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Israel-Hamas war thread


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Have any IDF casualty numbers been posted?  I saw one early on when a IFV/tank got ambushed and the whole squad got eliminated and 2 more today during a rescue but not much else...  I assume that going into urban and tunnel environment has caused some significant casualty figures.

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1 minute ago, Grimas said:

Have any IDF casualty numbers been posted?  I saw one early on when a IFV/tank got ambushed and the whole squad got eliminated and 2 more today during a rescue but not much else...  I assume that going into urban and tunnel environment has caused some significant casualty figures.

Last I saw they had lost just over 100.

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Can't remember if the original washington post article was linked here or not.

 

Note, this is a blog post from Robert Satloff, the Segal executive director of The Washington Institute and its Howard P. Berkowitz Chair in U.S. Middle East Policy. It is not a Times of Israel article.

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/did-nasty-israelis-really-separate-palestinian-mothers-from-their-babies/

Quote

If Washington Post reporters had asked Israeli officials, they would have written a very different story.

On November 17, the Washington Post published a front-page article titled “Israel’s war with Hamas separates Palestinian babies from their mothers.” It claimed that the expiration of transit passes that allowed Palestinian women with complicated pregnancies to cross from Gaza to give birth in hospital neonatal wards in Israel or the West Bank compelled those new moms to leave their newborn infants in the care of hospital nurses and that the outbreak of war of October 7 has prevented parents from reuniting with their babies.

Moreover, the article included assertions from unnamed hospital administrators that the newspaper could not print further details — even to name the hospitals where the babies were cared for — out of fear of reprisals from the Israeli government. That fear allegedly was the reason the reporters did not even approach Israeli authorities to ask for their comment on the various allegations made against them.

Four days later, I posted a lengthy critique of the article, highlighting numerous journalistic flaws. The most serious, in my view, was that the Post’s reporters took an essentially good news story about babies being cared for during wartime and turned it into an attack on Israel, based largely on unnamed sources without making any effort to check the claims with the relevant Israeli government agencies.

The original story gnawed at me. It cried out for more details. Could Israeli officials really be so heartless as to separate mothers and their preemie infants just hours after birth? Could Israeli officials really be so cruel as to repeatedly deny those mothers access to reunite with their babies?

So, over the past three weeks, I have done what three Washington Post reporters – Louisa Loveluck, Sufian Taha and Hajar Harb – did not do: I asked relevant Israeli government agencies – including the office of the Israel Defense Force’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT); the Israeli ministry of health; and the Israeli embassy in Washington — for their side of the story. This is what I learned. None of this appeared in the original Washington Post story.

  • The established procedure for Palestinian parents from Gaza to seek exceptional medical care – whether for themselves, as in the case of mothers with complicated pregnancies, or for their children who might need cancer treatment, kidney dialysis, or other specialized treatment — is to apply via the Palestinian Authority, which then passes requests on to Israel. The PA bureaucracy in Ramallah is fully involved in all these cases. Israel and the PA often disagree over how to pay for the medical care of these patients but the patients’ access to care is never impeded by this dispute, nor are the patients themselves charged for this care.
  • Israel requires entry permits for all Palestinians from Gaza to transit to the hospitals where such care is delivered, which is almost exclusively hospitals in the West Bank or East Jerusalem. It is exceedingly rare for the PA to request transit to a hospital inside pre-1967 Israel.
  • Israel strongly prefers that mothers accompany children, as there have been cases in the past when fathers abandoned children to seek employment while in Israel or, even rarer, engaged in prohibited political/security activity. In a few cases, other family members — most often, grandparents — accompany the children. Obviously, in the case of difficult pregnancies, the issue concerns mothers.
  • When travel permits expire, the traveler does not usually return to Gaza. That is because permits can be renewed electronically online; for post-partum mothers with newborn infants in hospital, renewals are swift and virtually automatic. As a senior official of the Israeli Ministry of Health explained to me, “In all cases like these, permits are extended automatically on a weekly basis, with no requirement to return to Gaza.”
  • If permit renewals are automatic, how could mothers and babies get separated? That happens when mothers give birth in West Bank or East Jerusalem hospitals and then decide to return to Gaza for personal or family reasons, usually to care for their other children, confident in the knowledge that their newborns are in good hands. As the Israeli Health Ministry official explained: “Mothers who do return to Gaza in peacetime do so generally to care for additional children left at home.” In other words, separation, when it happens, is almost always the choice of the mother, not something imposed by Israeli administrative fiat.
  • It is true that Hamas’s terrorist attack on October 7 and Israel’s subsequent declaration of war against Hamas suspended the normal issuance of travel permits. Still, Israel has received no special request – either via the Palestinian Authority or UN specialized agencies such as the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) or the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) — to arrange for the reunification of these mothers and their babies.
  • In the meantime, all the babies remain in the care of the relevant hospitals, at no cost to the families. Both the PA and the Israeli ministry of health have records of each case, so the idea that the Post could not check on the accusation that patients would suffer “reprisals” if details of their hospital stay were known is, on the face of it, absurd.

