Looks like lots more gunners are going to by lying on Form 4473 Question f, then. Looking forward to all of them getting the Hunter Biden treatment.

“Cop who arrested golf star didn't have body cam on”

And anyone who has ever watched golf on television knows why.

where are the stats about alcohol-related deaths vs marijuana deaths? ;)

"Will denial protect [Florida] from being battered by record-breaking storms?" Absolutely! (At least once they legislate away records, the word "storms", etc.)

When will we get our wall at the Georgia-Florida line? You can go in... but ya' cian't come out! We can even issue a free pair of high-waters on their way in!

I believe Israel has a right to exist and the Jewish people deserve a safe harbor after centuries of marginalization and worse. But I also believe Israel is jeopardizing their own security by overreaching in Gaza, and it is in their best interest to respect international law and to minimize civilian casualties. Simply not meeting the technical definition of genocide might help someone win an argument on the internet but in the real world people are going to form opinions based on what they are observing, independent of what we call their actions. The longer this drags on, the messier it gets, the more support Israel is going to lose. It’s already happening.

As an American I don’t see criticism or dissent as hatred and I don’t understand Americans who don’t get this. People said as much about critics of the war in Iraq — we hated America, supported terrorists, etc — but within 3 years a majority of Americans, including staunch Republicans, were opposed to it, and I don’t see why this war would be any different. It’s entirely possible to speak out in dissent against a government without wishing for their destruction. It can also be an expression of care and concern.

@9: “As an American I don’t see criticism or dissent as hatred and I don’t understand Americans who don’t get this.”

Of course criticism and dissent are not automatically hatred, and should never be assumed as such. Both are clearly protected by the First Amendment for this very reason.

In the protests against Israeli actions in Gaza, time and time again, we have heard eliminationist rhetoric directed against Israel. The Stranger’s report on the first post-10/7 protest in downtown Seattle recounted protesters chanting, “We don’t want two states; we want 1948.” UW Quad protest leaders referred to “the Zionist entity” and used a lower-case spelling of Israel in scare quotes. SUPER UW used imagery of the 10/7 attacks in its protest materials. Columbia University started removing protesters after a day of chants rejecting Israel’s existence. All of this should have come as no surprise; the National Students for Justice in Palestine, organizer of many campus protests, has a violent eliminationist position against Israel.

All of this is also protected speech (although it may violate a university’s campus code), but there can be no pretense it is anything other than hate speech; it is the very opposite of concern for Israel or Israel’s citizens. And it is this eliminationist hate speech which has dominated the protests against Israel in the United States since 10/7.

@6 I'm curious how you came to the conclusion the IDF is woefully underperforming. Is that your personal conclusion or did you read something convincing? I'm honestly asking.

The Strategic Studies centers that I peruse do not take that position (ISW, RUSSI). Maybe Stratfor or War on the Rocks?

In popular media, John Spencer finds the IDF doing remarkably well. Recently, former special forces officer and lecturer at UKs Royal Institute, a certain Mr. Foxx published a positive review of IDF performance in Tablet.

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/israel-succeeding-gaza

I'm not sure myself on the matter, but I think the doubt largely stems from the opacity of a stated strategic concept from political leadership. Is Hamas to be destroyed or heavily degraded? Is this a COIN op to be followed by an internationalized peace effort or a long term cordon leaving a weakened Hamas in charge? Without knowing what the actual goal is, the IDF can only be assessed in terms of tactical and logistical proficiency.

awww, the pro-genocide people are so sad their favorite colonial state, Israel, is found to be breaking international law by the ICJ. Not fair. Come on tap your little feet in disappointment again and tell us how the protest movement is having no impact.

Don't waste your time answering with another 200 words non-sequitur. I don't have time parsing your lies and doubt anybody else does. Get a life.

@11, I was referring to the comment @6 that suggested anyone critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza just wants to be able to call it a genocidal state, as though there could be no other reason for such criticism. Perhaps I’m reading too much into it but I see people arguing about “genocide” in these comments every day and I assume he was referring to that. I jut think that if you’re in a place where “genocide” is even on the table, you’re already on track to lose the battle for hearts and minds, and it’s only a matter of time before public opinion catches up.

There is no place for antisemitism in our society and I am ashamed to see it from protesters. Everyone should call it out when they see it, name and shame them all, just as you would the tikitorchers in Charlottesville or the clowns on January 6. But painting all of Israel’s critics with the same brush is not doing anything beyond shutting down an argument on the internet.

