He signed an executive order on Thursday, saying violence had reached “intolerable levels”.
The sanctions will block the individuals from accessing all US property and other assets.
Violence in the West Bank has spiked since Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel.
I suppose better than nothing but ‘better than nothing’ is a low fuckin bar for intervention in ongoing genocide. Unless there’s reprecussions on the state of Israel, who condones and empowers settelers, this seems like sanctioning the Houthis while simultaneously arming Iran.
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It’s a start.
It has been political suicide in the past to criticize Isreal. They are also an incredibly important strategic ally in the region, both militarily and commerce.
This move shows that the US is potentially willing to move away from unconditional support, which could be devastating to Isreal.
So, while the actual scope of the sanctions themselves is unimpressive, the meaning behind it is significant.
Sure, you’re not wrong, but I’m really really tired of getting ‘it’s a start’ action on issues like this and the irreversible change of the climate. There’s a very real timer ticking on both these issues if nothing changes and based on history I’m really skeptical were getting anything but another ‘its a start’ on some other small facet of this issue, ad nauseam until it’s not an election year.
Skepticism is always healthy, but try not to wade too far into cynicism.
International relations are very complicated, and even if it would be satisfying to have fast and heavy responses, I can also understand the cautious approach in this case. As you say, it’s an election year. It would not do Palestinians much good to have a reactionary response poison the well, just to the Republicans win all levels of government and screw up the region far worse, in addition to abandoning Ukraine.
Millions of them have been displaced. They’re starving and dying every day. Disease is rampant. Tens of thousands are dead. They’re running out of hospitals to use. Genocide isn’t the kind of thing you can do a “wait and see” approach for. I get what you’re saying, but people need to keep pressuring him. I hope no one takes this small victory as an excuse to stop.
Yeah, the benefit of the slow and steady approach is for Americans, not for Palestinians.
We have to remember, those people aren’t our friends. They’re known to chant “Death to America”. They include the kind of terrorists who would commit the October 7th attacks, and most Palestinians support that kind of terrorism.
We want to stop the genocide while keeping Israel as an ally against both terrorism and Iran, who is currently attacking any Western shipping through the Suez Canal.
I think we have a lot more room to do that, absolutely. It’s a bad situation, and we have to understand our role in it. But our role can certainly be less hard-lined than supporting genocide.
They’re not our friends? It’s the other way around. We’ve been helping Israel kill them and take their land for decades and decades. We’re on Israel’s side of every peace talk, pressuring Palestine to take horrible deals that isolates them and keeps them separated, covering Isreal when the UN tries to censure them for human rights violations and war crimes, selling them the bombs and weapons they use to kill Palestinian children and families, bomb their neighborhoods and hospitals, pretend we give a shit with a token of humanitarian aid that hasn’t helped the bare minimum of calories they get, the majority of their water being poison, the extremely high unemployment rate, the constant buzzing sound of drones overhead that increases their stress and ruins their sleep, or the general oppressive apartheid state they live under and always while at the same time continuing to sell the tools of murder and destruction to Israel.
Of course they’re not our friends after all that. And of course after all that they are gong to do an armed struggle. An attack the scale of October 7th has only happened once, and it’s the result of years of the deaths being way higher on the Palestinian side and there being nothing they can do about it. October 7th is the only time Hamas has barely touched Israel. Meanwhile, Israel has been killing all Palestinians (including civilians, not just Hamas) disproportionately for years and no one has done or said anything on their behalf. Even their peaceful marches lead to them dying or losing limbs and no other change. So what do you expect them to do? Just do the nice thing for us and die quietly? Cozy up to their oppressors? Holding Hamas against Palestine is like holding the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising against all Jews because " clearly they practice violence".
I appreciate what you’re saying about genocide bad, this is just all a response to the comment about them not being our friends. They would be huge friends of ours if we helped them get equal rights or integrate into a one state solution, but the US has never been as interested in that as they are helping Israel complete their mission of settler colonialism.
We have to remember, those people aren’t our friends. They’re known to chant “Death to America”.
There are Americans who yell almost the same thing to other Americans, ie: anti-abortionists, anti-queer, racists, neo-nazis, Proud Boys, the kind of people who supported and engaged in insurrection, etc etc etc. They may use different words but the intent is identical.
those people aren’t our friends. They’re known to chant “Death to America”. They include the kind of terrorists who would commit the October 7th attacks, and most Palestinians support that kind of terrorism.
Why do you think that is?
Does it matter? Should we not care about being attacked because they have a reason?
Yep. I agree, the pressure needs to say on. And more importantly, we need to praise this measure. His administration needs the feedback that withholding support and starting sanctions is a popular policy.
What we don’t need is a tantrum that not enough is being done, dissent that can be weaponized by the Right to convince people to waste their vote on not-Biden.
Agreed! It’s like training a dog with pets lol.
Holy shit Biden sanctioned 4 PEOPLE let’s go dude. He’s really showing his massive power.
Don’t be shitty because the progress isn’t as much as you want.
It’s extremely surprising that this happened at all, so any progress is a good thing.
