Netanyahu tells Israel ‘We are at war’ after Hamas launches an unprecedented attack, killing at leas

Great minds find the same article. See post 372.

jk. It’s a good article.

 

I was just catching up this morning. And please, for the love of all that is good, don’t debase your mind by comparing it to mine.

 

Palestinians are not likely to be Christian. There are 5-6 million Palestinians in Gaza, West, Bank, and Israel, with about 50,000 of them being Christian. Most of the Palestinian Christians live in the West Bank, and only about 1100 in Gaza.

The sad thing for Palestinian Christians is that they are squeezed in a vice with radical orthodox Jews on one side and radical Muslims on the other.

 

Regrettably I doubt that.

 

What kind? Clearly Hamas, and of course the folks that gave you Black Hawk Down, or certain Iraqis whom did the same to American contractors.

 

Israel is now bombing Hamas targets in Gaza, as expected. But that's just it: as expected. If Hamas planned these attacks for months, as long as 2 years, wouldn't that plan include getting away from any Hamas targets known to Israel? Or has Israeli intelligence recovered so quickly that it actually knows where real Hamas targets are right now in Gaza? Just wondering if the present bombing can be hurting Hamas at all or is for show.

 

Was going to chime in to say that the Christian population in Gaza is negligible. While there are some Palestinian Christians in the West Bank, Gaza is demographically over 99% Sunni Muslim.

 

But don't kid yourself, young men, encouraged to violence, show no bounds.
Irregardless of country affiliation.

 

Not for show hundreds possibly housands of civilians are being killed. And I assume a lesser amount of Hammas

 

I suppose we’ll soon find out whether Hamas fired thousands of rockets, on Israel, and then decided to hide in Gaza to be destroyed by Israeli air strikes.

 

Hamas, in addition to being a terrorist organization, also literally is the government in Gaza, so it’s not really possible for it to just not be there anymore.

I mean, it will very likely cease to be there in short order (Israel is likely going to destroy everything even resembling the existing Hamas structure and take the position that Hamas cannot be a legitimate governing entity and they won’t tolerate the continued presence of Hamas in Gaza anymore), but it can’t really just leave on its own unless Gaza has ceased to be governed at all.

 

I admit to being uneducated about Gaza but given Israel is shutting everything down, what are the odds of Israel taking control and expelling the Arab population?

In-humane, sure, but not out of the question given the current situation.

Benji may be many things but he is a fierce defender of Israel and I have no doubt the response will be draconian.

 

Would not surprise me to see Israel go Rome vs Carthage in Gaza, tear it down, salt it, plow it under.

I wonder if Benji hits Iran?

 

Expelling the Arab population isn’t really possible. It’s effectively the entire population of Gaza, Gaza is one of the most densely populated places on earth, and other Arab countries don’t want to take the Gazan population because they fear it will upset their own somewhat delicate political balance to take in two million people whose established leadership and governance structure is a terrorist organization.

The Arab nation in close proximity to Gaza is Egypt, which tellingly has also had its own blockade of Gaza for a pretty long time now.

 

Thanks Ben, I imagine scatching out an existence in Gaza going forward may induce another refugee crises.

 

If Israel is literally the Netanyahu government now it should be leveled too. I think they will find if they eradicate Hamas, something worse will replace it, always does. Like ISIS after AQ. Right-wingers always think a final confrontation is decisive. Really I think Likud and Hamas need each other, but if something worse comes, that is fine for Likud too. It gives them meaning.

 

Don't assume that's possible.

 

Gosh, how did Hamas get leadership? And why would anyone vote for them? And I'm sure the Egyptians reject Hamas for the way they treat Israelis. So much better for the Palestinians to have the PA. Look how well it's worked for them in the West Bank.

I really don't want to have this conversation but it feels like you know better and are deliberately misleading

 

They are not going to do that, they want the land for the Jewish population. They are just going to do ethnic cleansing.

 

This is what occurs to me. The only reason for Hamas to do what they did on Saturday is to provoke Israel to come into Gaza, just like Hezbollah wanted Israel to invade southern Lebanon in 2006. It could be that the real preparations are what Hamas has done to turn Gaza into death ground for the IDF. Maybe Israel is taking a deliberate, systematic approach to its siege instead of just emotionally rushing into the teeth of Hamas defenses like in the 2006 war. Part of that might be softening up the defenses with airpower when practical. The biggest problem I see is the network of tunnels under Gaza that almost certainly extends into Egypt. I think one of Israel’s first moves needs to saturating that border with the strongest ground-penetrating ordnance available in the hope of collapsing some of those tunnels. Otherwise, how can you possibly isolate the city? Another awful consideration that the PM probably has to make is thinking of those hostages as dead already.