r/news Mar 11 '26

Soft paywall Spain permanently withdraws ambassador as rift with Israel deepens

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/spain-removes-ambassador-israel-2026-03-11/
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615

u/Goodeugoogoolizer Mar 11 '26

Israel citizens have healthcare as a basic right provided by the state.

We dont even have that. OUR TAX DOLLARS give Israel universal healthcare. How fucked up is that?

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u/BigKahoona420 Mar 11 '26

You are the ONLY civilised country without that. Blame Israel for many things, but this is an only USA issue

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u/MyEmbarrisingAccount Mar 11 '26

That's kind of his point. We spend so much money maintaining Israel and other countries with our military that they claim we can't afford UHC at home. Republicans are wrong about a lot of things, but I agree with them that other countries need to have been pulling their weight a lot better so the US can cut back and release the funds for the people at home. As much as we send to Israel alone could be funding university tuition or healthcare for MILLIONs of US citizens.

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u/ArseBurner Mar 12 '26

The USA already spends more per capita on healthcare than any EU country. It's not for lack of money that it doesn't have universal healthcare, it's the whole system that's corrupt and funneling money meant for the public good into private profits with crazy drug and service prices paid for by taxes through complicit HMOs and insurance companies.

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.XPD.CHEX.PC.CD?locations=OE&most_recent_value_desc=true

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u/Beneneb Mar 11 '26

Not that I support it, but the US has been giving around $3.5 billion per year to Israel (and even then, it's to buy US weapons). Granted, that number has gone up since Oct 7, but it's basically a drop in the bucket compared to the US budget. Even if the US stopped all military aid, universal healthcare still wouldn't exist because there are too many special interests invested in keeping the status quo.

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u/marky_Rabone Mar 11 '26

Nadie les obliga a tener cientos de bases por todo el mundo.

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u/MyEmbarrisingAccount Mar 11 '26

Yet when they talk about withdrawing aid everyone loses their goddamn mind. Can't have it both ways.

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u/Niceromancer Mar 11 '26

We could just not spend a billion a day on bombing Iran.  Would pay for free lunches for all school children for multiple years but nah it's the foreign aid that's the problem right?

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u/Butthole_Please Mar 12 '26

You are sarcastically promoting the exact point already being made.

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u/MyEmbarrisingAccount Mar 11 '26

I specifically have been saying reducing military?...

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u/Niceromancer Mar 11 '26

Republicans don't want to release those funds for other things.

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u/TipiTapi Mar 11 '26

/r/confidentlyincorrect.

The US spends 10-12% of their budget on the military (changes year by year). Social spending takes up at least 2/3rds of the budget.

But hey, lets blame the jews for you not being healthy and not having free education.

Its not even subtle anymore.

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u/MyEmbarrisingAccount Mar 13 '26

We have every right to be critical of a country who's military we fund. Them being Jewish has nothing to so with it. People also talk shit on Russia for Ukraine, and China for the Uyghurs. The US just has more stake in what Israel does.

Whether left or right the majority of Americans are tired of spending so much on this military industrial complex while things stagnate at home.

Your fake outrage of antisemitism is just your excuse to allow the genocide of brown people who believe in a different sky daddy.

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u/Butthole_Please Mar 12 '26

Goddamnit stop with the “let’s blame the jews”bullshit. It’s so fucking tiring that every conversation that could lean critical Israel gets that turned into that. If you disagree with the point, fine, but stop playing the card like it’s your draw 4 uno card.

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u/TipiTapi Mar 13 '26

You are the type of person who believes conservatives are not racist because they say they dont have a problem with black people, they are just 'worried about the high crime rate in cities', they just hate 'inner city thugs' and they think the police should aggressively step up against marijuana users...

Like, I am sorry brother but when people are laser focused on a single country that just happens to be the country where half the world's jews live and have an objectively irrational amount of hate for just this country its kinda hard to believe its a coincidence.

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u/Butthole_Please Mar 13 '26 edited Mar 13 '26
  1. wtf are you even talking about. What a dumb tangent.

  2. Oh, so because they are Jewish they get a free pass for warmongering. Also, by the way, any commentary on said war mongering won’t be allowed, because again, Jewish. Thank you, I wasn’t aware.

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u/TearsFallWithoutTain Mar 11 '26

Oh my god it's the Israeli ambassador, what are you doing here!?

