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Comment by tmnvix | Hacker News Reader

Considering how we arrived at this point (Houthis threatening and attacking trade and communications), I would say the US government's obvious inability to rein in its ally (Israel) despite having a huge amount of leverage demonstrates a pretty weak administration.

Feeble is precisely the right word to describe US pressure on Israel. Saying "We've asked them" over and over again just doesn't cut it. It's weak and everyone can see that.

This latest middle east crisis has been hugely damaging to US moral and diplomatic credibility.

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America has very little leverage over Israel. The money/etc that America gives to Israel is motivated by the religious convictions of Americans (evangelical protestants particularly, but not exclusively.). This support isn't conditional on Israel behaving itself and any politician who cuts Israel off will have a very difficult time getting reelected. This effectively makes America's financial and material support for Israel closer to tribute than leverage, since politically speaking it's not practical to turn off the spigot.

The silver lining is that unconditional support for Israel correlates with age; the Americans who support Israel no matter what are slowly but surely aging out of the political equation. In one or two more generations the situation may be very different, which if I had to guess, is why Israel wants complete the annexation of Gaza sooner rather than later.

America has very little leverage over Israel.

This couldn't further from the truth. The U.S. has enormous leverage over Israel, via the massive foreign assistance it has provided since 1948.

Its politicians may be too spineless, too hoodwinked by decades of extremist propaganda over all these decades -- or in the cases of evangelicals, blinded by their own religious delusions; or (in the case of most) just too self-interested and apathetic -- to make use of this leverage. But there is no question that this leverage exists.

> Considering how we arrived at this point (Houthis threatening and attacking trade and communications) (...)

Aren't the Houthis a proxy of Iran who are being used to try to goad the US into a regional conflict?

> goad the US into a regional conflict?

and by doing so, spread the resources that would've been devoted to ukraine thinner. And by proxy, take attention away from china's regional ambitions.

It's clear that these events aren't happening in isolation.

>diplomatic credibility

The USA hasn't had any of that for decades. The illegal invasion and destruction of Iraq in 2003 was the beginning of the end of the worlds' tolerance for American exceptionalism. The only ones who don't seem to understand this, are Americans.

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