cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/33487836
By MEE staff
Published date: 21 July 2025 21:11 BSTThe New York lawmaker voted against an amendment by Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene last week that sought to block $500m in Congress’ annual defence spending bill for Israel’s Iron Dome programme.
Fellow Democrats Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar [as well as Democrats Al Green of Texas, Summer Lee of Pennsylvania and Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky - PL] had supported Taylor Greene’s amendment, which eventually lost in a 422-6 vote.
In a post on X on Saturday, Ocasio-Cortez claimed that Greene’s amendment did “nothing to cut off offensive aid to Israel nor end the flow of US munitions being used in Gaza”.
Why are we responsible for Israel’s defense? they have free health care and education but our checkbook is open for iron dome missiles for them ? No. Thats American taxpayer money, not theirs. If they are rich enough to bribe the entire American government, then they are rich enough to buy their own missiles.
I bet that the US gets a lot of intel about the other countries in the region in return.
Thats speculative, and even if true, its not worth the cost, or the problems allying with israel creates. Israel is not useful to the US and never have been. Its all cost.
Yes, it is speculative. That is what it means when a sentence starts with “I bet”.
More than that, Isreal is basically a forward opperating base of the US in the middle east. They’re just the US with Groucho Marx glasses on, our sock puppet for genocide and imperialism.
Thats just not true at all.
If true, then why doesnt Israel allow any actual operational bases inside Israel? There are no US warplanes flying out of Israel, and there never have been. They fly out of Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan-- which is actually a forward operating base that you pretend Israel is, and hosts British planes too. It was a big celebration when a navy ship was allowed to dock and resupply in israel in 2018, after no US warship had been allowed to dock in Israel in the previous 20 years.
https://www.reuters.com/article/world/us-navy-returns-to-israeli-port-in-sign-of-deep-alliance-idUSKCN1ML2IT/#%3A~%3Atext="This+visit+has+significance.%2Cthe+safety+of+our+sailors."
The US has a shared radar site in the negev that has 10 people staffing it, that they are just now talking about building a barracks for, and also what they call a “base within a base” AKA a desk inside a Israeli military base. Not operational. Israel is not a FOB for the US, nor is it a “giant aircraft carrier” for the US.