Most people aren’t in the comments section arguing over the technical definition of words. They are watching news reports of buildings being leveled, children buried under rubble, families dying from starvation, and the longer this carries on the less pubic support Israel is going to have. Israel should never have allowed things to get to the point where the UN is prepared to call their actions genocide, but if you see this and your first thought is that you might have to concede a point to someone on the internet you disagree with, you’ve seriously lost the plot.

Studies show that station turnstiles would make light rail 90% less stabby.

@10,

The defense won't have to argue anything. The charges will be dropped owing to the officer's ineptitude. The officer has a predictably long history of ineptitude, you'll be shocked to learn.

https://defector.com/scottie-scheffler-louisville-police-have-very-little-to-say

@14 There is no place for racism, whether it is antisemitism or islamophobia, but little actual protestor antisemitism has been demonstrated. Establishment media and the rightwing (including many who post here) have smeared protestors in order to delegitimize the protest movement by claiming common instances of antisemitism but it is a lie. Calling for the freedom of all Palestinians, including refugees as a result of the Nakba, or even questioning the legitimacy of a colonial ethnostate like Israel is NOT antisemitism, and certainly doesn't amount to calling for a pogrom or the expulsion of Jews from Palestine as claimed by the pro=Israel crowd.

People who live in cities but are scared of public transportation crack me up. What on earth makes you think turnstiles will keep out criminals?

@2:....said the FOX TeeVee addicted and easily duped MAGAt, conned into sending off his SSI check to pay the Orange Turd's trial lawyers instead of covering his healthcare, food, and household expenses. Your willful propagandic misinformation is telling. Wow--DJT's really got you blindly marching in lockstep!
Now go eat your paste before you really start to crack up, raindrop dear.

Just when I thought legislators and voters in the Sunshine State couldn't possibly get any Flori-dumber.......
I wonder how they'll manage once their aptly machine gun shaped MAGAt overrun state of confusion is entirely underwater? It will make no difference on which part of the state. The Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean will be a double whammy, swallowing everything up whole. The Orange Turd will be in swampland, and fodder---however fat and gristly---for every alligator and Great White shark within 1,000 miles. Not even Mal-a-Turdo (thanks, kris!!) will be able to save its corrupt, fat, white male neofascist ass.
Climate change from fossil fuel over-consumption is real. Former Vice President Al Gore warned us, in his book and documentary film, An Inconvenient Truth. Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg warned us. Big Oil and Big Coal ran private environmental impact studies three decades ago, and knew damned well that what they were doing would destroy the world, but chose profits over people, anyway. Consequentially, the Earth is burning, and the most stubborn of profiteering and ignorant deniers in their race to the bottom for the last U.S. dollar will die along with the rest of us.

It won’t inhibit it indirectly, either. Being willing and able to pay a light rail fare is not an indicator of character or lack of “nefarious intent.”

You live in a city with strangers around you all the time. You could just as easily be stabbed on the sidewalk as a light rail station but both events are extremely rare and unlikely. If you’re scared of people maybe living in the city isn’t right for you.

@21 Glad you're cracking up, but I'm hardly "scared of public transportation." And while I don't need Seattle's light rail to sparkle, I would like it to be a little less covered in piss.

Rest in peace, documentary filmmaker, Morgan Spurlock. 53 is too young to go.
Condolences to all who knew you.

Now why the fuck can't the ORANGE TURD finally die from chomping too many Big Macs??
If it suffers a fatal collapse before November 2024 the timing would be superb.

@18 As a matter of fact the immense majority of Israeli Jews are immigrants or descendants of immigrants to Palestine. Palestinian Jews were a small minority of the population of Palestine before colonization began at the beginning of the 20th century (over 3 millions immigrated since 1948). Even if the claim that it is their ancestral homeland were accurate, nobody can rectify what happened ~2000 years ago, and definitely not by stealing the land of the current Palestinian inhabitants under the excuse of a God given right to the land.

If you’re looking for a reason to be scared you can find one anywhere. Those numbers represent a small fraction of all violent crimes in Seattle and an even smaller fraction of the total light rail ridership.

Living in cities is not for pussies, I’ll give you that. But if you can’t be in public without fear of violence, you’re not cut out for city life.

@30 - Or maybe it's just a plate 'o shrimp.

@32- if the buses and trains were full of people who were, say, actually needing to go somewhere rather than being de facto shelters, I think a hell of a lot more people would ride them. And requiring payment to get on would go a long way towards making that change.

I’m not trying to “negate the concern”, I’m calling you a baby, and your question is a complete non-sequitur. For someone who trolls as hard as you do you’re not very good at it.

