Meanwhile on the International front....

I have tried, both tactfully and not so tactfully, to point out the consequences of the sort of campaign the IDF was planning / has fought, and basically got told that I didn't understand, and (basically) to shut up and /or butt out.

It appears to me that Netanyahu is in a position analogous to Trump's. Trump needs to win the presidency to prevent his prosecution, and Bibi needs to be a war leader for much the same reasons. I can't help believing that other strategic choices could have been made along the way and that he refused for his own reasons.

In Palestine, much of the housing, businesses, food production, schools, hospitals/health care has been flattened, leaving little through the way of shelter or facilities. “There will be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel – everything will be closed.” Make it bad enough that the Palestinians flee... What Israel has done in Palestine comes perilously close to ethnic cleansing.

Saying that out loud will no doubt get me barbecued again, but the facts of the campaign and the situation of the non-combatant Palestinian people remains.

 

How brave of you

 

OMG, another "assassination attempt."

https://www.salon.com/2024/10/19/dr...home-as-israel-southern-beirut/?in_brief=true

I wonder, is Rupert Murdoch coordinating all this from the deck of his yacht?? Maybe somebody will take a shot at Orban next week.

Maybe for the proper melodramatic impact, they'll cook up some kind of fake attempt for Vlad to come walking out with a sooty face and tattered jacket, striding powerfully through the hail of gunfire while pumping his fist and bellowing "Fight! Fight!!"

 

I'm sorry, I have a really hard time with any side in the Israel, Hezbellah, Iran, Hamas battle royale expressing "outrage" over an attack - they are at war. This is what happens.

 

ok

Sinwar’s Death Does Not Mean Breakthrough in Israel-Hamas War

 

It won't get you barbecued, but using that phrase in this context was way out of line.

 

It's an all-heel conflict.

 

"Ethnic cleansing" is a strong phrase certainly and I was in Europe when Yugoslavia blew apart so I'm sensitive to it.

But it's not properly applied in this instance because there is nowhere else for Gaza Strippers to go. Nobody wants them — neither Egypt, Jordan nor Saudi Arabia.

In that case, "ethnic cleansing" becomes extermination.

 

See: Fatfuck's "concept of a plan" of what to do with 11 million immigrants.

 

Since Texas is the U.S. equivalent of Bavaria (the latter views itself as the former), the 2026 military tribunals in Austin would go down quite a treat.

 

Interesting question for the journalism thread.

Who gets to decide what and how language is used to describe events in Israel?

 

Good question, but I think it is fair to suggest anybody using genocide or ethnic cleansing should be damn sure they are using those terms appropriately. The former is only somewhat justified because the UN has pushed that ridiculous notion. The latter is not at all justified.