Gaza under attack yet again.

[belboid]

It does beg the question, what will happen to Israel after Netanyahu, and might there even be a chance of things getting better - is this a last gasp for Israeli ultra-nationalists in terms of state support? - probably that's too much to wish for, and today not the day to think about it when so many innocent people are suffering.

It wasn’t really better under Sharon. Peres took some sane steps but got thrown out because of them. The ultra nationalists are getting stronger every year.

 

[likesfish]

I'm up for it.

The thing that really, really sticks in my throat in these situations however is you know that there are British arms companies getting fat off of selling weapons to Israel while people like us are willing to put up some money to repair the damage.

Israel has a huge arms industry and gets all the best toys from America Spends around $20 billion on arms a year .
We sell about £50million a year mostly components as we build 15% of each F35.
We buy about the same amount of kit.
Electronics and the spike missile used in Iraq.

 

[TopCat]

Massively illuminating, thanks for posting it.
For those who haven't listened this places what's happening in political context - that context being that Netanyahu is clinging on to power via a loophole in the law - a caretaker incumbent prime minister effectively - and stirring up Israeli extremism as the last desperate card he can play as a way of maintaining power, and even so as to avoid personal prosecution.

It does beg the question, what will happen to Israel after Netanyahu, and might there even be a chance of things getting better - is this a last gasp for Israeli ultra-nationalists in terms of state support? - probably that's too much to wish for, and today not the day to think about it when so many innocent people are suffering.

Netanyahu is simply playing it by the book written by that shit Ariel Sharon. It’s a solid strategy.

 

[ska invita]

Netanyahu is simply playing it by the book written by that shit Ariel Sharon. It’s a solid strategy.

Yes, its an age old strategy, beyond Israel even, but as the interview points out, its one with a sell by date, and what follows is far from written in stone

 

[kebabking]

Four tickets fired into Israel from Lebanon.

No damage, and the Israelis are reported as saying it's not Hezbollah - there are umpteen smaller groups it could be, as much vying for patronage and attention as anything else.

 

[weltweit]

What was the original spark that went on to ignite this - this time?

 

[belboid]

What was the original spark that went on to ignite this - this time?

The attack on people praying at al Aqsa mosque (an attack ostensibly carried out because some other people had lobbed a rock over the border)

 

[Johnny Vodka]

The attack on people praying at al Aqsa mosque (an attack ostensibly carried out because some other people had lobbed a rock over the border)

Plus more evictions of Palestinians from their homes to make way for Jewish settlers.

 

[Johnny Vodka]

Has Biden's response been mentioned yet?

 

[weltweit]

The attack on people praying at al Aqsa mosque (an attack ostensibly carried out because some other people had lobbed a rock over the border)

Plus more evictions of Palestinians from their homes to make way for Jewish settlers.

The usual reasons then.
It is relentless.

 

[belboid]

Has Biden's response been mentioned yet?

Ha! The usual support for racist murder from him.

Melanie Philips has also thrown her twopenneth in, saying Starmer is as bad as Corbyn because he was a bit critical.

 

[Johnny Vodka]

Ha! The usual support for racist murder from him.

Basically, Israel having the right to defend itself. No mention of Palestinians having the right to defend themselves from being evicted from their homes. I think a lot of Democrats just signed something in support of Palestinian rights, so he may be asked to budge.

 

[Shechemite]

so everyone is doing/saying what we all knew they would do/say

 

[BillRiver]

so everyone is doing/saying what we all knew they would do/say

Depressing and infuriating, innit.

 

[Doctor Carrot]

It's exactly like 2014 again but worse. I got really upset by it then so I'm trying to not get as involved thinking about it but it's hard not to. The same shit being said by the same cunts. Biden's just given Netanyahu a green light to do wtf he likes.

I just still can't believe people even say things like 'Israel has a right to defend itself' from who? A population, half of which are children, with no army living in an open air prison walled off by the state of Israel who in turn use highly advanced weaponry to attack those people living in that prison from a distance.

 

[ska invita]

Biden's just given Netanyahu a green light to do wtf he likes.

Yeah Biden isnt going to do shit

" Biden said he had not seen “a significant overreaction” on the part of Israel "

" While Biden on Wednesday reaffirmed Israel’s right to defend itself, his “preferred position is that this thing disappears”, said Aaron David Miller, a former Arab-Israeli negotiator in multiple US administrations. “His risk aversion on this issue will be maintained unless there is some [mass casualty] event . . . and this really deteriorates.” As of Thursday, the death toll stood at 87 in Gaza and seven in Israel."

