If you're gonna build a coalition to change US Israel policy, especially on the right, you're gonna have an anti-semitism problem.

Vance responds that we often have different interests than Israel and had to pressure them to get the latest ceasefire, which is mildly good and what passes for boldly critical of Israel in DC, but he avoids telling the guy we don't have a state religion.

This is extremely similar to what Duterte did in the Philippines. Killing of supposed drug dealers without due process. Dictator level stuff, scary.

Along with Trump and Rubio, the bipartisan empowerment of presidents to blow up whoever they want by calling them terrorists is the big culprit here.

The purpose of attacking the ship seems to be to pretend are a we're at war with criminals and Venezuela, not to stop drugs or terrorism. In that sense it's a big escalation over the worst belligerence of the drone wars.

This suggests the opportunity for an off-ramp, which may be facilitated by Israel running low on a few key things, and thus willing to quit after they hit a few more militarily useless targets in a bank-shot attempt to destabilizie the Iranian government.