First things first: You know I love to start with the weather. We are in for a real Seattle fall treat today. Get this—the morning will start off mostly cloudy with temperatures hovering in the high 50s. In the afternoon, the sun will come out in fuller force and temperatures will peak in the low 60s. Incredible stuff.
Iran strikes Israel: Iran launched what Al Jazeera described as an “unprecedented” attack on Israel yesterday, firing nearly 200 missiles in response to Israel’s near year-long, deadly assault on Gaza and the more recent attacks on Lebanon. Israel and the United States worked together to block most of Iran’s missiles. According to Israel’s emergency service, Iran only injured two people who got hit by shrapnel in the Tel Aviv area. Palestinian officials said a missile killed a Palestinian man near Jericho, but it wasn’t clear that the missile came from Iran.
What’s next: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran “made a big mistake” and “will pay for it.” Instead of tamping down the high tensions, President Joe Biden redoubled his “ironclad” commitment to support Israel in retaliation. I’m trying to think of something sharp and incisive to write here, but fuck man. I hate war and I hate Biden for cheering it on. For the sake of all the people in the region, in Iran, Israel, Lebanon, and especially Palestine, who have already suffered so much, we need a ceasefire.
Yes, Applebees in my backyard: For too long, poor urban planning put Seattleites in a chain restaurant desert. Now, with the expansion of the 1 line, carless Seattleites can finally take advantage of the deals we’ve missed. Please do not take this blurb too seriously. I know how you get when I goof around.
Thank GOD for the Lynnwood light rail https://t.co/rcDAVzY67G
— Hannah Krieg (@hannahkrieg) October 2, 2024
Watch party: Last night, the Vice Presidential candidates faced off on a debate stage for the first time in the 2024 election. I’m almost certain this debate will not change how any of the slog readers will vote — I think there are probably 14 truly undecided voters in the country who actually plan to vote for the two major parties. But I would recommend you put it on sometime this week while you do dishes if you missed it last night.
Highlights: Kamala Harris’s running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, sunk a few layups on Donald Trump’s running mate, Hillbilly Elegy author JD Vance in the debate last night. He managed to remind the voting public that the Republicans would like to force women to give birth in many instances. He also nailed Vance on election denialism. The moderators asked if Trump won the 2020 election, Vance said he wanted to focus on the future, and Walz called that a “damning non-answer.” Zing!
Still thinking about this pic.twitter.com/ROm0RoNelE
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 2, 2024
Lowlights: But Democrats gonna Democrat. Several times, Walz agreed with Vance on reprehensible shit, showing just how far-right the Overton window has shifted. Walz disgusted the non-genocidal faction of his party when he agreed with Vance in voicing support for Israel starting a war with Iran after months of aggression in Gaza, the West Bank, and more recently, in Lebanon. Walz also failed to show much daylight between him and Vance when it comes to immigration. Not too long ago, Democrats tried to paint themselves as more welcoming to immigrants than Trump and the Republican party. Now, they seem to want to look just as unfriendly while being more effective at executing the unfriendliness. Boo.
What really matters: Let’s be real, the most important analysis for any nationally televised event comes from the menswear guy on Twitter. Looks like Vance did not impress him.
vance would have been better served by a more conservative tie. fushia raw silk is something you wear to summer garden parties, not debates. pic.twitter.com/pnzi7akJal
— derek guy (@dieworkwear) October 2, 2024
Helene: According to the latest count, at least 166 people have died after the catastrophic hurricane, Helena, tore through Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. That count will likely rise in the coming days as many remain missing across the southeastern states. President Joe Biden will visit the Carolinas today to survey the damage, the Guardian reports.
Change of plans: Seattle Public Schools (SPS) has scaled back its school closure plans after intense blowback over previous plans to close between 17 and 21 schools. Now, SPS proposes closing just five schools in the 2025-2026 school year. Superintendent Brent Jones told the Seattle Times that they don’t know which five schools will shutter, but he expects the school board to take a final vote in January.
CONFIRMED: State House candidate Andrea Suarez is a fan of The Stranger. You can read the A+P right here, or, if you want the paper in your hands or in your weird campaign videos like Suarez, you can find it in coffee shops, bars, and other places around the region.