 

[not-bono-ever]

rockets from Lebanon but not full on hezbollah apparently

 

[RileyOBlimey]

Israeli army is heading into Gaza: Israel launches ground operation in Gaza after days of airstrikes – follow updates

This will not end well.

 

[two sheds]

Mowing the lawn again

 

[BillRiver]

This is utterly heartbreaking.

I know what I'm about to say is pedantry and not the point but it also kind of is the point in a way:

Every report I've read speaks of "Jews" and "Arabs" as two distinct groups. The Jewish lynch mobs are described as chanting "death to Arabs".

My own heritage, on my dad's side, is Sephardic Jewish. My surname is both Arabic, and Jewish. Arabic language, Jewish faith.

We are all semitic. We are all one people. We used to live peacefully together on this land, before colonialism destroyed that.

We need to stop pretending Jews aren't Arab, and Arabs aren't Jewish. We need to remember how to share this land, Jewish and Muslim and Christian and atheist and everyone else too.

Every day that seems to become less and less likely. Every day more deaths, injuries, oppression.

I have no answers, only despair. Fucking hell.

Love, rage, and solidarity - free Palestine!

 

[Dystopiary]

Yeah Biden isnt going to do shit

" Biden said he had not seen “a significant overreaction” on the part of Israel "

" While Biden on Wednesday reaffirmed Israel’s right to defend itself, his “preferred position is that this thing disappears”, said Aaron David Miller, a former Arab-Israeli negotiator in multiple US administrations. “His risk aversion on this issue will be maintained unless there is some [mass casualty] event . . . and this really deteriorates.” As of Thursday, the death toll stood at 87 in Gaza and seven in Israel."

Just like the saintly Obama.

 

[BillRiver]

Just like the saintly Obama.

Ooh don't get me started! Fucking Obama, grrr...

 

[ska invita]

Just like the saintly Obama.

That FT piece reckons Obama was a bit less pro-Israeal, god only knows how they calculate such minute differences

 

[josef1878 2.0]

Every time I read 'internal civil unrest' or 'threat of civil war' I find myself thinking there is a piss weak prime minister (or whatever Benny is) getting himself set for a power grab by force.

 

[Mr.Bishie]

First bit of published news I’ve seen regards the targeting of Palestinian tunnel systems. A heavy blow if true, yet we know the IDF ground incursions are to solely target such infrastructure:

 

[bimble]

I feel like this time, this moment, is not the same as all the ones before. There are lots now of reports of extremist jews carrying out lynchings in the streets, and reprisals, in many 'mixed' towns, homes attacked shops & also at least 1 maybe 4 synagogue being set on fire.
eg)Rising attacks in religiously ‘mixed’ Israel towns amid Gaza push
These mixed places, acre lod jaffa, they're where the hope was, or so i imagined.

 

[MickiQ]

Most Americans probably don't give a hoot one way or the other what happens in the Middle East but there is a vocal and influential minority that is massively pro-Israel and no counter-balance.
Biden probably isn't as pro-Israel as Trump (who's actually only pro-Trump but saw a chance to win applause from his supporters) but with a knife-edge majority in the Senate and plenty of problems to deal with at home, he isn't going to do anything other than issue the occasional vague platitude. The US's response to anything that happens in Israel is always driven by domestic politics. No other nation on the planet is remotely capable of applying any influence or pressure at all and neither the Israeli nor Hamas give a fig about condemnation or international opinion.

 

[ska invita]

The US's response to anything that happens in Israel is always driven by domestic politics.

Driven primarily by strategic geo-politics mainly, no?


(btw France asks police to ban pro-Palestinian protest in Paris )

 

[Pickman's model]

Driven primarily by strategic geo-politics mainly, no?

I don't think they'd make so many unforced errors if they were guided by strategic geo-politics

 

[Pickman's model]

Most Americans probably don't give a hoot one way or the other what happens in the Middle East but there is a vocal and influential minority that is massively pro-Israel and no counter-balance.
Biden probably isn't as pro-Israel as Trump (who's actually only pro-Trump but saw a chance to win applause from his supporters) but with a knife-edge majority in the Senate and plenty of problems to deal with at home, he isn't going to do anything other than issue the occasional vague platitude. The US's response to anything that happens in Israel is always driven by domestic politics. No other nation on the planet is remotely capable of applying any influence or pressure at all and neither the Israeli nor Hamas give a fig about condemnation or international opinion.

Jimmy carter's presidency was beset by problems and fractious relations with a democratic Congress but he still managed to do rather more than utter platitudes about Palestine