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phoenixyfriend · 1 month

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I feel like I need to look at a lot more analyses of the recent Chuck Schumer speech.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday called on Israel to hold new elections, saying he believes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has “lost his way” and is an obstacle to peace in the region amid a growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Schumer, the first Jewish majority leader in the Senate and the highest-ranking Jewish official in the U.S., strongly criticized Netanyahu in a 40-minute speech Thursday morning on the Senate floor. Schumer said the prime minister has put himself in a coalition of far-right extremists and “as a result, he has been too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza, which is pushing support for Israel worldwide to historic lows.” “Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah,” Schumer said. The high-level warning comes as an increasing number of Democrats have pushed back against Israel and as President Joe Biden has stepped up public pressure on Netanyahu’s government [...]. Schumer has so far positioned himself as a strong ally of the Israeli government [...].

There are... I want to say four? possible interpretations, generally:

A moral shift in response to circumstance: The situation in Gaza has escalated to such a point that he feels morally obligated to change his rhetoric, whether for Palestinians' sakes or Israeli's own sakes.

A moral shift in response to persuasion: Fellow Democrats and Independents have successfully begun to convince him that a change in rhetoric is needed.

A pragmatic shift in response to constituents: Voters from New York State have been blowing up his phones to argue him into putting conditions on aid to Israel, and he felt this was a good 'middle ground' to appeal to them without losing his pro-Israeli base.

A pragmatic shift in response to national trends: Continued protest votes like Michigan are starting to worry him and fellow 'traditional' Dems.

Or, most likely, some combination thereof.

Ethically, I hope it's one of the first two, and the Schumer has realized how ethically barren Israel's government currently is.

...in terms of 'can we actually affect things,' though? I hope this is a pragmatic shift. We cannot predict how individual Senators will change up their morals and philosophy, but if this change is in response to pressure from voters, then that means we can push them farther left.

Anyway.

Call your reps. Here's some suggestions on what to say.

EDIT: To clarify, I am not saying that Schumer is concerned about his own reelection. He is old and he isn't up for reelection until 2029, so it's even odds if he'll even run again. However, as the Senate Majority Leader, he is at least in theory required to take his party's opinions into account, and to worry about what is going to happen to the executive branch in November. Whether or not Schumer has any real power come 2025 is very heavily dependent on who the president is, and he is very aware of that.

He may also be worried about his actions causing backlash against Gillibrand (NY's junior senator).

#united states #israel #gaza #call your reps #palestine #death mention #politics #death tw #voting #chuck schumer #senator schumer #current events #phoenix politics

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ms-boogie-man · 3 months

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Ta-dah!!!!…

This just goes to show you Demonrats and Tessio Republicans (RINOs) really do exist

The uni-party cannot get this trash written in the lower House of Congress, so the Senate is going to do it themselves, and Joe Biden will sign it into law if it passes

This bill is not the will of We the People. Schumer, Lankford and Biden are treasonous

Enjoy the final loss of our republic yo

Angie/Maddie🦇❥✝︎🇺🇸

#fjb #'resident #Chuck Schumer #kid toucher allegedly #Senator Lankford #Joe Biden #2a #1a

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porterdavis · 7 months

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Chuck! Perfect slap-back!!

#chuck schumer #mtg #marjorie taylor greene

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eretzyisrael · 1 month

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by Dennis Prager

Schumer knows Hamas "seeks to eradicate the Jewish people." Few non-Jews have a clue how much the Holocaust has affected Jews -- including those born after the Holocaust and those Jews who lost no relatives in the greatest genocide in modern history. Most Jews suffer from a form of collective PTSD.

It could not be otherwise. The most culturally advanced country in the world, the most militarily powerful country in Europe, sought to murder every Jew in Europe -- including babies and the elderly. And it nearly succeeded: Two of every three European Jews were murdered. Equally significantly, "the nations" watched. So, just for the record, the Jews in Europe during World War II were also a pariah among the nations. With a few noble exceptions, the world was divided between nations that helped exterminate the Jews and nations that refused to do anything for them -- neither allowing into their countries the few who managed to escape the Nazis nor bombing any of the death camps or even just the railway tracks leading into those camps.

For 3,000 years, the fate of the Jews has nearly always been to be a pariah among the nations. This was foretold in the Hebrew Bible itself, which cites Balaam, a pagan "prophet," as saying that Israel is "a nation that shall dwell alone, not be reckoned among the nations" (Numbers 23:9). When Jews are defenseless, they are a pariah. And when Jews defend themselves, they are, according to Mr. Schumer and the elites of the world, also a pariah.

Had Mr. Schumer told the truth, he would have said this: Israel's being a pariah among the world's nations tells us much more about the world's nations than about Israel. Just as it did a mere two generations ago.

