Good point. So, as is common the headline is deceiving.
Very good, i chuckled a little.
I am lukewarm on Newsome. My reaction to all of this is
- I agree with you that Newsome is overly polished.
- I also think Newsom is trying to thread the needle here by condemning Isreal while at the same time not having to invest any political capital on making any changes in US policy towards Israel.
- This is more of a guess\feeling but my impression is that Israel isn’t even in Newsome’s top 10 issues that are important to him and this is just a carefully crafted response that lets him focus on other things he does care about.
- My own reaction to Israel\Gaza for political candidates in the Democratic primary is that this is a trap issue designed to divide us as we have so many other issues that are higher priority than trying to solve the neverending Gordian Knot that is the Middle East.
He is attacking Netanyahu, not the State of Israel. Nor does he have any power to make such changes.
Good point.
And in the context of this thread this matters how? I have a hard time seeing how pointing this out makes any difference in the context of choosing the best Democratic primary candidate. Particularly when the entire point of my post is that Newsome seems to be trying to condemn Netanyahu’s policy without actually having to do anything about it.
I am not trying to be rude or put you down but I think everyone already knows that the Governor of California has very little ability to change foreign policy of the US government.
I have to assume that’s what you mean as arguing that presidential Candidates don’t have the power to cause policy changes is such a fringe position that I don’t think there is anything to say.
Hmm, my edit window is out but the process of writing those 4 points above has made me realize something else. At least for the Democratic primary. I will have the Isreal\Gaza and frankly the rest of the Middle East in my disqualifying attributes. ie if I feel a Democratic Candidate has that in their top 5 issues they want to solve than I am crossing them off my list of candidates I want to support. I am frankly sick of spending blood, treasure, and political capital on the region. I am not opposed to all foreign policies changes. I just don’t think they should be their top priorities.
There is a big difference. I support Israel, not Netanyahu. I support America- not trump. Netanyahu is rather unpopular in Israel (40% support), and VERY unpopular in the US (29%). Not liking Bibi is one thing, not liking Israel is quite another.
Because there’s going to be an election in Israel this summer or fall, so there’s a good chance Netanyahu will be gone long before the primaries begin. If that’s what Newsom is betting on, going after him now has no downside.
Netanyahu may be gone, the political forces driving expansion/aggression might not. Whoever replaces BN might still be dependent on minority extremist parties.
Might, but you have a good point. Only about 35 Members of the Knesset (out of 120) are considered to be “Religious conservative”, but if the new Coalition is short, they will need to suck up. However, some small concessions like having religious students, etc exempt from the draft may bring them in. Mind you, just what I read , I am not a expert.
Anyone here know a lot about politics in Israel?
Small concession? This is quite literally the central issue in Israeli right wing politics, it’s a massive schism between those who are primarily religious and those who are primarily right wing in a religious/right wing alliance.
Yeah, Babale probably knows better, but IIRC the percentage of draft-age men in Israel who claim to be religious students is around 30%. It’s a pretty significant chunk of the draft pool.
And the longer the war goes on, the more those who serve resent those who don’t.
The numbers get complicated because there are other reasons for exemptions like health (Haredim are excused for medical reasons at twice the normal rate, for example - that would be because a Haredi kid with a condition might look at it as a ticket out of the army while a secular kid with the same condition might do everything possible to find a way to serve anyways rather than because a difference in rates of disqualifying conditions) - but the last estimate I saw showed about 68,000 Yeshiva students who would be drafted if they left the army.
There have been massive protests in Jerusalem by the religious right and some have gotten violent. It’s easily one of the biggest domestic political issues right now because it threatens Netanyahu’s coalition.
And for comparison, there are only about 170,000 active duty soldiers in the IDF. So yeah, almost a third of the potential enlistees.
(looks at thread title) So anyway, about the US Presidential race…
Ah geez, Babale, please don’t become that guy who starts ranting about trans athletes in discussions that have nothing to do with them!
Sadly, that was already brought up by another poster who declared Newsom a bigot due to that podcast. And read Babale’s post again.
He did clarify that this was indeed his meaning on a podcast interview (in response to a question where the interviewer really wanted him to call it a “genocide” and tried to butter him up into doing it).
Not sure about Pritzker yet, but he had a hilarious line on Saturday at the Gridiron Club:
“As far as my own plans for 2028, here’s what I’ll say right now, I’m 100% focused on the people of Illinois,” Pritzker said. “That’s not just me talking. That’s also a 2006 quote from Barack Obama.”
That’s quite funny and also a clear acknowledgement that he’s planning to run. Well played, gov!
Oh no, not Rahm Emanuel….