- Hamas is still firing hundreds of rockets and holds 120 hostages, one week in.
- Invasion/attack from Lebanon remains distinct possibility.
- Al Qaeda was never an existential threat to the US, whereas the combined forces of Hezbollah, Syria, Iran, and Hamas are to IL.
- Realpolitik: Saudis wanted to normalize with Israel when Israel was strong. A weak Israel will invite any and all attacks.
One-sided calls for proportion/restraint increase risk of escalation. You'd do better to call for immediate release of Israeli hostages...that would actually calm tensions.
Wow. Thanks for this excellent approach, not only in terms of moral responsibility but toughness and proportion. I’m more than a little familiar with Israel, and I’ve witnessed first hand the slippage in its culture. I’m not optimistic. But hopefully, with Netanyahu out of the way, and the “one-state solution” now a proven disaster, a new leadership will emerge, willing to return to a principled, ethical, less fearful way forward.
Ten minute history of Israel to this moment. All that is said there struck me as moments that expected me to take a position when they happened. Now again, Israelis preferred a strong courts to Bibi's strongmanning? They have more momentum than a lazy people , they know their pods of who they can trust to join them making their voices heard. Let's try to find past voices of distrust for the religious framing of what today looks like a civil war. Looks like a war between 19 year olds of two tribes. There was a year ago a young Israeli debating Chomsky putatively in the interest of rpprchmnt who advocated for the settlements. He has won. Clearly Israel has an exit strategy and it is militarized settlements. This is a natural disaster and should be treated like one. All I feel sure of was that i see a prison break has occurred and that is a Billy the Kid scenario. What this says to me was that if we continue to believe there might come to be pockets of cities committed to not enforcing the fullest extent of the law, ourselves will want to find all the Whitmanian wit we can. Not that we must change, but that the more Mexicanly we can endure the interference from wealthy armed big neighbors, with our own small sovereignties and secret dreams at the cost of suffering outrages, we will have changed. I am sad today because my country will never stop supplying small and medium sized arms to any body with the cash at hand. There are more mercenaries than there are entrepeneurs of small comforts, this I believe. I will try to pick a side in that post apocalypso of my puny human imagining. Somewhere in this riotous world is a bar with your new name on it I guess.
“More mercenaries than entrepreneurs of small comforts” is bracing analysis. Look forward to a bar with a new name on it somewhere in the riotous world.
I feel it too; the shift. Almost like something deep within the earth was turned on and we can feel it’s ominous hum in our bones, but can’t see it yet. Thank you for this article, it was very good.
To use your 9/11 comparison regarding the American left's sycophantic love of Hamas: it's like discovering that the America haters who think Osama Bin Laden is good because "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" not only exist, but exist in large numbers. It won't be good for the elections because the Dems have defended Wokeness so much they've basically been defending anti-Semites, like those in BLM. (Many Dems haven't yet realized that the organization is a scam) Because I guess anti-Semites are only anti-Semites if they have a mustache, a certain haircut and/or white skin. This is why they don't call Crown Heights a pogrom, even though it basically was. (Of course the other reason is: "it can't happen here, because America and reasons.")
I mention this not to be the annoying one who ignores your call for specificity. I agree with you and this is certainly a turning point in this conflict that warrants a lot of our attention. But I think with everything going on, it's difficult to expect geopolitical concentration in these times. And if Russia, China and the other BRICS are pulling some kind of fast one on us that places America on several weakened fronts, I think it's a necessary debate as well. In any case, I don't think it's a big mystery what the US will do: naturally they will support Israel.
The media doesn't want Americans to realize how much in freefall the country really is, not to mention how economically gutted it's becoming. War is a great distraction, on one hand. But on the other hand, not a lot America can do for Israel if the whole cocktail of the Afghanistan surrender, the Ukraine war and its armaments demands, Saudi spurning, economic weakness (and yes Biden has been terrible with the economy) and everything else weighs down on the falling country like the earth on Atlas' shoulders. Perhaps Thucydides trap is in motion? We will see.
I thought you framed the challenge for Israel excellently. Thanks for this.
Solid reporting here. Your skill for seeing the forest and not the trees, especially with such a raw subject, is laudable good sir.
Insightful. Something I’ve been feeling but couldn’t express.
The 9/11 comparison is misleading:
- IL fatality count equivalent to 40x 9/11.
