hypochondriac

The Farage years - Can the new broom sweep clean?

Remarkable decline of young people in America identifying as trans with the number halving in two years. It's almost like it was all a trend and a social contagion after all for the vast majority. Anyone pushing drugs and surgeries on these people need locking up.

Trump and his team have done a tremendous job driving through the hostage release. Agreed?

Say what you like about trump but he's very amusing if nothing else.

Good post that. I agree.

That's correct but it actually starts at nursery where parents routinely take the word of a 2 year old over the adults looking after them. I don't know if it's a general distrust of authority but it's miles worse than it was even a decade ago.

Any president could have ended things at any time apparently.

Thanks for the response which is a better one than "I don't know." I think you’re mixing a few different things there. Yes, Netanyahu’s handling of the war has been heavily criticised — even by many Israelis — and it’s clear that the campaign has caused immense suffering in Gaza. But that doesn’t mean there was an obvious, workable alternative that would have achieved the goals of eliminating or weakening Hamas, rescuing the hostages and making Israel safer in the short to medium term at least. Saying “they should have gone after Hamas and protected civilians” is easy in theory, but Hamas deliberately embedded itself among civilians, used hospitals and schools, and operated from tunnels under residential areas. Any military response was always going to risk civilian casualties — tragic but that’s the brutal reality of asymmetric warfare, not necessarily evidence of genocidal intent. As for the claim about “US mercenaries” and “shooting starving Palestinians dead for sport”, as far as I am aware those reports are disputed. Quoting one doctor’s emotional account doesn’t make it an established fact. I’m not defending Netanyahu personally — he’s been divisive inside Israel and may well face accountability for his leadership. But my point still stands: critics often describe what Israel shouldn’t have done, yet when pressed for a realistic plan that would have dismantled Hamas, rescued the hostages, and prevented another October 7th without significant force, I haven't seen much.

That's your opinion not fact. Vetted Palestinian police already exist, UN deconfliction already runs, Egypt/Jordan liaisons are a phone call away. The only new piece is the Arab peacekeeping force, which is why it’s a month or so away.

It's a familiar refrain from many people I have come across that are very critical of Israel. They are quite happy to say what Israel shouldn't be doing but haven't been able to articulate a realistic alternative for what they should have done instead that would have made them safer. Nowhere have I said that you can't criticise Israel or its actions.

External security stays with the IDF, neighbourhood policing is done by vetted Palestinian civil police where they can operate, with UN cells and Egyptian/Jordanian officers embedded to keep humanitarian routes open. You can probably begin the plan I outlined after about a month or so. The IDF and the new peacekeeping force that Blair is involved with should probably have been planning for this eventuality a while ago.

Supposedly from a letter found in Gaza written by Sinwar: "If we are not ready to exploit the opportunity to the fullest, then the enemy will succeed in taking control of the turmoil and move to a counterattack or receive outside support, and then the situation will turn against us in the worst possible way. Therefore it is essential to be prepared for force flows, to develop the attack, expand it and reinforce to the maximum during the first six to ten hours in order to establish solid facts on the ground that will thwart any possibility of a counterattack." It seems that Sinwar certainly didn't want Israel to be able to strike Gaza in the way they have. I expect he would have considered their operation overall to have been a failure. If he was around to see it.

That says a lot. I don't think it's very credible to criticise the actions of Israel for making things less safe if you can't articulate in clear terms what realistic alternative actions they should have taken to make things safer.

There's no perfect answers but off the top of my head -Not Hamas and not an open-ended IDF occupation. A time-limited, Arab-led security mission under a UN mandate, paired with a Palestinian interim administration (PA-affiliated perhaps), and vetted Palestinian police doing day-to-day policing. Borders monitored by international/Egypt teams, with clear benchmarks.

@egg would genuinely be interested in your answer.

Agreed. I think that Israel's actions will cause more people to hate them but it will also have meant that those same people will have less capability to do anything about it.

This basically. Good post.

Do you think that the existence of Israel fuels Islamism?

Bin Laden cited about a dozen reasons for 9/11. Why are you so focused on one in particular? Would extremist Islamism exist without Israel?

Hold on you just answered my question with a question. I'd appreciate an answer first.

Indeed and thanks for the reply but I was asking egg.

Do you think that 9/11 would have happened and that Islamist extremism would exist without the actions of Israel?

What action should they have taken to make them safer than they are now?

Hold on so not only are Israel partially responsible for 9/11, they're also responsible for Islamist extremism! Who knew! If only those Jews weren't so awful eh? Islam is a religion of peace after all, it's just the evil Jews forcing them to get all murdery and rapey. October 7th is really their own fault when you think about it. They brought it on themselves.

Probably quite difficult to target them all when they're happy to effectively use Gazans as human shields. Also asking 7,000 to return isn't the same as all 7000 being alive and getting the message.