CDR, very nice summation of how we got here. Have to wonder how long Israel has before the shock and horror wears off, and the usual IC, US leftist, Russia and China suspects demand a ceasefire for "humanitarian" reasons. It will likely be up to the Biden administration to either support Israel as they root out Hamas, or join the chorus of "enough". The question of where to put the Hamas "fighters" that you don't kill is a real problem; the Arabs won't take them, Egypt has closed the border with Gaza for years...build large prisons? Still reaching for a real motive here; hatred of Israel only goes so far when you are getting annihilated in response. Did someone break a promise of support when they attacked, or is there something else in play here?
But like the Argentine government did, sedate them, so when a@sshole foreigners complain about dead prisoners, Israelis can say, "They were alive I last saw them".
I don't have links immediately handy but IIRC there have already been calls for ceasefires, and generally acting as if Israel is the only one that has to stand down. The world leaders may not be saying it aloud at the moment, but that particular pump is certainly being primed.
Of course they count. But how much more than children on the other side? There will be more than enough dead civilians, including children, to satiate anyone thirsty for blood. Pushing all the population into the sea goes to far though.
We have children's die here in violence from crimes, drugs, sex trafficking.
Palestinian's wish to destroy every Jew in the world, then every Christian, every Pagan they want to kill and maim and cannot change. It is their culture and religion.
They are like Rabid animals and all you can do is lock them up or push them into the sea as they wish to do to Israel.
It is not our war, let those two and any others who want to join fight it out and settle this.
Did you follow the link above to the interviews with all the children who look forward to getting rid of the jews. Many are as lost as Ilhan Omar was at their age in here Somali refugee camp.
Biden created some office of Arafatstan affairs, and they posted the first official US response. It was the only response for hours and lasted until someone further up the food chain had them remove it.
It's already starting to turn on them. Just follow the BBC live coverage and you can see it. If Israel is going to launch their ground invasion, they need to go in the next 72 hours.
Egypt needs to be pressured into accepting Palestinian refugees from Gaza. There is a lot of US aid going to Egypt which should be used as leverage. Allowing refugees into Egypt will reduce civilian casualties and reduce Hamas' ability to use them as shields. It will also create space in the Information Domain for Israel to maneuver.
The question for the Biden administration (really the people at his two houses in Delaware who are really calling the shots) is how they can salvage the Iran nuclear deal at this time while dealing with dead Americans and American hostages. I expect the media to give Joe a pass and the hostages to disappear into the abyss.
Iran wants to draw the US and Israel into a quagmire. Russia and China's interests will also be served well by the US being embroiled in another Middle East conflict.
Japan did make a statement. Basically telling both sides to stop fighting. Japan's foreign policy has been fucked since the 1920's, so don't expect much moral clarity there.
Dadgum! You did save a lot of electrons there. The hamsters on their wheels powering the interwebs certainly appreciate that. I won't be so kind to them since I'm posting the entire eighteen words.
That means, "We here in Japan have to say something and not taking sides between two foreign Nations we really don't care about but wanting peace have said what we said so the world will think we said something with virtue."
Dang I wish them there Roosters and ducks would just exercise maximum restraint and avoid further damage and casualties.
Consider what might happen if we had a place like Gaza on the US southern border. In Gaza, Hamas and other groups have periodically for the past 18 years or so, fired missiles into Israel. Just think about what might happen if the Mexican equivalent of Gaza were to fire a couple of missiles into the US - say, into San Antonio, Texas. Would there be calls for reconciliation, restraint, and negotiations? I doubt it. I think the US Air Force would probably respond in a manner that would make the current Israeli response look like an ice cream social. And you can bet that there would not only be an “armed incursion” into Mexico, but a full-on kinetic warfare invasion, the groups doing the missile firing would be dealt with harshly, and there would undoubtedly be civilian casualties, and lots of them.
Now, the Israelis have been called upon by the rest of the world, for the past 18 years to put up with this murderous nonsense, culminating in the present attack, where 5000 missiles were fired, and Hamas troops invaded Israel, taking hostages and shooting civilians in residential neighborhoods - and shooting up a rock festival in addition. Let’s say that Mexican cartels did similar things in Texas, went into small towns like, say, Eagle Pass, along the border - and there just happened to be a rock festival in the vicinity, and they shot that up, killing 260, and wounding 1000 more. And, in addition, they raped numerous young women, killed some outright, and took a couple hundred as hostages. What do you think might happen?
I used to use that what-if-this-were-Mexico analogy. But those living in the same border regions postulated are killing 100,000 Americans per year with cartel-trafficked drugs, and trafficking in a million illegals aliens annually. And I don’t see USAF doing anything about it...