You’re entitled to be concerned about whatever you want. It’s not my business or my problem. What I am telling you is that your concern sounds more like someone whose only understanding of Seattle comes from Fox News than someone who actually lives there.

Anyway, since you asked, I’m afraid of spiders, heights, and open water.

@13: "...tell us how the protest movement is having no impact."

I wasn't aware that courts should obey protesters; I thought they were to achieve justice by applying the laws to evidence. Your belief they exist to validate mob rule reveals a lot about you.

(But if you want to read about how the protest movement is having no impact, I can lay that out for you pretty quickly. Just let me know.)

@18: "...but little actual protestor antisemitism has been demonstrated."

Just actual protesters, from Seattle to New York and back again, calling for the elimination of Israel. (If that's what they're saying in the most liberal of places, then what are they saying elsewhere?)

@14: "There is no place for antisemitism in our society and I am ashamed to see it from protesters. Everyone should call it out when they see it,"

But that's not what's happening. Apologias for eliminationist statements are being made, right here in this thread, as I just noted. The Stranger has let every example of eliminationist rhetoric pass without criticism, from the statements it reports from protesters, to the eliminationist comments it lets stand here. Anyone who was actually serious about preventing genocide would have to be the very first to denounce eliminiationist statements, but the loudest critics of alleged "genocide" by Israel are also the last to object to eliminationst rhetoric. I think that's more than just a mere coincidence.

(It's worth noting that in the original case of genocide, Germany was not wiped off of the map, nor did anyone seriously suggest doing so. The country's conquerers de-Nazified it, rebuilt it, and it has been a peaceful democracy ever since. Even before Israel followed Hamas into Gaza, American protesters had already praised the 10/7 attacks, and started calling for elimination of Israel.)

"I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence."

Frederick Douglass

@31
Yes, statistics and facts are inherently antisemitic.

@16 Thanks for the response/explanation. Im still on the fence on this question. The Mentats are not weighing in with any clarity. But I am currently holding to the position that the IDF is not itself under performing, but operating under the weight of political calculus; Tel Aviv's fidelity to the 2005 Disengagement in Gaza, fear of Hezbollah opening a new front while bogged down, concerns about Egypt along the corridor, and obviously, the nature of the Hamas gambit (provoke, turtle, document the reaction).

In a way, it doesn't really matter whether its IDF ineptitude or a politically corseted operation that is "failing," because we ultimately don't know what "failure" or "success" is as construed by Tel Aviv. Further down the rabbit hole is running the same tests for Hamas.

@28, @40: Genetic testing shows that ancestors of current 'Palestinians' actually arrived from Egypt, Arabia, and the Levant in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. (https://www.wired.com/story/23andme-genetics-palestine/)

(Of course, in keeping with an ethos where eliminationist rhetoric gets normalized by persons loudly opposed to "genocide," the scientists at 23&Me are now under political pressure to alter their science to fit the demands of Palestinian identity. Somewhere, in the ruins of the Soviet Union, the ghost of Trofim Lysenko is laughing his dead ass off...)

@29 that whole comment is almost entirely legally incorrect, in case it wasn't already clear you have no idea what you're talking about

@42 ya and all human life started in East Africa so any group from anywhere in the world can go drive out the current inhabitants of Tanzania and set up an apartheid state there and if anyone complains they're racist

Harriet Walden is such a sad story. Started an organization dedicated to "police accountability" but now just simps for every SPD chief. I'm not old enough to know whether she "lived long enough to see herself become the villain" or if she just was always a bootlicker in disguise but either way it's demoralizing.

@49 but if the anthropology were definitive you'd otherwise be ok with that? Bizarre

@43 right of return? Is that what you are advocating?

@31 Yeah, I just outed myself as an anti-racist who doesn't believe in simplistic fairy tales about a Jewish "right of return" to a land that already has legitimate Palestinian occupants.

@38 Questioning the legitimacy of a settler colonial state that discriminate against non-Jews, impose apartheid on the natives and routinely murder Palestinians is not racist, in fact it's the very opposite.

Is 'eliminationist' even a word?

@55. Do you believe in Manifest Destiny?

@52: “…that discriminate against non-Jews…”

Please do tell us all about the discrimination Arab Israelis have experienced, including whilst holding elective office in the Knesset.

Then you can elaborate further, comparing Arab Israelis with Palestinians. They had exactly the same history until 1948, at which point the former chose peace and the latter chose war. What lessons can you draw from their histories since?

