Although I think we should support Israel in its struggle against Hamas and, I guess now, Hezbollah, I think we should do so in lofty, general terms. Israel is quite capable of defending itself. The more noise we make, the more we send unneeded and unrequested munitions or air and naval support, the more likely it becomes that the United States will be drawn into the conflict. We should avoid that.
I find it a bit hard to believe that they wont have adequate material. The only area I could see them running short would be the rockets for Iron Dome. I dont know if we make anything compatible but if we do then I would support sending them those.
Steve
I heard Congress may need to appropriate funds.
Which suddenly lead to a frenzy in Twitter that its all a bit dicey with the rule interpretation that the House is rudderless without a presiding officer and may even not be able to consider legislation until then. Unforeseen must pass legislation(!)
Predicting what will happen is a mugs game. The Israelis don’t know what Hamas has stored or is capable of, the Israelis haven’t made public their plans yet. And we don’t know what other regional actors (Hezbollah, Iran) plans in reaction to those plans are.
Sure would be nice if we had a full senior officer cadre. Maybe an ambassador to Israel. Maybe a GOP that was interested in governing instead of putting incompetent radicals into office?
Steve
If you are arguing “whataboutism”. I actually agree — everyone should take responsibility for their actions and consequences; which include stalling a President’s nominations.
Through I don’t know about Jack Lew as ambassador to Israel. He won’t help if he acts like Emanuel is doing as ambassador to Japan (being brash to the Chinese and basically adding fuel to the fire).
If they ask, we should send them. If we haven’t already sent them to Ukraine. Israel’s conflict with Hamas underscores our need to reindustrialize.
But if we’re not asked, we shouldn’t volunteer.