Walls don't work. That is why the Egypt government paid the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to design one for their border with Gaza. We cashed their check and laughed all the way to the bank. Now just look at the tens of thousands of Gazans pouring over it every hour as they go searching for a new life in the lands of their Arab brethren.
You forget, all responses have to be proportional. I personally like the salt the ground response but as I have been told for the last 50 years that is not proportional
Nice, Stream47. You used San Antonio and Eagle Pass instead of Austin. Your post hit the proper chord with me. I'd be miffed reflexively at any of those 3 U.S. targets though. By degrees, maybe, after some reflection...but I'd hope not.
Except that we DO have a place like Gaza on the US southern border. At this point in time the drug cartels are smart enough to restrict their own overt terrorism to Mexico, but they have continued to provide travel services to Hamas members that want to enter the U.S. The cartels have been smart enough to ship them north instead of harboring them. Homeland Security says they have caught 40,000 would-be terrorists that have come across. How many have they NOT caught? Standby for this past weekend’s activities to show up in a city near you, while the FBI keeps busy watching Republicans…..
You seem to forget, we tried that. “Black Jack” Pershing and the Mexican Punitive Expedition invaded Mexico and failed in their anti-terrorist mission.
In the past you might be right, but I don't see any "America Matters" much less "America First" politicos gaining traction with our current leadership selections.
This has been going on since the Balfour declaration. The Arabs didn't want a "Jewish" state. They had no problem with the Hebrew people living there, it was the militant "Jews" that they didn't want.
If this caught the intel community by surprise, then the intel community needs to be fired and new people need to be hired. People who study history and actually watch the people.
When Hamas was elected, I kept waiting for massive attacks on Israel and it finally happened.
All they needed was support from the Ayatollah in Iran. I could even say that us taking out Iraq hastened this, because once Hussain was gone, there was nobody to keep Iran in check.
Remember Iran, the people who attacked the Marine barracks in 1983 and took hostages?
Remember the Revolutionary guards?
Remember Barrack funding the Iranian nuclear program?
Remember Trump defunding them?
Remember Biden reinstating funding?
The other Arab states could have solved this by letting the palastinians move into their countries, but refused to let it happen. These arab countries have funded Hamas and Hezbollah.
Palestinians are really Trans-Jordanian Bedouins, Nomads who owned no land.
They became refugees after the Arab/Israeli's war in 1948 I think, and no one wanted them, crowded into temporary refugee camps in Gaza and the West Bank there they sat, bred, and taught hate by design by the Arab nations to use as foot soldiers against the Israeli's.
Pretty much an inbred bunch, Egyptians don't want them, and they are mixed Trans-Jordan's and assorted Bedouins nomads and camel herders. Killers, thieves rapists and haters.
I’m always intrigued by lefties who insist they are “puzzled” as to “what they [terrorists] are trying to achieve.”
This is the fantasy of multiculturalists: that the non-Western cultures that they adore - who reject reason and rationalism, and largely are adored by the left for just that - “must” have a… wait for it … rational reason and goal for what they do.
It’s almost as though those on the left are too ignorant to follow a single line of thought to conclusion…. Or to understand the meaning of the prefix “multi” in their favorite fantasy word: “multiculturalism.”
Newsflash to lefties: pre-modern people always kill their tribal enemies. No exceptions exist. This begins as one tribe needing the resources of the other, or wants the other to stop using resources they believe are theirs: food, land, water, women.
… and then becomes baked-in as mythology, ideology, behavior, culture over time.
Supporting pre-modern peoples and being puzzled by pre-modern behavior is just dumb. Looking for rational reasons from pre-rational man is just stupid. But that’s the left...
For all the left's claims about being sophisticated and so forth, their worldview is criminally (or should be, anyway) naive, assuming that people from other lands and cultures are just like them, only with funny accents and strange looking clothes.
Great analysis and commentary. I pray the West wakes up soon and that we support Israel as they finish Hamas. Cancer grows unless removed and it’s time for major surgery before it’s too late.
Excellent and well thought out article even if you have some disagreements.
I put the blame for this attack on the Biden administration. The withdrawal from Afghanistan was a disaster. The war in Ukraine has depleted our arsenals and driven Russia into the arms of China. The hostage deal with Iran was an example of Chamberlain-like appeasement. The bottom line is America is neither feared nor respected by its adversaries. Is it any wonder that this attack happened on an ally now? Stealing elections has consequences.
I should have added that this administration was constantly trying to undermine Netanyahu over Israel's incomprehensible politics and his lack of enthusiasm for fighting Russia. I am sure that was a factor in launching the attack.
No discussion of the disfunction that permeates the Palestinian society is complete without mentioning :
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is a UN agency that supports the relief and human development of Palestinian refugees.