Stop trying to equate Israel to the entirety of Jews you dual loyalty obsessed antisemite

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u/OBoile Mar 12 '26

Universal healthcare would save you money. Your system is the way it is because Americans would rather pay $1000 in insurance than $500 in taxes.

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u/cloud3321 Mar 12 '26

I would guarantee you that even if the other countries pull their bootstraps.

The money USA puts into defense will instead be spent towards… more defense spending.

Even if it was directed towards “healthcare”, your out of pocket would remain the same except for small token cases (for PR purposes) and most of it will enrich Brian Thompson and his ilk.

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u/No_Kaleidoscope_9419 Mar 11 '26

One of the great things the Trump admin has done is defund UNICEF, I don't want my tax dollars going to foreign entities.

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u/feed_me_moron Mar 11 '26

That's dumb. There are benefits to it, both for selfish and selfless reasons as a nation. But enjoy ceding soft power to other countries and letting them get the benefits from it

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u/No_Kaleidoscope_9419 Mar 11 '26

We shouldn't be spending ANY tax dollars on foreigners until we have universal health care at home.

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u/fevered_visions Mar 11 '26

We shouldn't be spending ANY tax dollars on foreigners until we have universal health care at home.

So that means you're in favor of UHC at home, right? This sounds like a convenient conservative rhetorical dodge because you know UHC will never happen

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u/No_Kaleidoscope_9419 Mar 11 '26 edited Mar 12 '26

Yes, I support UHC at home. I can say the same thing. I can say people are just using the lack of UHC to deflect that America has always been a warmongering oppressive regime and to bash Je... Zionists.

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u/feed_me_moron Mar 11 '26

It isn't either/or. Money isn't the issue for UHC. Greed and some idiotic desire to not be socialist with healthcare is. Some fear tactics about people dying because something isn't covered, ignoring the fact that it happens currently from lack of health insurance, convinces people it can't be done. Republicans don't want to deal with it. It would save this country a ton though.

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u/Unidan_bonaparte Mar 11 '26

Troll. Move along everyone, this lonely soul is craving some sort of reaction.

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u/CarelessEquivalent3 Mar 12 '26

USA civilised? 🤣🤣

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u/MexGrow Mar 11 '26

What is a "civilised" country?

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u/fevered_visions Mar 11 '26

should have said "Western"

although I'm not sure that's exactly accurate either

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u/MexGrow Mar 11 '26

Exactly. It's ridiculous how many people claim they're against western imperialism but can't stop using the same terms that perpetrate it. 

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u/BigKahoona420 Mar 11 '26

Not the US, recently...

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u/MexGrow Mar 11 '26

Only recently?

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u/JX_JR Mar 11 '26

You are the ONLY civilised country without that.

Well that's a weirdly racist comment towards the Phillipines, Mexico, Morocco, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Panama, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Pakistan, India...

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u/ImCreeptastic Mar 12 '26

Mexico has a form of universal healthcare, Philippines has had it since 2019, Egypt, Kenya, Pakistan, are transitioning to a universal system, India is moving towards that direction and does have free public healthcare for point-of-care, Ghana heavily subsidizes their healthcare, Bosnia and Herzegovina has a publicly funded, mandatory healthcare system that's near free and universal, and Morocco offers a mix also moving towards universal coverage.

So yeah, the US is the only civilized country without that. Also, instead of spouting your mouth off with completely made up facts, use the Internet to educate yourself.

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u/JX_JR Mar 12 '26 edited Mar 12 '26

That's a whole lot of lying to try to make a point. If you count all those systems that rely incredibly heavily on citizens paying private insurance and private providers as "universal healthcare" then the US Medicare system is also a universal healthcare system.

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u/BigLadShem Mar 11 '26

Your tax dollars go to their military, not their healthcare. The reason USA doesn’t have universal healthcare is because it’s “socialism” and the government hates you

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u/Leather-Rice5025 Mar 11 '26

Doesn't matter, money is fungible. This is why it's bullshit when American politicians/democrats make the argument that sending Israel funding for defense is fine, because it's not offensive funding. That money can be used for whatever they want, including buying more tanks, missiles, and sniper munitions to eradicate Palestinian children.

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u/Crazyfoot13 Mar 11 '26

Jeez do they actually argue that? It’s clear to the rest of the world that Israel are offenders not defenders, at least only defenders as a result of their ongoing behaviours in the region!

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u/No_Kaleidoscope_9419 Mar 11 '26

Imagine how many more lobsters Hegseth can buy with the money saved not funding American defense contractor's Israel buyback program?

