Arab-Americans, Muslims, and some young people are threatening not to vote for Kamala Harris because of the Biden administration’s support for Israel in its war against Hamas and Hezbollah in Gaza and Lebanon.
This would be a mistake. Kamala has said she would press vigorously for a ceasefire and for a two-state solution.
Trump has made clear repeatedly that he stands with Netanyahu. He has said nothing about a ceasefire or a two-state goal. He has pledged to impose a Muslim ban as he tried to do when he was first elected.
He made his firm position clear recently.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump expressed support for Israel’s offensives against Hamas and Hezbollah in a recent call with the country’s prime minister — a position that could complicate his campaign’s outreach to Arab Americans claiming he opposes the war.
Trump told Benjamin Netanyahu in one call this month, “Do what you have to do,” according to six people familiar with the conversation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive and confidential information. Trump has said publicly that the two have spoken at least twice in October, with one call as recently as Oct. 19.
“He didn’t tell him what to do militarily, but he expressed that he was impressed by the pagers,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), who was on a call this month with Trump and Netanyahu, referring to the Israeli operation that killed Hezbollah leaders with explosive batteries inside pagers. “He expressed his awe for their military operations and what they have done.”
Graham added: “He told them, do what you have to do to defend yourself, but we’re openly talking about a new Mideast. Trump understands that very much there has to be change with the corrupt Palestinian state.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
So funny (not ha ha) that people can pretend that Trump would be worse when Israel is literally liquidating Gaza, preparing to settle it, and attacking multiple other sovereign nations, including nuclear-armed Iran, with complete impunity as we speak. Iran (and the rest of the world for that matter) has been remarkably patient – far more patient than the U.S. would be in the face of similar provocation, which I guess is a good thing. But as things stand, I give it about 50-50 that we’ll have WWIII with the year regardless of which major party warmongering genocider gets in next month. Maybe slightly less with Trump because (a) he might accidentally do the right thing just for spite and/or (b) liberals might actually oppose war and genocide if it’s Trump doing it.
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Real easy for you to say. In addition to “Do what you have to do,” Trump told his B.F.F. Bibi to “finish the job.” Translated from Mafia-Boss-speak, this command means, “Annex Gaza, annex the West Bank, and finish off the Palestinians.” (It sounded better in the original German.) Throughout all of this horror, Trump has uttered not one phoneme about a ceasefire. Harris has participated in working for the ceasefire that Netanyahoo! has prevented, probably in consultation with Trump; recognizes that the Palestinians are a people and a nation; and has always advocated for a sovereign Palestinian state. As VP, she has no power of her own. I believe that she will be appreciably better for the Palestinians than Trump would be. I know that Trump will be considerably worse.
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A revision due to the writer’s having been overly incensed: The last two sentences should read, “I believe that she [Harris] will be appreciably better for the Palestinians than Biden has been. I know that Trump will be considerably worse.”
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Again I’ll say it: everything you are saying Trump will let Nutandyahoo do is exactly what BidenHarris is letting him do RIGHT NOW. Maybe you’re (willfully) unaware of it now, but that’s an argument in favor of Trump (not that I support him, since I always seem to have to say that) because you’ll choose to be aware when he’s the one doing it and maybe you’ll join the crowd protesting.
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Dienne said: “….including nuclear-armed Iran..”
Iran does not have nuclear weapons yet though they are working on it. I guess it’s only a matter of time that they will develop nukes.
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Netanyahu agrees with every innuendo dienne77 says. Trump will be “better” for the Palestinians, Putin will be “better” for the Ukranians.
If one defines “better” the way a few people using the Palestinians as pawns to defeat Democrats do, “better” means full capitulation to the far right Israeli government, just like “better” means Ukraine fully capitulates to what Putin wants.
“Better” means “peace” because all dissent is quashed. So this person’s argument that it would be “better” because then Dems WITH NO POWER might stop Israel makes as much sense as when she argued that it would be better for the progressive movement to prevent a Dem from filling a vacant Supreme Court seat that would have guaranteed a 5-4 progressive Supreme Court.
And everyone who agrees with this person that it was good that the 2016 anti-Dem election gave us 3 new far right Justices – because then Dems WITH NO POWER could “protest” and progressive ideas would flourish! – probably also agrees that voting for Netanyahu’s BFF instead of the party that Netanyahu hates is what someone who cares about Palestinians would do.
