Hamas strike on Israel - Threadbans in op - mod warning in OP updated 19/10/23

Bibi is dead, politically. He tried to destroy Isreali democracy (by controlling the judiciary via the Orban/Kaczynski method), he aligned himself with ultra-right radicals and created the most ultra-right Israeli government ever. He will be remembered as the worst Prime Minister in history who allowed this terrorist attack to happen because of his incompetence.

He can try flexing muscles, bomb the whole Gaza, show a strong response, but he can't fix this. He's dead.

IDF have actually said

"The emphasis is on damage, not accuracy"

Where I come from this does not convey surgical accuracy

No, they are not. Completely wrong.

Hamas folks visited Russia today. How do you square that?

In reality we have got a strong evil alliance formed - Russia/Syria/Iran/Hamas/Hezbollah + North Korea and China standing aside watching all that.

Given they were controlling all foreing aid and money flows in Gaza since 2006 (with a brief interlude between 2014 and 2015), it's entirely possible they built all these tunnels.

But given their are essentially mafia chiefs, they must have spent and stolen huge % of that aid, plus they had to buy and stockpile weapons. Not sure how much construction could've been done.

The nature of Hamas regime is exact the same as Russia - organised crime mafia kleptocracy. It's about controlling money flows of the entire "country".

The only difference is that Gaza is a city state and they have this Palestinian opression and martyrdom narrative as a bonus.

Confirmed by today's Hamas visit of Pu-Tin. Birds of feather flock together.

Mod

Warned for this.

@McGiver - "The nature of Hamas regime is exact the same as Russia - organised crime mafia kleptocracy. It's about controlling money flows of the entire "country""

Funny you say that. Many years ago I did some research and there was virtually no hard evidence, but it made it likely Putin was one of the richest men on earth as a very small percentage of the profits of pretty much all business in Russia, landed with him or his cronies.

He should be finished as you say, but no doubt he will do his best to put all the blame on the intelligence services, but it won't wash with the Israeli public. Even if he does achieve his goal of dismantling Hamas it won't be enough to placate the public once the war is over and the inquest begins, but it won't stop him from hoping that if he wipes out Hamas he can survive. I honestly believe the man is a psychopath who only cares about being in power.

"When Bill Browder’s young Russian lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was beaten to death in a Moscow jail, Browder made it his life’s mission to go after his killers and make sure they faced justice. The first step of that mission was to uncover who was behind the $230 million tax refund scheme that Magnitsky was killed over. As Browder and his team tracked the money as it flowed out of Russia through the Baltics and Cyprus and on to Western Europe and the Americas, they were shocked to discovered that Vladimir Putin himself was a beneficiary of the crime.

As law enforcement agencies began freezing the money, Putin retaliated. He and his cronies set up honey traps, hired process servers to chase Browder through cities, murdered more of his Russian allies, and enlisted some of the top lawyers and politicians in America to bring him down. Putin will stop at nothing to protect his money. As Freezing Order reveals, it was Browder’s campaign to expose Putin’s corruption that prompted Russia’s intervention in the 2016 US presidential election."

Jaysus. Sounds like a great novel. Not like non-fiction.

It clear that IDF are hitting specific targets when they want. Surgical strikes are not as clinical as you seem to think they are.

It's also clear (they've said as much) they are following a sorched earth strategy. And Hamas is using the civilians both as shield and to counter the sorched earth strategy. They are still launching attacks.

It's also not collective guilt from 80yrs. Hamas handed Israel the initiative when they attacked as they did the other week. That blew away any restraint that might have existed.

Obviously thats not to justify or condone either sides actions. The scale of the response is disproportionate.

The Israeli Ambassador was being interviewed by Sarah McInerney earlier on and made a valid point IMO when she said Hamas have stockpiles of fuel but won't let the civilian population use it.

She also said they stopped civilians trying to flee from the areas that were being targeted by the IDF.

The Israelies could be in trouble if Hezbolla decide to get involved, I've read articles which claim that they are well armed by Iran and the fighters are highly trained in combat.

The zoo gets bulldozed every few years as well. Mind you the days when Israel fully occupied the strip were grim indeed.

Nothing wrong with collective guilt.And not just the Germans.We should all be ashamed of how the Jews were treated.

If that is partly why the state of Israel was created then it was not a bad reason.

Guilt can be a wrong emotion but it can be upstanding and I respect Germans who were horrified and ashamed at what their parents did (in a long line of other Jew persecuters)

Israel is another matter but it has had a very hard hand to play.

I remember Nasser boasting that he would throw them into the sea.

I think they now feel that if they take their foot of Hamas' neck their own days will be numbered.

This is where we are now I think.

The "coup" occurred when it was found out that- with US backing - Fatah were planning and preparing to act against Hamas.

It was an armed coup d'etat, not "coup".

I don't know if it's a conspiracy theory or not.

Even if true, Fatah would have had full right to act against them for the interest of their cause. Hamas was and is a terrorist organisation. It was obvious they would bring more instability, chaos and ultimately war and destruction. Confirmed mutiple times. They are a cancer to the Palestinian cause.