Wait I think there’s a copy of @TheStranger A &P in this video. A rich text indeed https://t.co/xIJR86ViGi pic.twitter.com/gtaQpGPadR
— Hannah Krieg (@hannahkrieg) October 1, 2024
Taking a stance: Also, with all the Chappell Roan discourse, I wanted to make clear that you could never make me hate her. Here’s a video of her at Capitol Hill Block Party singing her unreleased masterpiece, “Subway,” which would be a narratively incredible track to leave us with if y’all actually scare her into hiding.
Slandering little goon? Auschwitz guard? Worm tongue? You’re calling random strangers names on the internet, what the hell is the matter with you! 😆😆😆 No else is doing it, either, it’s just the two of you! 🤪
@50 A nuke requires considerably less accuracy to do considerable damage to Israel.
from the New Republic:
Trump Mocks
U.S. Soldiers Injured
During His Presidency
Donald Trump took
some time at a campaign stop in
Wisconsin to make fun of wounded U.S. soldiers.
“So first of all, ‘injured’—what does ‘injured’ mean? You mean, because they had a headache? Because the bombs never hit the fort,” responded Trump.
“There was nobody ever tougher on Iraq,”
he continued, confusing the two countries.
https://newrepublic.com/post/186651/trump-mocks-us-soldiers-injured-presidency
Cadet Bonespurs
at. his. Finest.
donold may not even
Make it till J/20:
paging Mabel-
line Vancelot:
gonna need
you in the
Oval Of-
Fice.
STAT
@51
‘decorum’?
you post like
that & Demand
Decorum? you’ve
Vastly exceeded your
pull-by-date. sayonara
@53: For your own sake, though, wouldn’t you like to stop being the kind of person who calls people names on the internet? 😀
@51 Well, go figure, the 2 people you have been name calling as pro-terrorists, jew-haters, etc .. while laughing so many times instead of providing thoughtful rebuttals are calling you name describing your behavior. I would have thought that you’d like being a called a slandering goon given your propensity for dishing out slurs. It’s also not random as you claim since the objects of name calling are you, because of your continual slander, and Tensorna (aka Wormtongue) for subjecting us to his never ending nonsensical and twisted verbiage spiked with outlandish put downs, and because he is no stranger to slander himself (should I pretend to be laughing here?)
Iran cares so much about human life they didn’t even bother to close down their own airspace before launching 200 missiles, causing their own domestic flights to try to divert and get on the ground.
https://viewfromthewing.com/flights-diverted-yesterday-to-avoid-iranian-missiles-after-they-failed-to-close-its-airspace-before-launching-attack/
@55: “pro-terrorists, jew-haters”
Those were accurate descriptions, though! 😃
Oh wow, Hassan and Muhammad Jafar Qassir both KIA! The schwackhammer keeps pounding! These are big, big names in terrorism getting X’ed over the last two months.
“Iran cares so much about human life they didn’t even bother to close down their own airspace before launching 200 missiles, causing their own domestic flights to try to divert and get on the ground.” –@56
well
they’re
pretty religous
so they were likely
busy, praying and fasting
it ain’t always Easy
running a Church
And a State . not
like one might
like to think
and what Business
do those planes
Have flying so
close to Jesus
anyway . I’d
Love to
know
That.
@58
remove the Top
Waltz on in
who’ll bibi
piss off
Next
he has no
Brakes ~ only
a gas pedal and
bibi’s foot’s on the Floor
.
Meanwhile
bibi Sends
US the Bill
complicity
can be
Pricey
Talking about out of control Zionists:
Israel bars UN chief from the country over Iran attack response
Israel’s foreign minister accused Antonio Guterres of ‘backing terrorists, rapists, and murderers’ and branded him ‘a stain on the history of the UN’.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/10/2/israels-katz-bars-un-chief-from-country-over-iran-attack-response
Last year, Guiterrez said that Oct 7 didn’t happen in a vacuum and as we know anybody who says the truth about Israel has to be slandered as an anti-semite and terrorist supporter. Of course since Guiterrez didn’t specifically condemn Iran but merely condemned escalation he had to be declared persona non grata. Do you see a pattern here?
