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

You thought that, but I don't think the priest instructed you that "dont worry about those commandments, there is plenty of wiggle room for interpretation"

 

Agree.
So doesn’t that say a lot about our personalities?
We had the priest over for dinner back then and I recall hearing him cuss on occasion and he definitely had beers.
I can read between the lines just fine.

 

Israel is a population of 10 million. Literally surrounded by a billion Muslims (Gaza itself is 2+ million Muslims packed into a tiny prison-like city).

They cannot win a war of attrition if they piss off their neighbors, the ones that have real militaries. Their response must be measured or it truly would be an existential threat to the people of Israel. I don’t think Israel is about to go full genocide against Gaza in response, they will remain professional military. But it is a concern when any government tips towards hardline religious orthodoxy. It’s also a concern if their operation in Gaza goes badly or fails to root out Hamas. Obviously Hamas is all about Islamic fundamentalism, their goal is to draw Israel into a full scale and broader war which leads to their ultimate destruction. That is the purpose of their barbarism. You really cannot defeat that with more barbarism.

 

“An eye for an eye” still works, to an even greater degree with a group like Hamas, who doesn’t value human life. Most Palestinians do value human life and will not sit around forever idly while their leadership leads them to slaughter. In the case of Israel taking an eye for an eye, that carnage is brought directly to the Palestinians front door step and there is no way to ignore it. You can’t negotiate with terrorists. You can only speak to them in a language they will understand. There is no silver bullet or easy solution here, but not hitting back would only empower a group like Hamas more. That’s what they are hoping for.

 

Pro-life can be such a "fluid" concept.

 

Oh, I have full trust and confidence in the Justice Department to find creative ways (if it wants to) of strangling off funding from the U.S. and charging deserving people with giving aid and comfort to the enemy. If CAIR et al wants to cry that their money was being used for humanitarian purposes, no problem, we just use seized funds for humanitarian goods and personally supervise that it is not repurposed, as is so often the case. Surely, CAIR can’t object to the government making sure their money is not diverted to nefarious purposes, right?

 

Bad look for Bibi as he went on air denying Egyptian notification.

 

I dont know, I questioned religion because the supernatural elements could not be supported by reality, not because I found the ethical instructions of Christ problematic.

 

The answer is none, just like 1948, 1967, and ever since. Contrast that with Israel, which has resettled all of the Jewish refugees kicked out of Arab countries without a penny to their name.

 

“Hiding” things is putting them in places that are hard to find.

That’s not what Hamas does. Folks have a pretty good idea where a lot of their stuff is.

What they do is put things in places that are hard to target without inflicting a bunch of unwanted damage.

There’s a reason that no real government does things like house their command and control functions in a pre-school, or build a bomb factory in a hospital basement. And it’s primarily because most real governments aren’t actively trying to put their civilian populations in danger.

Hamas, however, has a somewhat different calculus because they live in effectively a 2 million person ghetto with one of the highest birth rates on earth, so people are interchangeable and replaceable, and at the end of the day news coverage of “Israel bombs children’s hospital” is probably more useful to their movement than a trailer full of AKs would have been in the first place.

 

Well yeah, you can connect the dots but that’s another topic now ain’t it.

 

I dont know how to solve Israel/Palestine but it definitely wont be solved if they are both killing each other. As I have said on countless threads, unless root problems are confronted, no headway will ever be made. Someone has to stand up and end the cycle of violence, and I think realistically Israel is the only one in the position to do that, they are the occupying power after all. But they have a government that would never do that, because its a bunch of right-wing nationalist psychos who dont care about international law and know they can do pretty much anything as long as the US is in their pocket and they fear no sanction. The least we can do is refuse them arms, but that isnt going to happen either, because Israel has a pretty powerful hold on US politics.

 

I hear you. There should be an investigation, no doubt, and there should be accountability. All of that is important but not urgent. Dealing with Hamas now, while world opinion holds, is what is urgent. A full investigation and accountability can wait till after when it can be done correctly and dispassionately and does not distract from the main effort.

 

No real government has to do that, they get to have all the arms they want in the open because they arent under defacto military occupation living as second class citizens lol.

 

The root cause is religion and it’s no secret.
These people on each side are born into this life where they both believe they are hurting others in the name of god.
Its a culture that will not change and therefore the bloodshed will continue.

 

Well, the most likely taker would be the Egyptians to the south but as usual the border is closed, which makes the notion of Palestinians who don't support Hamas leaving the country rather absurd. Also, they certainly cant flee to Israel or the sea. They have nowhere to go and are essentially at the mercy of Hamas and Israel bombs.

Im sure a few Palestinians, probably those that have dual citizenship with the US/Canada, etc, will be able to get out but not many. The carnage and property devastation will be epic. One can only hope that this carnage does not spread into Lebanon or Jordan.

 

This may have been posted already

 

Over the years I have had some sympathy for this view, and I’m definitely not a fan of Netenyahu and his clan. But at the same time, I don’t think there is any dealing with Hamas. They are a radical Islamist terrorist group whose goal is to wipe out Israel. There is no negotiating with them, and Gaza Palestinians elected them as their government.

It really comes down to do we recognize Israel’s right to exist or not. You can debate history but we are where we are. There is no peace as long as racialized Palestinian elements are around opposing Israel’s existence. Hamas could give two shits about a 2 state solution.

Ultimately i think we side with Israel, and IMO at this point Israel needs to occupy Gaza temporarily and do its best to eradicate Hamas. Also at this point I think US and Israel should take military action against Iran.

At some point if Gaza settles with Israel occupying then perhaps cede occupation to a coalition of Arab govts like Egypt and SA.

 

True enough, not today's priority.
However, given Bibi's recent attempts to take over all aspects of government, while silencing his critics, a full investigation (correctly and dispassionately) seems quite unlikely at any point.

 

Once again BLM winning friends.