@53: “Is 'eliminationist' even a word?”

https://www.amazon.com/Eliminationists-David-Neiwert/dp/0981576982?nodl=1&dplnkId=3b8e3fac-2082-434b-9f73-7d60487ab834

Sure, it might be a little pricey by your standards, but you might want to spend some cash on education. You’re already doing a really great job at showcasing the tremendous cost of ignorance.

@55 what other people who don't currently have a country should the UN mandate be given one? Should Kurdistan be made an official country by foreign dictate, sent billions in arms, and permitted to do whatever they feel to "defend" their "right to exist?"

@59: Since you asked, there’s never been an Arab country called “Palestine.” Are you saying the world should give up on creating one?

@60 yes, my entire point is that I don't think the UN/"world" should be making up countries at all. You on the other hand seem deeply invested in defending, to any length, one particular made up country. In light of that care to answer the question in 59?

@54 You are the one justifying the murderous actions of a settler state out of compliance with international law here, YOU are the racist. It's not up is down, down is up day. YOu have no substantive argument. Demonizing those who point out that saying "someone in my ancestry more than 40 generations ago used to live in the region so get out, everything is mine, or I'll kill you and your kids" is fucking stupid and no justification for the atrocities we see in Palestine, unless you are some kind of racist of course.

@55 the thousands of American Jews who live in illegal settlements in the occupied territories amd stole Palestinian land already have a country, it's called the US of A where they find peace and security, as they should.

@58 Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, B'Tselem and many other human rights organizations have documented dozens of ways Israel discriminate against Arabs in Israel and occupied territories. If your question was genuine rather than an attempt to cherry pick arguments you certainly could search the internet all by yourself then read the copious reports on this very topic published by human rights advocates

It figures that you depict stealing land at the point of a gun and the blade of a bulldozer as peaceful.

@61 Quit making stuff up. Nobody said "a place where Jews have no history" nor "But none of that is objectionable at all" when discussing Arab states

You are building strawmen, which clearly points to a lack of substantive arguments.

@61 "Meanwhile, these same progressives and (wink wink) “anti-racists” would never think to question the existence of no fewer than two dozen Arab countries, every single one of which is a post-colonial invention by foreign powers"

This is bullshit. Most of the Arab countries were established, after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, by the people living there without external influence. The League of Nations Class A Mandates all became sovereign states ruled by the people living in them during Ottoman rule (which was the entire point) EXCEPT Mandatory Palestine.

@9: "The longer this drags on, the messier it gets, the more support Israel is going to lose. It’s already happening."

What "support" has Israel lost? As I've noted in these threads, surveys of American registered voters in April and May showed three-quarters consistently support not merely Israel, but Israel's military actions in Rafah. Any attempt by Congress or the Biden Administration to limit American support for Israel thus risks alienating a large number of voters in an election year. By contrast, when compared to rock-solid American support for Israel, then, say, Ireland's ill-advised decision to weigh in on the conflict really doesn't count for anything.

"Simply not meeting the technical definition of genocide..."

It's not a matter of 'technical' anything. The Israel-Hamas war in Gaza simply does not meet the criteria for genocide, at all. Full stop. Entities and persons who use, or are extremely comfortable with the use of, eliminationst rhetoric towards Israel have tried to weaponize the use of the word "genocide" against Israel, and Israel's defenders. They seek to win their arguments not with the hard work of facts and logic, but simply by labeling anyone who dares disagree with them as "pro-genocide." George Orwell had much to say about this, and persons and entities who do this -- none of it complimentary to them. Just as civil discourse should always reject eliminationist rhetoric, and call out anyone who uses it, so we should also always defend the actual meanings of words from those who would dishonestly use them as weapons.

@68: "Most of the Arab countries were established, after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, by the people living there without external influence."

Bwhahahahahaha... gasp... yeah, ok, you really are that ignorant. Start here:

"...the British Mandate for Palestine ran until 1948, the British Mandate for Mesopotamia was to be replaced by a similar treaty with Mandatory Iraq, and the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon lasted until 1946."

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sykes–Picot_Agreement)

Should you ever understand that, then you might be ready for the longer version:

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/a-peace-to-end-all-peace-creating-the-modern-middle-east-1914-1922_david-fromkin/250587/item/3454685/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=high_vol_midlist_standard_shopping_customer_acquisition&utm_adgroup=&utm_term=&utm_content=666157863328&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwu8uyBhC6ARIsAKwBGpQFCrEGJWAiQ6UxdxRBBhylTshnGOkiPYWuV_DWOOgjWU0S88t7wMEaAtdlEALw_wcB#idiq=3454685&edition=2377117

You're welcome. Now, while you're reading all of that, please grant others of us here some quiet, in which we may converse intelligently.