@61: “out of control Zionists”
There’s nothing “out of control” about PNGing the UN Secretary-General. A sovereign country gets to decide who comes in and who doesn’t. By the way, they’re not called Zionists, they’re called Israelis. Say the name, it won’t bite you! 😉
Also @61: “Last year, Guiterrez said that Oct 7 didn’t happen in a vacuum and as we know anybody who says the truth about Israel has to be slandered as an anti-semite and terrorist supporter.”
lol, people who hate Jews and support terrorism sometimes get called those things. Fortunately, they are only a small minority. Touchy, though, when the spotlight lands on them, isn’t that right, Bob? 😉
The Israelis didn’t PNG the Sec-Gen for his remarks last year, they PNGed him for his remarks today. After Iran shot 200 ballistic missiles into Israel, he immediately called for a ceasefire without condemning the missile attack itself. In other words: Iran gets to shoot, but Israel doesn’t get to shoot back.
That’s pretty much your exact position on Israel, Bob, so I can see why you’d leap to the Sec-Gen’s defense, even if you’re a little muddled about the exact sequence of events! 😀
After the Sec-Gen made headlines around the world for get PNGed, he quickly issued a statement saying that the missile attack was also bad. Balance is now restored. The tempest in a teapot now cools.
By the way, for those who follow Middle Eastern news from a military perspective, here is footage of some of those exo-atmospheric interceptions of the Iranian missiles. Space combat, seen from the ground, truly extraordinary to see something like this in our lifetimes:
https://x.com/Osinttechnical/status/1841346681918406942
Not muddled at all, slandering goon.
One year ago Guiterres said that Oct 7 didn’t happen in a vacuum. He was immediately labeled a supporter of terrorists by Zionists (I have used Israelis many times including today). Yesterday, Guiterres called for deescalation without mentioning neither Iran nor Israel. He was subsequently banned from entry in Israel and called a terrorist backer. So the lesson is don’t tell the truth about Israel or Zionists will slander you.
@58 Israelis have been killing terrorists (and plenty of others too) for almost a century. May be you should ask yourself why this has been such a long conflict .
I know, I know you’ll call me an awful anti-semite for suggesting that Israeli policies toward the natives may have something to do with it.
Are you planning on being done with killing bad guys anytime soon? because I am afraid you have generated a whole new generation of people not really in favor of a peaceful resolution.
But, please do go on with your celebrating
@65: “May be you should ask yourself why this has been such a long conflict”
Ha ha, if you think this is a long conflict, then you are even less well-read in Middle Eastern history than I thought! (Which might also explain some of your very particular prejudices, lol)
Also @65: “Are you planning on being done with killing bad guys anytime soon? because I am afraid you have generated a whole new generation of people not really in favor of a peaceful resolution.”
Yikes, who do you imagine you’re talking to? I haven’t ever killed anyone in the Levant. What dark conspiracy theory have you fallen for now? 😂
@64: “Yesterday, Guiterres called for deescalation without mentioning neither Iran nor Israel. He was subsequently banned from entry in Israel and called a terrorist backer.”
Let’s recall the recent sequence of events. After 10/7 produced the largest single-day post-Holocaust slaughter of Jews, for being Jews, on land the killers had vowed to cleanse of Jews (is there a word for that kind of thing?), Hezbollah started belting northern Israel with missiles, driving Israelis there from their homes. After tolerating that for almost a year (quick quiz: how long would it take for the US to invade any country which hosted such activity against us? Please give your answer in number of milliseconds,) Israel has spent the last two weeks beating the tar out of Hezbollah, which just so happens to receive a lot of support from Iran. Iran doesn’t like to be too obvious about Hezbollah being Iran’s cannon fodder against Israel (hurts recruiting, especially when Hezbollah has a sudden need of lots more bodies), so Tehran had to Do Something. Something being launching missiles which risked hitting civilian airliners over Iran (!) towards Israel. Israel and allies deflected the attack.
Then, and ONLY then, did Guiterres call for a cease-fire. (Without mentioning the missiles Iran had just shot right past civilian airliners.) See why Israel decided he’s not helpful?
