The US government could stop giving aid to Israel six months ago and it would have done nothing to discourage or stop Israel from doing what its done in Gaza since Oct 7, because its neither contingent on US funding nor US or UN approval.
First of all the military conflict in Gaza is asymmetric warfare, unlike Ukraine - Israel does not need any more money or weapons than it already has to destroy buildings. They already have everything they need, they already had it five years ago. No US military funding or weapons required.
Second, this is like 9/11 for Israel in terms of # of deaths of citizens (oct 7). They are not acting in a calculated manner but a vengeful manner. The UN could condemn them and nothing would happen. They have and will pursue this unless they are prevented forcefully, not merely criticized or tsk tsk'd.
The only thing that might do something to stop them from doing what they have done / are doing is economic sanctions or military intervention. But both those measures could be applied equally to Darfur or any other ongoing conflict, many of which are far more deadly than the war in Gaza currently. So it really isn't that different from those other conflicts, except optically (we love to hate on rich "white" people harming poor brown people, but when brown people kill brown people in Africa we don't really care, or Asian people kill Asian people, etc).
Ok, I disagree that this is just happening because (many, not all) Israelis would be classified as white. The diversity on the streets of Tel Aviv is phenomenal, but I digress.
Fundamentally the reason that I hold Israel to a higher standard is because of the Holocaust, and all the pogroms that occurred before, all of which were incredibly morally wrong.
And here we are 80 years later, and they are acting in ways that are very very similar to the ways that their oppressors acted. Like, Gaza is equivalent to a ghetto, the West Bank is basically occupied territory, and there are many Palestinians who have their rights violated in ways that simply would not happen to Israeli citizens.
It's profoundly disappointing and depressing, that if even the Jewish people haven't learned from all of the terrible historical things that have happened to them, then what hope for the rest of the species?
Thats why I, at least care more about what's happening in Gaza right now.