@69 Like I wrote in the very next sentence after the one you quoted: "The League of Nations Class A Mandates all became sovereign states ruled by the people living in them during Ottoman rule." But most of the Arab nations were not turned into Mandates. Like it says in your own link: "The agreement effectively divided the Ottoman provinces outside the Arabian Peninsula into areas of British and French control and influence" (emphasis on "outside the Arabian Peninsula," see also Egypt).

Now, who you calling ignorant?

@44 [Theodore]
Here's a think tank piece that some what backs your position on IDF as having lost its edge. From RUSI;
https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/manoeuvre-or-defence-israeli-experiences-responding-missile-threats

Basically says IDF and political leadership have acknowledged that the "Golden Age" of security for Israel is over. RUSI concurs, though much of what it cites has more to do with technological and capability improvements of the threats without corresponding innovations by the IDF. End result is an open debate over doctrine (fires vs decisive maneuver) and this debate may be baked into operational planning. This could mean Iron Swords is strategically muddled.

There are other good nuggets in there, especially for making a pessimistic case over IDF capabilities.

@70: Try reading your own stuff harder. @68:"...by the people living there without external influence."

Yeah, the diktats of at least two Whiter-Than-Whitey-McWhiterton old-style Imperial Powers couldn't possibly count as "external influence."

Good luck with that.

@73 you're just embarrassing yourself at this point

@30: Nope. I initially blame Reaganomics. Ol' middle class killing, cue card addled Ronny Ray-Gun cheerfully cut school lunch programs, SNAP (a.k.a., Welfare), and all other federally funded social programs to assist the economically disadvantaged (many of which served to benefit poor working class whites, too), while zeroing in on union-busting and the first in a series of massive tax cuts for the rich. It was Reagan who nationally declared ketchup as a "vegetable".
Now go eat your kerfuffle paste before you really start to crack up, raindrop dear.

@76. I will grant that Manifest Destiny is stupid and disgusting, but do you believe in it?

Remember that Manifest Destiny was the sincerely held religious belief that the lands once held by indigenous people were obviously and divinely ordained for settlement by the white man and included the expansion of slavery westward from coast to coast. This was the inherent right to the land as ordained by God for a racial group at the expense and ultimate removal and genocide of the indigenous population.

Whether or not you believe in it, you are living in its aftermath.

@76 Are you certain a president born literally 113 years ago isn't responsible for all of today's ills?

On a side note, when the similarly ancient Biden loses his election, as his polls currently indicate, I wonder what the retrospective will look like in terms of the disastrous Israeli/Palestinian policy.

@65: If it's so incredibly easy to find evidence to support your point, then by all means show us how easy that is, by the simple expedient of doing your own homework. (Simpler version: put up or shut up.)

Also, if you want to compare and contrast the treatment of, say, sexual minorities in Israel, against that found in Iran (or any other funder of Hamas) please go right ahead. That would probably be a pretty good indicator of what would happen to those persons in what is now Israel, if Israel no longer existed.

@80 Not a rant, but a cogent and impressive argument. Im actually leaning your way now. Something is off with Tel Aviv's War Council. My personal focus has been on the Ukraine conflict, and geo politics in the Trans Caucasus. From what I glean from that theater, it feels like a dark shadow must be falling on Israel if they cannot mend their own situation. In Ukraine - cheap drones, precision rockets, entrenched positions, expensive AMS systems, warfare in this arena must be sending chills up the spines in Tel Aviv. The slow buildup of the Ring of Fire around Israel is not going to abate, and any state banking on WunderWaffen (UKs Dragonfire comes to mind) is not conducting sound strategy.

But you still have to contend with Andrew Fox, whose article is the most optimistic I can find on this question. Can you refute his argument? I'll post it again.
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/israel-succeeding-gaza

@83: “…insurgent organizations are weak but resilient. If you only kill half the insurgents, the insurgent organization just springs back stronger than ever the moment your back is turned.”

I disagree on Hamas being an ‘insurgent’ organization. They seem like more of a mercenary company, hiding behind civilians. It took years to get them ready for the 10/7 genocidal attacks, and we have allegations Bibi aided and abetted their growth to that point. They also stole some amount of humanitarian aid from Gaza and weaponized it. Neither resupply option exists for them right now.