@67: To be fair, he’s called for a ceasefire ceaselessly this past year, not just after the October Iranian attack. But you’ve got the general pattern right: the Islamic resistance shoots, and he either doesn’t condemn it at all or else condemns it while making excuses for it, but then he goes ballistic (har!) when Israel shoots back. PNGing him in front of the whole world was churlish, but it at least seems to have reminded him shooting at Israel is bad, at least temporarily.
@66 Unsurprisingly, in the midst of the silly put downs and slander typical of rhetorical goons, you have managed to not address the substantial issue brought up in my comment: the continual failure of military solutions in colonial conflicts. It’s not like someone who claims to be educated about history (without showing it) doesn’t have a slew of historical examples showing as much but as we know failure has never stopped oppressors as long as there is something to be gained by maintaining the status quo a little while longer, usually at great human cost.
“It’s not like someone [like thumper, who studied at Oxford with JRR Tolkien?] [allegedly!] who claims to be educated about history (without showing it) doesn’t have a slew of historical examples [thumper’s got A List, a MILE Long] showing as much but [a Wormtongue wannabee, the Insults’re Much more Gratificational] as we know failure [what!?] has never stopped oppressors as long as there is something [retribution?] [vengeance?] [Weapons testing?] to be gained by maintaining the status quo a little while longer, usually at great human cost.” –@ab
does causing WWIII
thus keeping bibi
the Fuck outta
Prison count?
@69: “silly put downs and slander typical of rhetorical goons”
Ha ha ha! Stop your silly put downs you rhetorical goon! Nice one, Bob!
@67 “Let’s recall the recent sequence of events. After 10/7 “
As Guiterres noted 10/7 didn’t happen in a vacuum (000) and of course, nothing happened before 10/7 in your partisan narrative …
(000) for which he was immediately labeled a terrorist supporter by Zionists *
“Hezbollah started belting northern Israel with missiles, driving Israelis there from their homes”
Hezbollah mostly (?) shelled military targets, with mixed results, that are embedded among civilian infrastructure. I am not excusing the shelling, which may be illegal according to Human rights law, but double standards will not do
“After tolerating that for almost a year”
Oh, so, many bombing raids over Lebanon killing 100’s is “tolerating”?
“Then, and ONLY then, did Guiterres call for a cease-fire”
as already pointed by Goony the slanderer this is blatantly false
” See why Israel decided he’s not helpful?”
He and the UN are not helpful to Israel’s goals given Israel is a rogue state in continual violation of international and human rights law
I want to remind the rhetorical goons of this world that I am strictly for a political solution to the conflict and I do not support Hezbollah, nor Iran, nor Hamas, although I do acknowledge that many of their grievances against Israel are legitimate even if they are my political enemies (the leadership, not the people under their jurisdiction). I do not choose camps, i.e. the enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend. I live that bit to the simple minded.
@72 leave that bit (last line)
@72: “I do acknowledge that many of their grievances against Israel are legitimate”
Their chief grievance being its existence. I think you might be more on-board with the terrorists than you’re willing to admit, lol!
@74. Projection.
Sparking an arms and terror race in the Levant is the dumbest of all possible futures.
The more countries slip into warfare, the more pressure on their neighbors and allies (that means you) to join in the cataclysmic fray. Say farewell to your dreams in a mushroom cloud.
If you tolerate this then your children will be next.
Vote. You have the right, god damnit. Choose to win.
@74 The key difference is that I do not support terrorist tactics and violence in general but of course, to a goon like yourself, political differences amount to the other being a terrorist. Keep showing how much of an autocrat you really are. You aren’t much better than the theocrats you want to kill.
Also note that the Arab world had much less trouble living with Jews than Europeans until Zionists showed up to colonize Palestine. Even the Ottomans who were by and large very tolerant of Jews, banned Jewish immigration to Palestine once Zionists made it their objective (while allowing Jewish immigration to other parts of the empire). The closest genetic relatives to Jews are the Palestinians and there are very good for that including that some of these Palestinians descend from Jewish ancestors. Stop being a bigot.
