Arab-Americans are not collectively responsible for a few wingnuts at a protest.
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Maybe they want civilians to at a fucking minimum have access to electricity, basic healthcare, food and water? And maybe their boss could flex a bit harder, seeing as how Israel needs his military gear?
Calling it right now, Israel (edit, the government) already worse than Hamas in this conflict - and this is just the warm-up.
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yeah this guy has lost my vote. Iām a moron for once looking forward to voting for him in 2028. Besides trying to capitalize on this heās been vetoing laws that have passed the CA legislature unanimously.
Two things are true: Israel must do something, and what itās doing now is indefensible. So whatās the alternative?
I put this question to anyone I could think of: a large group ranging from retired Israeli officers to Palestinian intellectuals to counterterrorism experts to scholars of the ethics and law of war. I read everything I could find that on the topic, scouring reporting and the academic literature for better ideas.
The answer that emerged was deceptively simple: make the right choice where America made the wrong one. Israel should launch a targeted counterrorism operation aimed at Hamas leadership and the fighters directly involved in the October 7 attack, one that focuses on minimizing both civilian casualties and the scope of ground operations in Gaza.
āGo in for a few weeks or less, trying to find Hamas leaders and destroying tunnels, weapons caches, etc,ā says Dan Byman, a professor at Georgetown who studies Israeli counterterrorism.
But this counterterrorism approach must be paired with a broader political outreach designed to address the root causes of Hamasā support.
But this counterterrorism approach must be paired with a broader political outreach designed to address the root causes of Hamasā support.
Israel, as a democracy,
That means, once the current war ends, Israel needs to begin addressing the root causes of Hamas support. That starts with rolling back its de facto annexation of the West Bank
And so on.
Holy sweet summer child. If the Israeli government were this rational weād never be here in the first place.
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I took it as an argument that we are here in the first place because Israel has not been reasonable, that there is no purely military solution to the problem of Hamas. The article is an argument that pro-Israel Democrats need to temper their support unless Israel changes its approach.
Yeah the article seemed fine and even with optimal suggestions for the hopeless situation Israel is in. Iām incredibly pessimistic that this particular Israeli government would be even remotely this rational though.
Gotta say I have little (but more) hope on the Democrat side as well. Not until civilian casualties are truly.horrific.
Israel is currently in the first phase of the plan, Gallant says, āāin which a military campaign takes place with fire, to be followed by a maneuver whose purpose is to destroy operatives and damage infrastructure in order to undermine and destroy Hamas," Gallant told the members of the committee.
The second phase is the expected ground campaign, Gallant said, ācontinuing the fighting at a lower intensity and eliminating pockets of resistance.ā This also includes the elimination of Hamas personnel and destroying its military and governing capabilities.
In the third phase, said Gallant, Israel will ensure āthe creation of a new security regime in the Gaza Strip, the removal of Israelās responsibility for life in the Gaza Strip and the creation of a new security reality for the citizens of Israel and the residents of the [Israeli] area near the border.ā
Presumably this third phase is not the creation of a Palestinian state. The only other alternative would be bribing Egypt to annex Gaza, or expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza into Egypt.
The plot continues to thicken on the hospital strike:
https://twitter.com/ForensicArchi/status/1715422493274427414
Thread summarized by Al-Jazeera here:
Forensic Architecture, a research group based at the University of London, analysed photos of the impact crater at the scene, saying that āpatterns of radial fragmentation on the southwest side of the impact crater, as well as a shallow channel leading into the crater from the northeastā indicate the projectile likely came from the northeast ā āthe direction of the Israeli-controlled side of the Gaza perimeterā.
Chris Cobb-Smith, an investigator and explosives expert, also agreed the evidence indicated the projectile may have come from the opposite direction claimed by the Israeli military, according Forensic Architecture.
This lined up with the conclusions of a so-called āDoppler Effect analysisā by the Earshot audio investigation group, which looked at sound waves related to distance, and found that the missile likely approached from the northeast, east, or southeast, but not from the west as Israelās military has claimed.
Forensic Architecture conclude it may have been an artillery strike. It seems odd that an artillery strike would produce a fireball of the type we saw, or burnt out cars, etc. But again, Iām not an explosionologist.
It was long and repetitive and while I donāt disagree with anything in particular, I found this a very good and true quote:
āThere wonāt be a turn to the left. But there could be, for lack of a better term, a turn to the radical center,ā Sachs,
What I hope for is freeing the hostages and then going Munich-style on every Hamas leader. I agree and said from the beginning that I think the targeted killing of the early-mid 2000s were very beneficial for the deterrence Israel needs as well of course as those in the 70ās and 80ās that built up Mossadās mythical reputation.
But again, this almost certainly comes at a price of a ground invasion of some sorts and whenever you start a ground invasion you never really control where you end up.
I think one thing the article misses out is on the interchangable nature of Hamas political strengthhold on Gaza and itās military operation. For years it was considered seperate, even (or especially) by Bibiās regime. Now it is clear that it is not, as an operation of this magnitude could not have happened without considerable cooperation. It makes thing a far more complicated. similar to Taliban and Al Qaida when it comes to couterterrorism.
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The lack of photos by Hamas, including those of damages and casaulties is the biggest indication you can have that thereās 0% it was IDF. I would easily bet my life savings on it.
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Yeah it turns out that this āForensic Architectureā thing is founded Eyal Weizman who is an anti-Israel activist and the group is not remotely qualified to do this sort of analysis. Also their example picture of what an artillery impact looks like is in fact a Russian rocket.
https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1715562790805479663
So yeahā¦ probably not giving these guys a lot of credibility.
Rafah Crossing opens for humanitarian aid.
Itās a double edge sword reading the replies on some of the telegram type israeli news sites (not sure how popular those are in the US if at all). On one hand it seems like Bibi has literally no more base and it might actually be the end of his corrupt and incompetent regime. Otoh itās not because they are happy that trucks of medications and food are allowed in Gaza.
How do you think the endgame for his government looks like? How soon could it happen?
Also, 20 trucks were let through apparently. Such humanitarianism.
1400 mudered in the most vile way possible and 200+ hostages still held including babies and elderly. The overwhelming majority of the population here would rather set those trucks on fire.
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All it takes is 5 coalition members to vote against. It wont happen prior to the ground invasion thats for sure.
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