Ben Rhodes

that you mentioned that the polls fluctuate to 70 to 80% of Americans are opposed to this.

You also saw a public opinion poll for the first time the other day that more Americans sympathize with Palestinians than Israelis, and that is an overwhelming majority among Democrats.

And let's just name the fact that oftentimes the people who seem the most reluctant to oppose this war are those Democrats who are most supportive of Israel in Congress.

And so we should just not be afraid to talk about the fact that this is part of the dynamic here, because there's a very clear correlation between people who take AIPAC money and who have been supportive of Bibi Nenya in the past, who are going to either vote no on that resolution or have been pretty teepid about this.

And look, Donald Trump, you know,

People, including us, gave him credit for getting tough with Netanyahu sometimes.

But that's out the window now.

He just went to war in part because Bibi Netanyahu wanted him to.

So don't ever tell me again about how Donald Trump uses this leverage.

The Democratic Party can be the anti-war party, can be the party that wants to change a dysfunctional relationship with Israel, change a dysfunctional approach to the Middle East, that learned the lessons of history, and that is...

saying it's time to stop spending money on this stuff and start investing in the things that Americans actually want us to be doing.

So those are the ones that jumped out to me.

And look, you're right.

I think privately, you get these leaders in a room and they did not want this to happen because they're aware of all the consequences.

I mean, the Europeans who, you know, I don't even know, you can read their statements over and over again and have no idea what the fuck their position is.

You know, the EU or Emmanuel Macron, like it's kind of word salads, you know, about how bad the Iranians are, but we need to have consultations and we're concerned.

But

They're the ones, by the way, who could end up getting refugees from this if it goes really south.

But to me, what stood out, Mark Carney, who we praised a lot and has gotten a lot of praise, he stood up at Davos and said that the international order was broken because it only worked for the powerful countries, and therefore the middle powers had to have their own views on things.

And I think what's really disappointing about his statement is, I guess he was only talking about trade.