#charles schumer #chuck schumer #israel #jews #pariah #dennis prager

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ohwaitihaveamemeforthat · 1 month

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#palestine #free palestine #gaza #rafah #ides of march #chuck schumer #joe biden #us politics #politics #coping mechanism #once upon a time #shit post #memes

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thepoliticalfuckery · 1 year

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#republicans #conservatives #republican hypocrisy #conservative hypocrisy #this is america #republican #republican party #conservatism #hypocrites #back the blue #blue lives matter #january 6th #insurrection #donald trump #chuck schumer #mitch mcconnell #kevin mccarthy

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phoenixyfriend · 1 month

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The Shift in America's Support of Israel as of 3/25/24

Okay, so there have been three specific incidents recently that I'd like to cover for you guys.

Chuck Schumer's speech calling for a new election in Israel, which I have spoken about here and here. (3/14/24)

Congress voting to ban UNRWA funding until 2025, which I've seen a lot of people talking about, but often without an actual understanding of what the situation actually is. (It's bad, but it's not the same type of bad as people think.) (3/24/24)

The US abstaining from a UN Security Council vote, which is effectively voting against Israel when they have thus far been the only ones to use veto power in this manner. (3/25/24)

I'm not going to go into detail about Schumer, since I've already covered it. tldr: it's a very specifically worded speech that does not explicitly threaten Israel, but if you do even the slightest bit of reading between the lines, that is absolutely what is happening.

Also, before I move forward: the US may not be donating to UNRWA for the rest of the fiscal year, but you can. They have direct donation links.

UNRWA funding has been on hold for a while, but this is... complicated. Not morally, because UNRWA does need funding and to defund it is truly unconscionable, but many of the "Biden signed it into law" posts are approaching it with this implied message that UNRWA would have funding if not for Biden signing it.

Except that isn't really how the US government works. Especially this government.

Funding for 2024 was supposed to be passed months ago. We are on the verge of another government shutdown. UNRWA funding is not on the table until the House swings blue. I hate to be the one to say this, but it's... like, it's not something I can change alone. I know you're tired of hearing it, but voting in November is the key to fixing a whole lot of problems.

One of the core duties of Congress is passing budgets. For those budgets to pass, they need to be approved by the House (Republican Majority), the Senate (Democrat Majority), and the President. The reason it has taken five months to pass a yearly budget (the deadline iirc was September or October) is because anything approved by one chamber is shot down by the other.

UNRWA's de-funding is tied to Ukraine funding (and a few other things). Biden refusing to sign would not have brought back UNRWA funding. The funding is already on hold. We do not have the votes to bring it back. We just straight up do not have enough seats in the House to make that happen. Biden refusing to sign would have resulted in both UNRWA and Ukraine not having funding, indefinitely. Signing it resulted in one of the two getting funding.

This is not a situation where funding was approved and now cut. This is not a situation where money was already flowing to UNRWA. This is a situation where money wasn't going anywhere, because Congress is a split shitshow.

Think of it like this: Funding is water coming from a spigot. Congress can turn it on or off, and it's currently off. Biden can smack away the hand coming to twist the valve, but he can't touch the valve himself. That's what the presidential veto is. Unfortunately, the spigot is already off, and Biden can't twist it back on when Congress isn't already reaching to do so.

Is this bad? Yes! UNRWA's funding should never have been cut! We should still be very, very upset about this! But I need you to understand that the way the US government works is not a dictatorship. Biden cannot just overrule Congress, especially when we're on the verge of another shutdown.

I do not think it is fair or even really acceptable that UNRWA's funding was viewed as an appropriate point of compromise. I'm just, unfortunately, also aware that this particular legislation is a tug-of-war that was never going to end with funding going to Palestine, not with the current Republican control of the House.

"But Biden sent money to Israel a bunch of times--" Yeah, and he's paying for it in the polls. He's aware that people are pissed at him. That choice is already biting him in the ass.

Biden is not perfect and I am never going to claim he is, but please recognize that the UNRWA funding pull is not a current action. It is a past action that is now being sustained because the House is red. You want to bring back UNRWA funding? Get rid of Marjorie Taylor Green and her entire cohort.

The other reason I'm less than eager to view that UNRWA thing as Biden being pro-Israel is because the US has finally abstained on a UN vote instead of vetoing.

When the US has been the only voice on Israel's side in the Security Council this whole time, abstention is functionally voting against them. We already knew that 13-14 of the other 14 members were going to vote pro-ceasefire. They have been this entire time. The US abstaining is functionally agreeing.

Why did the US not just vote for the ceasefire, then? No idea. Might be a treaty thing. I don't really need to know, because the result is that the UN Security Council has finally passed a measure against Israel, and those things are legally binding, and we know it's a big step because Israel's government is not happy.

When paired with the Schumer speech from a week and a half ago, it indicates a major shift in US foreign policy.

From the Al Jazeera article:

The US had repeatedly blocked Security Council resolutions that put pressure on Israel but has increasingly shown frustration with its ally as civilian casualties mount and the UN warns of impending famine in Gaza. Speaking after the vote, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield blamed Hamas for the delay in passing a ceasefire resolution. “We did not agree with everything with the resolution,” which she said was the reason why the US abstained. “Certain key edits were ignored, including our request to add a condemnation of Hamas,” Thomas-Greenfield said. [...] The White House said the final resolution did not have language the US considers essential and its abstention does not represent a shift in policy. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the US failure to veto the resolution is a “clear retreat” from its previous position and would hurt war efforts against Hamas as well as efforts to release Israeli captives held in Gaza.