The Paly's are the only one with their own agency. Here are some factiods from wiki:
- UNRWA has been accused of hiring known militants, perpetuating Palestinian dependency, demonizing Israel, and funneling money from Western governments to line the pockets of the Palestinian Authority and purchasing arms for terrorists
- they employee 30000 staff.
- budget of $1B
- the per person funding of each Paly is double that of any refugees elsewhere
Hamas, with the support of the local populace, raped and murdered young women, slaughtered babies and took over 100 civilians hostage. Hamas has precipitated the existential crisis it always wanted.
Conquest, de-Nazification, resettlement of the remainder outside of some Oder-Neisse line. Worse if they fail to release the hostages.
The folks who took them in regretted it. The Saudi's took some. Sunni, Arab, needy, what's not to like. Turns out Philippinos park cars and are happy about it. They betrayed Kuwaiti's to the Iraqi's in 90. The Jordanians had to put them down several times. UNWRA loves them though. Job security...
CDR, excellent post. As to where we go from here, well, I am an American Jew who made Aliyah back in 2017, so I readily admit my objectivity might be compromised. Here, in no particular order, are my observations:
1. As always, start with geography and objective factors. Gaza shares a border with Egypt, and is heavily urbanized. Cities are notoriously difficult to fight in, and Hamas has ample resources and manpower to fortify extensively. Unless Israel seizes the Gaza side of the border or Egypt cooperates fully, ( not likely) a blockade cannot work.
2. Gaza is very much a nation-in-arms, as the population overwhelmingly supports Hamas. One need only see the glee with which Gazans participated in and enjoyed Hamas atrocities to see this. Hamas weaponizes and uses mosques, schools, hospitals and other public buildings as armories, command centers and launch pads. The customary laws of land warfare mean nothing to Hamas, as they mean nothing to Muslims as a whole. This is total war.
3. The intetnational community, for the most part, will condemn Israel and support Hamas by demanding Israel allow Hamas to use human shields and agree to a ceasefire in the shortest time, while leaving Hamas intact. This would of course be a major victory for Hamas and Iran, which is the goal.
4. Israel would be very ill served by a ceasefire. Israels goal must be the destruction of Hamas and the forced removal of tge Palestinian population as no lesser action will work. To deter future war, Hamas and the Palestinians as a whole must be not only defeated but humiliated. Islam is a shame-honor culture, and as long as the Palestinians ate not utterly beaten they will have the will to keep fighting.
5. Israel cannot afford too long a war or two many casualties. Which is why I believe a short thrust to cut Gaza off from Egypt followed by blockadexand bombardment is the best way to proceed.
I think Israel is pursuing a strategy of making Gaza unlivable for civilians in the hope that they flee into Egypt. (The US can bring a lot of pressure to bare on Egypt through aid reductions in order to get Egypt to accept more refugees) Meanwhile Israel will move into Gaza to destroy Hamas' ability to make war for a generation and establish a large DMZ between a rump Gaza territory and Israel.
Oct 10, 2023·edited Oct 10, 2023Liked by CDR Salamander
"Conservatives have never been the enemy - in the true sense of the word - of their sparing partner liberals. Liberals and conservatives do have a mutual enemy of a free and open society based on individual liberty that I believe they both aspire to, and that would be the left … but … that has yet to soak in."
CDR - you get right at the core of what is upside down about our world today. We've allowed ourselves to become totally aligned around a set of opinions and policy issues rather than any notion of competence, morality, or reason. This works ok in the beginning, when polarization isn't too violent yet. It even makes sense. But it spirals on itself, until you reach our current state of affairs: sane, reasonable liberals (they exist; I'm friends with several) find themselves willingly sharing a bed with nutjobs that would give Stalin pause and want to burn the whole world down. Conservatives of integrity and principle find themselves inside the same wagon circle as deranged and hate mongering extremists, being led by a fat orange narcissist.
I understand it is a pipe dream, but I can't help to dream of a political and social return to a time when one's views on murdering infants was more important to "are you my friend or my enemy" sorting than what one's pronouns are or whether they're proactively offered in a bio/signature block.
A functioning democracy requires two political parties. Questions have to be drawn down to one or zero, a yes, or a no. The difference between us, and the communist is our two-party system. The desire to exterminate “the liberals” is the desire to live under a dictatorship.
Cowpies! James Madison Federalist 10. There is more negative in parties than good. Of course, the U.S. is much closer to a pure democracy than it was when Madison wrote that.
I enjoyed your citation. While Hamilton was right about how our animal spirits are engaged by appeals to faction, his argument is “states rights.” I don’t know if that is really the cure to the illness. The rights of the states is important to the separation of powers. It is the separation of powers which is the cure to the excesses of faction.
Our revolt was because we were denied a Parliament; the model of a two party system. Hamilton was arguing for multiple parliaments, state and federal. In Parliament decision are binary. To resolve an issue, you have to boil it down to a single, decidable point. Yea, or Nay. Will we fund the king’s request for a bigger army?
