Influencers

The Saudi minister lays it out : “But now we see that the U.S. has no power or influence over Israel — to a humiliating degree,” he added, “and that the Israelis have no intention to create a Palestinian state.” It is true that the US political "leadership" is reluctant to cut off arms shipments to Israel but the US Jewish lobby has plenty of influence and they are using it to support the genocide. The US electorate is clueless, having been brainwashed for the last eighty years, and will accept any criticism of Israel as "antisemitic". The Saudis are now insisting a "two-state solution" be part of any normalization deal but we'll see how deep that committment runs. It is "humiliating" that a rogue politician like Netanyahu rubs it in Biden's face, we expect Israeli leaders to pretend deference as they pursue their goal of an apartheid ethno-state. But like Trump, Netanyahu has decided to forgo these pieties. Neither are inhibited by established norms, which explains their popularity. Apparently, Trump's crude, "hypermasculine" act has a great deal of influence over young men. According to the NY Times: "Compared with when Mr. Trump ran in 2020, young male voters are now less likely to support government-backed climate change solutions (down 15 points, according to our poll)" At the same time they feel hopeless about the future, they also don't want any threats to their American Dream. If you can't get laid, the least you can do is drag the ecosystem down with you. It would be just if these morons were the only ones to face the consequences of their obliviousness. But that's not how ecosystems work.