Bottom line: On closer inspection, the Washington Post’s flouting of conventional rules of journalism was even more egregious than I originally thought.

  • The article asserts that “the war … parted newborns from their mothers and fathers.”

Actually, the parents in question appear to have chosen to leave their children in the care of the hospitals and return to Gaza, long before the outbreak of war. According to the Israelis, the war may have made it difficult for them to reunite, but the original decision to separate was the parents’.

  • The article claims: “If a baby needs to stay in the incubator longer, the mother must return to Gaza and start the process again.”

According to the Israelis, this is false.

  • The article allows most of the medical staff and Palestinian mothers interviewed to maintain anonymity, “citing security concerns for staff and patients,” noting that “in the aftermath of Oct. 7, hundreds of Palestinians from Gaza, including hospital patients with permits, were arbitrarily detained by security forces, rights groups say.” The article then links to a single November 3 press release by a group called Gisha: Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, which asserts that “hundreds of Gaza residents, including both workers and people who had entered Israel with permits to receive medical treatment, who were present in Israel on October 7… had since been unlawfully, secretly detained by Israeli authorities.”

Evidently, the Post did not do any independent reporting on the accuracy of this charge. More to the point, the Post did not do any independent reporting to learn whether any of the alleged detainees were mothers of newborns.

  • The article states that a Gazan woman identified only by her first name, Sabrine, gave birth to premature twins on August 3 and then, by August 5, “it was time for [her] to go.” The article continues: “She left in tears, staff said, reassured only by their promise to apply for another permit as soon as possible so she could come back and collect them. Israeli authorities rejected it without explanation, they said. The war began soon after that.”

The article does not cite Sabrine directly, but relies on second-hand, unnamed remembrances of her parting words three months after her departure. Moreover, the articles makes no mention of why Sabrine actually left — was it because she lacked a valid permit or because she chose to return to Gaza for some other personal reason?

This paragraph is the key to the entire article, but the reporters did not ask whether Sabrine took advantage of the online system to apply for a permit before her return to Gaza; did not ask what efforts she made to reunite with her children in the two months between her departure and the Hamas attack (e.g., did she approach the PA? did she make an appeal to the relevant UN specialized agencies?); and did not ask any question of Israeli authorities to confirm that the request was rejected or why.

  • The article notes: “The Post is not providing the name or location of the hospital for the security of patients, as staff members fear reprisals from Israeli authorities.”

But the Post reporters made no effort to check the assertion with any Israeli government entity, all of whom categorically reject the allegation. Nor did the reporters cite any specific reprisal that had already occurred against any Palestinian mother with babies in one of the neonatal wards described in the article.

  • The article then cites the one mother named in the story, Hanan al-Bayouk from Khan Younis, who allegedly said “she was forced to go home” on August 28, just 30 hours after giving birth to triplets. It adds that Bayouk “had secured a permit to return for their discharge. It was dated Oct. 10, four days too late.”

Here, too, the Post reporters don’t ask what “forced” al-Bayouk to return home – was it the expiration of a permit or some other issue in Khan Younis? – nor do they ask whether al-Bayouk tried to use Israel’s online system for permit renewal or if she sought the intercession of PA or UN authorities. And what precisely happened that made it “too late” for al-Bayouk to reunite with her children? It was not some punitive decision by the Israeli government; it was the Hamas attack of October 7 that triggered a total border shutdown, much like what occurred with the close of US land and air borders following the September 11 attacks.

