• PugJesus@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    And it was a west-leaning country in a region full of oil and big trade routes.

    Other way around - their loyalties weren’t firmly lodged with either of the superpowers, so the US in the 70s and 80s put a lot of time and effort into wooing them.

    Their loyalties still aren’t lodged with anyone, but we keep sucking them off anyway.

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
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      5 months ago

      Their loyalties still aren’t lodged with anyone, but we keep sucking them off anyway.

      Well, I shit at Israel every day, but they would be nuts to “lodge their loyalties” when that means loss of such leverage.

      • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Contrary to the delusions of realpolitik types, international relations are a matter of relations, not purely moment-to-moment vulture capitalist behavior. Israel is coasting on internal factors within the US government at present - the lack of actual mutual loyalty means that, should those internal factors (Israeli dark money and the political influence of evangelical millenarians) ever weaken, the institutions of the US will see little reason not to throw Israel to the wolves.

        • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
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          5 months ago

          Israeli dark money

          … is something important enough to kill a 100 JFKs for.

          It’s a state sporting F35s and such.

          and the political influence of evangelical millenarians

          Can’t speak about them, I don’t live in the US and the fact of such a group existing is wild for me.

          • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            … is something important enough to kill a 100 JFKs for.

            To the Israelis, maybe. To Americans, Israeli money has become a polarizing issue over the past decade.

            It’s a state sporting F35s and such.

            Man, plenty of US allies are involved in the F-35 program and the US doesn’t bend over backwards for them. It’s really not that important in the grand scheme of US-Israeli relations.