@80: Ha ha, of course Arabs can tolerate subjugated Jews! A much harder question, at least for some Arabs, is whether they can tolerate sovereign Jews! (And you struggle a little in that department yourself 😉)
If you will someday trouble yourself to read a little bit of history of the Middle East, even just on Wikipedia—it’s good! I promise! Some of it is me!—then you will learn that while the Arabs and Ottomans were happy to rule over the Jews of Israel, the Jews of Israel often had other ideas about who should be in large of the land of Israel. There is a multi-millennia-long history of Jewish resistance to foreign imperialism, including Ottomans and Arabs among many others, that seems to have slipped under your radar. The Jews never stopped fighting for their land, never stopped returned from exile to their land, never stopped governing their own affairs on their land, not even under imperial rule.
It is a hard, hard thing to accept for a guy who thinks “Jew” means “white person from Europe,” but Jews really are indigenous to Israel, and that never stopped being the case.
You can find other reasons to hate Israel, if that’s your commitment, but Jewish colonialism isn’t one of them.
@81: “other ideas about who should be IN LARGE of the land of Israel. ”
Should be “IN CHARGE of the land of Israel.” Otherwise another flawless post from the iPhone of thumpus.
@72: I used the word “recent” in my description of why Israel got pissy with Guiterres. One of the reasons they did was his mention that 10/7 didn’t happen in a vacuum. News Flash, Big G and little ab: nothing ever happens in a vacuum, so G’s statement being redundant was the least of Israel’s problems with it. (How many times does the UN respond to a genocidal massacre with the line about a vacuum? I’m guessing not often.)
‘Oh, so, many bombing raids over Lebanon killing 100’s is “tolerating”?’
Yes, when compared to how the US would handle such a situation on our border. Any sovereign state would have the right to invade immediately, and Israel did not.
“…as already pointed by Goony the slanderer this is blatantly false…”
@68: “But you’ve got the general pattern right: the Islamic resistance shoots, and he either doesn’t condemn it at all or else condemns it while making excuses for it, but then he goes ballistic (har!) when Israel shoots back.”
@81 Most people here have gone around the internet block a few times already and the fake laughing is probably not projecting the aura of confidence that you think it is.
I don’t have issues with anyone in charge, including Jews, unless of course they behave poorly such as in this case push out the natives toward neighboring countries or into quasi concentration camps (otherwise known as ethnic cleansing), illegally occupy their lands for over half a century in order to “impose a reality on the ground”, and implement laws discriminatory toward non_Jews (i.e. an ethno-state) but these are topics that you’ll deny or ignore in your reply as you have previously in spite of my insistence that you do account for these realities (which points to your bigotry as discussed previously). A side note is that the Ottomans apparently also had prominent Jewish individuals in position of power at times, not quite the picture you are projecting even though empires are empires after all.
I read Wikipedia all the time because I believe it is a good source on many topics and because it is non-profit. You are right that I haven’t read a great deal on Middle eastern history (see confident adults do acknowledge their short coming); and, i’ll take your word for it that the remaining Jews have opposed invading empires in Palestine for as long as it is useful to think about.
Now, the other reality that you purposefully ignore is that a) Palestinians have been in Palestine for at least as long as the Jews you were talking about according to reputable science (at least 3700 years), b) the Jews who remained in Palestine in the late 1800s lived mostly in peace with their Muslim neighbors, and c) dispossessing people who have occupied the land for many generations (and had nothing to do with dispossessing ancestral Jews) to give it to people who just stepped off the boat (otherwise known as colonialism) generates the never ending quagmire that Palestine has become.
As I have said repeatedly, I am not in favor of pushing Israeli Jews “out to the sea” (well, may be some of the most recent immigrants intent on stealing Palestinian land, depending on their means of relocating) because my purpose is not to create harm to innocent people but the grievances of Palestinians are legitimate and nothing short of addressing them will produce some peace in the region. My final word will be that ethno-states don’t work in places occupied by several cultures as most places are nowadays so it’s something else to think about.
@76, The dumbest of all possible futures would be unilateral disarmament of one side, so it can be annihilated by the other.
No SLOG on 10/5. Is The Stranger dead yet? Or did another reporter suggest violence against a POTUS or VPOTUS candidate?