Bayouk’s case is the only one in which the mother’s full name is used in the story. In response, the Israeli health ministry official offered this: “In the single case mentioned [by name] in the article, the mother is in contact with both the hospital and the Israeli authorities, the infants have completed their course of care. The mother returned to Gaza of her own choice prior to the Hamas attacks of October 7th. Due to the current state of war forced upon Israel by Hamas, it is not possible for civilians to cross the Israeli border with Gaza in either direction. While Israel has offered to return the infants to their mother via the Rafah Crossing, the mother is clear that she does not have the capability of accepting the infants back in Gaza due to the ongoing war. During her absence, her babies are well cared for. The State of Israel would like to see the reunification of the mother with her children as soon as possible.”

What’s the bottom line? All the key elements of the story that appeared in print on November 17, occupying most of the front-page above the fold, were either false, unsubstantiated or, at a bare minimum, rejected by statements by Israeli government officials who painted a very different picture from the one presented by the Post. The reporters appear to have taken on face-value claims and assertions made by the Palestinian mothers and the hospital administrators, without any independent verification. Their failure to seek comment from the relevant Israeli authorities violated the most fundamental rules of journalism. At the very least, the Post would then have had a “he-said/she-said” story, presenting two contradictory views of the same situation. Why the Post’s editors did not insist that the reporters follow these rules may be the most inexplicable part of this tale.

Here is what a senior Israeli official told me: “If asked, we would have described the numerous cases of our providing humanitarian care to Palestinians civilians, especially children, even during wartime — care for patients with cancer, dialysis, and other medical needs. We would also have described the procedure for entry and renewal of permits, which does not require the mother to return to Gaza. And we would have rejected completely any absurd idea that medical personnel face ‘retaliation’ for helping these patients, as an unnamed hospital administrator alleged in the article.”

As I wrote in my original critique, at its core, this appears to be a good news story about well-meaning people taking care of premature babies across battle lines that, for some unknown reason, the Washington Post turned into an unsourced, unnamed, unverified attack on Israel.

 

 

This has also been going around today too. Somewhat of a hostile, or at least not at all sympathetic interview. Israeli ambassador says that the Oslo Accords have failed as of Oct 7th and a new way forward needs to be created. This was somewhat sensationalized to the current headlines.

 

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This could be a big deal, depending on how much control and influence these "officials" have or it may be too late for Israel to care 

 

I am somewhat confused by the uproar of the images if the mass surrenders and we all know how bad tiktok , but it looks like some IDF soldiers and Israelis are using it to reply (or as the younger people would say, "clap") back

 

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38 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

Can someone familiar with tweenage progressive politics explain to me why there are people in America blocking traffic on American roads demanding a ceasefire between 2 parties on the other side of the globe?

Protest partying and social media content opportunity.  

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57 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

Can someone familiar with tweenage progressive politics explain to me why there are people in America blocking traffic on American roads demanding a ceasefire between 2 parties on the other side of the globe?

 

 

Would you care to explain to me why my tax dollars are going to fund Israel's destruction of Gaza and the deaths of 10s of thousands?

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8 minutes ago, Bolero88 said:

Would you care to explain to me why my tax dollars are going to fund Israel's destruction of Gaza and the deaths of 10s of thousands?

Because our strategic partner and the only democracy the ME was attacked by a brutal organization that is hellbent on killing all Jews, removing Israel off the map, destroying America and killing as many Americans as it can.

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5 minutes ago, Bevo said:

Because our strategic partner and the only democracy the ME was attacked by a brutal organization that is hellbent on killing all Jews, removing Israel off the map, destroying America and killing as many Americans as it can.

honest question, is Iraq not counted as a democracy anymore?

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13 minutes ago, Bolero88 said:

Would you care to explain to me why my tax dollars are going to fund Israel's destruction of Gaza and the deaths of 10s of thousands?

If theyre against foreign aid that this country provides (ie your tax dollars), why arent they protesting the foreign aid directly?

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10 minutes ago, Viper said:

honest question, is Iraq not counted as a democracy anymore?

