Israel-Hamas War 2023

[HVC]

I'm fine with the Balkans. Women love me there.   

Check your pockets

[Norgy]

I'm fine with the Balkans. Women love me there.   

Check your pockets

All I have are a pack of cigarettes, some condoms and my... oh, fuck you Natasha

[Norgy]

Fair criticism, Beeb. I stand corrected.

[Barrister]

Fair criticism, Beeb. I stand corrected.

A very un-Languish-like response. 

Not sure if you're actually agreeing, or just don't want to get into a debate with me.  Either is obviously 100% fine though.

Glad you're sticking around at least in the short-term, hopefully for the long-term.

[Norgy]

Fair criticism, Beeb. I stand corrected.

A very un-Languish-like response. 

Not sure if you're actually agreeing, or just don't want to get into a debate with me.  Either is obviously 100% fine though.

Glad you're sticking around at least in the short-term, hopefully for the long-term.

No, I actually found your criticism fair. Of course there will be elements I am to blinkered to see.

I will stick around. I like it here. You're a good bunch, all of you. Even when I disagree with you at times.
 

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Just a tiny remark in regards to a post Barrister made a bit back about isis being gone.

Isis isn't gone. Very much not so.

[Tamas]

Twice in a month, Anne Frank's memorial statue has been vandalised by "pro-Gaza" people.

[viper37]

but seems highly unlikely to be sheltering terrorists that might threaten the US.

It's only been 2 years.  It took a decade last time for Al-Queida to be able to strike with a major offensive.  And they had other bases of operations.

Also, their funding didn't come from Afghanistan...

[Solmyr]

So Iran might strike today...

[crazy canuck]

Just a tiny remark in regards to a post Barrister made a bit back about isis being gone.

Isis isn't gone. Very much not so.

He might have meant they are no longer a physical state actor?

That is the problem with having a war goal as ambiguous as "destroying" a terrorist organization.  At what point are they destroyed-if ever.

[Josquius]

Yes. Kind of case in point for some of the naiive talk of Israel not stopping until Hamas is destroyed.
That isn't happening short of genocide.
There'll always be some cell continuing on.

[viper37]

That isn't happening short of genocide.

But that's the goal of this war.  Getting rid of the Palestinian problem once and for all, one way or the other.

[OttoVonBismarck]

Eh, ISIS and Al Qaeda largely were destroyed. The pre-9/11 version of Al Qaeda, the one that planned and executed 9/11, largely no longer existed by 2007 or so. The version of ISIS that took over vast swathes of Syria and Iraq, including Mosul, also no longer exists.

The leadership is all different now, their operations are different. In many cases the only continuing thread is just reuse of an old name.

It is like saying the Ku Klux Klan wasn't rooted out in the 1800s because it reappeared in the early 1900s and then again in the 1950s-60s. But those three iterations of the Klan have little connective tissue as organizations. Different leadership, different methods, wholly new organizations etc.

Like literally anyone can say they are "Hamas", that isn't what anyone is talking about, they are talking about operational Hamas as it existed on 10-7 and perpetrated the attack. Not "any random group of evil Muslims waving the Hamas flag."

[Oexmelin]

Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich: Starving Gazans 'To Death' May Be Moral, but World Won't Let Us

The far-right minister said at a right-wing conference that the current proposal for a deal with Hamas 'would only return a few captives and seal the fate of most of them'

From Haaretz.

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-08-05/ty-article/israeli-finance-minister-starving-gazans-to-death-may-be-moral-but-world-wont-let-us/00000191-22e1-dd23-a7dd-2aed4b050000

[viper37]

Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich: Starving Gazans 'To Death' May Be Moral, but World Won't Let Us

Poor Israel.  Everyone is always against them.  All full of vicious anti semites threatening them for no reasons.  The UN, the ICJ, and now the entire world.  It's hard to be Israel.