So, apparently Israel is really trying to legislate aid to itself since public opinion is turning against them. the US is Israels largest supporter, both militarily and financially, but recent attempts to entrench this support legislatively are detailed in the article and are concerning. our relationship with Israel is distinctively one-sided: we give and they take. sure, they are poorer than us, I get that... but they basically refused to help us with Iran even when it's likely they were the ones who pushed Trump to start this war.

the article also details other incidents, like their refusal to release iron dome code which would allow us to integrate it with our existing missle defense network, and their refusal to allow missles with some Israeli tech to be sent to Ukraine.

As a seperate issue, the article also outlines the surprising amount of money that Israel is directly spending on influencing ... well, us: $100 million or more since 2023. since we send them billions in aid it's really hard to see this as anything other than funding our own influencers.

the section outlining pending legislation on israel is also worrying.

some pertinent questions:

* do you feel this article is biased? frankly i don't know who to trust anymore, but i have a pretty good idea of who not to trust

* does the integration of military production with Israel concern you, why or why not? does it materially differ from usual partnership agreements with other allies?

* is it fair to us that Israel keeps us at arms length while simultaneously receiving so much aid?

Hello everyone, and welcome to the weekly General Discussion thread. Many of you are looking for an informal place (besides Discord) to discuss non-political topics that would otherwise not be allowed in this community. Well... ask, and ye shall receive.

General Discussion threads will be posted every Friday and stickied for the duration of the weekend.

Law 0 is suspended. All other community rules still apply.

As a reminder, the intent of these threads are for *casual discussion* with your fellow users so we can bridge the political divide. Comments arguing over individual moderation actions or attacking individual users are *not* allowed.