In a democracy, you and I would gather in Athens and decide ourselves. (Hamilton says eventually we’d band together to screw over a minority group who we’d lock up in Gaza, until they boiled over and killed us all.) In a Representative republic, you and I pick someone to go and vote for us. Questions have to be decided; the best way is the clash of proponent and opponent, then a decision, yes or no.
We have to turn away from the idea that groups of our fellow citizens, who have slightly different notions of what should be taxed, and how it should be spent, are foes who need to be fought and vanquished. We just need a government where the folks can make contested decisions without too much nonsense.
There will always be factions and alliances, but there is no need for a "party" as such. I think they lead to silly things like having a good idea about someone's opinion of the second amendment by knowing whether or not they attend services regularly or support single-payer healthcare.
We'd be a lot better off if our elected representations shared their beliefs with us and voted according to them. With modern communications and the ability to speak directly to constituents without a Party apparatus, I think we should do away with the DNC and RNC corporations completely.
What’s you’re forgetting is the electoral college. I think the Rhode Islanders stuck a provision in the constitution where you can’t get rid of the electoral college without a unanimous vote of the states. The electoral college makes it such that unless you’re in a party you can’t be a president.
"Conservatives of integrity and principle find themselves inside the same wagon circle as deranged and hate mongering extremists, being led by a fat orange narcissist."
Hell, we got thousands of them here where I live. They are a good 30% of the population. They are fine with the fat man handing over submarine secrets to patrons of the fat man's bar and grill.
How can the country unify around "competence, morality and reason", when society is divided on the concept of morals, objective truth and reason is regarded by some as "racist"? Competence has long been sacrificed on the altar of ideological purity and now ideological purity is being sacrificed on the altar of "winning".
I won't pretend to know the answer, but my best guess is that it starts with grown-ups on both sides recognizing the need to team with each other instead of the most extreme voices in their respective parties. What could catalyze such a shift? IMO its likely to only happen in response to an obvious and existential threat, and even then may take time to play out. Not an optimistic outlook at all.
General Michael Flynn was sandbagged by James Comey over a phone call with the Russian ambassador as to whether or not he discussed sanctions and his life was ruined. We lost the services of an experienced intelligence officer. Jake Sullivan has demonstrated utter incompetence on numerous occasions and yet he still has a job. Why?
CDR, very nice summation of how we got here. Have to wonder how long Israel has before the shock and horror wears off, and the usual IC, US leftist, Russia and China suspects demand a ceasefire for "humanitarian" reasons. It will likely be up to the Biden administration to either support Israel as they root out Hamas, or join the chorus of "enough". The question of where to put the Hamas "fighters" that you don't kill is a real problem; the Arabs won't take them, Egypt has closed the border with Gaza for years...build large prisons? Still reaching for a real motive here; hatred of Israel only goes so far when you are getting annihilated in response. Did someone break a promise of support when they attacked, or is there something else in play here?
No prisoners.
Off shore. Ten miles. Without a life-jacket.
Dropped from about 10,000 feet. But you need to add pigs blood first and foremost.
But like the Argentine government did, sedate them, so when a@sshole foreigners complain about dead prisoners, Israelis can say, "They were alive I last saw them".
I don't have links immediately handy but IIRC there have already been calls for ceasefires, and generally acting as if Israel is the only one that has to stand down. The world leaders may not be saying it aloud at the moment, but that particular pump is certainly being primed.
Where to put the ‘Gazians’? Not just the murderers, but all of them? I would tell Iran to resettle them there or they can ‘learn to swim’.
Half of them are children, you live up to your handle.
So were a lot of the Israeli's children dead.
Or don't Jews count?
Of course they count. But how much more than children on the other side? There will be more than enough dead civilians, including children, to satiate anyone thirsty for blood. Pushing all the population into the sea goes to far though.
Which side chants "from the river to the sea" all the time? Refresh my memory.
I do not want any children, to die in their war.
We have children's die here in violence from crimes, drugs, sex trafficking.
Palestinian's wish to destroy every Jew in the world, then every Christian, every Pagan they want to kill and maim and cannot change. It is their culture and religion.
They are like Rabid animals and all you can do is lock them up or push them into the sea as they wish to do to Israel.
It is not our war, let those two and any others who want to join fight it out and settle this.
Did you follow the link above to the interviews with all the children who look forward to getting rid of the jews. Many are as lost as Ilhan Omar was at their age in here Somali refugee camp.
Yes, insanity. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
Palestinian's export nothing but hate. They would do to everyone what they do to Israeli's.
As far as decolonization, BLM has announced they want to decolonize America the same way.
WE here will soon be in the same insanity.