@84: The Middle East is chock-a-block with what you might think of as “ethno-states.” Many of them even have words like “Arab” and “Islam” in the literal names of the countries. Virtually all are what you might think of as post-colonial states, with borders drawn by foreign powers. And without exception, every single one incorporates Islamic law into the civil law. So it’s a bit rich to condemn Israel as an illegitimate imperialistic ethno-state, unless you are equally hostile to the existence of Syria, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Jordan, Sudan, etc, etc…which of course you are not. This is the Middle East. People from there like to have their homelands and govern them as they see fit. It is anti-semitic to deny the indigenous Jews the privileges and immunities enjoyed by the hundreds and hundreds of millions of indigenous Arabs, Turks, and Persians.
So I’m happy to hear you aren’t wishing to push the Jews into the sea anytime soon. Don’t tell Hamas you feel that way, though, because guess what it makes you? A Zionist! 😁
Now what about the indigenous Palestinians, you keep howling at me…for literally days on end, lol! Well, you can put away those genetic studies you’ve been waving around (and you’ll be a less racist person once you do), because genetics aren’t what determine nationality. There are plenty of Germans in the world, for example, but there aren’t any more Visigoths. Plenty of Brits but not any Celts, and so forth. Genes endure forever, but nations are transient. They come and they go. (Or, in the case of the Jews, they very inconveniently don’t go 😃)
While the ancestors of the Palestinians have been on the land for thousands of years, they have never formed a nation called Palestine. The ancestors have always been part of various other nations. (Some of the ancestors were even Jews prior to the Islamic conquest, but don’t mention that ancestry to a Palestinian today, lol!)
That’s the bad news. The good news is that just as nations like Visigoths and Celts sometimes go, new nations sometimes come. Although no one in Palestine was even calling themselves an ethnic “Palestinian” until the 20th century, the Palestinians have now established their own nationhood by sheer act of willpower and persistence. They are not part of Israel, and they are not any longer part of any of the surrounding Arab nations. Like the Jews, they, too, are indigenous to the land. They, too, deserve to govern their own affairs.
Now…shouldn’t you be fueling up an Iranian ballistic missile or something? Get back to work!
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/03/slaughter-gaza-women-children-israel-7-october
@87: lol, the writer manages to publish a 900-word article on the war in Gaza without mentioning the word Hamas. Those mean old Israelis just woke up one morning and started shooting random people for no reason! 🤪 Read all about it in the Guardian!
@87, Collateral damage in a war? You mean it isn’t all neat, nice, and surgical, with the combatants deftly moving amongst and around the civilian population while only killing each other? Shocking!
@86 I don’t have time for a long winded answer so there it goes little slandering goon
– I totally oppose all ethno-states
– drawing of boundaries by colonial powers was atrocious, unfair (Kurds , Palestinians through the British mandates and old UN) and everything else but redrawing of boundaries has to be left to their populations
– the idea that Muslims are incapable of separating church and state is a racist myth. Many parts of the region saw moves toward secularism and even constitutional democracy in some cases after WW1 through the 60s (Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Turkey, etc). Secularism failed due to internal forces tied to economic development and also due to a very helping hand from imperial powers who hated seeing all that good oil money wasted on the well being of the natives (read on Iran and Mossadegh for a classic example – I recommend Wikipedia to which I am a regular contributor)
-the prior existence of a state of Palestine isn’t relevant as long as the long term population can self-determinate
-Regime change from abroad doesn’t work and often hides ulterior motives that have nothing to do with declared goals
-the use of genetics studies is critical to determine that Palestinians continuously occupied that land for at least 3700 years, longer than anybody else
-who was there first, and stayed there in this case determines the right of occupation not the belief in something that only you believes. Everyone is free to believe whatever they want, but the right to act on these beliefs ends where the right of others starts.
@87 Great article CD. You should comment more often
@88 How many 1000s of words did you write without mentioning Palestinians’ rights until I shamed you into it?
@91. Too many cooks.
@90: Ha ha ha, what a meltdown! 😆 OK, fine, find me a Middle Eastern constitution currently in effect that DOESN’T ground itself in Islam!
Other than Israel, the closest you’ll find is probably Turkey, but even in Turkey you’ll find that: “Religious and moral education and instruction shall be conducted under state supervision and control. Instruction in religious culture and morals shall be one of the compulsory lessons in the curricula of primary and secondary schools.”