Hamas’ strategy has always relied upon outsiders restraining the IDF, by Hamas itself creating a large body count of civilians in Gaza. They’ve accomplished the latter, but despite their dupes in the West diligently blaming Israel for it, they haven’t achieved the former. As I’ve repeatedly noted, support for Israel, and even for IDF-in-Rafah, remains solidly high amongst American registered voters. Hamas’ intended exterior restraint on the IDF simply doesn’t exist.

It’s within the realm of possibility for the IDF to continue degrading Hamas’ operational capability to the point Hamas cannot continue attacking Israel. Ironically, Hamas’ strategy of using Gaza civilians and civilian infrastructure as shields against the IDF may render Gaza uninhabitable, and thus eliminate it as a future base for Hamas’ operations.

"Gaza’s not uninhabitable."

Protected warfare can render any site uninhabitable. So long as Hamas continues striking at the IDF from behind infrastructure in Gaza, the IDF will continue to shoot through said infrastructure, degrading it.

With terms like "grass mowing," I also believe you're continuing to rely too much on the idea that Hamas is an insurgency, born from within Gaza. I continue to believe it is more like a mercenary company, who have moved into Gaza from other places, and hide behind civilians who did not nurture it. If the IDF kills enough of Hamas, with no real damage to Israel, the recruiting allure of Hamas will fade. (And, as I've previously written, there's plenty the rest of the world can do to degrade Hamas.)

"I think the prospects for Hamas are bright."

As were the prospects for Al-Qaeda in late 2001. Not only did the international community do good work in degrading Al-Qaeda, but eventually even potential recruits tired of bin Laden's death machine. Al-Qaeda simply never even came close to accomplishing any of their stated goals, and by the time we killed bin Laden, his time had long since passed.

"You as a genocide denier..."

I am no such thing. I am very willing to say Hamas committed genocide in Israel on 10/7, because Hamas' actions meet the criteria for genocide as defined in the Genocide Convention. I also believe the IDF in Gaza has not met the criteria for genocide as defined in the Genocide Convention. I've been willing to argue both points all along, but amongst the commenters here loudly accusing Israel of genocide, I have found no takers.

@83 Yes, I basically agree with everything you stated. And I think you identified Fox's weak link in his totally dissing traditional COIN doctrine. But where I might respectively depart from you is the ultimate source of Tel Aviv's problems. I think its in the political realm, which then leads to operational failure. You touched on this when you correctly ask "who's going to hold and build?" It appears that Tel Aviv does not want the IDF to hold, nor does anyone else frankly. So, if that's the case, we get exactly what you described. But that's political leadership, not IDF deficiency.

Of course, we dont know how this ends, even in the narrow terms of IDF security arrangements. Yes, there will be window dressing with the new buffer zone. But I wont be surprised, for example, if the border with Egypt is permanently garrisoned. A cordon the likes we have not seen may be in making. On the strategic level, however, you are correct, this solves nothing.

The only scenario I can envision that might lead to a durable peace involves the IDF reoccupying Gaza as they did prior to 2005, but this time under an international vehicle of limited statehood (demilitarized) for Gaza and WB, whose birth is conditioned on the principles of Oslo. No border bickering, no demands for "right of return." Take it or leave it. IDF leaves. Every state who is bold enough to declare statehood for Palestine WILL be an active party. Egypt needs to stop treating Gaza as a tonsil for the Muslim Brotherhood and fully open the border. People go and live dignified lives.

If that cannot happen, and lets say Hamas slowly reconstitutes with another 20 years of innovation of throwing fire, and gives Israel another horror show, what is left besides a total war, a war of peoples, biblical and Carthaginian? If there is one silver lining to this conflict today, it is that the shoe is not on the other foot, and we do not have to live through a holocaust of 10 million souls. But every poor peace leads to another spin of the wheel.

@89: What territory did Al-Qaeda hold? In the last quarter of 2001, a U.S.-led coalition invaded Afghanistan, then (as now) held by the Taliban. The Taliban's leader back then, Mullah Omar, had offered to turn over bin Laden to the U.S., in exchange for the U.S. not invading. However, the Cheney-W. maladministration needed a foreign war to distract from their failure to prevent 9/11. Bin Laden famously got away. Al-Qaeda went on to kill a few more innocent victims. By the time bin Laden died under orders from Pres. Obama, Al-Qaeda had long since faded into irrelevancy.

Al-Qaeda was not an insurgency; it was a terrorist gang, living on territory it did not control. The IDF can hunt down Hamas' terrorists in Gaza, and kill or capture enough of them to neutralize Hamas, without 'defeating' Hamas in the field. This is a hunter-killer operation, not a counter-insurgency operation.

