"It is pretty obvious what Israel needs to do next. Israel is enjoying a tremendous amount of support from its allies. They are asking for restraint in Iran. Meanwhile, Hamas has made completely unreasonable demands and is retaking Gaza.
Here is the plan:
1) Act as if you are desperate to hit Iran with all your might, and it's a massive sacrifice not to do so.
2) Agree "reluctantly" not to do so in exchange for legitimacy to retake Khan Younis and take over Rafah.
3) Kill Sinwar and get out the hostages that you can.
4) Bring in the reinvigorated anti-Iranian coalition to build a new and reformed government in Gaza.
Whelp...they decided to just go with striking Iran, and sites in Syria and Iraq as well (confirmed by US).
Reports from the WSJ stated Saudi Arabia was offering normalization and a viable day-after plan of Arab states managing Palestine, solely for verbal assurances from Israel to restart talks on a 2-state solution. It'd be a massive win, but Netanyahu likely won't take it 'cause he has to maintain his coalition - and the far right just won't go for it.
Foreign aid to Israel, yes. To Taiwan and Ukraine, no. We are 33 trillion(on book) in debt, and probably over 200 trillion off book. We are effectively broke, and getting worse. What we need to do is elect Senators and Congresspersons who will start to make the hard decisions to get us out of debt,if it isn't too late already.
I think we’ll eventually get the Ukraine aid through, as it should be. MAGA frets about losing Afghanistan but is actively trying to sabotage Ukraine and risks Taiwan. Both are more important than Afghanistan.
The aid benefits the US directly btw. It is not a blank check and is mostly paid to American companies who hire American workers to build weapons to be used by Ukrainians, not Americans, in their war for freedom.
The aid also allows the US to modernize our own military and hand off older weapons and ammunition to Ukraine, where it is put to good use.
It is disturbing that so much of the Republican Party, once an anti-communist bulwark, has bought into the propaganda of a former KGB agent an his minions.
The debt is a problem but this is money well spent. I expect that if Trump wins. Republicans will quickly suspend their concerns about spending once again until there is another Democrat in office.
What is the propaganda that so many Republicans have bought into? And which nationally prominent Republicans are you speaking of? I am aware of very radical commenters on opinion sites who claim it's not our war - Ukraine and its leaders are corrupt, and that Ukraine is losing badly so we are wasting money supporting them. Some of that might be Russian propaganda or come from Russian bots. I see no indications that this is predominant Republican sentiment. I also see similar comments from what appear to be liberals.
In other words, those that will raise taxes. So not the GOP.
The thing about Ukraine aid is that the dollars are all just book value: it's really all just things that were already built and lying around, costing us money to store and dispose of. Send them every Bradley and F-16 and cluster munition we can: it'll actually save us money.
Better yet: ramp up our defense expenditures on 155mm artillery and send it over, which has the benefit of both spending dollars within the US AND preparing the US stockpiles for the future.
From Shaeil Ben-Ephraim at https://x.com/academic_la/status/1779962623997755733:
"It is pretty obvious what Israel needs to do next. Israel is enjoying a tremendous amount of support from its allies. They are asking for restraint in Iran. Meanwhile, Hamas has made completely unreasonable demands and is retaking Gaza.
Here is the plan:
1) Act as if you are desperate to hit Iran with all your might, and it's a massive sacrifice not to do so.
2) Agree "reluctantly" not to do so in exchange for legitimacy to retake Khan Younis and take over Rafah.
3) Kill Sinwar and get out the hostages that you can.
4) Bring in the reinvigorated anti-Iranian coalition to build a new and reformed government in Gaza.
5) Withdraw with new legitimacy and no Hamas.
6) Then hit Iran. Hard."
Whelp...they decided to just go with striking Iran, and sites in Syria and Iraq as well (confirmed by US).
Reports from the WSJ stated Saudi Arabia was offering normalization and a viable day-after plan of Arab states managing Palestine, solely for verbal assurances from Israel to restart talks on a 2-state solution. It'd be a massive win, but Netanyahu likely won't take it 'cause he has to maintain his coalition - and the far right just won't go for it.
Foreign aid to Israel, yes. To Taiwan and Ukraine, no. We are 33 trillion(on book) in debt, and probably over 200 trillion off book. We are effectively broke, and getting worse. What we need to do is elect Senators and Congresspersons who will start to make the hard decisions to get us out of debt,if it isn't too late already.
Why money for israel?
God said, " I will bless those who bless thee, and curse those who curse thee."
I think we’ll eventually get the Ukraine aid through, as it should be. MAGA frets about losing Afghanistan but is actively trying to sabotage Ukraine and risks Taiwan. Both are more important than Afghanistan.
The aid benefits the US directly btw. It is not a blank check and is mostly paid to American companies who hire American workers to build weapons to be used by Ukrainians, not Americans, in their war for freedom.
The aid also allows the US to modernize our own military and hand off older weapons and ammunition to Ukraine, where it is put to good use.
It is disturbing that so much of the Republican Party, once an anti-communist bulwark, has bought into the propaganda of a former KGB agent an his minions.
The debt is a problem but this is money well spent. I expect that if Trump wins. Republicans will quickly suspend their concerns about spending once again until there is another Democrat in office.
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/fact-sheet-us-assistance-ukraine
What is the propaganda that so many Republicans have bought into? And which nationally prominent Republicans are you speaking of? I am aware of very radical commenters on opinion sites who claim it's not our war - Ukraine and its leaders are corrupt, and that Ukraine is losing badly so we are wasting money supporting them. Some of that might be Russian propaganda or come from Russian bots. I see no indications that this is predominant Republican sentiment. I also see similar comments from what appear to be liberals.
In other words, those that will raise taxes. So not the GOP.
The thing about Ukraine aid is that the dollars are all just book value: it's really all just things that were already built and lying around, costing us money to store and dispose of. Send them every Bradley and F-16 and cluster munition we can: it'll actually save us money.
Better yet: ramp up our defense expenditures on 155mm artillery and send it over, which has the benefit of both spending dollars within the US AND preparing the US stockpiles for the future.