View original postI'm surprised someone as thoughtful as you would buy those.
What are you trying to claim? It's not as if I even mentioned any very specific numbers in my post, so I'm confused here.
View original postSecond, some 60% of the population of Gaza is under 18. I expect they have many fighters who could be classified as children. Many IDF troops are barely more than children.
So how many of the victims, according to you/the IDF, are Hamas fighters? How many of the child victims are?
View original postBut really, there is no other option. The US and western governments get that. Elon Musk, god bless him, said he hoped Israel would turn the other cheek. Impossible. But even if you just do a routine, by the numbers, tit for tat, who would be crazy enough to return to living anywhere near Gaza ?
'There is no other option' is bullshit. Certainly, the Israeli attack on Gaza was the expected reaction to the events of October 7th - expected also by Hamas' planners in advance, yet they did it anyway, because they knew that it would help them in the court of both Palestinian and global public opinion. But that doesn't mean it was the only possible reaction - or that it was a smart one. I'm sure you're familiar with the strategical advice from Sun Tzu and other thinkers to avoid reacting to enemy provocations in the way they expect and want you to.
And now the patience of even the US is running out, while nobody in Israel seems to have any real idea when this operation could stop or what could happen next after it.
View original postSo that would make the massacre a huge win for Hamas and invite more of the same.
You think this offensive isn't inviting more terrorism against Israel? If you kill a good number of Hamas fighters but at the same time give them ten times as many future recruits due to the enormous collateral damage, while also further weakening Israel's already limited international support, that sure looks like a very Pyrrhic kind of victory to me. In the end Hamas is still a terrorist organization, which you can't defeat in a conventional war. Of course they have a dual role and also govern the Gaza Strip, but under such circumstances and constraints that the point still holds.
View original postBut, at the same time, the 7.10 massacre was in a way a blessing.
View original postIsrael got off easy, because it seems the Iranian plan was probably to coordinate the same from the North and Gaza at the same time. Imagine 10000 Syrian-war veteran Hizbullah fighters descending on a thinly manned border while people are protesting a judicial reform. Might have taken 6 months to drive them off if at all. Who knows how many dead.
View original postThis thought alone, that the north could be captured while I am at the office, makes the ground shake under our collective feet.
Hizbullah is stronger conventionally than Hamas, no doubt, but on the other hand, they are a Lebanese political player and in the end care more about their position in Lebanon than about attacking Israel. So I see them as less of a problem in the greater scheme of things.
View original postSo now there is really nothing to it but to kill as many Hamas and friends as possible. And yeah, the hard part will come after, because I have no idea what to do with that black hole.
Nor does anyone else, that I've seen - except most of us think that if you couldn't think of a viable endgame, you shouldn't have gone in like that in the first place. As the Americans showed already several times over, in this century and the previous one.
View original postPersonally, I think the PA should control it with IDF backing, sort of reversing the 2005 withdrawl. But that doesn't have much support, so I don't know.
The false narrative of the double standard
- 09/12/2023 02:33:25 PM
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ok *NM*
- 09/12/2023 07:27:01 PM
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Is this a good summary, NYT?
- 10/12/2023 01:20:47 AM
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They dug their own graves
- 11/12/2023 12:24:16 AM
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There was an op-ed in the Washington Post claiming that antisemitism meets the Brandenburg standard.
- 11/12/2023 01:01:39 AM
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Re: They dug their own graves
- 11/12/2023 03:15:59 AM
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rhetorical question Mookie (it does not matter the answer)
- 11/12/2023 03:45:11 AM
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There's a lot of double standards involved, aren't there?
- 11/12/2023 07:02:06 PM
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We could go on and on with this
- 11/12/2023 08:58:28 PM
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Yep, I know.
- 12/12/2023 06:18:49 PM
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Where do you get your stats ?
- 14/12/2023 07:09:02 AM
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the Hamas Ministry of Stats is likely an under-count
- 14/12/2023 12:57:46 PM
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Given the nature of Hamas, the numbers are likely an overcount
- 14/12/2023 01:16:00 PM
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whatever
- 14/12/2023 02:50:53 PM
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Given the choice between believing a Democracy and an Autocratic Terrorist Gov
- 14/12/2023 04:01:54 PM
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Chora I believe both are capable of lying
- 14/12/2023 04:16:14 PM
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Obviously, anyone is capable of lying.
- 14/12/2023 04:30:29 PM
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You know that Roland is incapable of stating that the terrorist org Hamas is more likely to lie
- 14/12/2023 04:38:30 PM
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What stats are you contesting, exactly?
- 14/12/2023 02:12:18 PM
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Re: What stats are you contesting, exactly?
- 17/12/2023 02:34:34 PM
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Yeah, I'm still confused what you're trying to claim about the numbers
- 17/12/2023 10:51:00 PM
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Because no one in the Arab world wants the "Palestinians"
- 14/12/2023 01:18:31 PM
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From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free
- 13/12/2023 03:01:21 PM
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The idea is free from foreign oppression - internal freedom is, indeed, another story.
- 14/12/2023 02:33:21 PM
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Re: The idea is free from foreign oppression - internal freedom is, indeed, another story.
- 14/12/2023 03:13:36 PM
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Re: The idea is free from foreign oppression - internal freedom is, indeed, another story.
- 14/12/2023 03:39:55 PM
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From my perspective,
- 14/12/2023 04:09:31 PM
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Well that's how it was at first... but I don't think you can go back there now.
- 14/12/2023 07:57:52 PM
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Re: From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free
- 14/12/2023 03:32:17 PM
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Is the point to imply that 'pre-1948' meant no Israeli state at all?
- 14/12/2023 03:56:59 PM
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So Claudine Gay, Harvard Pres resigns
- 02/01/2024 05:55:09 PM
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