Here comes Tuesdays Slog at the Strangler - the clown show at the Wing Nut Museum. Half the staff walks off do to "Zionist" language in their new exhibit Confronting Hate Together. Apparently not so together. The group insists "Zionism [belief in Israel's existence] has no place in our community." Really? What DOES have a place in our community are approximately 16 new entries on Canary Bird.

@85 "We are horrified when the IDF does it, but nobody says a word when we do it with a drone strike over some anonymous place in the Horn of Africa, Arabian Desert, or the Sahel of Africa."

Don't conflate you not caring with "nobody saying a word."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/27/anti-drone-activists-protest-obama

"They only holler when one of the combatants is Jewish"

That absurd statement basically disqualifies you from any serious discussion. Go play in the sandbox with tensora

@ 94 Sadly, I also think my idea of an internationally brokered peace is highly unlikely, but I will occasionally throw it out there because I don't want to fall into total cynicism. But if I do, it wouldn't be the first time.

In the early 90s I was a huge enthusiast for Chechen independence. So enthusiastic, I risked my life to get as close to the conflict as possible. Needless to say, history had a lovely laugh at my Yankee Wilsonian idealism. The Chechen national story, of fabled 150 resistance to the czars, their deportation to Siberia by Stalin, then the return, legendary and inspiring. But then came Salafism, Khuttab and the jihadists, the ballet massacre, bus bombings, Shamil Basaevs adventures in Dagestan - and I was no longer so eager to advocate. And Chechnya today? Don't get me started.

That experience most certainly colors my views on the Ole Israel-Palestinian conflict. That being said, among the more exotic items on Kossacks bucket list - to personally witness a Chechen zikr.

@96 if Chechen terrorism put you off that cause allow me to introduce you to some light reading that may re-color your "views on the Ole Israel-Palestinian conflict."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irgun

Israel, and especially Likud, are living proof that if you're good enough at terrorism you can transform yourself into the perceived legitimate government (may however require the backing of a guilt-wracked global hegemon).

@97 Agreed! Theres a great book entitled a Peace to End all Peace which dedicated a lot of ink to how the Kurds got shafted in post ww1 diplomacy. I'll have to read that Rolling Stones article.

@99 For the record, it was more than methods that changed my thinking about the Chechen cause. It had as much to do with the evolving nature of the cause itself, and its imagined future.

I’m delighted, btw, that you find Wiki a good source of information, and one that helps you understand the world. I actually just recently hosted a military/political simulation of the last years of the British Mandate, and the Irgun were represented. I’m fully aware of that story.

But it’s been my experience that direct immersion is where real learnings take place, as long as one has prepared themselves intellectually and emotionally. I have 2 transects of the Middle East under my belt - self contained mountain bike expeditions into very rough places with very specific objects of inquiry. I regard sitting in Umayyad Mosque with a Palestinian family to hear fiery oratory on a Friday among the most sublime experiences. Arrest and interrogation 80km east of Homs near a sensitive site among the most harrowing. My “vacation” in 2021 was renting a ktm690 out of Tbilisi and spending a month roaming the high Caucasus to learn the stories of internally displaced mountain peoples and then back down to Stalin’s birth place, Gori, to speak directly those few who were demanding the last remaining statue of him be returned to its pedestal. The politics of statutory was very vogue in 2021, as you well recall.

In any case, my WR250 is ready to ship to Bremerhaven, where I hope to ride back to the Trans Caucasus via trans European trails. If I don’t succumb to volunteering in the Ukrainian Carpathians, I’ll slowly make my way through the Balkans, across Turkey, and back to Georgia, where the thunder clouds are gathering.

Well I’m away I’ll certainly have to remember to check in with you periodically so you can explain the world to me.

@101 I guess I misinterpreted your comments as representing a belief that Israel has the moral high ground. That would be a surprisingly shallow opinion for such an accomplished world traveler as yourself. My mistake, and no need to check in unless you need or want the dopamine rush from authoring another self righteous autobiographical screed.

@93: '"What territory did Al-Qaeda hold?" That would be Fallujah, my friend.'

Now you're giving thirteen12 a run for his illiteracy. There were two Battles of Fallujah. Both were local aspects of the instability in Iraq, which had been completely caused by the unprovoked, American-led invasion of the previous year.