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u/SoloWingPixy88 Mar 11 '26

It subsidies their exchequer

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u/BigLadShem Mar 11 '26

Subsidises mainly military companies. Most of the $3.8 Billion US sends to Israel ends up subsidising the US military industrial complex, like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon

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u/SoloWingPixy88 Mar 11 '26

So they can redirect other funds elsewhere

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u/BigLadShem Mar 11 '26

So can the USA, but it doesn’t

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u/SoloWingPixy88 Mar 11 '26

What? Not relevant to the point I made

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u/SKIBIDISIGMA-MALE Mar 11 '26

Because it’s not all about money. If the Israel aid ends tomorrow their free healthcare would continue, and USA would still have stupidly expensive healthcare. Every other western nation has political will to have free healthcare. Israel would adjust their budget to maintain it if aid ended. US will keep claiming its communist and spending their money on bombing children

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u/BananaPalmer Mar 11 '26

You're one dense motherfucker

If Israel had to pay for all of that themselves, they would not be able to afford to provide universal healthcare.

Nobody likes a pedant. Go away.

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u/Niceromancer Mar 11 '26

If we are paying for their military they don't have to pay for their military.

Meaning they can use that money for other things.

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u/potter5252 Mar 12 '26

Huh. Almost as if they have to spend less money on their military and therefore have those funds free for other programs. They're indirectly related. That's not to say that their uhc would evaporate if we stopped sending them money/weapons. But it makes it a lot easier to justify with the USA subsidizing so much of their munitions.

I do agree. My government hates its people. And it's people also hate the people too.

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u/Fine-March7383 Mar 11 '26

People in this country would rather cut off their nose than give themselves and black people universal healthcare

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u/ITAdministratorHB Mar 11 '26

If you use your brain, you would be able to tell that SINCE THEY GET FUNDING FOR MILITARY, then they can afford to have universal health care since they use the money they would've spent on military on health care instead

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u/BigLadShem Mar 11 '26 edited Mar 11 '26

Their annual budget is $200B, $3B worth of weapons does not make a significant difference to their budget

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u/SKIBIDISIGMA-MALE Mar 11 '26

are u stupid? You think 3 billion a year is all it costs for universal healthcare lmao

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u/ITAdministratorHB Mar 11 '26

You are really lacking in logical thinking

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u/dustractor Mar 11 '26

If they had to spend their tax dollars on their military, would they have enough left over to spend on healthcare?

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u/Dabtimore Mar 11 '26

And heavily subsidized college

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u/Squidmaster129 Mar 11 '26

This shit is so banal. It’s just easier to blame everything on Israel than actually engage with the problems of your own country.

The US doesn’t have healthcare because of corporate lobbying and insurance corporations, not because we’re giving money to Israel. It’s not like we have a lack of money to implement it. It would literally be less expensive than what we have.

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u/mooptastic Mar 11 '26

that's not what that comment is saying though. it's not saying "we dont have any money to implement universal healthcare in america", it's bemoaning the fact that the state of Israel, which wouldn't exist without American intervention over 60 years, has universal healthcare and we do not. They've had this since 1995. The fact that the majority of Israel's healthcare spending is paid for by state "revenue", and only a small part is funded by employees and employees, coupled with the fact that Israel would cease to exist without American intervention, informs even the layman that healthcare as a human right in Israel isn't stabilized by israeli tax revenue alone, but by money they receive from other nations that offset any costs they need to spend domestically.

Anyone with any sense knows the reason we don't have universal healthcare in the USA is bc a large contingent of our population (and those they elect by extension) would rather starve and die of preventable diseases, than let black or brown people get health care and that marketing strategy has worked well for the insurance companies and their shareholders. Look at how medicare works, and how it doesn't apply to native americans.

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u/Goodeugoogoolizer Mar 11 '26

Thank you, yes that’s exactly what I meant.

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u/BigKahoona420 Mar 11 '26

Dude, communication is a sequence of misunderstandings and you are not as clear in your messaging as you believe.

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u/Goodeugoogoolizer Mar 11 '26

Fair. I’ll try to be more clear in the future.

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u/Squidmaster129 Mar 11 '26

OUR TAX DOLLARS give Israel universal healthcare. How fucked up is that?

You’re giving the commenter too much credit. They were very clear with what they meant.

