Forget the Squad.

Mayor Pete had a foreign policy speech.

Listed 5 key points.

Reinstate Iran Nuclear deal, Paris accord, and withhold funding to Israel if they annexed the West Bank (two others not pertinent, but can list them if anyone cares).

No mention of consequences of actions he didn't appreciate by Russia, China or North Korea.

What is this growing antagonism on the Left against Israel? 79% of Republicans support Israel over Palestine. 27% of Democrats do (I have an article I can share, if anyone wants to fact check).

Blatant Anti-Semitism, or, "we are going to be against whatever Trump is for"?

It's some on the right who are trying to play the left's game of correlating racism with everything, except they are using anti-semistism. Some of it might be, but I tend to think most of it's an ad hominem.

Israel was the only nation he proposed negative consequences of in his foreign policy roll out.

Was not one of many nations he had issues with. Was the only one.

Israel's role in the Middle East is massively important to geo politics and global peace, and a President should have a clear position. But, this is not the only nation in the world that has massive importance to global peace.

Seems suspicious that it is the only nation, listed by name, that he would punish if they didn't fit his world view.

This has some sort of relevance here but it is difficult to say how. The blame Israel quadrant is the same quadrant as blame America. But it would be easy to see how the authoritarian leftists get confused.

The (real) left has been opposed to Israel for a long time. The fake left is faking.

I just don't understand. We have one friend in the Middle East and the left wants them eviscirated.

Well, as I see it the problem isn't opposition to Israel per se. The problem is there is a lot of bad things going on in the world, and Israel seems to be getting a very disproportionate amount of negative attention, and anti-semitism seems like an obvious explanation. Although in today's political climate I am not sure how easy it would be to disentangle anti-semitism from opposition to Trump on principle (who is perceived as an ally of the current Israeli government)

I mean, right now if you started 10 different threads with 10 countries that engaged in human rights violations (which wouldn't be that hard to do) the Israel one would probably have more posts in it than the other 9 combined.

If someone has a transcript, I would be interested in seeing what he actually said. I am a little skeptical you are portraying his statement accurately, although maybe you are? I really don't know, but would like to see for myself.

Saudi Arabia and all the Sunni countries that fall in its orbit (save Qatar perhaps which is special) all seem to be pretty reliable allies in the war against Shias. Of which Israel is also a partner.

Attached is the VOX article which discussed Mayor Pete's speech.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-polit...ana-university

Very possible, Vox miscatergorized his speech.

I really liked w hat Mayor Pete said about American troops being pulled after 3 years on Presidential actions without Congrssional approval, so I looked into more about his foreign policy.

The Israel stuff disturbed me.

But, very possible Vox misstated his positions.

Maybe it is the media who is trying to paint a narrative!

That is from a June 11 speech FWIW. But yeah, I would want to see a transcript of what he actually said before putting too much stock into Vox's framing.

The idea that reducing foreign aid to a country that breaks international law is somehow treating the country unfairly is an interesting argument. It's not as though he's even threatening sanctions, which would be an entirely reasonable response to a country annexing a neighbouring region, he's just saying the US won't give them additional aid if they do it. Every Security Council member of the UN (including the US) has agreed that the settlements they have in the West Bank are already illegal - going as far as to completely annex the region should absolutely be dissuaded.

Having said all that, it is true that there are other US allies in the Middle East that are as bad if not worse, most notably Saudi Arabia, and policy should similarly be applying pressure to them to try effect change. Blaming any and all criticism of Israel on anti-Semitism is not very useful though.

We were just doing this in the Islam thread. Criticizing the state actions of the nation of Israel isn't anti-Semitic, just like criticizing the state actions of a Muslim nation isn't Islamophobic. Saying that Israel should not inflict on the human rights of Palestinians is not the same thing as saying Israel (or Jews) should be eliminated.

Think you may be missing my point.

Mayor Pete only signaled out Israel.

Didn't mention any other country, or create a doctrine, the way the Vox article positioned his speech.

He is obviously trying to win votes. Is Anti Israel, anti-Semitism needed to win votes in Democrat primaries?

And a Trump supporter will Make the same kind of argument why his Baltimore comments aren’t racist.

It is interesting how ideologues generally are willing to give the benefit of the doubt as far as motives for those they are ideologically aligned with, but this generosity doesn’t extend across the aisle.

How many countries do we give foreign aid to, and of those, how many are in violation of international law by invading land that is not their own?

That someone can hamfistedly manufacture something that passes as an argument does not mean it is on equal footing.

I think he has been criticized from the left in the past for being too pro Israel, so this might just be him getting ahead of that.

Making a foreign policy speech, where the only nation you mention (Israel) is the only nation that would face negative consequences under your Presidency is bold.

Vox did not say anything about China, Russia, North Korea.

Iran Nuclear deal, back on the table, Paris accord. But those are things spoken in the positive!

Only negative, per the Vox article, and I have not seen the speech, is Israel.

Why?

False. Didn't happen.

So, Mr. Wookie, the Vox article is fake news?

No, I'm saying your take on it is false. You're flagrantly lying about it.

Dog-whistling so he can get his leftist bona-fides.

What am I wrong about in the Vox article?

Israel is the only country he proposes negative consequences against for soverign actions.