Israel-Gaza war

[Cashew]

Sigh, there is not really much to say that has not already been said in past episodes. I will get some hate from both sides for this, but I guess I will add that Palestinians are screwed no matter what at this point, none of the great powers care about settlement construction or will ever meaningfully pressure Israel into stopping the demolition of Palestinian homes, and the neighboring coutries only "care" so much as they can be used for propaganda purposes. In my opinion the wise course of action would have been for Gaza to extricate itself from the Palestinian cause and either get annexed by Egypt or exist as an independent state. It seems that Hamas upon recognizing this reality has instead decided to go out in a gruesome "blaze of glory"

[Cashew]

I don't see how Hamas thinks that they are helping Palestinians in what they have done.

The goal is to hurt Israel, not help Palestinians. If getting hundreds of thousands of Palestinians killed makes even a few Jewish mothers weep that is a sacrifice they are willing to make.

[Cashew]

I'm gonna be real, as someone who wholeheartedly supports Palestinian liberation, I find the constant arguments over the baby beheadings totally counterproductive and really emblematic of the failures of the pro-Palestinian left here. This is just me personally, but I suspect I am not in the minority when I say that I am mostly against baby killing in itself – the issue of whether the babies were beheaded is of comparatively minor importance. Therefore, when I see person 1 go "Hamas beheaded babies" and person 2 go "that's not true, they definitely killed babies, but there's no confirmation of beheadings" I instantly become less sympathetic to person 2. Anyone killing babies is bad and doesn't need to be defended.

The problem with that mindset is that if person 1 is being dishonest and trying to inflame the situation while being unchallenged over minor details, they can retain credibility which they can use to escalate to geater and greater levels of disinformation. In this case no propaganda is needed as Hamas is villanous enough on it's own, but the prinicple that both sides, especially when involving governments should be assumed to be lying unless they peovide tangible evidence is not a bad one.

[Cashew]

People forget that we didn’t invade Afghanistan until nearly a month after 9/11.

These things aren’t immediate

Entering Afghanistan required a tiny percentage of the American population. By contrast Israel is fully mobilized and each day the ground invasion does not happen the country spirals closer towards economic collapse while letting it's manpower go to waste.

[Cashew]

To try and get things back on track from the ten-thousandth rehashing of the Arab claims that Jews aren't indigenous to Judea...

There are four things I'd like to know more about, I've been so busy the last week that I've barely been following the news at all and would appreciate someone catching me up on these topics:

1) Israel's attack on the World Central Kitchen workers -- this is a disgraceful act and one for which Israel should suffer severe punishment, up to and including American intervention or withdrawal of aid, if they can't come up with a good explanation fast.  Has there been any progress whatsoever on either an investigation into how this happened or some Israeli explanation beyond "it was an accident"?  I do not believe that it was an accident.  If the IDF intentionally attacked aid workers as a matter of national policy then they've gone too far and need to be cut off.

Tbf I doubt there is any written order to killing aid workers from the higher ups, and it would be pretty foolish of them to leave a paper trail if they did. That said intentionally killing aid workers as policy, and turning a blind eye to the more bloodthirsty members of the IDF doing so is a distinction without a difference.

[Cashew]

To try and get things back on track from the ten-thousandth rehashing of the Arab claims that Jews aren't indigenous to Judea...

There are four things I'd like to know more about, I've been so busy the last week that I've barely been following the news at all and would appreciate someone catching me up on these topics:

1) Israel's attack on the World Central Kitchen workers -- this is a disgraceful act and one for which Israel should suffer severe punishment, up to and including American intervention or withdrawal of aid, if they can't come up with a good explanation fast.  Has there been any progress whatsoever on either an investigation into how this happened or some Israeli explanation beyond "it was an accident"?  I do not believe that it was an accident.  If the IDF intentionally attacked aid workers as a matter of national policy then they've gone too far and need to be cut off.

Tbf I doubt there is any written order to killing aid workers from the higher ups, and it would be pretty foolish of them to leave a paper trail if they did. That said intentionally killing aid workers as policy, and turning a blind eye to the more bloodthirsty members of the IDF doing so is a distinction without a difference.

How high up the chain of command was this decision made?  There's a huge difference between one deranged IDF pilot deciding to airstrike a convoy, versus an insubordinate commanding officer ordering him to do it, versus some colonel or brigadier general ordering it, versus it being official IDF policy coming direct from Yaron Finkelman or Yoav Gallant or Netanyahu himself.

Like if it's just one insubordinate officer, throw the book at him and call it a day.  If this was Yoav Gallant's decision, or Bibi's, then America needs to cut off Israel until the entire Netanyahu administration is replaced.

That is based on the premise that "insubordination" will not consistently be given a slap on the wrist.

[Cashew]

Ah I see we are blaming Hamas and not the Israeli bombing campaign.

If Israeli bombings killed the hostages Hamas would have eagerly disclosed that long ago, Israel got huge backlash over shooting three hostages waving white flags after all.

[Cashew]

Trump just won the election today.

Israel winning the war is more important than the outcome of the election

Replace that with "Sri Lanka winning the war against the Tamil Tigers is more important than the outcome of the election" and realoze how deranged that statement is.

[Cashew]

Here is the thing: If Netanyahu doesn't finish the job and completely obliterates Hamas Israel will have the same problem again 5, 10 years from now if not earlier.

Israel must finish the Job!

Finish the job and then what? Have Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank lead by the PA? Or perhaps another more competent armed group untainted by connections to the Muslim Brotherhood rises up and takes over the Gaza Strip? Why in the world would Netenyahu and the Israeli right want to see that happen?