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

Iran took at shot at Bibi this morning. Did not get him. Not too sure that was smart.

 

"Instead, we advised the Israeli government on a different approach, and it worked."

In other words, the Biden administration made it clear to the Israelis that mass civilian casualties would force the US to take punitive action. Without knowing what might actually be going on behind closed doors, I wish the US would do more to pressure Israeli to pause operations now using what leverage we have. Never ending war will just create an endless supply of terrorists who live only for revenge.

 

Your "in other words," is a false narrative. It is your interpretation, filtered through anti-Israeli propaganda parroted by media. And government officials "leaking" information not aligned with the White House. Typically from the State Department, which has a long history in this respect.

The actual view of the administration was the set forth in the official statement by President Biden when Sinwar was killed.

I will link it, though it is not copyrighted.

Statement from President Joe Biden on the Death of Yahya Sinwar | The White House

"With our intelligence help, the IDF relentlessly pursued Hamas’s leaders, flushing them out of their hiding places and forcing them onto the run. There has rarely been a military campaign like this, with Hamas leaders living and moving through hundreds of miles of tunnels, organized in multiple stories underground, determined to protect themselves with no care for the civilians suffering above ground. Today, however, proves once again that no terrorists anywhere in the world can escape justice, no matter how long it takes."

That is, and was, the reality of this war.

From Mid East Forum:

https://www.meforum.org/mef-online/ceasefire-in-gaza-would-have-saved-sinwar

"Hanson: Israel conducted a very measured campaign to go into a succession of neighborhoods in Gaza, wiping out the Hamas fighters in them and pushing the rest of them out into the next neighborhood. Hamas kept moving and hiding amongst a new group of civilians, and one of the last holdouts they had was in Rafah."

Hamas' false death statistics have been repeated; the independent analyses showing the figures are BS are routinely ignored.

Nor has Israel targeted "mass civilian casualties." There have been because those are unavoidable in urban warfare.

But, Hamas counts on civilian casualties. Because they can't win conventionally. Their survival depends on waving videos of dead babies to trigger world pressure on Israel.

And it has worked. Except for the fact that Joe Biden is the leader of the free world and he has stood up for Israel.

Another false narrative has been that Bibi has not wanted a deal.

Every time they asked Blinken that question, he said that Sinwar held up a deal.

Now, it is clear that there was never going to be a deal because Sinwar wanted a regional war.

Which, by the way, it has been since October 8. When Hezbollah started firing its 8000+ rockets into Israel.

It is now known that in the early days of the war, Israel stopped Hezbollah from engaging in an October 7 style attack in the north.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah is not supposed to be within 20 miles of the border. UNIFIL troops are supposed to prevent that.

How did Hezbollah set up positions within that area? How did they build a tunnel system?

Why are they able to operate so close to the UNIFIL troops? And, why won't those troops leave? Why are their governments allowing them to be in harms way?

 

Khameni has always been fair game. One message sent by the B2 bombers in Yemen this week.

 

And here has been the US government position on the reason there has been no deal in Gaza.


Kirby slams Hamas chief Sinwar as 'the major obstacle' to cease-fire, hostage release deal with Israel


During an appearance on "Fox News Sunday," Kirby responded to The Wall Street Journal's reporting that senior U.S. officials who hoped for months for a cease-fire and hostage release deal now do not expect Israel and Hamas to reach an agreement before the end of President Biden's term. The report cited administration officials as saying Hamas makes demands and "then refuses to say ‘yes’ after the U.S. and Israel accept them."

"It's certainly apparent to us that Mr. Sinwar remains the big obstacle here to getting a deal. And it certainly is the case that he has done nothing in the recent weeks to prove that he's willing to move this forward in a good faith way. He is the major obstacle, no question about it," Kirby said Sunday. "It's tough to get them to say yes to things that he's already said that he wanted. So it's very, very difficult."

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/04/us/politics/sinwar-hamas-israel-hezbollah-iran.html

The leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, has become fatalistic after nearly a year of war in Gaza and is determined to see Israel embroiled in a wider regional conflict, U.S. officials said.

