The Middle East Thread

I suspect that Iran has noted the US carrier fleet anchored within useful bombing range of their coast.

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But even I could have predicted that…

You may find it cynical, but, did Netanyahu let the attack happen?

US and Egypt warned about an imminent attack days before it happened. Why didn’t Israel bolster the defense along Gaza or even carry out some pre-emptive strikes?

Netanyahu was under serious pressure before October 7. None is questioning him anymore and likely wouldn’t as long as the fighting continues.

and when it stops - does he engineer another conflict?

There’s always Jenin :man_shrugging:. It’s already been marked as Hamsa/IJ.

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I think so. He wanted an attack to happen, he was gasping for political survival.

What he didn’t count on was the scale of the attack. I think even Hamas didn’t expect that their troops and other allied forces(including a not small amount of Palestinian locals) would target , kill and capture civilians and be this successful.

It would have been a manageable thing if this was just Hamas doing a planned strike at an Israeli army base. However , the ease at which the Hamas combatants broke through the Israeli defenders emboldened them as well as other people to go in the civilian attacks and that’s the main sticking point. The barbarity on display(with the captives and the victim’s) that was exhibited by Hamas and their allies was simply abhorrent and vile.

That forces Bibi to more drastic decisions because the Israelis are crying for blood.

At this point , Bibi is just looking to ride through this with military actions , be seen as someone willing to “end Hamas” in the hope that people forget how culpable he actually was in this series of events and continue to vote for him so that he doesn’t go to Jail.

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Would agree with this part. May a pox strike them down.

I think once the scale of this attack happened, there wasn’t any other choice.

I don’t blame the ordinary citizens of Israel for asking/demanding action against Hamas. They expect the govt to take actions to ensure their safety. That’s first concern for them. I don’t agree with what they want but I won’t blame them for demanding what they are. I might well be in the same boat had I been an Israeli.

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So you wouldn’t blame the Palestinians for wanting Israeli blood in return?

Yes. I would blame the violent acts and condemn terrorism etc.

Wouldn’t blame the general people (Israeli & Palestinian)as such for having the mindset. They are reacting how human beings generally react in conflicts (the vast majority of them anyway)

Just am depressed at the world for having conflicts like this persist into this age.

I’m confused. So the actions of Hamas justify what Israel has done? Do the actions of Israeli then justify further retaliation by Palestinians or others? That mindset would certainly explain why Jews are claiming they feel less safe since the Israeli attack.

It’s not about justification. It’s about understanding why both groups of people have the mindset that they do have without necessarily agreeing with all either sides have to say.

Certainly doesn’t mean I agree entirely with both the Israeli or the Palestinian perspective but that’s me thinking when I’m miles away from the conflict.

People who live closer to the conflict are bound to have different views.

For example

Would you agree to a Palestinian when he wishes for Israel as a country to not exist ?

No. But you would understand why someone has those views.

Same goes for Israeli perspectives on Palestine.

Ofcourse not all Palestinians think Israel shouldn’t exist , sizable number do. Same with Israeli perspectives on Palestine. Not my intent to generalize

I’m sure that the vast majority of ordinary Israelis and Palestinians could quite happily live side by side. Unfortunately, it’s the belligerent minority who lead both communities.

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Not happily. But atleast peacefully even if begrudging. Too much water has passed for their to be happiness

And I would question the wisdom of Israel hanging on to the Gaza strip when they could have easily given it back to Egypt after winning the war.

Hindsight I know but still.

Unfortunately, I don’t think it is a vast majority on either side. Maybe a majority, but we need only look at Israeli elections to see a proxy. Current policy in the West Bank precludes any possibility of living alongside one another truly peacefully. Perhaps many Israelis vote that way because they have no hope otherwise.

We don’t get quite the same insight into Palestinian thinking, but there isn’t much to suggest the absence of widespread hatred toward Israel. The brutality shown by the Hamas footsoldiers was genuinely exceptional, that sort of inhumanity doesn’t spring up from nothing.

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This. The hatred propagated by a large section of Islamic scholars against the Jews doesn’t disappear into irrelevance. This is ofcourse compounded by the Israeli actions into a violent cycle.

Also , the closer people are to the conflict, the less capable they are of even otherwise sane, sensible and clever people to not let emotions rule them.

I think both the countries/people should be looking at powers which are either indisposed to both or are equally interested in the welfare of both Israelis and Palestinians to help them to find a workable solution since it’s clear they cant resolve matters themselves

None of the major powers or any other country with influence can claim to be unbiased.

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And it has to be said that the hatred propagated by the islamic teachers against Jews predates the founding of Israel.

It’s not just something that’s come up with the founding of Israel. Might have taken more popularity after that but the hatred was always preached.

I would like to disagree. But maybe that’s because I’m deluded.

Yes, the Israelis have voted for the extremists and the terrorists in the last few elections. But I don’t think that means the majority of them have become racists/fascists. Yes, there’s core of racists/fascists and they are pretty numerous, but they are still marginal compared to the total. Many Israelis have flocked to the fascists, they made a mistake but that doesn’t mean they are bad. They made that wrong choice because the liberal/progressive forces have failed to

  1. Create an unified platform
  2. Formulate a clear roadmap for the future
  3. Present a robust leadership

It’s always the same; when the progressives wither, the fascists flourish.