This isn’t progress, this is a scam. The four people in question are already in trouble with the IDF or police, they’re basically just some random street thugs.
It’s literally just a piss poor attempt to gain support for elections, nothing more. They pull this typa crap all the time in every 3rd world country so its not exactly new or surprising.
Two state solution now, or not vote for you Biden. Make your mark.
I’m partial to a fuck around and find out approach. Forced disarmament, dissolution of the state of Israel, a combined Jewish/Arab government is enforced. Everyone is a citizen. It worked for Germany, it will work here too. They don’t get to have an Army or anything again until they prove they’re ready for it.
Bless your heart, sweet summer child.
Hey if they continue to fuck around then we just get the UN Transitional Government of Jerusalem for a couple decades. It’s good enough for Somalia.
When you vote for president, you’re not voting for one man. You’re voting on the supreme court, federal judges, heads of federal agencies, regulatory commission members, and much much more. Just want to remind you to also remember that a presidential vote will impact all that, whether you like the main candidate or not.
So he’ll appoint judges that continue the ridiculousness of corporate personhood; breaking unions; abusing migrants; and protecting genocidal criminals.
Great. So excited.
Citizens United was voted on 5 to 4. All 5 that voted for it were appointed by Reagan or one of the Bushes. The 4 that voted against were from Gerald Ford, Clinton, and Obama.
You’re just making stuff up now.
Oh dude. That’s just the latest thing. Corporate personhood has been held by both sides for about a hundred years now. The only debate is how far it can go. The only thing Citizens United did was make their donations directly to political figures legal. They were already doing political ads and such with first amendment protections.
Now you’re moving goalposts.
So he’ll appoint judges that continue the ridiculousness of corporate personhood; breaking unions; abusing migrants; and protecting genocidal criminals.
Great. So excited.
Where did I say Citizens United? Where did I give any sense that it was only the most recent transgressions and not the shareholder bullshit we’ve been living under for a 100 years?
Liberals or fascists, pick one on one day and do something about them both the other 364 or shut the fuck up.
That’s the thing. You can’t call yourself a liberal while supplying a literal genocide, preventing the free movement of people, or supporting unchecked corporate power.
These were all things that were considered outside even classical liberalism. Much less the alignment of modern liberal vs conservative liberal we’ve had in the US for two hundred years.
This is shaping up to be much more along the lines of Oligarchy vs Fascism. And you know what? They don’t feel that different to the peasants.
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If the IDF hadn’t killed 27,000 civilians and reduced aid imports to a point the UN is ringing the famine alarms then you’d have a point.
Unfortunately you’re just trying to conflate Hamas and all Gazans
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Us sanctioning iran: “FUCK EVERY MAN WOMAN GRANDPARENT AND CHILD, OVERTHROW YOUR GOVERNMENT IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT BITCH”
Us sanctioning israel: “using satalites we have pinpointed 4 individuals in the west bank region and will enact targeted sanctions to curb behavior, thank you and god bless”
What happens if one of the settlers becomes PM of Israel? Does the US change its tune?
Remember, in the case of India, the current PM of India was banned from entering the US for almost a decade. Now, we bend over backwards for him.
Same story with the Phillipines I think
Yes, as it turns out, becoming the elected leader of millions/billions of people does get you some special treatment that you didn’t get before.
The PM of India was an elected official even when banned.
More like we let our morals slide when it became apparent that China was a bigger issue.
Gvir is already in the government and Biden is supporting him. Nothing will change.
Seeing as Ben-Gvir isn’t mentioned at all, I think you already have your answer.
The funny thing is with Modi, there was a huge petition to get him banned and they still overturned it like nothing just because he became PM.
Biden (I hope): “Gee, after the election, I don’t have to worry about voters thinking I’m ‘throwing Israel under the bus’, and can do whatever I want. Gee, will I still be a zionist? Or will I follow what my party wants me to do? Here is a hint, Israel.”
I think i’m going to call this hopium
Because what reason at all does he have to challenge the USA’s biggest defense partner and international asset?
Already ignoring the fact that his party is also backed by zionists lol.
That’s definitely some high grade hopium. The man has had every chance to do the right thing.
So what about funding and charity donation to settlers applications.
Glad to see he’s starting to feel the pressure! That aside, wake me up when he sanctions Israel, which not-so-subtly supports these settlers.
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Doing literally anything at all is a divergence from previous policy. How do you explain it?
Cuz it looks to me like Biden trying to throw his electoral base a bone so he doesn’t lose.
He doesn’t even need to sanction them. Stop sending them weapons.
Edit: I mean, I guess sanctions would be nice too, but stopping the weapons transfers should be the bare minimum.
That too 👆
He won’t.
The point is to do as little as possible and still be able to say he tried.
Make a couple of ineffectual executive orders and then send more bombs to kill innocent brown children.
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Cool, another great move by the Biden administration. Now do the war criminals who partook in perfidy next, both IDF and Hamas.
Now do the same with the Israeli state
Yeah, what good are sanctions if the Israeli government is still giving them US weapons to continue terrorising Palestinians in the West bank?