'In March 2004 four American contractors were seized and killed while attempting to pass through the city. The incident prompted a brutal response by coalition forces in April in what became known as the First Battle of Fallujah; heavy casualties and destruction forced coalition forces to withdraw, under pressure from both the international community and Iraq’s transitional government. A second attempt in November—the Second Battle of Fallujah—succeeded in driving resistance fighters from the city.

'In the interim a radicalized group of insurgents based in the city pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda and became known as al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). Although driven from Fallujah, AQI remained active in the region. Its interference in local power structures and ways of life stoked popular opposition, however, and many residents of Fallujah participated in the 2007 “Sunni Awakening” that was intended to rid the region of AQI.'

(https://www.britannica.com/place/Fallujah)

So, far from Afghanistan and further from Sept. 2001, a group of Iraqi militants went for some street cred by calling themselves AQI, promptly got their asses kicked of Fallujah (with no certainty they'd even been there for the first battle, let alone 'held the city'), and then made local nuisances of themselves. If any of this had f-all to do with bin Laden, 9/11, or the rest of his agenda, history does not seem to have recorded it.

@76: Well, obviously it reduced you to senseless burbling as usual, raindrop dear.
Now go eat your kerfuffle paste before you really start to crack up.

“Republican” “leaders” worried
about Jewish students on Campus
whilst bibi nutnyahoo’s War Crimes en-
Danger Jews planetfucking-Wide – and by
Extension those who helped Bankroll the omg
is it Genocide yet? Land Grab/ethnic Cleansing

which is US

what the fuck
you’ve kicked the
Bee’s nest Uncle Joe:

nyt
Facing Global Outrage, Netanyahu
Calls Civilian Deaths in Rafah
Strike ‘Tragic Accident’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments came as international condemnation mounted over the airstrike, which Gaza officials said killed 45 people.

authorities.https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/27/world/middleeast/israel-rafah-civilian-deaths.html

women and children
Burned alive the
Horror never
ends

bibi Knows he
Cannot allow
it to end

@93: ‘There will be no "hunting down" of Hamas's terrorists in Gaza, there will be no killing or capturing enough of them to neutralize Hamas.’

Bold predictions. We’ll see what happens.

@106: “you want to argue that Al Qaeda never held Fallujah! That's a good one!”

I just did, by quoting an account of what actually happened there. Go back and read it again.

As for the rest of your comment, you really need to learn the difference between self-proclaimed appearance and reality.

@108: If, between the First Battle of Fallujah (when AQI did not exist) and the Second Battle of Fallujah, they’d instead decided to call themselves ‘the Pittsburgh Steelers,’ would you now be telling us all about the thousands of American troops who’d died assaulting the Steel Curtain?

(https://hinghamsportspartnership.sportngin.com/page/show/360534-legends-of-the-gridiron#:~:text=The%20Steel%20Curtain&text=This%20defense%20was%20the%20backbone,greatest%20defense%20of%20all%20time.)

@111: And I’ll let you leave without your ever having provided proof the Iraqi insurgents at Second Fallujah &c. were ever connected to bin Laden’s organization in anything other than name.

Let's play armchair general!

@109

I realize you’re
merely trolling but
ask yourself Which is
the Greater Harm? Slogans*
shouted or Terrorism, inspired by
bibi & co's Decimation of Palestine,
on Jews PLANET-Wide not to Mention

retribution (in kind)
for “Our” (fuck that)
Support thru Pallets of
CA$H + 2Klb Bunker Bustin’
Weapons of Massive Destruction

Shredding human beings
From ALL they’ve Ever
or Will Ever possess:

their Lives
their Homes
their Families
their Community
& their Families
& their Homes
& their Lives

it sucks
Both ways
but one of ‘em
has Vastly-worse
Consequences for Jews

and
bibi’s
Making
it Worse

he cannot
help it – it’s
either Palestinians
or him: when his Atrocities
cease, his Trials’re only Beginning

*yes
Wormtongue
some're using
Israel's 'river to
the seas' slogan

just like Israel (but
backed up Via an
ON-going Geno-
cide: "genocide
lite" if You
prefer).

a metaphor for
Smokin Joe’s
Presidency?

nyt:
U.S.
Pier for
Gaza Aid
Damaged by Rough Seas

Army engineers are working to put the pier back together, and Defense Department officials hope it will be operational again in about a week.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/28/us/politics/gaza-pier-damaged.html

at least
Dems’re
FINALLY trolling
El trumfpster: nyt:

Election updates: Robert DeNiro, speaking for the Biden campaign outside the courthouse, said Donald Trump should go to jail.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/05/28/us/biden-trump-election