I do not think immediately and rapidly pulling out will reduce civilian death.

                • archomrade [he/him]@midwest.social
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                  4 hours ago

                  Israel has already destroyed more than 60% of Gaza and has not shown any signs of stopping. If nothing is done to stop Israeli aggression Gaza will cease to exist anyway.

                  A full scale war with Iran would be catastrophic for everyone in the region, no question - but portraying it as somehow worse for Palestine specifically is adjacent to denying/understating the genocide they are already enduring under Israeli occupation.

  • Diplomjodler@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    It would take Biden exactly I’ve phonecall to rein in Netanyahu. Israel cannot exist without US military aid and everybody knows that.

    • Diplomjodler@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      Politico is left center? OK. Right. Sure buddy. Gotcha. This idiotic bot is just an embarrassment.

      • nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        19 minutes ago

        Someone somewhere is making money from it, otherwise they’d take it down after everyone told them it’s trash. Enshitification knows no other reason.

        • Diplomjodler@lemmy.world
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          Anything that is not a foaming at the mouth, goose stepping Nazi propaganda is considered left wing in present day US political discourse. Which is of course entirely not accidental and Ground News is very much part of the program.