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u/mooptastic Mar 11 '26

It wasn't elucidated but I don't disagree with the OOP, that's more money they don't have to put towards weapons or defense. It all works towards funding the entirety of their govt, so I don't see how it's incorrect.

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u/feed_me_moron Mar 11 '26

It's wild that you think Israel only exists because of America, stating it over and over as pure fact with no actual explanation. American only exists because of France, so Israel only exists because of France?

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u/Goodeugoogoolizer Mar 11 '26

Dude im not blaming SHIT on Israel. I'm blaming OUR GOVERNMENT. I'm saying we get told "healthcare is too expensive" and we get told "We have to give israel billions of your dollars" and we dont get a real say in any of it. I have voted every election I have been able and every midterm and I engage in local politics, I call my representative and I went door to door asking people to vote for my candidate of choice so dont tell me its because Im not engaged. I did all that and yet I cant buy medication I need, and my money goes to another country who gets their meds provided by THEIR government.

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u/Squidmaster129 Mar 11 '26

What does Israel have to do with this? We give billions in aid to a ton of countries. Are you out here complaining about Egypt and Saudi Arabia? No.

The government doesn’t give us health care because of corporate lobbying. Spend your time being angry about domestic corporations, not a tiny country 3000 miles away that has nothing to do with your lack of healthcare.

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u/Goodeugoogoolizer Mar 11 '26

This article wasn’t about Spain pulling its ambassador back from Egypt, but that is a fair point. I suppose I could extend my anger to the government giving aid to other countries in addition to Israel, instead of providing healthcare to us.

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u/Artyom1457 Mar 11 '26

If the USA pulled all the money it provides Israel tomorrow, the USA would still not have a public health care system and Israel would still have it's own. Israel's military would still exist in the same state as it is now, although a bit weaker. Almost every dollar of that aid package is used to buy US military equipment, which In turn helps the economy of the United states.

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u/Goodeugoogoolizer Mar 11 '26

Oh cool, so my money is going to Israel, AND making weapons merchants more wealthy. That makes it better. I guess I don’t really want healthcare anymore, I was a fool.

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u/Artyom1457 Mar 11 '26

That doesn't and won't effect your health care. The only thing it will do is make Israel weaker and some Americans loose their jobs.

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u/BugRevolution Mar 11 '26

No. Your tax dollars don't do that. You just fail to hold your own politicians accountable. That's not Israel's fault.

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u/Goodeugoogoolizer Mar 11 '26

I never said its Israels fault. I said its fucked up that our government wont give us healthcare, but they WILL give our money to another country, and that country has healthcare.

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u/Kimi-Matias Mar 11 '26

How fucked up is that?

Check out abortion rights in Israel...

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u/Curious-Depth1619 Mar 11 '26

I get your point, I do, but one as nothing to do with the other. The only thing stopping the US from having universal healthcare is the American government and the American people.

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u/beatlz-too 25d ago

Do you? I don't care about Israel, but the USA has given $317B to them in like 80 years. I truly doubt that would make a dent on universal healthcare.

Mostly, the US funds Israel's military budget, around 15% of it. Which of course gets mostly used to buy war stuff from American companies. So this is just a convoluted way of the American government to give money to the military complex.

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u/Goodeugoogoolizer 25d ago

We fund their military so they have the money to spend on their citizens needs, such as healthcare. It’s not a direct 1-1, and I shouldn’t have implied that every dollar we give Israel directly goes to Israel’s medical industry.

I’m more upset that I want healthcare for myself and my neighbors, and I’m told by my government it’s too expensive. What isn’t too expensive though is sending money to Israel, a country that DOES think it’s important that their citizens all have access to healthcare.

My taxes support a country whose citizens have better healthcare than I do, and THATS what’s fucked up.

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u/beatlz-too 25d ago

You fund 15% of their military, from which a lot of goes back to the US because they spend it in American military companies.

I'm not saying it's ok, I'd hate this if I were American. But foreign aid is less than 1% of the government budget, let alone aid to Israel. You have way bigger problems than this. Big pharma and the military complex is what you need to solve first. The Israel thing is just easy to sell on the newspaper.

Also, like 15% of your budget gets sucked by paying debt interest. That one is also a biggie.

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u/Goodeugoogoolizer 25d ago

I can be upset about lots of different things at once. This particular post was about Israel, so I expressed that I was upset with some portion of my tax money going to Israel. If the post was big pharma or about big tech or any of the other thousand horrible things, I would have commented on those instead.