It’s a warning shot.
Good thing we’re doing warning shots over a 100 days in, after Gaza has been turned into rubble and like 2% of the population has died.
Geopolitics involving nuclear armaments happens slowly, unfortunately. It’s a nasty situation, but the political will is shifting away from Israel.
The US can’t unilaterally stop supporting a long time ally without undermining the trust the rest of our Allie’s have in the US- and by extension NATO as a whole. At least not without taking small steps at a time
The sanctions block the individuals from accessing all US property and other assets.
They also prevent them from using the American financial system.
I wonder what percentage of the Israeli settlers are using the US financial system or even own US property.
The wording is also a bit vague, Do the bombs that we also sent Israel count as our property. Or are they officially Israel’s?
Also, who are “the individuals?” who invaded the west bank? Do we have group names?
They’re 20 year olds and teenagers who probably don’t have any Israeli assets let alone American. They’re from the 0.01% of violent settlers with no clout who did something politically inconvenient enough to actually get arrested by Israel. One of them beat up a liberal Jewish activist so that’s why they got in trouble. One of them was from the Huwara pogrom attack where high-ranking Israeli government officials and the IDF encouraged and facilitated it, and he’s a random loser they arrested to deflect attention.
The US picked some people to sanction that Israel has already deemed expendable, and they’re people Israel agrees did something bad, so Biden isn’t offending Israel by listening to any Palestinian accusation against an Israeli.
Do the bombs that we also sent Israel count as our property. Or are they officially Israel’s?
They’re Israel’s. They bought them from us. Doesn’t matter that they bought them with money we gave them.
Everyone here should know, this is due to you and the conversations you’ve been having, media you’ve been supporting, and any actions you’ve taken to directly protest, letter write, etc.
Activism works. Being annoying af works. Simply changing the media you consume has an impact. Conservatives get what they want from their elected officials because they demand it. You too can demand things of your elected officials (so long as you can hold them to consequence, ie, the problem with bnmw).
Let’s not forget, this is exactly how we ended segregation in the US and Apartheid in South Africa.
Activism works. Let your voice be heard.
This is also why bad actors fill sites like reddit with bots, to try and control the public narrative.
But bots can’t vote. Bots can’t demonstrate. Bots can’t boycott.
And also kudos to Lemmy and Lemmy mods for keeping this place relatively free from bots.
And also kudos to Lemmy and Lemmy mods for keeping this place relatively free from bots.
I wouldn’t count on that. I’m a dev, and I don’t really know how you reliably do that. You can catch low hanging fruit, but it doesn’t take much to evade.
They did it by keeping lemmy irrelevant. Jk, but really.
Unless you’re extinction rebellion and then everyone hates you anyway.
This is due to Biden needing to go to Michigan, with its huge arabic population. His campaign people wanted to avoid loud and awkward protests from members of his own party, so they threw a tiny bone that they knew would make a big headline splash.
I hate to be this cynical, but listening to his campaign managers making the rounds on the political insider podcasts… they are overwhelmingly “professional” and entirely inauthentic.
Even if biden himself is earnest, this campaign is shaping up to have all the stage managed authenticity of Hillary’s 2016 run.
I’m worried.
Lol if he comes to Michigan he’s just gonna hide himself at the Ford plant where they get a select few line workers to attend his speech so they can post it on social media.
Dearborn would eat him alive if he so much as so stepped outside the property.
No one’s gonna buy up this executive order.
His 2020 campaign did as well. It was just placed against the previous 4 years. It probably would have been enough for 2024 if this hadn’t happened too. In fact the reason I don’t believe October 7th was an Iranian called shot is because they aren’t dumb and game theory suggests they’d rather have Biden who they use as a political pinata than Trump who will start a war with them within 2 years of taking office.
Fuck you and fuck putin.
Lmao. No. Just no.
Wah but being mean to biden spurs voter apathy wah
I’d argue his observed positions on Unions, (as long as they’re toothless), immigrants (a little human rights violation is fine), and supporting a literal genocide did that.
Also gaslighting the country about the economy while taking credit for it didn’t help either. In fact that hurt him, a lot.
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Obviously I have something to say. You just don’t like it.
All this violence before was therefore tolerable?
Yesterday happened.
We can waste time lamenting the poor choices made yesterday, or we can make better decisions today.
Would you have preferred he didn’t do this? Or did he need to go on tv and slap himself as he said “I’m stupid, stupid, stupid for not doing this sooner?”
What would you have rather he did today in a world where time machines don’t exist?
Interesting.
I wasn’t going to vote for him, but now…
Enjoy Trump.
If you did Mena this sarcastically, the three dots may not be enough. As sarcasm often can be misunderstood, most people highlight it by adding “/s” to their post.
ur bald… /s
He sanctioned 4 people.
The “…” indicate to me that this is meant sarcastically (I hope)
History repeats itself. War crimes are being committed and other countries try to wait it out with pointless bureaucracy bullshit.
Meanwhile innocent children suffer and die every day.
