[gerash]

I believe it's the other way around: The western governments, media and legislative bodies are under Israeli control.

Have you seen how the US Congress, half of which boos the US presidents along party lines, suddenly all rise up and fall in line when Netanyahu visits the Congress?

https://idsb.tmgrup.com.tr/ly/uploads/images/2024/07/28/thum...

Have you see the strange photos of all US politicians with yamakas near this wall in Israel as if they're pledging allegiance to something?

It's humiliating

[idle_zealot]

It is humiliating, but that makes no sense at all from a power dynamics perspective. Israel is just not that powerful, economically, militarily, or socially. The US's military industrial complex is, and basically every politician is beholden to powerful capital interests, the MIC among them. Unconditional and enthusiastic support of Israel, then, is a proxy for support of those financial interests, hence the visits, deference, etc. This backed up by the very real threat of a handful of powerful lobbying groups that will and have coordinated to redirect funding to opponents of anyone they deem insufficiently deferential.

[mattlutze]

Recall please Grover Norquist. In the 90s and 2000s he leveraged proximity with the post-Reagan new conservative wave to grow a relatively modest org, Americans for Tax Reform, to a near universal policy chokehold on the Republican party.

Through a socially viral "no net new tax" promise, once Norquist secured pledges from party leaders, essentially all federal elected Republicans had to pledge as well. They were otherwise threatened with losing endorsement from Norquist and faced being ostracized and primaried. The leaders themselves were then caught in the net and none felt like they could break.

ATR influence has waned in the face of MAGA's more populist fiscal liberalism, but that was pretty much just one guy.

Extend that singular goal to a network with a narrow and aligned interest, and it can be very effectively maintained with intelligent and shifting messaging and reputation management. Consider how people like Loomer and Raichik that have emerged, not through established power brokers, but organically through social media platforms, and the significant influence they possess even in the White House.

[Xss3]

Mossad is the missing link here.

They have power by being able to expose western leaders for any number of hypocrisies.

[HelloNurse]

Or more likely outright blackmail. The curious handling of the Epstein scandal comes to mind.

[etc-hosts]

A Tablet columnist recently wrote that suspecting a Jewish person of blackmailing is an anti-Semitic trope.

https://firstthings.com/the-epstein-myth/

[Xss3]

Far too many conflate critique of Israel with critique of Judaism.

[tguvot]

israel is #7 destination for weapons exports in usa with 3.6%

https://nordicdefencereview.com/u-s-tops-arms-trade-while-al...

[corimaith]

I see we are going full conspiracy theories in this thread...

[kelipso]

How can you say it’s a conspiracy theory when you see tons of verified news articles with all of these Western politicians so supplicant to Israel and Israeli politicians?

What’s surprising is that this not a bigger part of the conversation.

[quickthrowman]

Perhaps they have an understanding of the history of the region that goes further back than 2022, to truly understand this conflict you have to go back a couple hundred years.

If you read history and understand that Jews are persecuted and murdered in every country that is not Israel, what are they supposed to do?

Should we blame the Ottoman Empire for not industrializing earlier and losing the technology race to Europe and collapsing? After all, if the Ottoman Empire hadn’t collapsed at the end of WW I, Palestine would likely still be a Muslim territory.

That’s how far back you have to go to find a good starting point to explain how the conflict got to the point it’s at now.

[kelipso]

Every genocide has a justification that makes complete sense to the people carrying out or abetting the genocide.

[aa-jv]

> Israel is just not that powerful, economically, militarily, or socially.

Its not just funding and religious indoctrination. The very, very serious question that nobody seems to have the courage to ask, is this: where are Israels nukes?

The answer to that question might provide some insight into why things are so supplicant in certain halls of power ...

[boppo1]

Are you fsuggesting Israel has a nuclear sub off the east coast or something? Why would nukes in Israel influence washington?

[aa-jv]

Israels nukes are man-portable.