Trump says that people like us are not good for the country, and he would lock us up or worse, and it’s frightening that this pro-Putin poster continues to lecture us on how Netanyahu’s BFF Trump would be NO WORSE for the Palestinians so voting against the Dem to elect Trump in the name of the Palestinians is somehow honorable and not fascist.
We’ve reached an Orwellian point where this poster feels confident in defining fascist, authoritarian government as “no worse” than living in a country governed by the evil Kamala Harris and Democrats. And she has the chutzpah to pretend she is doing this because she cares about what is happening in Gaza.
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Dienne cares passionately about Gaza. She doesn’t care about Ukrainians.
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I do care about Ukrainians – they are being ethnically cleansed by their own government relentlessly forcing them into the meat grinder rather than respect any of the reasonable demands Russia has been trying to make for decades and which they were originally promised in the “not one inch east” guarantee made to Gorbechev.
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You are more naive than I thought. Russia annexed a large chunk of Ukraine in 2014. Putin came back for the rest of it. His first goal was to take Kyiv. Was that “reasonable”” you have been an apologist for Putin from the beginning. I remember when you insisted he had no plans to invade. Very funny.
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You’re going to keep bringing that up, aren’t you? Even though I already explained how I was unaware of the extent of NATO build up on Russia’s border, something the U.S. would not tolerate from a Russian-led coalition. In fact, I’ve presented evidence to back up everything I’ve said, but you are impervious to evidence.
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Another rationale for the Russian rape of Ukraine. “The NATO buildup on Russia’s border.” I have already pointed out that Putin’s desire to keep NATO away from his border collapsed when Finland and Sweden asked to join NATO and abandon their neutrality. Smart move, Vlad!
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That is an absolute batsh!t crazy statement. Of course Russia still cares about NATO on its borders. If Mexico allows BRICS troops on our southern border, would we stop caring just because Canada joins BRICS too?
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By invading Ukraine, Russia frightened two neutral border nations, Finland and Sweden, to apply to join NATO.
Putin managed to extend his NATO border by 800 miles.
What a dope!
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What would you have done if you were Putin at the beginning of 2022? Not what you wouldn’t have done (“I wouldn’t have invaded Ukraine”), but how you would have responded to the civil war and NATO build up on the border. What would you have done to address the security concerns that Putin didn’t try to do?
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Putin should have respected the territory of Ukraine, a sovereign nation. He should have continued to build economic ties to the rest of the world. He should have allowed Russian citizens to have freedom of speech, assembly, and conscience. Instead he severed all ties to the rest of the world except for sleazy dictatorships like North Korea.
He inherited a nation striving to be part of the global economy and turned it into an isolated police state.
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Dienne,
I will not engage with you any more about Ukraine and Putin. I don’t agree with your views about Putin. He is a monster. What should he have done about Ukraine? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
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I always regret reading NYCPSP’s blather because it gives me a headache trying to understand the unhinged “logic”. What does this even mean: “If one defines “better” the way a few people using the Palestinians as pawns to defeat Democrats do, “better” means full capitulation to the far right Israeli government,…”? I’m the one who’s been saying from the beginning that Israel’s government needs to be shut down. You people are the ones capitulating to it by voting for the administration that is arming and funding it. Lunacy. SMDH.
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Face it, Dienne. You not only want Israel to be shut down,” you want Israel to be eliminated. Having read your comments, esp those I deleted, over the past year, it’s clear that you thought October 7 was no big deal. You have steadfastly advocated for Hamas. At the same time, you cheer Putin on as he destroys Ukraine and slaughters men, women and children. Do you hate Jews?
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Wow, I knew dienne77 hated Israel, but I didn’t realize she said that October 7 was justified. Does she think 9-11 was justified too?
I think her concern for the Palestinians is because it is a Jewish state that is harming them and it allows her to bash Dems. I don’t recall a single post about the Palestinians when Trump was president, except if she could somehow make the Dems complicit.
Even though the Dems are the only party that is debating and discussing how to pressure Israel, while the Republicans simply go all out to support Netanyahu.
