2023 Israel Conflict - Ground Forces Enter Gaza

nobody who left Palestine is regretting it now. perhaps Israel should just buy all of Gaza and then each Palestinian relocates somewhere else in the world with a lottery system? other countries shouldn’t mind refugees if they are coming with funds. even if there is ever a Palestine state in the future, it’ll just be a countdown for before the jihadists are back in power and waging a war with Israel or causing a civil war.

My idea would be to clear out the settlements in the West Bank and relocate Gazans to there so that Palestinians can have their own state without an exclave, but I would also want reparations for any Palestinian forced to move.

Turned on Anderson Cooper, which was showing a graphic video of badly wounded hostages being loaded into the back of a pickup truck by Hamas. Tough to watch.

Forcibly relocating ethic groups has not worked out well over the past 200 years.

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2m people x $50k each is only $100b. A family of five getting $250k to start over somewhere seems like a good deal.

There is no real solution if we are being honest with ourselves. The media and government is playing up that Hamas are the bad guys and Palestinians are their victims but I have seen no compelling argument that Hamas didn’t have the support of a majority of the population. If every Hamas fighter is killed and a PLO government is recreated, it will just be a countdown before the jihadists take over again. Western friendly puppet governments haven’t worked anywhere in the Middle East. The only stable form of government in the middle east are brutal dictatorships.

20000 years

Hamas only got 44% in their last election. A lot of their population wasn’t even old enough to vote in 2006. It seems unlikely they would win an election now.

There’s a big question here. Do we truly value democracy, self-determination, and authenticity or do we, like Republicans, only care about democracy if we believe it can further our interests and otherwise are willing to throw it in the trash can if it doesn’t allow us to accomplish out preferred outcomes? We don’t truly value democracy if we aren’t willing to let the “wrong” guys win in a fair election. We don’t truly value democracy if we take the colonialist attitude that democracy is only deserved by enlightened (usually Western or Westernized people) and not by those seen as savages.

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My current main concern, other than the hostages and possible WWIII, is the situation in the West Bank. Seems like more clashes every day between IDF forces and local forces. A collapse of the PLO would be catastrophical right now imo, including to my own personal safety.

While some of you might not believe it, Bibi actually has a very long history of being anti-war. Not for any pacifist reasons and not because he wants peace, but because he wants the look of stability on the outside while he gets to keep his reign and corruption going. His current coalition is far form his favorite. It was “forced” on him by every sane person in the political sphere refusing to sit with him. This includes right wing hawks like Bennett and Liberman.

All this to say that Bibi isn’t really keen on going to war in Gaza even right now in the lowest point of any Israeli politician since 1973. Otoh his coalition partners, who openly wish to colonize every inch of the WB, created such an enviorment there that he really couldn’t control it even if he wanted. I’m not sure how much more abuse the Palestinians can take there before it explodes.

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I honestly have no idea and really raising it as a question I thought about recently - Would India/Pakistan/Bangladesh sitaution be better or worse without Partition day. The horror stories are plenty and the tension never went away, but who knows what the alternative would have looked like now (as in - really, i wonder if someone has a good theory on it)

There are roughly 1.5M Israeli Arabs. I think a gigantic majority would identify as Palestinians. Their situation is far from ideal and crime rates have gone off the charts in the last 5 years, but all in all the situation is manageable for both sides. Even now, when tensions are at all time high. This really is simplfying a very complicated issue, but the point remains - Palestinians aren’t predestined to actively support Hamas.

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Is there concern that if the consensus is that he’s gone as soon as this is over, for some definition of “this”, then he will prolong the situation as much as possible to remain in power, including finding a way to expand it to other countries?

I don’t think Israel can handle multiple fronts right now and certianly don’t think Bibi wishes to do that. Prolonging the war in Gaza - certainly. He has already sent his media army to push a campaign of delaying the ground invasion for military reasons

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Perhaps it’s possible that geographic size and conditions would work in Gaza’s favor and make it more manageable than other regions to prevent civil war if the US pours money into it post-war - but I just think that the region is destined for perpetual chaos.

Ehhhh kinda sorta, but what we’re really seeing here is ethno-nationalism, a more recent product of 19th century Europe: the theory that different ethnic/racial groups all need to be herded into their own little nation-states and everyone will be happy. It led to all kinds of forced migrations, a few genocides, and two ginormous world wars, plus the Arab/Israeli crisis.

My plan is $50k/person and spread them out all over the world.

My main worry is that he would like for the US to be at war with Iran and that I think he is the sort of person who have no problems lying to make it happen.

Upon further review, this may have worked out ok.

I haven’t read any good pieces on why the ground invasion has been delayed. What’s your view and/or the oppositional media view?

The claim that the Biden administration has asked for a delay to allow for more humanitarian aid and hostage negotiations seems plausible to me. Obviously, no US official would go on record saying that and no Israeli official would admit to being told what to do, but if fits with the kind of man that I think Biden is, that he will try to do some good but won’t try to do things that he thinks are impossible.

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… Biden taking political heat at home over Gaza?