Meanwhile on the International front....

Seriously, I didn’t think I’d see an “Elections have consequences” post on this thread.

 

Not sure how you can take that to mean I don't care about Palestinian children. But cool.

 

They do. And, unfortunately in this case, they are catastrophic.

 

Agreed. And I prefaced the statement with that, and a note that I don’t pretend to understand the intricacies of Palestinian politics. But that election is just as relevant and far reaching to them as George W. Bush’s election in 2000 is for us.

We’re fighting in Iraq and Syria (edit) 20 years later.

 

And, also in this case, all Hamas needed was a foothold. They got it, and have been ruling with an iron fist since, even though their support among Palestinians has plummeted.

 

Back then . . .

Rice Admits U.S. Underestimated Hamas Strength (Published 2006)

I guess democracy and elections solve everything when the ones elected act as we want them to. Otherwise . . . bad idea. Better to just stage a coup.

 

So by this precedent we can expect to be eating ICBMs in America circa 2031.

 

I mean, even in this situation, we’re dealing with political actions that happened in the region more than 100 years ago. So to pretend like recent elections aren’t a factor here is ignoring a pretty important issue.

 

I’d go a step further and say it’s one of the MOST consequential elections of my lifetime.

 

You're telling me. I posted early in this thread about my son's friend Hersh, who was abducted from the music festival. He was fleeing Hamas and he and some people he was with went into a roadside bomb shelter. Terrorists started throwing grenades into the shelter and he and a friend were trying to throw them back. He ended up losing his arm below his left elbow, fashioned a tourniquet of his own and then Hamas captured him, threw him in a pickup truck and carried him off toward Gaza and he hasn't been seen since (they're holding out hope he's alive). Turns out a college friend who has lived in Israel for 30 years is good friends with Hersh's parents. And a former girlfriend from my college years -- her parents are close friends with Hersh's grandparents in Chicago (Hersh has dual citizenship and moved to Israel with his parents when he was 8). The Jewish world is tiny. We're praying for him and trying to keep up hope that he's alive and that somehow he will return. His parents were on CNN and they just said, "We hope that someone, somewhere is treating him kindly." I just lost it. I don't know them personally and I've never met their son (though he and my son were close). But it took about 30 secends It's been a tough couple of weeks and I've avoided the thread because despite Israel's own mistakes it's made, I can't stand the moral equivalencies starting to be made between what Hamas did and Israel's military response. No other country in the world is subject to that kind of bullshit. This guy may be a right wing nut but he nails it in this context:

https://x.com/HananyaNaftali/status/1712947350740566440?s=20

 

Somehow they haven't dripped with any acid regarding the terror attacks themselves. Fuck the Onion.

 

Thanks for sharing this with us. I send back the love of the household.