If Jews disappear from Israel as she seems to want, she would care about Palestinians as much as she cares about the Ukraine people and the women and children in Afghanistan after the pull-out who are suffering and just have to go along with whatever they are told to do or be subject to harm.
If Dems – and ideally Jews – can’t be scapegoated for a crime against a foreign adversary, then it is no longer important.
If dienne77 actually cared about Palestinians, she would be outraged at the Republicans, too. Not posting that Trump would be no worse and maybe he would be better.
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Trump has given Netanyahu the green light to kill as many Palestinians as he wants. Jared Kushner has a plan to develop a resort where Gaza is now. Beautiful beaches.
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BidenHarris has given the same green light! Stop listening to words and look at actions.
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which is why dienne77’s concern for the Palestinians seems to only exist when she can use it to bash the Dems.
Why in the world isn’t she outraged about what Trump said to Netanyahu?
Isn’t it obvious that she wants Trump to win, and what happens to the Palestinians after that will bother her as much as she is bothered by Putin’s annihilation of Ukraine cities. Not one bit.
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Her anti-Ukraine posts informed us that dienne77 DOES actually support war and genocide if it’s Putin doing it.
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Thank you for pointing out this anything-but-irrelevant detail.
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dienne77 says that Ukrainians should have capitulated to Putin’s “reasonable” demands.
But somehow a recognition of Israel as a state is illegitimate. Even though Pakistan and India were able to form 2 separate states, Jews are not allowed their own little sliver.
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Putin’s “reasonable” demand was to gobble up Ukraine, transport it, and steal its natural resources.
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Take some generic Advil for your headache, dienne77. Then perhaps you can get outside enough of your own head to *think about* what NYCPSP means. As for “voting the same administration,” nuh uh. Have you heard that Joe Biden decided not to run for reelection?
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A lot of people don’t vote rationally. Maybe most people. I could see Arab Americans and Muslims upset with US Middle East policy voting for Trump just to send a punitive message to the Dems.
Or they might rationally think, if this is what happens to Gaza under Dem leadership, can things really be any worse under Trump?
Also, I think Arab Americans and Muslim Americans are generally more conservative than other Americans. So messaging about crime and gender identity stuff may resonate with them.
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My questions are….Why is a former President conducting a call to Netanyahu in a political matter? Why is trump allowed to talk war policy with Netanyahu….even if Lindsey Graham is on the call? Sorry, trump is not POTUS anymore and he hasn’t been re-elected…..what gives him the right to have access to Israeli/US policy?
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Nothing. He’s violating federal law, as usual.
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Trump should not be in discussions with Putin or Netanyahu about American policy.
That’s a direct violation of the Logan Act.
The Logan Act (1 Stat. 613, 18 U.S.C. § 953, enacted January 30, 1799) is a United States federal law that criminalizes the negotiation of a dispute between the United States and a foreign government by an unauthorized American citizen. The intent behind the Act is to prevent unauthorized negotiations from undermining the government’s position.[2] The Act was passed following George Logan’s unauthorized negotiations with France in 1798, and was signed into law by President John Adams on January 30, 1799. The Act was amended in 1994, changing the penalty for violation from “fined $5,000” to “fined under this title”; this appears to be the only amendment to the Act.[2] Violation of the Logan Act is a felony, punishable with imprisonment for up to three years.
But Trump has violated the law all his life and never been held accountable.
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Trump is certainly not the first Republican presidential candidate to violate the Logan Act. Nixon reached out to Thieu to get him to ruin the peace talks in 1968. Bani Sadr said Reagan made a deal with Iran to keep the hostages in 1980. Clear violations of Logan. Does anybody know of examples where Democrats negotiated with foreign nations in violation Logan?
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The convicted rapist, fraud, felon, serial liar and life-long cheater will tell anyone anything to win. He’ll tell Putin one thing Netanyahu another, the Muslim mayor in Michigan who endorsed Trump recently something different, to get their verbal, written and/or economic support.
If malignant narcissist Donald Trump, who became a traitor on January 6, 2021, wins next month, he will do whatever he wants. The instant a promise that is a lie pours out of his mouth like projectile vomit and diarrhea, he forgets what he said.
Trackers have verified that Traitor Trump broke 53% of his 2016 campaign promises before he fled the White Houses with boxes of top-secret material for Putin.
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