I think our State Dept, or an office within, called for a cease-fire the first day but deleted it
Biden created some office of Arafatstan affairs, and they posted the first official US response. It was the only response for hours and lasted until someone further up the food chain had them remove it.
It's already starting to turn on them. Just follow the BBC live coverage and you can see it. If Israel is going to launch their ground invasion, they need to go in the next 72 hours.
Egypt needs to be pressured into accepting Palestinian refugees from Gaza. There is a lot of US aid going to Egypt which should be used as leverage. Allowing refugees into Egypt will reduce civilian casualties and reduce Hamas' ability to use them as shields. It will also create space in the Information Domain for Israel to maneuver.
The question for the Biden administration (really the people at his two houses in Delaware who are really calling the shots) is how they can salvage the Iran nuclear deal at this time while dealing with dead Americans and American hostages. I expect the media to give Joe a pass and the hostages to disappear into the abyss.
Iran wants to draw the US and Israel into a quagmire. Russia and China's interests will also be served well by the US being embroiled in another Middle East conflict.
Japan did make a statement. Basically telling both sides to stop fighting. Japan's foreign policy has been fucked since the 1920's, so don't expect much moral clarity there.
"Basically telling both sides to stop fighting."
Dadgum! You did save a lot of electrons there. The hamsters on their wheels powering the interwebs certainly appreciate that. I won't be so kind to them since I'm posting the entire eighteen words.
https://www.mofa.go.jp/press/release/press7e_000047.html
"Japan urges all the parties concerned to exercise maximum restraint in order to avoid further damage and casualties."
Dadgum, always with the clarity, NEC. Thanks.
So, just more useless, whiny crap from the IC.
That means, "We here in Japan have to say something and not taking sides between two foreign Nations we really don't care about but wanting peace have said what we said so the world will think we said something with virtue."
Dang I wish them there Roosters and ducks would just exercise maximum restraint and avoid further damage and casualties.
Consider what might happen if we had a place like Gaza on the US southern border. In Gaza, Hamas and other groups have periodically for the past 18 years or so, fired missiles into Israel. Just think about what might happen if the Mexican equivalent of Gaza were to fire a couple of missiles into the US - say, into San Antonio, Texas. Would there be calls for reconciliation, restraint, and negotiations? I doubt it. I think the US Air Force would probably respond in a manner that would make the current Israeli response look like an ice cream social. And you can bet that there would not only be an “armed incursion” into Mexico, but a full-on kinetic warfare invasion, the groups doing the missile firing would be dealt with harshly, and there would undoubtedly be civilian casualties, and lots of them.
Now, the Israelis have been called upon by the rest of the world, for the past 18 years to put up with this murderous nonsense, culminating in the present attack, where 5000 missiles were fired, and Hamas troops invaded Israel, taking hostages and shooting civilians in residential neighborhoods - and shooting up a rock festival in addition. Let’s say that Mexican cartels did similar things in Texas, went into small towns like, say, Eagle Pass, along the border - and there just happened to be a rock festival in the vicinity, and they shot that up, killing 260, and wounding 1000 more. And, in addition, they raped numerous young women, killed some outright, and took a couple hundred as hostages. What do you think might happen?
I used to use that what-if-this-were-Mexico analogy. But those living in the same border regions postulated are killing 100,000 Americans per year with cartel-trafficked drugs, and trafficking in a million illegals aliens annually. And I don’t see USAF doing anything about it...
Walls don't work. That is why the Egypt government paid the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to design one for their border with Gaza. We cashed their check and laughed all the way to the bank. Now just look at the tens of thousands of Gazans pouring over it every hour as they go searching for a new life in the lands of their Arab brethren.
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/_y5r-ZSzp3Co/TBRePf2e26I/AAAAAAAAAPo/6WflBr63Fms/s1600/tembok+digaza.jpg
True, walls don't work. A 5 mile wide DMZ would.
You misspelled no-man's-land.
I prefer a registered free fire zone for Small arms, artillery and filled with mines.
You forget, all responses have to be proportional. I personally like the salt the ground response but as I have been told for the last 50 years that is not proportional
Israel is no longer letting JAG into the war planning. “Proportionality” is no longer relevant. Or maybe it is.
#AKNC
Proportionality is relevant in the Laws of War but overly"compassionate" lawyers can get very confused.
I trust the regular soldiers to understand the moral issues more than the increasingly politicized legal system there.
That "legal system" was being reigned in by Netanyahu and that was the reason for Leftist cranks rioting.
"Proportional" as The Fat Electrician says.
People who think violence never solved anything should visit Carthage
Nice, Stream47. You used San Antonio and Eagle Pass instead of Austin. Your post hit the proper chord with me. I'd be miffed reflexively at any of those 3 U.S. targets though. By degrees, maybe, after some reflection...but I'd hope not.
