Israel-Gaza war

[Vosem]

They found the bodies of 40 babies in a kibbutz.

The US can't stop what's to come now. No one can. That's not an endorsement of it, that's just a statement of fact. This isn't 9/11, this is the impact of Pearl Harbor combined with the sadism of the Holocaust, and it's unleashed something in Israel that won't be put back in the bottle.

I'm actually disgusted right now. Does Hamas have any humanity in them?

That was a rhetorical question btw. Idk how the hell Israel is going to deal with the occupation of the Gaza strip if ppl have become that radicalized. Nightmare scenario.

My concern is that they invade the Gaza strip without a real post-war strategy. Although this is a vastly different conflict, the lessons of Iraq should be in everybody's mind. Nonetheless, I believe Israel has no choice but try to go after Hamas with full force.

The problem is that the obvious answer for post-invasion Gaza, "turn administration back over to the PA and Fatah," would last all of a week or two before Hamas reemerges.

is "UN Peacekeeping Mission in the Gaza Strip" a remotely viable and politically feasible as a possibility?

Actually, does the Arab League do peacekeeping missions? or maybe peacekeepers from North Africa, seconded from the African Union??

i think the far more likely option is bibi goes for resettling of gaza with israelis, undoing with sharon did, and making palesitinians leave by coercian/force/etc

The actual most clear-cut case of contemporary Israel violating international law is the ethnic cleansing against ethnic Israelis that took place in Gaza in 2004.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

No court in the world buys the argument that the settlements are legal.

[American2020]

https://twitter.com/ianbremmer/status/1711769812731396192

[It’s so Joever]

https://twitter.com/ianbremmer/status/1711769812731396192

My bet is an hour and a half max before someone here tries to justify either of these.

[PSOL]

They found the bodies of 40 babies in a kibbutz.

The US can't stop what's to come now. No one can. That's not an endorsement of it, that's just a statement of fact. This isn't 9/11, this is the impact of Pearl Harbor combined with the sadism of the Holocaust, and it's unleashed something in Israel that won't be put back in the bottle.

I'm actually disgusted right now. Does Hamas have any humanity in them?

That was a rhetorical question btw. Idk how the hell Israel is going to deal with the occupation of the Gaza strip if ppl have become that radicalized. Nightmare scenario.

My concern is that they invade the Gaza strip without a real post-war strategy. Although this is a vastly different conflict, the lessons of Iraq should be in everybody's mind. Nonetheless, I believe Israel has no choice but try to go after Hamas with full force.

The problem is that the obvious answer for post-invasion Gaza, "turn administration back over to the PA and Fatah," would last all of a week or two before Hamas reemerges.

is "UN Peacekeeping Mission in the Gaza Strip" a remotely viable and politically feasible as a possibility?

Actually, does the Arab League do peacekeeping missions? or maybe peacekeepers from North Africa, seconded from the African Union??

i think the far more likely option is bibi goes for resettling of gaza with israelis, undoing with sharon did, and making palesitinians leave by coercian/force/etc

The actual most clear-cut case of contemporary Israel violating international law is the ethnic cleansing against ethnic Israelis that took place in Gaza in 2004.

Aren’t you a sore winner

[Torrain]

The layers here:
https://twitter.com/ItalyinIsrael/status/1711821345976181111

[The Mikado]

The layers here:
https://twitter.com/ItalyinIsrael/status/1711821345976181111

Incredible, and somewhat deranged, symbolism here. The symbol of Vespasian and Titus' defeat of the Jews covered in depictions of the destruction of Jerusalem.

[Aurelius2]

The layers here:
https://twitter.com/ItalyinIsrael/status/1711821345976181111

Next the Italianx will come full circle and build us the third Temple.

[Torrain]

The layers here:
https://twitter.com/ItalyinIsrael/status/1711821345976181111

Incredible, and somewhat deranged, symbolism here. The symbol of Vespasian and Titus' defeat of the Jews covered in depictions of the destruction of Jerusalem.