Background 

Since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Iraq has undergone a long period of instability, with armed groups like the self-proclaimed Islamic State taking advantage of the power vacuum left by the disbandment of the military and the ban on Saddam Hussein’s Baath party. In 2014, the Islamic State advanced into Iraq from Syria and took over parts of Anbar province, eventually expanding into the northern part of the country and capturing Mosul in June 2014. Former President Barack Obama authorized targeted air strikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, and the United States formed an international coalition of nearly eighty countries to counter the terrorist group. Regional forces—including as many as thirty thousand Iranian troops—joined the Iraqi army, local tribes, and the Kurdish Peshmerga in operations to retake territory from the Islamic State, recapturing Tikrit in April 2015, Ramadi in December 2015, Fallujah in June 2016, and Mosul in July 2017.

The Trump administration sharply escalated the U.S. presence in Iraq in early 2017 to bring a swift end to the Islamic State, and the Iraqi government declared victory over the group in December 2017. Since then, most foreign troops have withdrawn from Iraq, except for a small U.S. presence.

In late April 2018, the U.S. military officially disbanded the command overseeing the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq, declaring an end to major combat operations against the group. Roughly 2,500 U.S. troops remain in Iraq at the invitation of the Iraqi government as part of a mission to train, advise, and assist the Iraqi military in fighting domestic terrorism.

Underlying sectarian tensions in Iraq among Sunni and Shiite groups, as well as tensions between Kurdish groups in the north and the government in Baghdad, exacerbated the fight to dislodge the Islamic State. These tensions intensified after the U.S. invasion in 2003 and the fall of Saddam Hussein, now threatening the stability of the new Iraqi government as it looks to rebuild the country and prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State.

A coalition of parties led by Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr won a surprise victory in Iraq’s May 2018 parliamentary election. Their victory raised questions about continued Iranian influence in Baghdad, as al-Sadr’s Shiite bloc has historically remained at odds with Iranian-backed groups in Iraq. Following the 2021 election, which saw increased representation [PDF] for minority groups, the newly elected parliament could not form a coalition government, precipitating a political crisis.

The assassination attempt on Prime Minister Mustafa al-Khadhimi in November 2021 led to armed clashes between the Iraqi government and the Iran-backed militias accused of orchestrating the attack. Amid the political crisis, the entirety of al-Sadr’s political bloc resigned from parliament in a gamble aimed at pressuring the government to elect a president. The move largely backfired as al-Sadr’s bloc was quickly replaced, allowing the Shiite groups backed by Iran to assume a majority in the parliament. Al-Sadr retired from politics in August 2022, leaving control of the Iraqi government to his Iranian-backed rivals.

In October 2022, Abdul Latif Rashid was elected president, promising to return the country to normalcy. The premiership was ultimately handed to Mohammad Shia al-Sudani, a long-time ally of Iran. His pro-Iran government includes ministers with ties to several U.S.-designated terrorist organizations, including Kataib Hezbollah. However, al-Sudani has taken a measured approach by expressing a desire to keep U.S. forces in Iraq while continuing his predecessor’s “balance and openness” policy.

Six years after the war against the Islamic State, Iraq still faces significant challenges in its recovery. Over one million people remain internally displaced, 4.1 million people need humanitarian assistance, and reconstruction is projected to cost at least $88 billion. In addition to reintegrating liberated Sunni communities into the political system, the government has struggled to achieve the demobilization and integration of powerful Shiite militias, which formed during the fight against the Islamic State, into the Iraqi security forces. The government also faces ongoing tensions with Kurdish groups pressing for greater autonomy in the north following a failed independence referendum in October 2017.

Concerns

After leading an international coalition to regain territory taken by the Islamic State, the United States has an interest in preventing a resurgence of the militant group and supporting a stable government in Iraq. There remains a larger concern that the aftermath of the conflict and challenges of reconstruction and reintegration will lead to the breakup of Iraq and that sectarian tension will plague the region for years to come, possibly expanding into a proxy conflict among various international groups. Additionally, after losing control of territory in Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State has reverted to its insurgency roots and refocused on orchestrating a hit-and-run campaign. Despite its diminished presence, the Islamic State continues to plague Iraq. For example, it planted a bomb near the city of Kirkuk in December 2022 that targeted and killed nine federal police officers. In response, the United States announced that it would keep its troops in Iraq to fight the Islamic State.

Another area of concern is Iran’s increasing involvement in Iraq and its government, obstructing Iraqi relations with the United States and reintegration with other Arab countries, particularly the wealthy Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states.