Except that we DO have a place like Gaza on the US southern border. At this point in time the drug cartels are smart enough to restrict their own overt terrorism to Mexico, but they have continued to provide travel services to Hamas members that want to enter the U.S. The cartels have been smart enough to ship them north instead of harboring them. Homeland Security says they have caught 40,000 would-be terrorists that have come across. How many have they NOT caught? Standby for this past weekend’s activities to show up in a city near you, while the FBI keeps busy watching Republicans…..
We Have Portland, San Francisco, NYC, Detroit, Dearborn and Chicago. Those are turning into our Gaza strip.
and Harvard
So far, those have been self-inflected wounds. I’m far more concerned about the frenetic, fatalistic violence of Hamas and Hezbollah.
They are insane and vicious, hate filled.
There is no hope for peace with those people.
The only thing you can do with a rabid animal is put it down.
True but you can put it in a cage and let nature take it's course.
Not merciful but it can be done.
How many of the 40K have been turned loose?
Nothing, Blinken would go to Mexico and talk.
Joe would mix up Mexico with Russia and they would blame republicans and Trump.
You seem to forget, we tried that. “Black Jack” Pershing and the Mexican Punitive Expedition invaded Mexico and failed in their anti-terrorist mission.
In the past you might be right, but I don't see any "America Matters" much less "America First" politicos gaining traction with our current leadership selections.
"As with almost all frozen conflicts, they eventually thaw out under the right conditions."
Which is why Russia has no interest in freezing their conflict with Ukraine.
and more precisely, vice versa
This has been going on since the Balfour declaration. The Arabs didn't want a "Jewish" state. They had no problem with the Hebrew people living there, it was the militant "Jews" that they didn't want.
If this caught the intel community by surprise, then the intel community needs to be fired and new people need to be hired. People who study history and actually watch the people.
When Hamas was elected, I kept waiting for massive attacks on Israel and it finally happened.
All they needed was support from the Ayatollah in Iran. I could even say that us taking out Iraq hastened this, because once Hussain was gone, there was nobody to keep Iran in check.
Remember Iran, the people who attacked the Marine barracks in 1983 and took hostages?
Remember the Revolutionary guards?
Remember Barrack funding the Iranian nuclear program?
Remember Trump defunding them?
Remember Biden reinstating funding?
The other Arab states could have solved this by letting the palastinians move into their countries, but refused to let it happen. These arab countries have funded Hamas and Hezbollah.
Don't blame Arab countries for not wanting to take in Palestinians, I wouldn't either.
Donald Trump knee how to deal with the leader of al-Quds. Nothing was left of him except his ring.
Nebi Musa riot
Palestinians are really Trans-Jordanian Bedouins, Nomads who owned no land.
They became refugees after the Arab/Israeli's war in 1948 I think, and no one wanted them, crowded into temporary refugee camps in Gaza and the West Bank there they sat, bred, and taught hate by design by the Arab nations to use as foot soldiers against the Israeli's.
They are Iran's cat paw.
Yes, West bank people are ethnically the same as Jordanians. Gazans are Egyptians. Not that the Egyptians want them back....
Pretty much an inbred bunch, Egyptians don't want them, and they are mixed Trans-Jordan's and assorted Bedouins nomads and camel herders. Killers, thieves rapists and haters.
I’m always intrigued by lefties who insist they are “puzzled” as to “what they [terrorists] are trying to achieve.”
This is the fantasy of multiculturalists: that the non-Western cultures that they adore - who reject reason and rationalism, and largely are adored by the left for just that - “must” have a… wait for it … rational reason and goal for what they do.
It’s almost as though those on the left are too ignorant to follow a single line of thought to conclusion…. Or to understand the meaning of the prefix “multi” in their favorite fantasy word: “multiculturalism.”
Newsflash to lefties: pre-modern people always kill their tribal enemies. No exceptions exist. This begins as one tribe needing the resources of the other, or wants the other to stop using resources they believe are theirs: food, land, water, women.
… and then becomes baked-in as mythology, ideology, behavior, culture over time.
Supporting pre-modern peoples and being puzzled by pre-modern behavior is just dumb. Looking for rational reasons from pre-rational man is just stupid. But that’s the left...
For all the left's claims about being sophisticated and so forth, their worldview is criminally (or should be, anyway) naive, assuming that people from other lands and cultures are just like them, only with funny accents and strange looking clothes.
Great analysis and commentary. I pray the West wakes up soon and that we support Israel as they finish Hamas. Cancer grows unless removed and it’s time for major surgery before it’s too late.
Excellent and well thought out article even if you have some disagreements.
