Congressional staff say the mood inside the Capitol is tense, stifling and bewildering as members brush off their constituents’ outrage.
On the one hand, congressmen know that if they don’t back Israel unconditionally, they will be accused of being antisemitic, in league with Nazis.
On the other hand, Israel routinely violates human rights, it conducts an apartheid regime in the West Bank, it sponsors settlers whose actions clearly violate international law, and its conduct in Gaza looks more like genocide than it doesn’t. And it does all of that with US backing, despite US law forbidding the US from giving military aid to countries that …violate human rights.
So, if you recognize any of that, you’re a Nazi?
It’s so frustrating to know that our elected leaders are made to not recognize actual human rights violations, for fear of being accused of antisemitism even though Israel’s government is not the same thing as the Jewish people.
My social media is full of Jews pointing out that Israel’s actions goes against their faith, that they experience pain and shame knowing that Israel claims to do them in the name of Judaism.
Just once I wish American congresspeople had it in them to exhibit anything like moral courage.
Didn’t Biden already call for a cease-fire not long ago? The best he could do is pulling funding at this stage, putting boots on the ground would be an attack on the spiritual holy land of a variety of religious fanatics and against Zionist beliefs that gentiles should know their place, unless of course Ben himself called on Biden for some imaginary reason 🤔
No. He called for a pause, and that’s what we got. Now there’s a short pause every day while they reload.
Why don’t they just let the average uninformed and outraged voter set international policy, or answer the phone and calmly explain to them why they’re wrong and go over the realpolitik intricacies of this conflict?
If discussing this matter on Lemmy has taught me anything. It’s that some people are outraged, partisan, and cannot be reasoned with. It’s no wonder they’re letting it go to voicemail.
difference they’re not on lemmy; they’re people to volunteered to work in a position where they have to deal with this behavior.
Yeah, what are you supposed to do when someone yells down the phone ‘i saw a meme and now I’m basically an expert on this so you have to do what I say or you’re evil!’ or ‘the joooos control the world bank and eat babies, we should be helping kill them!’
It’s a painfully complex situation with no clear solution and a lot of hard choices, pretending you have some clairvoyant power or simple answer just means you don’t even begin to understand the situation.
I’m pretty sure Israel is calling in all the favors for supporting our gallavant through the Middle East in the name of revenge.
Oh they answer those calls, though.
So that’s after they stole nukes, attacked our warship, and interfered in our elections.
Is it because the Biden admin already got Israel to agree to daily humanitarian pauses?
A fig leaf
We now have predator drones there as well. Our military is monitoring the situation and providing strategy research.
I believe the bombing damage has been done. Its leveled. Now its important to force the IDF to focus on Hamas rather than genocide, and that’s a decent pivot.
Just one more little reminder that American democracy is an illusion and the choice that most of us get is as meaningful as “coke vs Pepsi”.
Who are you supposed to vote for if you are against sponsoring genocide?
The Democrats think that supporting genocide will still leave them with enough daylight between them and the actual fascists of the GOP, but it isn’t going to make people run to the polls on election night and Americans deserve an actual choice.
Congressional staff say the mood inside the Capitol is tense, stifling and bewildering as members brush off their constituents’ outrage.
Why would this be any different than every other issue about which they’re ignoring their constituents?
Politicians have armies of statistics and pollsters to study people’s opinions and feedback.
They carefully choose a demographic groups they choose to appeal to, and they pick issues that will allow them to capture enough people who will begrudgingly support them as possible.
They don’t need the 1500th phone call saying the exact same thing as the last 1400 to understand who they’re representing and what their opinions are.
There are times contacting your representative in this way is important. When your road is fucked up or your local company is doing something they shouldn’t and nobody in the media or on the internet is talking about it.
Or sending a letter, answering a poll, so that their data people can sit and count them to figure out what they need to do in the next election cycle.
There are times contacting your representative in this way is important. When your road is fucked up or your local company is doing something they shouldn’t and nobody in the media or on the internet is talking about it.
But not literal genocide?
The representative is very well aware of what’s going on in Israel and is very aware of the protests and the opinions people have about it. You’re not informing them, and you’re not actually contributing anything by spamming them with phone calls about it.
And if you want to see literal genocide, let the Palestinians rule “from the river to the sea”. What they do to the Jews will make isis look like children in terms of their cruelty.
let the Palestinians rule “from the river to the sea”.
Palestinian /= Hamas.
let the Palestinians rule “from the river to the sea”.
Palestinian /= Hamas.
Unfortunately that sentiment is not unique to Hamas.
According to polling, the majority of Palestinians want to:- Destroy Israel, which is what, “from the river to the sea,” means (70%)
- Deny Jews equal rights in their one-state solution (76%)
- Continue violent resistance, reject peaceful solutions (52%)
- Employ guerilla/terrorist strategies to do so (58%)
So that justifies genocide? Because just over half have been terrorized enough to not be willing to forgive?
So that justifies genocide? Because just over half have been terrorized enough to not be willing to forgive?
Well, advocating for actual explicit genocide and oppression certainly makes one’s cause seem less noble. I was pointing out that Hamas aren’t the only ones who want Palestine, “from the river to the sea.” It’s a popular Palestinian sentiment. Perhaps that’s related to why calls for cease fire are going to voice mail.
One can make a case that Israel is also performing a genocide, but they themselves deny that it is. I think it’s more accurate to say that Israel is under attack by and defending itself from a belligerent monoethnic nation. It’s a big stretch to claim that this makes defense against it genocide. If wiping out Arabs were their motivation and not pacifying a belligerent nation they would be behaving very differently. 20% of Israeli citizens are Arab with full rights, after all.
You know how many people actually complained about Janet Jackson’s boob reveal at the Superbowl?
25
It’s just that they each called 1,000 times.
I don’t understand why it’s not considered harassment of an elected official when they are doing that.
Calling a few times, sure no big deal, but a thousand times for each person? That’s fully in the territory of harassment and abuse.
You shouldn’t be rewarded for that behavior by fucking giving in to it.
Especially when rewarding them is saying “Okay, because you harassed us so much we’ve decided your opinion matters and we’ll actually do something about this issue.”
Before they figured out what went on they did reward them. The FCC fined the broadcasters millions of dollars.
Point is that phone calls aren’t a good Guage of public opinion. Non form letter e-mails or letters are much better.
