A very depressing video from Gaza

[Meadmaker]

But........from the river to the sea. How do you respond to that? How do you respond to "We want you dead!" I wish there were a good answer, but I don't see one.

Whatever the answer is, this isn't it: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/israel-p ... ec45a22239

No? Why not?

Excessive civilian casualties? Yeah, it's a problem. But would there be any civilian casualties at all if people stopped shooting at the IDF?

Your HuffPost article didn't mention it, but I'm guessing that someone was shooting at the IDF. It's a bad idea. The IDF has an air force, and the current holder of the Prime Minister's office is not only not afraid to use it, he seems to kind of enjoy it. It doesn't make sense to not shoot back at all, so I guess you would counsel less extreme shootbacks? I guess I would, too.

[arthwollipot]

What is the virtue of a proportional response, anyway?

[Meadmaker]

I gave it some thought. I've advocated the two state solution, but I think there's a better strategy.

The problem with the two state solution is that the Palestinian leaders reject it consistently. In order to have a two state solution, the leaders of the state that isn't yet a state would have to agree, publicly, that the state that is already a state has a right to exist. The potential second state representatives would have to say that the currently existing state ought to be there, and they won't do that.

Morever, if the two state solution was accepted, everyone knows that the people of the second state would use their sovereignty to develop military capability to attack the first state. Does anyone doubt that? That's basically what happened on October 7.


I think, instead, the only hope for a solution would be a new approach by the representatives of the Palestinians. They should demand annexation. They should demand annexation by Israel, and if Isreal refuses, they should demand that Jordan annex the West Bank, and Egypt annex Gaza.

[stanky]

Meanwhile, right on cue, Biden finds the reason to bomb Iran.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWDWelL ... el=TheHill

[Meadmaker]

Meanwhile, right on cue, Biden finds the reason to bomb Iran.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWDWelL ... el=TheHill

I think that was in Iraq. The distinction may not seem all that important, but it is.

[sparks]

Retaliation against Iranians hiding in Iraq... was the way I (mis) understood it.

[Meadmaker]

Meanwhile, I saw a headline today on a subject I find somewhat bizarre.

The headline was "I saw the babies Hamas beheaded with my own eyes."

I didn't read the article, but that whole "issue" about whether or not Hamas actually beheaded babies is one that kind of bugs me. It bugs me because people can't just agree on some sort of reality. They have to pain the other side as evil, and indeed the lowest form of evil. So, Israel says that not only did Hamas order an attack on ordinary families, causing hundreds of deaths of women, children and, yes, babies, but Hamas actually found babies and beheaded them. Meanwhile, Hamas denies it, so obviously Israel is full of liars and you can't believe anything they say.


The way I see it....

Babies have big heads. Babies have weak necks. Hamas had hand grenades. Any questions?


I'll bet there were some headless babies under the rubble in Gaza, too.

[stanky]

Weird that the (alleged) treatment of the corpse matters more than the dead babies. If they really wanted to pluck the heart strings of the enemy, wouldn't they maybe run the baby through a meat grinder? Or is beheading as bad as it gets?

[Meadmaker]

Forget the politics and what they are singing about, this was a cool video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aIyZnFbOu0

Except.....the politics was the whole point. You can't really forget it.

(1000 Israeli musicians gather in an amphiteater in Caesarea to perform a song asking for return of the hostages still held by Hamas.)

Still a mess over there.

[President Bush]

I would have found it more believable had somebody been shot in the head.