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Comment by noduerme | Hacker News Reader

The really scary part is that Q nuts like this are now running the Republican party, and they have no love for Israel. The second most egregious mistake Netanyahu made, after bowing to the settlers, was staking Israel's future on an alliance with the American right. Only the four people at Commentary Magazine believe there's still a non-crazy conservative movement in the US who wouldn't turn on Israel in a heartbeat... although they have a point that the progressives already have done so.

The penning of this article really closes the circle of right/left conspiracy theory. If there's one thing all conspiracy theorists can agree on, it's the Jews. I think that's what you're seeing that's disturbing.

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Israel also had amazing bipartisan support in America. It seems like Netanyahu purposefully made Israel a partisan issue in the US in order to accomplish some short term goals, which was probably very short sighted.

I've really noticed this. Right wing forums seem to have shifted significantly over the last year or 2 from the evangelical support of Israeli state, now increasingly to 'jews are the puppet master' type commentary. Also worryingly the general (and more to do with democrats) call to arms type commentary has been growing too. You like yo hope its a significant minority but it doesn't seem to get pushed down in the forums.

I really dont know how society can deal with this movement if it grows. I suspect the best way is access to quality education + plentiful & reasonably paid jobs when people enter the workforce at all levels. Not trying to be political but I feel this is one of many reasons why things like higher minimum wages are so important and a somewhat egalitarian society as I think much of the discontent ultimately comes from people not happy with their societal status.

Dude, the old guard Democrats love Israel. They have nothing to worry about, at all.

The old guard is … old. Their ability to hold onto electoral power is impressive (and annoying to me), but the actuarial tables are looming here.

Meanwhile the new guard views Israel as an apartheid state, which isn’t great for Israel.

> Meanwhile the new guard views Israel as an apartheid state, which isn’t great for Israel.

It’s great for everyone else though. As a US citizen, I’m tired of funding and being morally culpable for Israel’s terrorism and apartheid state. Thankfully as mentioned, the younger generations aren’t buying it anymore.

Edit: Since HN has decided to throttle my replies (why?). Yes I also oppose all US military adventurism and funding. We should be 100% focused on disassembling our nuclear arsenal and convincing others to do the same. This article is about Israel though, so our support of their crimes is the topic of my comment.

It is so weird to me that so many American citizens are more worried about the moral implications of the couple billion sent to Israel than the literally trillions spent on our own wars

I think you'll find that most people concerned about military aid to Israel are likewise not a huge fan of US wars either. It's just that this thread is about Israel, so of course that is the subject that is discussed.

I've read plenty of threads here talking about the US. Very few of them pivot into discussion about military spending. Certainly not 100x or 1000x the number about Israel that pivot into military aid

That has not been my experience. Frankly, I think it’s just that Israel is a more polarizing issue, so it gets more discussion. Reducing our military adventurism has a much broader base of support among non-elites.

The new guard is no different from the new guard of the 60’s they’ll either be squeezed out or conform.

Possible, but I don’t see a mechanism for that at this point in time. It’s not like these people hid their opinions of Israel under a bushel in order to get elected; a lot of the more vocal critics of Israel handily won re-election last year, often against vocally pro-Israel opponents. Their voters either agree, or do not view Israel as an issue sufficiently important to override other policy concerns and change their vote.

If something will force these candidates to conform or leave to a pro-Israel position, it’s not obvious how or why that would happen.

Not only the old guard. Pretty much anyone in power with very few exceptions. There is some merit to it though.

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