Also on today’s menu:
Republicans Hold Up Additional Aid To Ukraine
Tesla Recall Affects All US Vehicles
“Indiscriminate bombing” in Gaza is causing Israel to lose global support, President Joe Biden Jr. warned during a campaign fundraising event on December 12, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu openly rejected Biden’s proposal to have a reformed Palestinian Authority rule Gaza once the terrorist group Hamas is defeated.
Netanyahu praised the United States’ support in the war against Hamas, but vowed to block any attempt to install the Palestinian Authority in Gaza once the fighting is over. “I will not allow Israel to repeat the mistake of Oslo” that allowed Palestinian expansion in the West Bank and the Palestinian Authority’s oversight. “After the great sacrifice of our civilians and our soldiers, I will not allow the entry into Gaza of those who educate for terrorism, support terrorism, and finance terrorism.”
The Palestinian Authority has been plagued by corruption, but U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said reforms are possible. “There are a number of things that we think would be critical to making sure that, again, the Palestinian Authority can be effective in helping to advance the aspirations and the needs of its people,” he said.
Biden commented, “Israel’s security can rest on the United States, but right now it has more than the United States. It has the European Union, it has Europe, it has most of the world, but they’re starting to lose that support by indiscriminate bombing that takes place.” There is “no question about the need to take on Hamas” but senior officials in the United States have increasingly expressed discontent with the way Israel is conducting its military campaign. Blinken said there is a “gap” between Israel’s pledges to spare civilians in Gaza and the reality on the ground.
Discussion: The United States’ support of Israel is critical to its survival, but “Bibi” Netanyahu’s intransigence on the issue of Palestinian rights is making it more difficult to justify that support in the face of human rights violations. Biden is straddling a fine line and is receiving criticism for doing so, but Netanyahu also faces the problem of how to eradicate Hamas that uses Palestinians as human shields and hides among the civilian population. There has never been an easy solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem, but Biden has been trying to guide the region to a permanent solution.
Republicans Hold Up Additional Aid To Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in Washington DC to ask congressional leaders for continued support of its defensive war against Russia, but Republicans continue to block the assistance, prompting Russian media to cheer. President Joe Biden Jr. chastised the extremists in the Republican party, saying, “If you’re being celebrated by Russian propagandists, it might be time to rethink what you’re doing. History will judge harshly those who turned their back on freedom’s cause.”
Foreign affairs specialist Fiona Hill says that U.S. funding is essential for Ukraine to regain control of its territory, and allowing Russian President Vladimir Putin to win would embolden Iran, North Korea, and China. “Ukraine has become a battlefield now for America and America’s own future — whether we see it or not — for our own defensive posture and preparedness, for our reputation and our leadership,” Hill told Politico. “For Putin, Ukraine is a proxy war against the United States, to remove the United States from the world stage.”
Biden urged Congress “to pass the supplemental funding for Ukraine before they break for the holiday recess [on December 14] “before they give Putin the greatest Christmas gift they could possibly give him.”
Discussion: The fear is that allowing Russia to dominate Ukraine will embolden Putin to move on to other countries that are part of North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Attacking one NATO country requires all members to respond, which would bring the United States into direct conflict with Russia. That argument is similar to the old “domino theory” used to justify our entry into the Vietnam conflict, but in this case it may be true. Russia is unlikely to seek another expansion right away, having lost the majority of its armed forces to Ukrainian resistance, but given time to regroup, Russia very well could seek to expand again. We should be leery of the military-industrial complex that profits from war, even if it provides jobs for United States citizens, but we have to recognize real threats when they exist.
Tesla Recall Affects All US Vehicles
Tesla is recalling more than 2 million vehicles purchased in the United States, due to a defect in its system intended to ensure that drivers are paying attention when they use Autopilot.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration conducted a two-year investigation into a series of Tesla crashes, some of which were deadly.
U.S. safety regulators say the company will send out a software update designed to fix the problems.
Discussion: Autopilot is an attractive feature, but who really wants to trust a computer to guide their driving? After all, we’ve all experienced computer crashes, and those are bad enough. A car crash is on a completely different level.
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