Recent Developments

Since late 2022, Iraq has faced economic and infrastructural issues. In November, a gas cylinder explosion killed fifteen people in the northern city of Sulaimaniyah, and in October, a gas tanker explosion in Baghdad killed at least nine people. In January, al-Sudani replaced the Central Bank governor after the value of the Iraqi dinar hit new lows, and the previous governor essentially quit. To solve these critical issues, al-Sudani has implemented several measures, including approving a $152 billion budget meant to add public sector jobs and increase public salaries.

However, more recent developments illustrate Iraq’s persistent instability. In late March, the Iraqi government passed amendments that would increase the size of electoral districts, reducing opportunities for smaller parties and independent candidates to win seats in future elections. These amendments were supported by the Iran-backed Coordination Framework but proved to be controversial, sparking demonstrations and prompting several MPs to leave and postpone the session. Similarly, in late June 2023, over fifty MPs resigned from the local parliament in Iraq’s Kurdish region. They protested a court ruling by the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court that rejected their decision to delay regional elections. The ruling is another sign that Baghdad has largely reigned in the Kurdish region’s autonomy, having asserted its control over oil revenue and key infrastructure. Days later, thousands of Iraqi followers of a Shiite cleric protested in major Iraqi cities, criticizing the burning of a Quran during a demonstration in Sweden, demanding the Swedish ambassador’s expulsion from Iraq, and storming the Swedish embassy in Baghdad. These recent mobilizations showcase the ongoing capacity of al-Sadr to foster instability despite the suspension of his movement in April.

In August 2023, Iran-aligned groups killed Kurdish protestors in the disputed northern city of Kirkuk over the handover of a building to the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP). Following days of deadly ethnic clashes, the Supreme Court in Baghdad halted Al-Sudani’s order to return the building to the KDP on September 1. The oil-rich province lies along the fault line between the Kurdish autonomous region and areas controlled by Iraq’s government. It has been the center of some of Iraq’s worst violence since the Islamic State. Meanwhile, Turkey has escalated its military attacks against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PPK) in northern Iraq, including a drone strike that killed seven members on August 24. In late August, Turkey called on Iraq to designate the PKK as a terrorist organization, citing the group’s threat to both Iraqi and Turkish security.

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4 hours ago, 52-80 said:

Can someone familiar with tweenage progressive politics explain to me why there are people in America blocking traffic on American roads demanding a ceasefire between 2 parties on the other side of the globe?

 

 

Because they are either brain dead, poorly educated useful idiots…or goddamn terrorist supporters.

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6 minutes ago, Armybrat said:

Because they are either brain dead, poorly educated useful idiots…or goddamn terrorist supporters.

Well, my cousin was on his way from Burbank to Torrance so he could firebomb a village in the Levant and they almost convinced him to stop. 

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5 hours ago, Bolero88 said:

Would you care to explain to me why my tax dollars are going to fund Israel's destruction of Gaza and the deaths of 10s of thousands?

The same reason our tax dollars going to fund the defense of Ukraine and the deaths of 10's of thousands?

Geopolitical allies and strategy and it's in our best interest.

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I believe this was what the ambassador was talking about with fixing Palestinian education when the sky news interviewer accused her of wanting to send kids to communist reeducation camps.

 

link to the document https://www.impact-se.org/wp-content/uploads/PA-Reports_-Updated-Selected-Examples_May-2021.pdf 

 

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Tragic

Israeli Troops Accidentally Kill Three Hostages

Israeli troops mistakenly shot and killed three Israeli hostages during combat with Hamas in northern Gaza on Friday, the Israeli military said. The shooting took place in Shejaiye, a densely populated community that Israeli officials have identified as a Hamas stronghold.

Israeli forces “mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat,” the military said in a statement. “As a result, the troops fired toward them and they were killed.”

“During searches and checks in the area in which the incident occurred, a suspicion arose over the identities of the deceased,” it added. “Their bodies were transferred to Israeli territory for examination, after which it was confirmed that they were three Israeli hostages.”

The military identified the three as Yotam Haim and Alon Shamriz, who had been taken from Kibbutz Kfar Aza during the Hamas-led assault on Israel on Oct. 7; and Samer Talalka, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Am.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the chief spokesman for the Israeli military, expressed “deep sorrow” and said the military was investigating. “This is a sad and painful incident for all of us, and the I.D.F. bears responsibility for everything that happened,” he said, referring to the Israeli Defense Forces.