Mr. Sinwar has long believed he will not survive the war, a view that has hindered negotiations to secure the release of hostages seized by his group in the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, according to U.S. intelligence assessments.

His attitude has hardened in recent weeks, U.S. officials say, and American negotiators now believe that Hamas has no intention of reaching a deal with Israel.

Sinwar’s death offers an opening to end the war in Gaza – and a test for Netanyahu

Biden administration officials viewed Sinwar as an uncompromising, ruthless figure who was unmoved by the suffering and the deaths of more than 40,000 Palestinians as a result of Israel’s retaliation for the Oct. 7 attack.During months of indirect negotiations for an elusive hostage-release agreement and a cease-fire deal in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, Sinwar was often seen as an obstacle to freeing the hostages, which he saw as the ultimate bargaining chip, current and former U.S. officials said.

The Biden administration “had largely come to the conclusion that, as long as Sinwar was there, there was no possibility of a hostage deal,” Dennis Ross, who shaped Middle East policy under three presidents, said in a virtual briefing organized by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

 

Already read all of this, but thanks for sharing.

 

You mean now that Israel is in the best position they have ever been in to be able to finish off Hamas, you want them to pull back? Even when the new head of Hamas is still refusing to hand over the remaining hostages?

 

Somebody (possibly in the U.S.) appears to have published top secret info on Israel's attack plans for Iran. Not good for Israel or U.S. - Israeli relations.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/10/19/politics/us-israel-iran-intelligence-documents/index.html

 

I don’t think it’s possible to kill the last of Hamas because more war will create more terrorists.

 

So Israel should just accept that Hamas will always be in Gaza and they have to be willing to accept Oct 7th style of attacks on the country ever so often?

 

Is that what they've done here? Really? I did not suggest that they don't defend themselves. I'm saying that they'll never completely wipe out their enemies and that it's time to negotiate hostage exchange and an end to hostilities. They've already killed way too many innocent civilians. How many dead arabs are enough? 10 for every Israeli lost? 100? 1,000,000?

 

Israel needs to continue until those varmints that started this are wiped out or diminished greatly. You do realize this isn't a war against Arabs as you libbies falsely claim, this should have been done years ago. Nobody likes to see innocent people killed including Israel. War is horrible but is they are doing what has to be done. It's going to be nice to have a strong leader like Netanyahu when President Trum gets reelected

 

How are they supposed to negotiate with an entity that requires the belief that Israel should not exist to be part of it? How many times has Israel tried to make peace deals only for the other side to refuse to accept the deal? The question is how many more times do we need to go through this?

 

I was about to post this as well. Two points:

1. This is precisely why our allies do not trust us with their plans, no matter how dependent they are on our military aid. So if you said to yourself, “Why were we caught off guard by Ukraine’s operation into Kursk,” then you have your answer.

2. This “investigation” into the leak will go nowhere. Jake Sullivan is the source of the leak, so no one, not even a patsy will be held accountable.

 

Tough to negotiate with people who take hostages in the first place and would rather sacrifice their kids to kill you.

Israel doesn’t have a lot of viable options here that don’t involve violence.

 

I genuinely don’t understand the people preaching “negotiation” at this point in the conflict. It would not save innocent lives in the long run.

1) You can’t negotiate with people who take hostages and whose primary objective is killing you.
2) If the conflict against Israel is rooted in anti-semitism, they will be hated no matter what. Negotiations won’t change that, it will only change the strength of their enemies.
3) Thus, if Israel stops fighting, it’s only a matter of time before they are attacked again. If they keep fighting, sure it’s only a matter of time before they’re attacked again. But their enemies will truly threaten them to a far lesser extent simply because they will be weaker.

The choice could not be more obvious to me.

 

I said it was no win. The goal should be hostage return and an absolute minimum of civilian deaths, not killing absolutely every last Hamas rat because this is a goal that will never be achieved.

 

So is Hamas allowed to continue to exist in Gaza in this scenario?

 

And preventing future terror attacks and takings of hostages.

Giving the terrorists everything they want is a great way to ensure future takings of hostages and acts of terror.

You want to send the message of "consequences if you take hostages."