Joyce Park
In thinking about Gaza now, I've come to a few conclusions.
1) Most Americans don't seem to understand how FEW actual Palestinian Americans there are in this country -- only about 170k -- and they represent at least two separate waves of immigration. Quite a few are Christians whose families have been here since before 1967 -- Edward Said was among this group -- and many Palestinians have intermarried with other Arabs etc. The idea that American Arabs are going to stand as a single voting bloc
Misuse Case
@troutgirl @ohmu Because Netanyahu is hell bent on staying in power, which means feeding meat to this fascist constituency, he’s kept on doing what he’s doing even though it means a huge number of displaced Israelis, killing Israeli hostages, and devastating the country’s economy (I think it’s lost more than 20% of the GDP it had when all this started).
/2
Joyce Park
@MisuseCase @ohmu Agree not looking good. Israelis seem to have split into a weak peace movement and a strong atrocity movement. BUT I'm not part of their culture and can't, for instance, tell where the families of the kidnapped really fall besides wanting their loved ones back dead or alive.
Misuse Case
@troutgirl @ohmu The people who really want to kill all the Palestinians are basically hardcore religious nuts - and the core constituency of the current government. They are kind of like Christian Evangelicals here in America.
Although they are a minority they have spent the past couple decades (at least) getting their hands on every lever of power they can, and they’ll either turn the country into a fascist theocracy or burn it down in the attempt.
/1
Misuse Case
@troutgirl @ohmu Honestly relatively good outcomes like an actual two-state solution or some kind of one-state solution where the right-wingers don’t get to steer the car seem increasingly unlikely. Israel becoming another Middle East autocracy or totally collapsing, or ending up somewhere between those two options, is more likely. It’s not looking good.
Joyce Park
@MisuseCase @ohmu Not that at some level it's any of my business how they work it out. One of the reasons I've avoided this topic is that, having come from a country traumatically split by the Great Powers, I'm not eager to have an opinion about it for others. Also I'm VERY uncomfortable with religious motivations.
Joyce Park
@MisuseCase @ohmu Israel absolutely won't accept a single-state solution and if they did it would be based on a calculation that the WORST people in their society can outbreed the Palestinians so... Nope I'm not gonna support any of that.
Joyce Park
@MisuseCase @ohmu Oh because she supports a one-state solution :/
Misuse Case
@troutgirl @ohmu Well in fairness to her I think a two-state solution isn’t viable anymore, although that’s because Israel has been taking so much of the land that was supposed to be the Palestinian state that there’s not much left.
Also IMO it won’t protect Palestinians. Ending apartheid and. Fully enfranchising them is the only viable way forward but nobody on either side of the issue wants that LOL
Joyce Park
@MisuseCase @ohmu I heard that Rashida Tlaib, who would ordinarily be the Palestinian American spokesperson, refused to speak. There's no upside for her either!
Misuse Case
@ohmu @troutgirl Yeah there’s that too, and when people say they’re mad about the DNC not permitting Palestinian speakers, Harris not taking a stronger stance on the issue, etc. that’s a big part of why.
Joyce Park
the Palestinian side. Hamas had two leaders nominally speaking for Gaza, they assassinated one and the other is a fighter not a diplomat. A ceasefire, much less lasting peace, does not seem to me to be in the power of the POTUS to deliver at this time. I'd love to be wrong, but there you go.
Weird Socks
@troutgirl
I will admit I hadn't realized the China angle. I'm trying to imagine how that would work with the US still pushing billions in aid to Israel every year.
I have been assuming the Biden Administration is trying not to push AIPAC into more extensive political sabotage. Just last month, they flexed a little muscle and knocked out Cori Bush. I read that as a show of power.
Joyce Park
Luckily Russia's ability to make weapons seems to be at a low ebb, because that would be even worse. Realignment from US ally to Chinese would have VERY unpredictable consequences and is clearly the thing that Biden is trying to avoid.
3) The star of the current YC class is a startup that makes CHEAP CRUISE MISSILES. Instead of $3mm per missile, they will go for $300k each. In conjunction with the amount of warfighting that has already been converted to drone warfare, expensive US weapons may
Joyce Park
already be a pretty moot point. We sent a CARRIER GROUP to the Red Sea to fight Houthi rebels with drones! Look what the Ukrainians have accomplished with their drones. The world of weaponry is in a period of MASSIVE ferment right now, but the trend is definitely smaller and cheaper. Israel has a massive advantage in software, but obvs they still want to buy US technology.
4) It's genuinely less clear to me than ever who is negotiating -- who is even CAPABLE of negotiating -- a ceasefire from
Joyce Park
that can and should push Kamala Harris to stop the genocide seem pretty dubious to me. Interestingly enough, Chicagoland appears to have the largest single group of Palestinian Americans but I did not see them come out to protest in any numbers.
2) I see a lot of Gaza single-issue voters who seem to be more concerned with Israel not getting weapons FROM US than they really are about Israel not getting weapons. It is 100% certain to me that if we cut them off they will go to China.
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