Personally, I think Netanyahu has the Dems' number.
He knows they dare not lose the support of the American Jewish lobby. So he does what the hell he likes.
In case you've missed it, America isn't really anyone's friend as it is loyal to itself above all, and has this bad habit of looking down at everyone else as if from a pulpit.
If it was Israel's friend, it would stand behind its decisions, as others do American ones even when they are pretty rubbish [eg the Iraq War].
But that isn't what America does. It reduces problems to the things that bother Americans [dead children] and pretends they can be sorted locally with an abracadabra. The Palestinians put their children in harm's way in order to manipulate the American public, presuming them to have oodles of pity and the attention span of a gnat. So, give us what we demand, even when we throw the first punch.
Those are the two sides of the argument. Netanyahu being a tough guy, thinking he can get away with it. Palestinians egging him on and seeking the pity of the US electorate by getting Netanyahu to kill as many children as possible.
It's theatrical and totally sick.
I keep hoping for the great American awakening when it acknowledges it is not different from everyone else, because other than the outsized ego, the US is a pretty nifty country. But when will it stop thinking it knows better and congratulating itself for doing so. It really doesn't. Things aren't simple.
I am not saying Netanyahu is right. Or that the Palestinians are. But third party friendship dynamics are not in play. America will remain Israel's "ally". It's just the nightmare of the Middle East and the old Mesopotamian tradition of an eye for an eye and a missile for a missile, as it has always been. Until everyone is dead, it isn't going to end. But maybe the genie can be put back in the bottle for periods of time when folks feel the pain has reached the threshold of being unbearable and they decide to call a truce in the killing.
Meanwhile, they are going to do their thing and until the American public toughens up, Palestinian children will die, because it works as a lever.
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