- cross-posted to:
- politics
- cross-posted to:
- politics
For the second time this month the Biden administration is bypassing Congress to approve an emergency weapons sale to Israel as Israel continues to prosecute its war against Hamas in Gaza under increasing international criticism.
My guess would be that there are many decades of existing treaties and legislation that allows the executive to do this for Israel. Ukraine’s troubles are just under 2 years old
The war in Ukraine started in 2014.
You’re absolutely right, and while the person you’re responding to is wrong about the Ukraine timeline, they’re pretty accurate regarding how far back the US relationship with Israel goes.
A big part of it is probably the US being the first country to recognize Israel as an independent state in 1948, and there’s just been a relatively close relationship between the two ever since.
Agreed. The thing is we’ve been supporting Ukraine for a while now- helping build up their military and supply against the Russian invasion.
Sure it’s a blink in them eye compared to Israel, but then Israel is established extremely well defended. Remember how Trump held up aid meant for Ukraine?
Oh I agree entirely, I wasn’t meaning to sound as such. US government post the year 2000 has always seemed like its stuck in “old ways” of thinking. While Donald Rumsfeld moaned about “lack of imagination” and “unknown unknowns” in respect to 9/11, the reality is the US government and political class do lack imagination, and are largely stuck in routines set down in the 70s/80s/90s that aren’t really compatible with the modern world.
A re-assessment of our relationship with nations like Israel should have been done long ago, and if we’re going to continue to be the biggest weapons producer in the world (which is something else I have issue with but is a whole screed of its own), the absolute very least the US could do is actually try to put weapons and training in the hands of people who really need it, who are at the mercy of despotic regimes trying to take over. Which in this instance would be Ukraine.
Israel doesn’t need those weapons, and it can easily be argued that Palestine does.
I was trying to provide an honest, helpful answer about the probable reason why the executive branch can take unilateral decisions about arms to Israel but not to Ukraine.
The current arrangements for arms supplies to Ukraine go back 2 years.
the current agreement with Israel doesn’t even go back that far. Things change. We’ve been treating Ukraine as an important partner since at least the Obama administration. Bush Jr wanted them in NATO back in 2008. Nobody is contending that Israel has been an ally for longer. But Ukraine isn’t exactly some rando, either. they’re a key partner- and were, at least, an up-and-coming regional power house. a power house that Russia saw moving increasingly westward in it’s political affiliations. (and Ukraine has historically been one of the world’s largest grain suppliers. during the Soviet Era, they produced all the grain for the Soviet Union.)
The history lesson is great. But are you claiming that the treaties and procedures that allow the US executive to supply arms to Israel without congressional say-so and the procedures for supplying arms to Ukraine are the same?
Because I’m saying that is unlikely- and largely accounts for the current disparity