I put the blame for this attack on the Biden administration. The withdrawal from Afghanistan was a disaster. The war in Ukraine has depleted our arsenals and driven Russia into the arms of China. The hostage deal with Iran was an example of Chamberlain-like appeasement. The bottom line is America is neither feared nor respected by its adversaries. Is it any wonder that this attack happened on an ally now? Stealing elections has consequences.
I should have added that this administration was constantly trying to undermine Netanyahu over Israel's incomprehensible politics and his lack of enthusiasm for fighting Russia. I am sure that was a factor in launching the attack.
"Harvest day will be upon those who planted, nurtured, or simply allowed the tree to continue to grow."
CDR, that sentence gobsmacked me. It is prophetic, write that down. That day is coming.
No discussion of the disfunction that permeates the Palestinian society is complete without mentioning :
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is a UN agency that supports the relief and human development of Palestinian refugees.
The Paly's are the only one with their own agency. Here are some factiods from wiki:
- UNRWA has been accused of hiring known militants, perpetuating Palestinian dependency, demonizing Israel, and funneling money from Western governments to line the pockets of the Palestinian Authority and purchasing arms for terrorists
- they employee 30000 staff.
- budget of $1B
- the per person funding of each Paly is double that of any refugees elsewhere
Slaughter of Innocents.
Hamas, with the support of the local populace, raped and murdered young women, slaughtered babies and took over 100 civilians hostage. Hamas has precipitated the existential crisis it always wanted.
Conquest, de-Nazification, resettlement of the remainder outside of some Oder-Neisse line. Worse if they fail to release the hostages.
I propose shipping them to a more welcoming country like Iran or Indonesia.
They don't want them. otherwise they would have taken them in already.
Truth is, if Israel wipes out the Gaza strip, there will be much barking but little bitting from most Arabs.
The folks who took them in regretted it. The Saudi's took some. Sunni, Arab, needy, what's not to like. Turns out Philippinos park cars and are happy about it. They betrayed Kuwaiti's to the Iraqi's in 90. The Jordanians had to put them down several times. UNWRA loves them though. Job security...
Don't bother allowing a refusal. Stick them on a ship and dump them on the shore of Iran if you have to.
Let them share land with the Uyghars in China. Plenty of room. Plenty of jobs.
ouch
CDR, excellent post. As to where we go from here, well, I am an American Jew who made Aliyah back in 2017, so I readily admit my objectivity might be compromised. Here, in no particular order, are my observations:
1. As always, start with geography and objective factors. Gaza shares a border with Egypt, and is heavily urbanized. Cities are notoriously difficult to fight in, and Hamas has ample resources and manpower to fortify extensively. Unless Israel seizes the Gaza side of the border or Egypt cooperates fully, ( not likely) a blockade cannot work.
2. Gaza is very much a nation-in-arms, as the population overwhelmingly supports Hamas. One need only see the glee with which Gazans participated in and enjoyed Hamas atrocities to see this. Hamas weaponizes and uses mosques, schools, hospitals and other public buildings as armories, command centers and launch pads. The customary laws of land warfare mean nothing to Hamas, as they mean nothing to Muslims as a whole. This is total war.
3. The intetnational community, for the most part, will condemn Israel and support Hamas by demanding Israel allow Hamas to use human shields and agree to a ceasefire in the shortest time, while leaving Hamas intact. This would of course be a major victory for Hamas and Iran, which is the goal.
4. Israel would be very ill served by a ceasefire. Israels goal must be the destruction of Hamas and the forced removal of tge Palestinian population as no lesser action will work. To deter future war, Hamas and the Palestinians as a whole must be not only defeated but humiliated. Islam is a shame-honor culture, and as long as the Palestinians ate not utterly beaten they will have the will to keep fighting.
5. Israel cannot afford too long a war or two many casualties. Which is why I believe a short thrust to cut Gaza off from Egypt followed by blockadexand bombardment is the best way to proceed.
The Egyptian Gov hates them and already blocks the border. Hamas is the Muslim Brotherhood
Egypt is one of the largest recipients of US aid in the world. I think they can be persuaded to accept more Palestinian refugees.
I think Israel is pursuing a strategy of making Gaza unlivable for civilians in the hope that they flee into Egypt. (The US can bring a lot of pressure to bare on Egypt through aid reductions in order to get Egypt to accept more refugees) Meanwhile Israel will move into Gaza to destroy Hamas' ability to make war for a generation and establish a large DMZ between a rump Gaza territory and Israel.
When the Sunni and Shia aren't busy killing each other they get busy killing Avery Bawdy else.
"Conservatives have never been the enemy - in the true sense of the word - of their sparing partner liberals. Liberals and conservatives do have a mutual enemy of a free and open society based on individual liberty that I believe they both aspire to, and that would be the left … but … that has yet to soak in."
