12-31-2016, 11:21 AM
(12-31-2016, 02:14 AM)Eric the Green Wrote:(12-30-2016, 03:22 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: Hostage to Israel? Israel has its own Left-Right divide in culture and politics.
The Left wing is practically nowhere to be seen there. Netanyahu has curtailed democracy there. He is unrestrained in his plans to take over the West Bank and settle it with religious, right-wing Jews. We the USA cannot seem to let loose of our obsession to support Israel. Obama can't even abstain on a motion without it being seen as anti-Israel. I would rather that Israel survive and prosper in peace, but I would also rather not be supporting a state which oppresses its neighbor and arouses hatred of America as the supporter of Israel.
I could see today's Israel as a few steps ahead of where Trump wants to take the USA. That's why Trump is Netanyahu's guy, as fully as he is Putin's. All 3 are tyrants. I don't agree with supporting tyrants.
Authoritarians like Putin, Trump, and Netanyahu are able to exploit 52-48 splits in the populace when things are somewhat stable. Then comes the rot. Close off government service to the 48, and you can starve the opposition and compel it to acquiesce in its own oppression and subjection. It's been done. That's how Jim Crow worked in the South.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.