Separation of church and state indeed, lol! 😆 You must be new to the Middle East!
Given that Israel has a couple of dozen nukes and has made it abundantly clear that they’re not going down without a fight maybe their islamic neighbors should think things through a little…
On another note; could it be that no slog on 10/3 means ts is finally tu?
@95: Nukes look pretty decisive to western military science, but they are less significant to Islamic military science. When you are fighting qital, the military aspect of jihad, material considerations such as nukes are only part of the equation. The other part is the moral equation. If you are, indeed, fighting in the service of Allah, then you can expect Him to intercede on your behalf. He will send actual angels to fight alongside you. What can a mere nuke do in the face of such divine might!
Particularly when it comes to war against the Jews, the Muslims have many prophesies of victory. The Haidth Sunan Abi Dawud 3001, to take one example among many, makes clear the futility of Jewish resistance against the mujahideen. According to the Hadith, weak, unrighteous Arabs can sometimes be defeated by Jews, but mujahideen fighting in the service of Allah are guaranteed to win.
It may sound like happy horseshit to non-believers, but Muslims are convinced it’s true. I once met an ex-Al Qaida guy from Iraq who had fought the Americans in Fallujah back in 2004. I had always presumed the Americans had won the battle of Fallujah, given that we killed thousands of AQ fighters and took over the whole town. This guy had a different perspective. He was convinced actual, literal angels had descended to fight alongside Al Qaida during the battle. Any seeming success the Americans might have enjoyed was only a temporary lull. God was still gearing up to deliver the knockout blow any minute. This guy persisted in believing this stuff years later, despite having barely survived the battle himself and despite losing his parents, wife, and kids to an American airstrike during the fighting. (Remember: never mix your terrorist life with your personal life!)
So I think Israel’s enemies have a solution to Israel’s nukes: God’s gonna send down the angels when the big fight comes. There’s no way those Jews can possibly win! Now can I get a takbir!
@95: “Given that Israel has a couple of dozen nukes and has made it abundantly clear that they’re not going down without a fight maybe their islamic neighbors should think things through a little…”
Looks like Iran already failed your test:
“The decision it ultimately made—to launch Tuesday’s missile strike on Tel Aviv and Israeli air bases—means that Iran is now facing potentially devastating blows to its own military or civilian infrastructure, opening an escalation spiral against a more powerful foe.”
“Ironically, it was the threat of reprisals by Hezbollah and, to a lesser extent, Hamas, that was supposed to help dissuade Israel from any direct attack on Iran. Now, however, Israel’s success in degrading the two militant organizations, both considered terrorist groups by the U.S., has set the stage for a potentially bigger hit.”
(https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/iran-exposed-to-israeli-counterattack-after-blows-against-its-allies-4c65e888?mod=series_israelhamasnav)
Israel’ll likley
Palestinianize
Lebanon next, then
Iran & then whomsover
bibi deems Invadable; the Question
being: can the Planet fucking Afford to
keep
keeping bibi
tf outta Prison
@98: Israel has stated many times the goal of attacking Hezbollah in Lebanon is to return Israeli citizens to their homes in the north of Israel. Any Israeli government would be attacking Hezbollah in Lebanon now. (As would any American government in a similar situation.) The government of a sovereign state has both the right and the responsibility to protect the citizens from attack, especially in their own homes.
“…then Iran…”
Iran has long maintained the terror-army Hezbollah on Israel’s border. Iran has repeatedly attacked Israel with missiles, just this year. Do you really believe any other government of Israel would do differently? Or that any American government would do differently, in a similar situation?
Israel cannot Quit
Escalating ’cause if they
DO bibi’s held Accountable
and he’ll NEVER Allow That to
HAPPEN — If eltrumpfster Steals
it bibi’s Home Free so he’s making it
Impossible for Smokin’ Joe to get Elected
bibi played Joe for a Fool
and Us for Patsies aided
and abetted by Worm-
tongues planet-wide
and Endangering Jews
thru association which
is neither a Crime nor
a sin but That’s Not
how it’ll Play out
irregardless of
the Merits