rag_wlk's comments

On: Pentagon raised threat of Israeli spying on U.S. to highest level, sources say

[rag_wlk]

One reason is that blaming Israel for the Iran FUBAR situation is very convenient, especially for keeping MAGA on board.

The right wing pundits are already working overtime on X and elsewhere to blame Israel and concoct all sorts of explanations why Trump authorized the strike (the most amusing is that he "was possessed by demons").

Blaming Israel may have been coordinated with Netanyahu, who has nothing to lose and is probably perfectly fine with the blame as long as he gets his war and parts of Lebanon.

Blaming Israel has many historic precedents from Clinton to Trump, often through planted leaks or deliberate hot mics.

[krona → rag_wlk]

> One reason is that blaming Israel for the Iran FUBAR situation is very convenient, especially for keeping MAGA on board.

Polling shows support for Israel is far greater among Trump loyalist voters than non-loyalist Republicans, so this is surely false.

Perhaps you're confusing "MAGA" with actual American nationalists, who are statistically irrelevant.

[1209457 → krona]

Support for Israel is present in the entire establishment, Democrat or Republican. Whenever Israel goes too far, a president suddenly leaks Netanyahu criticism like Biden on the hot mic where he said that he'd tell Netanyahu to have a "come to Jesus" moment or Trump leaking that he shouted at Netanyahu during a phone call.

This admin is special in that it blames proxies for wars that it started or provoked. Biden owned the Ukraine war, Trump blames the EU for wanting to continue the Ukraine war while Anduril and Eric Schmidt (https://www.techradar.com/pro/ex-google-ceo-is-key-to-ukrain...) are selling and testing their new drone tech.

In the case of Israel, you can say that there is direct influence from Kushner, Witkoff and Mark Levin. We'll see if Congress and Senate will get a 2/3rd majority to stop the war agaist a potential Trump veto. I don't think so. Until they do, I consider all resolutions with a simple majority to be theater for the midterm elections.

[ceejayoz → krona]

The reason for the support matters.

A lot of them think support for Israel leads to the apocalypse and Jesus’s return. It doesn’t end well for the Jews in that story.

[ryandrake → ceejayoz]

Among USA evangelicals, support for Israel (and specifically the country’s belligerence) has notably little to do with Judaism itself or the Jewish people.

[parineum → ceejayoz]

Now you're confusing maga with evangelicals which are very different parts of the party. Evangelicals have largely lost influence in a post Roe world.

Trump had to cater to them in his first term but, since he's taken over the party, they're in the backseat.

[ryandrake → parineum]

Evangelicals themselves recently brought us into this “post Roe world!” Their influence appears to be at its highest level ever.