https://x.com/Nrg8000/status/1866056364621279504
Which led to the rise of the pestilent Far Right and populist Nationalism that now plague us all in Europe.
Honestly speaking though, France wanted to but Obama browbeat everyone into accepting Assad staying in power, so blaming European powers isn’t fair. Otherwise he makes a good point. But the spectre of the failed intervention in Libya scared everyone shitless.
https://x.com/QalaatAlMudiq/status/1866104505189777534
https://x.com/mohammed_asakra/status/1866101393808875535
(sometimes these videos are hidden unless you click on them, I don’t know why).
The MAGA commentariat and propagandists have discovered Syria in the last 3 days:
https://x.com/OAlexanderDK/status/1866061270979375386
I find it amusing to watch. The Syrian conflict is not made to be commented upon by people who cannot see the difference between a square and a pyramid.
It’s my opinion that he does:
Dictatorial kleptocrats? I can’t see what they have in common tbh…
Putin is seen as a “Strong” leader, he does what he wants, takes the land for the empire and doesn’t care if the world burns in the background. He has a vision of restoring the greatness of empire and is the best example of an irredentist state leader in modern times since Adolf Hitler. He is also a Machiavellian power player, which is something the Israelis too admires (at least in many circles). The Russian immigration to Israel has also had cultural effects. Some of them are in government.
Many on the Israeli right, admires such qualities, because some of them too, dream of Greater Israel. They admire and respect strenght.
Of course, this is a bit controversial and I kind of go out on a limb; but whatever.
It is important to understand how fundamentally bleak the world view of the Israeli elite really is when they look at their region. Those who believe that a peace with their neighbours is fundamentally possible are a dwindling minority, so there are really two kinds of Arabs for them. Those who want to kill you now, and those who will want to kill you when they can. If you don’t believe genuinely good relations are possible, you behave differently.
It has been referred to as the ‘Masada complex’. This is an older discussion of it, but the pull seems only to be getting stronger.
I wonder the same. Nearest mall has much better baklava than it did a decade ago, I have seen the little girls of that family grow up (in high school now).
Don’t see too many of the Syrians willing to return. Not the ones who’ve been out of there for more than a decade and have planted their roots in other countries.
The one thing that is much more possible is that foreign remittances might increase as more and more Syrians begin to send money back home.
Say whatever you want, the way HTS is handling this is fucking impressive and I have not seen anything from a long bloody conflict, quite like this:
https://x.com/Charles_Lister/status/1866094360028172289
https://x.com/Charles_Lister/status/1866095063690104934
I mean, quite honestly. In the best case scenario, I did expect at least 3-4 heads on spikes on video. So far a few people have been shot in chaos, but there has been no murder sprees and I cannot almost get my head wrapped around how diciplined they are.
Sure, the next Syria will be Islamist and the future will not be rainbow coloured or golden. But as long as it is better than the Assad State, it matters less.
Positive signs, but they also did issue a prohibition against celebratory firing of guns, but…
A very good article, thanks for posting it. The following is so true:
Whether with the Palestinians, Israeli civil society, or Israel’s allies in the international community, Netanyahu prefers to dictate terms rather than engage in meaningful dialogue. Reminiscent of the Zealots, Netanyahu’s refusal to compromise will inevitably lead to the destruction of the State of Israel as we know it.
There are alternatives to Netanyahu’s stubborn path, just as there were on top of Masada. While the Zealots chose suicide, more pragmatic Jews survived and even thrived. Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, for example, negotiated with the Romans, thereby obtaining permission to establish the Academy of Yavneh. It was there that the mishnah was written, the wellspring of rabbinic Judaism that sustained Jewish Diaspora life for two millennia.
Israel, former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin once noted, must make peace with its enemies, not with its friends. Netanyahu must shake off his Masada complex, recognize that there is no nobility in self-destruction and open himself up to compromise.
I think we should be happy that they are not enforcing it hard. Its culturally ingrained. People will not stop doing culturally ingrained stuff over night unless you massacre or at least mass arrest some to state an example, after all.
I think they have different priorities. There are still surrender videos and indeed still fighting elsewhere in Syria.
Turkey’s SNA is after all in the middle of an offensive.