- Hamas is still firing hundreds of rockets and holds 120 hostages, one week in.
- Invasion/attack from Lebanon remains distinct possibility.
- Al Qaeda was never an existential threat to the US, whereas the combined forces of Hezbollah, Syria, Iran, and Hamas are to IL.
- Realpolitik: Saudis wanted to normalize with Israel when Israel was strong. A weak Israel will invite any and all attacks.
One-sided calls for proportion/restraint increase risk of escalation. You'd do better to call for immediate release of Israeli hostages...that would actually calm tensions.
Wow. Thanks for this excellent approach, not only in terms of moral responsibility but toughness and proportion. I’m more than a little familiar with Israel, and I’ve witnessed first hand the slippage in its culture. I’m not optimistic. But hopefully, with Netanyahu out of the way, and the “one-state solution” now a proven disaster, a new leadership will emerge, willing to return to a principled, ethical, less fearful way forward.
Pbs newshour has a https://youtu.be/QZMvfoqrhWw?si=Trr3Ln4IRzBCVCGy
Ten minute history of Israel to this moment. All that is said there struck me as moments that expected me to take a position when they happened. Now again, Israelis preferred a strong courts to Bibi's strongmanning? They have more momentum than a lazy people , they know their pods of who they can trust to join them making their voices heard. Let's try to find past voices of distrust for the religious framing of what today looks like a civil war. Looks like a war between 19 year olds of two tribes. There was a year ago a young Israeli debating Chomsky putatively in the interest of rpprchmnt who advocated for the settlements. He has won. Clearly Israel has an exit strategy and it is militarized settlements. This is a natural disaster and should be treated like one. All I feel sure of was that i see a prison break has occurred and that is a Billy the Kid scenario. What this says to me was that if we continue to believe there might come to be pockets of cities committed to not enforcing the fullest extent of the law, ourselves will want to find all the Whitmanian wit we can. Not that we must change, but that the more Mexicanly we can endure the interference from wealthy armed big neighbors, with our own small sovereignties and secret dreams at the cost of suffering outrages, we will have changed. I am sad today because my country will never stop supplying small and medium sized arms to any body with the cash at hand. There are more mercenaries than there are entrepeneurs of small comforts, this I believe. I will try to pick a side in that post apocalypso of my puny human imagining. Somewhere in this riotous world is a bar with your new name on it I guess.
“More mercenaries than entrepreneurs of small comforts” is bracing analysis. Look forward to a bar with a new name on it somewhere in the riotous world.
Well done. Thoughtful as usual.
Well-done, agree, and add only: Do read Thomas Friedman in NYTimes: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/14/opinion/international-world/israel-hamas-war.html
I feel it too; the shift. Almost like something deep within the earth was turned on and we can feel it’s ominous hum in our bones, but can’t see it yet. Thank you for this article, it was very good.
Thank you, Sam. The juxtaposition with 9/11 is striking and instructive.
To use your 9/11 comparison regarding the American left's sycophantic love of Hamas: it's like discovering that the America haters who think Osama Bin Laden is good because "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" not only exist, but exist in large numbers. It won't be good for the elections because the Dems have defended Wokeness so much they've basically been defending anti-Semites, like those in BLM. (Many Dems haven't yet realized that the organization is a scam) Because I guess anti-Semites are only anti-Semites if they have a mustache, a certain haircut and/or white skin. This is why they don't call Crown Heights a pogrom, even though it basically was. (Of course the other reason is: "it can't happen here, because America and reasons.")
I mention this not to be the annoying one who ignores your call for specificity. I agree with you and this is certainly a turning point in this conflict that warrants a lot of our attention. But I think with everything going on, it's difficult to expect geopolitical concentration in these times. And if Russia, China and the other BRICS are pulling some kind of fast one on us that places America on several weakened fronts, I think it's a necessary debate as well. In any case, I don't think it's a big mystery what the US will do: naturally they will support Israel.
The media doesn't want Americans to realize how much in freefall the country really is, not to mention how economically gutted it's becoming. War is a great distraction, on one hand. But on the other hand, not a lot America can do for Israel if the whole cocktail of the Afghanistan surrender, the Ukraine war and its armaments demands, Saudi spurning, economic weakness (and yes Biden has been terrible with the economy) and everything else weighs down on the falling country like the earth on Atlas' shoulders. Perhaps Thucydides trap is in motion? We will see.