The incident occurred “in a combat zone in which the troops had engaged” with terrorists in recent days, including Friday, the Israeli said.

Soldiers had encountered what the military said were terrorists without guns and, according to Admiral Hagari, had been involved in situations “in which terrorists tried to deceive our troops and to lure them into a fire trap.

“A short time after the tragic incident,” Admiral Hagari said, a second engagement occurred with terrorists near the site of the incident.”

He promised “full transparency” and said that troops were given “lessons” for identifying hostages in the Gaza Strip in an attempt to prevent such mistakes.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents those kidnapped on Oct. 7 and their relatives, issued a statements on Friday evening, saying it shared in the “profound grief" of the families.

Mr. Talalka was working at a chicken hatchery near Kibbutz Nir Am on Oct. 7 when he was abducted. He had spoke with his sister on the phone, telling her he was injured by terrorist gunfire, before the call was disconnected, according to the group’s spokeswoman, Liat Bell Sommer. He was “an avid motorcyclist who loved to ride around the countryside,” she said.

Mr. Talalka was from Hura, a Bedouin Arab town in southern Israel. He was one of several Bedouin hostages, members of a low-profile Israeli minority. At least 17 of the roughly 1,200 people who were killed in the attack on Oct. 7 were Bedouins.

Mr. Haim was a drummer who had been slated to perform at a “metal music festival” in Tel Aviv on Oct. 7, Ms. Sommer said.

Mr. Shamriz was a “lover of life” and basketball player and fan who had been accepted to college and was about to start a course of study in computer engineering, Ms. Sommer said.

The office of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, released a statement calling the killings “an unbearable tragedy” and expressing empathy for the hostages’ families along with support for Israeli soldiers “who are devoted to the sacred mission of returning our hostages, even at the cost of their lives.”

“Even on this difficult evening,” the statement said, “we will bind up our wounds, learn the lessons and continue with a supreme effort to return all our hostages home safely.”

Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, said in a statement on social media that his heart was broken. Addressing the three hostages’ families, he said, “The whole nation of Israel is crying with you.”

Families of hostages have been pressuring Mr. Netanyahu to prioritize the captives and “pay any price” for their release. Some marched last month from Tel Aviv to his office in Jerusalem to protest his handling of the situation, and protests outside his office have continued.

Government officials, including Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in comments this week, have argued that the intense fighting in Gaza will create the conditions for the hostages’ release. But pushback from those who disagree is bound to intensify after Israel’s admission that it had killed hostages in error.

On Saturday, the hostages’ relatives will address the “terrible disaster,” Ms. Sommer, from the family forum, said in statement, gathering at what is now known as Hostages Plaza in Tel Aviv.

Hostages released in deals with Hamas have thanked the protesters for keeping up the pressure on the Israeli government.

Mr. Netanyahu is also under pressure from one of Israel’s staunchest allies, the United States, to fight more surgically and end its ground invasion of Gaza. American officials have also been urging the Israeli government to resume the indirect negotiations with Hamas that led last month to a weeklong pause in the fighting, the release of more than 100 hostages and an increase in humanitarian aid entering Gaza.

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Because our strategic partner and the only democracy the ME was attacked by a brutal organization that is hellbent on killing all Jews, removing Israel off the map, destroying America and killing as many Americans as it can.

We have multiple US bases in Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Saudi, UAE, Oman, Turkey Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Djibouti. 20+ bases, 100k+ troops.

Please tell me one thing of value, besides Jewish milkers, your so-called only democracy in the ME provides the US that these bases do not? Hell id argue that given the presence we have in those monarchies, a democracy in that area is a LIABILITY - CASE IN POINT BENJAMIN FUCKING NETANYAHU.

Netanyahu’s desire to delay justice for his stupidity, ignorance, and inexcusable failures as a head of state + Israel’s inability to play the long game/cruel bloodlust and desire for textbook genocide will cause us more foreign policy issues in the long-term than the 1MM+ Iraqi’s/Afghanis we’ve killed in the past 25 years. We have 10,000+ illegals crossing the border everyday and Oct. 7th proved our border is still 1,000x more secure than the most heavily US-subsidized militarized/surveilled border in the world outside of NK/SK.

