The only winning move is not to play.

If only it was a simple matter of de-escalating.

Biden wants the Saudis to release more oil to keep inflation down so Trump doesn't get back in, which is why he suddenly can't remember Jamal Khashoggi's name any more. The Saudis want access to US and Israeli weapons and security guarantees to protect their corrupt monarchy from Islamic revolutionaries who like to cut crown princes' heads off. Iran and Russia don't want Israel to do a deal with the Saudis for all the same reasons, from the other side. Israel meanwhile yearns to wipe out the Palestinians and seize all their land, but ethnically cleansing their Muslim population complicates any potential bromance between Israel and the Saudis.

Machine-gunning crowds and bombing ghettoes are all tactical moves in this fucked-up power game of oil and war and money.

Really wild that we're speedrunning post-9/11 brainworms right into a fucking bipartisan supported genocide. Feels real fucking great

Ace K wrote: Fri Oct 13, 2023 1:30 am Really wild that we're speedrunning post-9/11 brainworms right into a fucking bipartisan supported genocide. Feels real fucking great

It doesn't help when the public opinion includes such intelligent options as: "If you criticize Israeli policy you're an antisemite", or the hipper, younger college style "Maybe those innocent Israelis deserve to get shot down cuz their government is bad".

I don't actually believe most people fall into either stupid category but sometimes scrolling through the news and social media it sure feels like it.

losthighway wrote: Fri Oct 13, 2023 7:34 am

Ace K wrote: Fri Oct 13, 2023 1:30 am Really wild that we're speedrunning post-9/11 brainworms right into a fucking bipartisan supported genocide. Feels real fucking great

It doesn't help when the public opinion includes such intelligent options as: "If you criticize Israeli policy you're an antisemite", or the hipper, younger college style "Maybe those innocent Israelis deserve to get shot down cuz their government is bad".

I don't actually believe most people fall into either stupid category but sometimes scrolling through the news and social media it sure feels like it.

Boy, no doubt. I said elsewhere, the bloodlust is just fucking gross.

Like eephus said, we are a dumb species.

Ace K wrote: Really wild that we're speedrunning post-9/11 brainworms right into a fucking bipartisan supported genocide. Feels real fucking great

Yeah.. the amount of damage and displacement that's been done in 5 fucking days since.. it's as if they were just waiting for an excuse to do this.

kokorodoko wrote: Mon Oct 09, 2023 12:01 pm

ChudFusk wrote: Sat Oct 07, 2023 10:41 am I don't know anything about recent developments, but sometimes I wonder if Hamas is run or at least infiltrated by Mossad operatives.

Not exactly, but:

Also:

For years, the various governments led by Benjamin Netanyahu took an approach that divided power between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank — bringing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to his knees while making moves that propped up the Hamas terror group.

The idea was to prevent Abbas — or anyone else in the Palestinian Authority’s West Bank government — from advancing toward the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Thus, amid this bid to impair Abbas, Hamas was upgraded from a mere terror group to an organization with which Israel held indirect negotiations via Egypt, and one that was allowed to receive infusions of cash from abroad.

Most of the time, Israeli policy was to treat the Palestinian Authority as a burden and Hamas as an asset. Far-right MK Bezalel Smotrich, now the finance minister in the hardline government and leader of the Religious Zionism party, said so himself in 2015.

According to various reports, Netanyahu made a similar point at a Likud faction meeting in early 2019, when he was quoted as saying that those who oppose a Palestinian state should support the transfer of funds to Gaza, because maintaining the separation between the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza would prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.

source


Regarding the last point:

“Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas,” the prime minister reportedly said at a 2019 meeting of his Likud party. “This is part of our strategy — to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank.”

paywalled source, quoted here

penningtron wrote: Fri Oct 13, 2023 8:24 am Yeah.. the amount of damage and displacement that's been done in 5 fucking days since.. it's as if they were just waiting for an excuse to do this.

Given that:
You can't fart in Gaza without Israeli intelligence knowing about it.
Egypt warned them this was coming and they ignored it.
Hamas breached the notoriously-difficult-to-breach Iron Dome with.......paragliders?
Israeli victim adverts were being shown in the UK within hours of the attack (Did they really gather the footage, edit it, add subtitles/narration and organise paid advertising that quick?)

There are certainly some things that don't add up.

Yes, I know this sounds like the beginning of some crazy conspiracy theory.

Curry Pervert wrote: Fri Oct 13, 2023 8:04 pm
Yes, I know this sounds like the beginning of some crazy conspiracy theory.

But it doesn't even have to be. That region is such a hot mess that you don't even need to do a false flag attack. BB just had to get a whiff of something coming, sit on his hands and wait. Complicity doesn't even require a conspiracy.