This action has also resulted in Israel pulling plans for "a high-level delegation" to visit the US for discussions on the invasion of Rafah (which Biden has purportedly been warning against for a while).

“We’re very disappointed that they won’t be coming to Washington, DC, to allow us to have a fulsome conversation with them about viable alternatives to them going in on the ground in Rafah,” [John] Kirby told reporters. [...] Last week, Netanyahu promised to defy US appeals and expand Israel’s military campaign to Rafah even without its ally’s support.

There are other complications and details here, such as that the resolution does not call for a permanent ceasefire, and that US tensions with Russia and China are still somehow playing a role in the negotiations over the ceasefire text, but ultimately...

The US abstaining is a good thing. Schumer's speech is a good thing. They are not enough, but they are good things. They are steps forward.

The pull of funding from UNRWA is not a good thing. It is, in fact, a very, very bad thing. It just also looks a lot like it was unavoidable.

So call your reps, and vote come November. It's a long slog and we all know it, but we can't make change without dedication.

To support my blogging so I can move out of my parents’ house, I do have a ko-fi. Alternately, you can donate to one of the charities I list in this post.

#united states #israel #gaza #palestine #call your reps #voting #un security council #united nations #joe biden #congress #chuck schumer #unrwa #current events #phoenix politics #politics

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korrasera · 1 month

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Possible Shift in US Foreign Policy

A few days ago I talked about some analysis from Beau of the Fifth Column that suggested we might see a shift in US foreign policy soon.

The Biden administration in the US has been opposed to Netanyahu's administration in Israel for a while now, but their criticism has grown more strident of late. Biden has talked about Israel crossing a red-line, said that Netanyahu needs a come-to-jesus talk, and implied that the US might stop providing offensive weapons to Israel as a way to sanction the actions of Netanyahu's government.

Well, Chuck Schumer, the US senate majority leader, gave a speech in which he openly criticized Netanyahu's leadership in Israel. In the speech he claimed that Netanyahu's coalition no longer represents the needs of Israel and advocated for the Israeli people to hold elections to replace him, echoing the sentiments of Jewish people in Israel and the US both.

The reason I think this is important is because this is pretty much the most critical the US has been of Israel's government in my lifetime. I'm personally hoping this is a prelude to a change in how the US provides aid to Israel. Stopping all offensive weapons aid to Israel is important to me because I don't want to be complicit in the genocide of the Palestinian people, but thanks to US foreign policy (like all Americans) I am.

If you'd like to see Beau of the Fifth Column's latest video on the topic, at the time of writing it's this one:

youtube

#biden #israel #palestine #chuck schumer #beau of the fifth column #Youtube

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vyorei · 1 month

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#free gaza #free palestine #gaza strip #irish solidarity with palestine #palestine #gaza #news on gaza #al jazeera #boycott israel #israel #chuck schumer #ben cardin #USA

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grits-galraisedinthesouth · 5 months

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New York Appellate Judge Stops Ridiculous New York Gag Order of President Trump - The Last Refuge

"Earlier today appellate judge David Friedman finally intervened in the insufferable gag order and put some common sense back into the case putting a stay on the lower court order.

NEW YORK (AP) — A gag order that barred Donald Trump from commenting about court personnel after he disparaged a law clerk in his New York civil fraud trial was temporarily lifted Thursday by an appellate judge who raised free speech concerns.

Judge David Friedman of the state’s intermediate appeals court issued what’s known a stay — suspending the gag order and allowing the former president to freely comment about court staff while a longer appeals process plays out.

The trial judge, Arthur Engoron, imposed the gag order on Oct. 3 after Trump made a false comment about the judge’s law clerk on social media. He later fined Trump $15,000 for violations and expanded it to his lawyers after they questioned the clerk’s prominent role in the trial.

Ruling at an emergency hearing Thursday, Friedman questioned Engoron’s authority to police Trump’s speech outside the courtroom — such as his frequent gripes about the case on social media and in comments to TV cameras in the courthouse hallway.

Friedman said that while it’s true that judges often issue gag orders, they’re mostly used in criminal cases where there’s a fear that comments about the case could influence the jury. Trump’s civil trial doesn’t have a jury.

Trump lawyer Christopher Kise said after Friedman ruled that the appellate judge “made the right decision and allowed President Trump to take full advantage of his constitutional First Amendment rights to talk about bias in his own trial, what he’s seeing and witnessing in his own trial — which, frankly, everyone needs to see.”

Another Trump attorney, Alina Habba, indicated she has no plans to advise the former president to stay quiet about the clerk. (read more)

The temporary pause in Engoron’s gag orders comes as a separate, more sweeping gag order on Trump in his criminal case in Washington, D.C. has also been lifted pending oral arguments before an appeals court scheduled for Monday.

Engoron's clerk is good friends with Chuck Schumer and DJT told the world about it on social media. How is that "false info?"

#judge engoron #gag order #trump 2024 #Banana Republic #first amendment #freedom of speech #free speech #new york #gothem city #chuck schumer

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