That's how foreign policy works. When Biden has that "maybe" in hand it gives him more leverage over Netanyaho. As long as he avoids the most populated areas, it might not change to "definitely". If it goes that way, US law says that weapon shipments end.
This is something that should have been done ages ago, but it is the right move. Cut off all support and Israel buddies up with China, India, or possibly even Russia. (The latter is becoming unlikely as Russia begins to unravel). Cut off some token support and use the rest for leverage and it works a lot better.
Biden did try this earlier with delays in small arms shipments, but that was way too subtle.
Neither China nor Russia is going to give Israel the time of day
Russia is actually Israel's #1 exporter of Jews, which is vital for maintaining their racial majority. As a consequence Russian-Israeli relationships are warm. Bibi and Putin are on very good terms.
When did I say the US gives a rats ass about the Palestinians? Check your assumptions maybe? Palestinians have no strategic relevance to the US one way or the other. It is, however, inconvenient to be connected to a genocide. The conflict is also fucking up US plans to leave the Middle East to Israel and Saudi Arabia so it can focus on Africa. It really doesn't want Israel's actions bringing the rest of the region into the conflict.
BTW: Not that I would expect you to check, but I literally said exactly the same phrase about the US not giving a rats ass about Palestine.
There are three regional powers in the Middle East. The US has Israel and Saudi Arabia. Russia has Iran. You don't think Russia would want to become dominant? You don't think China has interests in the Middle East?
If you can't see that Russia is no longer a top tier power, that explains a great deal.
Israel already has very close ties with Russia as (iirc) its the country sending the most Jews to Israel to maintain the Jewish majority. That said, Russia sparing any munitions for anyone else is doubtful.
Cut off all support and Israel buddies up with China, India, or possibly even Russia.
Ain't happening. I don't know why India would even be involved here, and China has no need to project power over the middle east. Russia would be importing weapons from Israel, not the other way around.
Well yeah, it ain't happening since the US ain't cutting off all support for Israel. That is known and countries have shaped their strategies around it. The US abandoning Israel would be a table flipping event.
Russia would be importing weapons tech from Israel. Israel can't come close to matching Russia on production volume, and Israel's needs are a sliver of what Russia uses in Ukraine.
I’m not up to date with the Russia news. How are they starting to unravel?
Edit: I like how the guy I was replying to provided a whole well thought out list and the mods removed it because he was talking bad about Russia. Classic lemmy
A KGB spy and a CIA agent meet up in a bar for a friendly drink.
"I have to admit, I'm always so impressed by Soviet propaganda. You really know how to get people worked up," the CIA agent says.
"Thank you," the KGB says. "We do our best but truly, it's nothing compared to American propaganda. Your people believe everything your state media tells them."
The CIA agent drops his drink in shock and disgust. "Thank you friend, but you must be confused... There's no propaganda in America."
Aside from the first link they’re all Wikipedia, and none of them are considered controversial in the least. This stuff is regularly referenced in scholarly works and covered in college curricula. It’s standard stuff in polysci, public relations, marketing, history, etc.
It's a lot of things. Graft is rampant, especially in the upper levels of Russian government. Almost half of government spending goes to graft. That means that a lot of things don't get done, or are done to lower standards. There has been massive flooding from failed infrastructure with tens of thousands of homes destroyed, and the government response has been almost non-existent.
Russia can't control their airspace so pretty much every day Ukrainian drones destroy another oil refinery. These make great targets because they supply a lot of the boom themselves and because Russia needs western tech to rebuild them. So far it's down 14% of capacity, and Russia doesn't seem to have a solution.
Morale among Russian troops is non-existent with many incidents of soldiers "fragging" superiors, and "barrier" troops ordered to fire on retreating storm troops. Men are being sent in with ridiculously bad equipment just to soak up bullets. US estimates are that Russia's losses are around 90% of the original invading force. Much of Russia's military is back filled with inexperienced conscripts. There are reports of pilots sabotaging their own planes to keep from flying suicide missions, and of course the whole Wagner fiasco.
There is a lot more that could be said, but I don't want to write a book here.
I wouldn’t disagree that Russia has corruption, but I don’t think that means much. It’s much less corrupt now than it was when Yeltsin’s government let the Western shock therapists come in and plunder the country. Putin’s government kicked them out. Ukraine is famously the most corrupt country in Europe, though reports about that mysteriously stopped in 2020. Just based on the cost-plus model of our military-industrial complex alone, the US is very corrupt.
And I wouldn’t disagree that Ukraine’s drones will continue to be a challenge for Russian infrastructure. They can only reach so deep into the deepest state landmass on Earth, though. Eastern Russia is largely barren, though, and I’m not trying to discount the drones by arguing it isn’t.