Tell you what. I’m going to be pissed at both. Bibi has Ben Givr and Smotrich in his cabinet. They are horrible men. Bibi is a horrible man. Sinwar is a horrible man. Hamas is horrible, the occupation is horrible, the settlers are horrible. Israel is not standing on moral high ground at present, not after 10s of thousands killed as collective punishment.
AMEN!
Agreed. If the IDF really cared about minimizing Palestinian casualties then the numbers from Gaza would be a fraction of what they have actually been. I am a supporter of Israel. However, I am not a supporter of this government. They have shown a total disregard for the Palestinian civilians of Gaza. One of the most defenseless people in the world.
We are taking care of "our business" which is why we are involved in the world's conflicts. The world is an interconnected place both economically and culturally - we are in this together. Isolationism is impossible in the modern world. Our country is also home as a majority to one of those "crazy organized religions." And while religion is the justification - it is not the sole reason for the destruction and chaos.
It's origins are tribal and the religions involved are certainly a very significant aspect of that tribalism, but it is true that religion is often used as a justification in situations that are largely unjustifiable otherwise.
I'd agree with this.On the plus side Israel's actions in Gaza have left Hamas a shell of what it once was, and unable to launch another 10/7 type attack:
Israel has achieved all that it can militarily in Gaza, according to senior American officials, who say continued bombings are only increasing risks to civilians while the possibility of further weakening Hamas has diminished.
With the Biden administration racing to get cease-fire negotiations back on track, a growing number of national security officials across the government said that the Israeli military had severely set back Hamas but would never be able to completely eliminate the group.
In many respects, Israel’s military operation has done far more damage against Hamas than U.S. officials had predicted when the war began in October.
Israeli forces can now move freely throughout Gaza, the officials said, and Hamas is bloodied and damaged. Israel has destroyed or seized crucial supply routes from Egypt into Gaza. About 14,000 combatants in Gaza have been killed or captured, the Israeli military said last month. (The U.S. intelligence agencies use different, more conservative methodologies to estimate Hamas casualties, though the precise number remains classified.)
The Israeli military also asserted that it had eliminated half the leadership of the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, including the top leaders Muhammad Deif and Marwan Issa.
“Hamas is largely depleted but not wiped out, and the Israelis may never achieve the total annihilation of Hamas,” said Ralph Goff, a former senior C.I.A. official who served in the Middle East.
But U.S. officials believe that Israel has achieved a meaningful military victory. Hamas is no longer capable of planning or executing an attack on the scale of Oct. 7, and its ability to launch smaller terrorist attacks on Israel is in doubt, they say.
Hamas has been so damaged in the war that its officials have told international negotiators it is willing to give up civilian control of Gaza to an independent group after a cease-fire is in place. How long Hamas will be willing to give up a measure of its power will depend on what happens after a cease-fire, and what concessions Israel is prepared to make, American officials said.
In Gaza, Israel’s Military Has Reached the End of the Line, U.S. Officials Say
Israel has severely set back Hamas but will never be able to completely eliminate the group, U.S. officials said.www.nytimes.com
The PLO, Hamas, Hezbollah over the decades have leveraged religion, but mostly it's been about "driving the Jews to the sea."
Thats ridiculous.....easy to be self sufficient if we werent so greedy ad power hungry. Plenty of countries are basically self sufficient. As far religions, they are the main justifications for the chaos and have been for centuries.
I've found discourse that attempts to use history to justify the current situation largely a waste of time.
What country in this world is "basically" self sufficient?
No we left Germany in shambles and did nothing to help afterwards.
I don't really think that is a supportable statement. Hamas is a theocratic organization, Islamist to the core. Whether or not its reliance on terrorism is specific to the religion, the specific methodologies surely are. I don't know of any non-Islamic terrorist organizations (of which there are many) who use suicide bombings as their primary offensive weapon (which has been true of Islamism basically everywhere until quite recently).
I can't tell you if we are best buddies with Israel-because we took the UN Que after WW II-or, well we are hugely involved in the Middle East because of Oil . But after 9/11 I think it is given we will be involved in that region-forever Now I will grant you there might not have beeen a 9/11 if we had not been so involved-but yea oil