CDR - you get right at the core of what is upside down about our world today. We've allowed ourselves to become totally aligned around a set of opinions and policy issues rather than any notion of competence, morality, or reason. This works ok in the beginning, when polarization isn't too violent yet. It even makes sense. But it spirals on itself, until you reach our current state of affairs: sane, reasonable liberals (they exist; I'm friends with several) find themselves willingly sharing a bed with nutjobs that would give Stalin pause and want to burn the whole world down. Conservatives of integrity and principle find themselves inside the same wagon circle as deranged and hate mongering extremists, being led by a fat orange narcissist.
I understand it is a pipe dream, but I can't help to dream of a political and social return to a time when one's views on murdering infants was more important to "are you my friend or my enemy" sorting than what one's pronouns are or whether they're proactively offered in a bio/signature block.
Comrade Stalin knew how to deal with such people. That's why the Trotskyites hate him.
A functioning democracy requires two political parties. Questions have to be drawn down to one or zero, a yes, or a no. The difference between us, and the communist is our two-party system. The desire to exterminate “the liberals” is the desire to live under a dictatorship.
Cowpies! James Madison Federalist 10. There is more negative in parties than good. Of course, the U.S. is much closer to a pure democracy than it was when Madison wrote that.
I enjoyed your citation. While Hamilton was right about how our animal spirits are engaged by appeals to faction, his argument is “states rights.” I don’t know if that is really the cure to the illness. The rights of the states is important to the separation of powers. It is the separation of powers which is the cure to the excesses of faction.
Our revolt was because we were denied a Parliament; the model of a two party system. Hamilton was arguing for multiple parliaments, state and federal. In Parliament decision are binary. To resolve an issue, you have to boil it down to a single, decidable point. Yea, or Nay. Will we fund the king’s request for a bigger army?
In a democracy, you and I would gather in Athens and decide ourselves. (Hamilton says eventually we’d band together to screw over a minority group who we’d lock up in Gaza, until they boiled over and killed us all.) In a Representative republic, you and I pick someone to go and vote for us. Questions have to be decided; the best way is the clash of proponent and opponent, then a decision, yes or no.
We have to turn away from the idea that groups of our fellow citizens, who have slightly different notions of what should be taxed, and how it should be spent, are foes who need to be fought and vanquished. We just need a government where the folks can make contested decisions without too much nonsense.
A functioning Republic requires no parties at all
Show me one. Great Britain has been a functioning Republic since the Glorious Revolution, and the British legislature is divided into two wings.
There will always be factions and alliances, but there is no need for a "party" as such. I think they lead to silly things like having a good idea about someone's opinion of the second amendment by knowing whether or not they attend services regularly or support single-payer healthcare.
We'd be a lot better off if our elected representations shared their beliefs with us and voted according to them. With modern communications and the ability to speak directly to constituents without a Party apparatus, I think we should do away with the DNC and RNC corporations completely.
What’s you’re forgetting is the electoral college. I think the Rhode Islanders stuck a provision in the constitution where you can’t get rid of the electoral college without a unanimous vote of the states. The electoral college makes it such that unless you’re in a party you can’t be a president.
"Conservatives of integrity and principle find themselves inside the same wagon circle as deranged and hate mongering extremists, being led by a fat orange narcissist."
MSNBC much?
Nope, never at all.
Read the whole paragraph.
I did. There are no appreciable numbers, if any, "deranged and hate mongering extremists, being led by a fat orange narcissist."
Sorry friend, but you and I disagree on facts here. No need to clog up the CDR's airwaves with that, so I'll agree to disagree.
Fair enough:)
Hell, we got thousands of them here where I live. They are a good 30% of the population. They are fine with the fat man handing over submarine secrets to patrons of the fat man's bar and grill.
How can the country unify around "competence, morality and reason", when society is divided on the concept of morals, objective truth and reason is regarded by some as "racist"? Competence has long been sacrificed on the altar of ideological purity and now ideological purity is being sacrificed on the altar of "winning".
I won't pretend to know the answer, but my best guess is that it starts with grown-ups on both sides recognizing the need to team with each other instead of the most extreme voices in their respective parties. What could catalyze such a shift? IMO its likely to only happen in response to an obvious and existential threat, and even then may take time to play out. Not an optimistic outlook at all.
General Michael Flynn was sandbagged by James Comey over a phone call with the Russian ambassador as to whether or not he discussed sanctions and his life was ruined. We lost the services of an experienced intelligence officer. Jake Sullivan has demonstrated utter incompetence on numerous occasions and yet he still has a job. Why?
Because Jake wasn't stupid enough to talk to the FBI without a lawyer.
And the FBI is on Jake's side, at least the leadership.
Sullivan is NOT incompetent. He is doing exactly what he is expected to do by those who put him there.
That's worse than being incompetent.
This. He's a smart guy doing exactly what he's posted to do.