A quote from last nights episode of Fargo really fucking hit home for me.

**Lorraine Lyon**: "So you want freedom without responsibility? Son there's only one person on Earth who gets that deal."

**Sheriff Roy Tillman**: "The President?"

**Lorraine Lyon**: "A Baby"

It’s not even the fucking tail wagging the dog, our foreign policy is leashed to a fucking fat little whiny baby that we continue to infantilize and coddle. A fat little whiny baby has caused more internal division in the US than BLM. We are going to get dragged into a fucking shooting war with Yemen because Israel wants all of the benefits of being a sovereign nation - but none of the responsibilities.
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2 hours ago, BLKNSTY said:

We have 10,000+ illegals crossing the border everyday and Oct. 7th proved our border is still 1,000x more secure than the most heavily US-subsidized militarized/surveilled border in the world outside of NK/SK.

A couple of questions for you - Obviously you have some excitement about the success of Hamas. Why? Are they on your land?

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A couple of questions for you - Obviously you have some excitement about the success of Hamas. Why? Are they on your land?

fuck Hamas. they are a malignant disease that Israel thought they could control so they fed it and fed it and fed it to the point it became this gruesome unnatural sentient creature that does nothing but consume. it is a cancer to everything it touches and it thrives particularly on the pain of the Palestinian people.

Qatar is making the same mistake but that’s a story for another day.
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4 hours ago, BLKNSTY said:


fuck Hamas. they are a malignant disease that Israel thought they could control so they fed it and fed it and fed it to the point it became this gruesome unnatural sentient creature that does nothing but consume. it is a cancer to everything it touches and it thrives particularly on the pain of the Palestinian people.

Qatar is making the same mistake but that’s a story for another day.

Okay so Hamas sucks. Why did you sound elated over the success of Hamas? Do Jews suck too or do you just want them off Palestinian lands?

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15 hours ago, bolverk said:

Tragic

Israeli Troops Accidentally Kill Three Hostages

Israeli troops mistakenly shot and killed three Israeli hostages during combat with Hamas in northern Gaza on Friday, the Israeli military said. The shooting took place in Shejaiye, a densely populated community that Israeli officials have identified as a Hamas stronghold.

Israeli forces “mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat,” the military said in a statement. “As a result, the troops fired toward them and they were killed.”

 

 

11 hours ago, BLKNSTY said:


Israeli forces “mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as Palestinian civilians”

fixed it for you.

 

 

NYT report seems to have left this part out...they were unarmed and waving a white flag on a stick at the time. 

The reality is that this is representative of the de facto rules of engagement implemented by the IDF. Just caught up some Sons of the Light insteads of the Sons of Darkness this time.    

Haaretz

According to the investigation, a soldier who was stationed on one of the upper floors of a building in the area has identified three figures who held a long stick that had a white fabric attached to it.

The report states that, for some reason, the soldier felt threatened and opened fire on the group. Two hostages were hit and fell to the ground, and the third managed to escape into a nearby building.

At the same time, the soldier reported to his commanding officer that he had encountered who he had believed were Hamas members. The commander then arrived at the scene, while another IDF squad that was nearby followed the third hostage, who managed to escape into a hiding place inside the building.

The report says that as the soldiers approached the building, they began to hear shouts in Hebrew, asking for their help. The Israeli hostage who was hiding inside the building came out and ran inside again. According to the soldiers, they believed that it was a Hamas member who was trying to "pull them" into a trap. They proceeded to enter the building, where they killed the hostage.

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Okay so Hamas sucks. Why did you sound elated over the success of Hamas? Do Jews suck too or do you just want them off Palestinian lands?

never would have thought Netanyahu moonlights as an idiot on surlyhorns. anyways I gotta go watch Texas vs LSU at the Halal Guys Showcase (can I say halal on here or are you going to accuse me of being a OBL apologist?) so it’s time to pregame. 🫡
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6 minutes ago, BLKNSTY said:


never would have thought Netanyahu moonlights as an idiot on surlyhorns. anyways I gotta go watch Texas vs LSU at the Halal Guys Showcase (can I say halal on here or are you going to accuse me of being a OBL apologist?) so it’s time to pregame. 🫡

 

 

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You still didn't tell us why you were elated about Hamas' success.

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