Trump suggests billions for Israel at stake over 'war hero' Netanyahu's corruption trial

[Beastly Boy]

23. What do you thinl political leverage is?

It includes bribery, extortion, and then some. So there is no disagreement there.

But I see where we disagree: you object to political leverage being applied to Israel's internall affairs, but not when it applies to the US foreign policy.I disagree.

I no longer respond to the dog whistles and trigger words being hurled at Israel that have nothing to do with reality. This is pure propaganda, and it is impervious to rational discourse, as I keep being reminded of time and again, so I am going to disregard this nonsense as waste of my time.

What I will do, however, is disagree with you on the principle distinction between cutting aid as an instrument of meddling in internal affairs and cutting aid as an instrument of influencing the conduct of war. To begin with, in the case of Gaza the conduct of war was heavily influenced by the same internal affairs that Trump is trying to influence, including Netanyahu's trial, and I think this is the main reason why the war in Gaza became such a disaster: the internal affairs of Netanyahu's coalition interfered heavily with the IDF ability to achieve its military objectives. So internal politics of Israel and are at the core of the US military aid to Israel no matter how you look at it.

Your premise is to cut aid in order to facilitate Netanyahu's accountability, Trump's premise is to cut aid in order to prevent Netanyahu's accountability. Principally, this distinction is superficial. While there are many other things involved, withholding of military aid has to do with Israel's internal politics.