Meanwhile on the International front....

Lets the protesters off too easy.

The start of this conflict was among the most vile and disgusting terrorist acts ever. That was quickly elided over for "river to the sea" chants.

The moral bankruptcy of this protest is evident and byproduct of what some colleges and to some degree primary schools have become.

It's a gift to people like Chris Rufo, too. The broken clock that gets to be right.

And of course Twitter turned it into a First Amendment/cops issue, too, and dragged some thoughtful people into that rabbit hole of a debate.

Of course the protesters have the right to be unacceptably stupid and disgusting - within the boundaries of law - in a crucial election year when no unforced error goes unpunished. But it's, like, tremendously regrettable that 18-22-year old kids are being unacceptably stupid and disgusting in a crucial election year on a matter that predates their lives, of which they also barely understand the complexities.

 

Yup. That many of them are turning on Biden is also evidence of their ignorance. Trump would work against everything they claim to want. No way in hell will he listen to them.

 

The second Iraq war started halfway into the second semester of my freshman year in college. My campus ministry protested it. I signed a big sign that said "NO WAR IN IRAQ / NOT IN MY NAME." Some townies later attempted to burn it and back it over with a truck. Granted, I was 19 at the time and a very cautious participant, but I've never felt bad about opposing the Iraq war, and I think that stance held up pretty good (not that I get any points for that).

I disagree that advocating against a situation that is leading to the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent civilians, most of whom have no means of refuge and many of whom were already destitute before a hostile power bombed the ever-loving shit out of them, constitutes moral bankruptcy. I think it's OK to be against people getting killed and to have a problem with the people responsible for the killing and their representatives who are unequivocally supporting them.

Is it short-sighted, given the recent and distant history of the region and the people involved? I think you can make a pretty fair argument. In eight months of thinking about this issue, it feels like I've been unable to posit a solution that doesn't quickly degrade to "Israel gets to bomb whatever and whoever it wants" or "People whose ancestors haven't been slaughtered by the millions for their religion telling Israel how it can and can't defend itself against an existential threat bent on its destruction." It's like trying to roll a bowling ball down the middle of Mount Everest without it falling off to one side of the trail. But this isn't the usual "Israel sucks" pablum that has come out of every UN General Assembly for the last 50 years.

A huge part of the problem is that nobody in control in the Middle East has had anything to gain by peace of any kind in 25 years. There is no solution to this problem where Hamas exists (nor frankly, should there be), but I don't think they're just going to give up if we throw them a pizza party. Meanwhile, Netanyahu needs to extend the war to stay in power (and possibly out of jail), and it's possible that his only off-ramp is to trigger the American left enough that their acting out causes them to lose the election in November and Trump reinforces his position, because you sure as shit know he doesn't give an airborne fornication how many Palestinians get killed.

 

Was this another Putin Productions is the real question.

October 7 didn’t just happen because Hamas had a wild hair up its ass.

 

I think a fair question to ask is how much of that “widespread support” is Gazans being religiously intolerant and how much of it is them being afraid of Hamas killing them if they don’t show support?

Let’s not forget that Hamas doesn’t allow elections. It may well be that Gazans are a bunch of religious assholes who want Israel wiped off the map. Or they may be people who just want food, clean water, jobs, enjoy hobbies, hang out with family and friends, pray to Mecca five times a day and live in peace and harmony with everyone and can’t because Hamas doesn’t give a shit about them and they’re too afraid and outgunned to do anything about it.

 

The last posts of UPChip and Baron Scicluna cite the real problem with this conflict, which I have believed all along is the real issue: That this is a three-party war, not a two-sided one. It is the whole problem, and why everyone is having difficulty with a solution.

Hamas has intertwined itself in Gaza to the point that Hamas and Gazans can't be separated, and that is exactly as Hamas intended and wants it. Gaza is in the middle of something that it would not be in the middle of were it not for Hamas.

No one would have any problem with Israel bombing the hell out of Hamas, if it didn't also mean bombing the Gazans. Would they?

 

I think we have to take those polls with a grain of salt, keeping in mind that Hamas is in control and Gazans may not be as free to speak out than they would if they were free of Hamas’ control.

Like Writethinking says, the situation is not really binary. There’s at least three, if not more, sides that have competing interests. Which makes the situation even more of a mess.

 

That last part is why the people on the left attacking Biden are so stupid. They are doing their very best to hand Donald Trump the election and he will have no sympathy at all to their cause. If he wins, they lose. It really is that simple. Biden and/or his surrogates need to start pounding away with that message. Israel's war on Hamas is a complex issue, one that Trump can't handle. Trump will simply give Israel all the support it wants without a word about Palestinian casualties. He doesn't care about them. He won't. Anyone who can't see that is an idiot. It reminds me of a line from The West Wing. "Why are Democrats always so bumfuzzled?"

 

I certainly wouldn't.