Tim Miller continues to produce fantastic podcasts. Thank you for the hard work you put into this, Tim. re: Walsh's "problem" with Biden publicly showing daylight b/w US and Israel. From 2020-2022, the Ethiopian government was at war with one of its ethnic groups. A region in the north, Tigray, was the center of the resistance to the ET …
Tim Miller continues to produce fantastic podcasts. Thank you for the hard work you put into this, Tim. re: Walsh's "problem" with Biden publicly showing daylight b/w US and Israel. From 2020-2022, the Ethiopian government was at war with one of its ethnic groups. A region in the north, Tigray, was the center of the resistance to the ET government. The ET government blocked humanitarian aid to that region in a variety of nefarious ways (blocking roads, attacking aid workers, etc) and as a result somewhere between 380,000 and 500,000 Tigrayans died from JUST famine. The US supported the ET government during the civil war. The US provides ET with significant amounts of aid. ET is considered one of the more stable and economically prosperous countries in east africa and is also one of the few predominantly christian countries in africa. Nonetheless, Blinken publicly criticized the ET government for blocking humanitarian aid and for randomly rounding up of Tigrayans living in other regions of ET and detaining them in camps without justification. The US also threatened to remove favored nation status and cut aid to ET. I did not hear ANYONE complain that the US was out of line for doing this (even though war crimes were reportedly committed by both sides of the conflict). If anything, it was criticized for not doing more. Granted, most people weren't paying any attention and still don't even know about this civil war, but why is it verboten for the US to criticize Israel in the same way that the US criticized the ET government??
Yep. It’s because Israel has been a cultural issue. I hate talking about it. I hate that bulwark covers it all the time (no fault of bulwark it’s in the news) because it’s like talking about religion. No one can be swayed.
The bulwark’s approach on Israel has been problematic from the beginning of this conflict- with the possible exception of Tim and Will. The similarity between the actions of PM Abiy and Netanyahu is uncanny - even the language used against their enemies (“vermin” “animals” etc). And Abiy blocked humanitarian aid under the same justification that Israel is using - it will be used by and support the TPLA. The only distinction is that while the Tigrayan government was oppressive and brutal during its reign, the (apparent) goal of Tigrayan separatists was to cede from ET and not to destroy ET (although the TPLA did invade Amara, the adjacent region). (You could say that another distinction is that Abiy was committing human rights violations against his own people, but then the question arises - if Gaza is an entirely separate country, why does Israel have the ability to cut off food and water?) The US told Abiy that the bad acts of the TPLA (and the prior Tigrayan regime - which really was unjust) do not justify human rights violations against the Tigrayan people (who generally supported the TPLA). And the US was right. So why isn’t the US right when it says the same thing to Israel? It’s absurd.
Oh well that’s obvious…because they are our friends and our interests (waves hands wildly) are in a prosperous Israel. It doesn’t make it right but it’s why we do it. It’s the same reason we don’t really criticize India anymore. Need them more in a china contingency than care about human rights. That has always been how government has and will act (I’m not condoning this just describing).
Israel is worse because they play such a heavy roll in our politics. That’s what makes it such a shitty issue.
It is EXACTLY like talking about religion, since 99.99% of Americans' support for Israel is because they believe that Israel is "God's chosen people." Funny, it wasn't until I let go of that particular presumption that I was able to see the atrociousness of razing Palestinian homes and neighborhoods and cutting off Palestinians' access to water. Religion has a tendency to be quite astigmatic. (I pulled that 99.99% out of my arse, so don't go asking for data!)
Tim Miller continues to produce fantastic podcasts. Thank you for the hard work you put into this, Tim. re: Walsh's "problem" with Biden publicly showing daylight b/w US and Israel. From 2020-2022, the Ethiopian government was at war with one of its ethnic groups. A region in the north, Tigray, was the center of the resistance to the ET government. The ET government blocked humanitarian aid to that region in a variety of nefarious ways (blocking roads, attacking aid workers, etc) and as a result somewhere between 380,000 and 500,000 Tigrayans died from JUST famine. The US supported the ET government during the civil war. The US provides ET with significant amounts of aid. ET is considered one of the more stable and economically prosperous countries in east africa and is also one of the few predominantly christian countries in africa. Nonetheless, Blinken publicly criticized the ET government for blocking humanitarian aid and for randomly rounding up of Tigrayans living in other regions of ET and detaining them in camps without justification. The US also threatened to remove favored nation status and cut aid to ET. I did not hear ANYONE complain that the US was out of line for doing this (even though war crimes were reportedly committed by both sides of the conflict). If anything, it was criticized for not doing more. Granted, most people weren't paying any attention and still don't even know about this civil war, but why is it verboten for the US to criticize Israel in the same way that the US criticized the ET government??
Yep. It’s because Israel has been a cultural issue. I hate talking about it. I hate that bulwark covers it all the time (no fault of bulwark it’s in the news) because it’s like talking about religion. No one can be swayed.
The bulwark’s approach on Israel has been problematic from the beginning of this conflict- with the possible exception of Tim and Will. The similarity between the actions of PM Abiy and Netanyahu is uncanny - even the language used against their enemies (“vermin” “animals” etc). And Abiy blocked humanitarian aid under the same justification that Israel is using - it will be used by and support the TPLA. The only distinction is that while the Tigrayan government was oppressive and brutal during its reign, the (apparent) goal of Tigrayan separatists was to cede from ET and not to destroy ET (although the TPLA did invade Amara, the adjacent region). (You could say that another distinction is that Abiy was committing human rights violations against his own people, but then the question arises - if Gaza is an entirely separate country, why does Israel have the ability to cut off food and water?) The US told Abiy that the bad acts of the TPLA (and the prior Tigrayan regime - which really was unjust) do not justify human rights violations against the Tigrayan people (who generally supported the TPLA). And the US was right. So why isn’t the US right when it says the same thing to Israel? It’s absurd.
Oh well that’s obvious…because they are our friends and our interests (waves hands wildly) are in a prosperous Israel. It doesn’t make it right but it’s why we do it. It’s the same reason we don’t really criticize India anymore. Need them more in a china contingency than care about human rights. That has always been how government has and will act (I’m not condoning this just describing).
Israel is worse because they play such a heavy roll in our politics. That’s what makes it such a shitty issue.
It is EXACTLY like talking about religion, since 99.99% of Americans' support for Israel is because they believe that Israel is "God's chosen people." Funny, it wasn't until I let go of that particular presumption that I was able to see the atrociousness of razing Palestinian homes and neighborhoods and cutting off Palestinians' access to water. Religion has a tendency to be quite astigmatic. (I pulled that 99.99% out of my arse, so don't go asking for data!)
I get you. It sucks. People talk about Israel on here and it’s like the worst discussion. It just feels like people yelling at each other