Biden is probably the only leader in the world who can save the people of Gaza. If he doesn’t try to thread that needle, no one will.
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I wouldn’t be surprised if the visit was cancelled. How the fuck does Biden stand there now and says he supports Israel’s right to ‘defend herself’ after that ?
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I agree. Hopefully he can force aid through. From an optics standpoint, he is going to be photographed with Israeli leader right before they bulldoze and raze Gaza City to the ground. I hope they are more forceful behind closed doors than they are publicly with what they expect and how they will conduct themselves in this ‘war’.
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Biden will be absolutely aware of Obama’s playbook. Going there allows him to be far more forceful. I don’t think that will mean no use of force at all, but aid to the southern areas and allowing people to leave (if they are fortunate enough to have anywhere to go) are likely.
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What if they don’t give a fuck? I’m becoming increasingly nervous that Biden/USA has no pull over Israel leadership. I mean, what’s USA/EU going to do if Israel keeps bombing hospitals etc. I know it’s a terrible thought, but it’s something that I can’t shake off anymore.
The bombs on hospitals make for the terrible headlines, but the real danger here is water. Clean water is likely exhausted, and there are very limited supplies of any water at all. Disease and even dehydration at scale can be far more lethal.
However, I don’t think any but the most ideological of Israeli politicians simply don’t care what the US thinks. They will be keenly aware that Trump has shown himself to be feckless in his support for Israel. Israel needs a reliable ally in the US. Maybe not right now, but situations can change.
The hospital was an example. I meant the general situation; water, power, food, and medicine supplies.
The Balfour Declaration promised a home for Jews in Palestine. It is not accurate though to interpret this as supporting the creation of a Jewish nation for them to rule, even if maybe we were periodically fine with people believing it did.
The 1939 White Paper I referenced earlier makes clear the intention was for Palestinian self rule in a country that contains Jewish immigrants. It explicitly states that after two decades of Jewish immigration that had increased the population from trivial to half a million, the promises made in the Balfour declaration had been satisfied.
This White Paper was written in the context of a prior Royal Commission that floated the idea of a 2 state solution and that being unquestionably rejected due to the impossibility of the forced relocation of Arabs out of what would now be newly Jewish land. The near ten year period between the publication of this official policy and Britain leaving Palestine was beset by wide spread Zionist terrorism. I think it is really important that part of the story is not forgotten given the current tenor of the conversation. They got the 2 state solution from the UN the British were unwilling to give them because they took up arms and turned them on the Brits and Palestinians.
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it was the US that made that happen. UK just laid the basic groundwork and intent up to 1948 when their “stewardship of the land” was ended.
Looks like CNN already got the memo from Biden’s administration to twist it into being a “possible Hamas misfire” & most westerners will buy into anything these guys feed them.
Alhamdullilah Biden will not be able to leave once he touches down in Jerasulem so he can witness first hand the mass destruction he and his administration has created and alhamdullidah mashallah the people of Gaza will manage to get their blooded hands from burying their loved ones on him.
You have earned your place on Mount Rushmore next to Harding Trump and Bush Jr.
I haven’t watched CNN since the Capitol Hill Insurrection. Were they always this creepy?
Re: Hospital tragedy. Idf already gave explanation on the hospital. Blame was instantly put at the door at the idf, the instant this happened, idf gave explanation a couple of hours later. Always best to wait for a bit before you all start blaming without proof. Proof on either side is not clear atm.
At the end of the day, Hamas will never admit it was a failed rocket launch, even if there is definitive proof.
We already know that Hamas/other groups place rocket launchers near schools and hospitals, so both options are feasible, 1. IDF strike on rocket off target 2. Hamas rocket firing/misfiring from the ground. At the end of the day, a tragedy that both sides are going to use, rather than focusing on the deaths.
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Right on cue 
Seems unlikely from the scale of the explosion that it was one of the rockets that Hamas has access to - granted, very little information out there at this stage, but the photos so far suggest a significant blast, 250kg bomb or larger. The basically homemade Qassam rockets that Hamas and Islamic Jihad use don’t have warheads larger than 20kg. No 20kg rocket ever made is going to kill 200 people inside a building.
Yes, the IDF have responded by blaming Hamas. Just as they did when one of their snipers shot a journalist, clearly marked as such, in the head. This is a consistent theme
The IDF evidence for it being Hamas has also already been shown to be falsified.
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Yes, obviously being guilty of something in the past makes you guilty and untrustworthy perpetually, but I know you didn’t mean that.
They have rockets with payloads that are significantly more than 20kg.
Not really, certainly not in Gaza. The blockade has meant that virtually all they have now are the various Qassam models. What model of rocket do you think they have? There is no evidence that they have got M302s into Gaza in years. It is possible that they still have some remaining Iranian-made Fajr-3s (possibly -5s as well), but it seems unlikely they would not have been fired in the initial onslaught. Even those only have a 45kg HE charge, still seems unlikely that a single rocket warhead caused damage at the scale seen at the hospital.
Given that the hospital is in an area that Israel has said is now a free-fire zone, it seems far more likely to me that there was a nearby target that was meant to be hit by a munition that is meant to destroy tunnels or buried shelters.
My thinking would have been that they fire off as much junk as they can (locally produced variety) in order to try overwhelm the iron done, and then fire the higher grade rockets. It would be logical to think that they have been planning this for a while and have been stockpiling. Smuggling weapons is just like smuggling drugs, lots get stopped and lots get through. The Hamas stuff are not reliable or accurate (specifically the locally produced). It can be nearly guaranteed that they have some Iranian stuff as some have been intercepted well before this recent conflicted started.
I wonder if there are any confirmations on the payloads of past rockets (pre this past week) that have gotten through the dome? Don’t know much about the dome, so not sure if it’s able to prioritize size. I have read that it projects if the rocket is a threat (trajectory).
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The thinking is that virtually everything they have now is produced locally, although with some smuggled parts. The blockade has been too tight to get something like a fully-assembled rocket through, and has been for years. I don’t think a Fajr-3 has been seized since 2014.
The Iron Dome is only going to be overwhelmed in small intervals, not knocked down. So anything bigger they had available would likely have been used in that massive initial salvo, where the sheer number of targets would overwhelm the defence system. It doesn’t have any capacity to assess payload, and I would be surprised if there is enough meaningful size data to prioritize in detail - it can definitely differentiate between mortars, shells, and rockets. Hamas clearly understood that element in planning this attack, the vast majority of their firing was in an interval of only about 15 minutes.
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