Yeah, I’m still not sure if this is a touching display of solidarity, accepting the grim historical context - or just a bit crass.

Possibly somewhere in between.

Either way, a real… choice, to shine a literal spotlight on the period and actions that would result in Judea being converted into Roman Palestine.

[oldtimer]

The layers here:
https://twitter.com/ItalyinIsrael/status/1711821345976181111

Incredible, and somewhat deranged, symbolism here. The symbol of Vespasian and Titus' defeat of the Jews covered in depictions of the destruction of Jerusalem.

Led lights are very cheap you know.

It costs what 5 bucks to light something, it's the equivalent of "Pray for X" on Twitter.

Cheap virtue signalling.

[Bacon King]

https://twitter.com/ianbremmer/status/1711769812731396192

possibly relevant context for the incident on the left:

https://twitter.com/indyjones48/status/1711775203225637119

[PSOL]

It’s been three days and Israel is still dealing with infiltration from Gaza and clearing up holdouts from the Gazan offensive. How this sort of poor military response would ever fly in what is regarded as one of the best armies in the world is seriously important to study. Israel’s shift to counterinsurgency for the past three decades and heavy reliance on its Air Force is one part of the failure, the other part is serious innovation and preparation for such an attack by the same decades of experience by Palestinian militants. Like how in the world did they not catch the gliders and prepare for that.

From the leadership downward into the military, Israel cannot survive unless it removes the elements that made them so vulnerable, and that comes squarely to the clique around Bibi.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I certainly hope the beheaded babies story is atrocity propaganda, considering the alternative of it being, you know, real.

[Blue3]

Me too. I’m very wary of sensationalist headlines under the fog of war.

[Bacon King]

Like how in the world did they not catch the gliders and prepare for that.

It's not even like this was a "failure of imagination" to consider the use of gliders
because it's literally happened before and they were completely taken by surprise

[Battista Minola 1616]

The layers here:
https://twitter.com/ItalyinIsrael/status/1711821345976181111

Next the Italianx will come full circle and build us the third Temple.

I don't want to be associated with the likes of Titus. We [modern Italianx] are barbarians who speak with sh and ch sounds and can't win wars but make good food.

As for the symbolism, this government obviously has a vested interest in making amends for the fact that "hey Giorgia, what were your ideological forefathers up to in 1938?" but given this is Italy we are talking about I would be just as willing to believe that the thought process behind it was simply "we need to light up a triumphal arch to signal solidarity, find me the closest one".

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Me too. I’m very wary of sensationalist headlines under the fog of war.

It's important to keep an open mind. "In war, truth is the first casualty" is a quote I've seen multiple times over the past few days, in some form or another.

[Vosem]

I certainly hope the beheaded babies story is atrocity propaganda, considering the alternative of it being, you know, real.

The journalists making the report have names -- Margot Haddad and Nic Robertson. The former at least has definitely not walked it back and is tweeting corroborations, and it's been repeated by news outlets that you would hope would know better than repeating something obviously untrue.

It's true that the army spokesperson talking to Anadolu said he didn't know about it.

Hopefully it is not true; unlike with the other atrocities there is not video evidence.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

https://twitter.com/evanhill/status/1711858920648851519?t=o--aciLVIOuFWaUbVin-qQ...

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

More confusion: Shani Louk, the german woman seen in the viral video apparently dead in the back of a truck, may be alive.

[Ferguson97]

MSNBC claiming to have confirmed the baby decapitations.

[PSOL]

Confrontations with protesters in Jerusalem.

[Angel of Death]

I don't see how it's possible for Israel to fully eliminate Hamas in Gaza without the number of killed Palestinians getting far into the 5 digits at least. I suspect that the West will effectively allow them a certain kill ratio, after they will slowly start to exert pressure to wind down operations.

[All Along The Watchtower]

So, what happens if Hezbollah decides to launch a massive attack of their own while Israel is busy trying to destroy Hamas? Or the West Bank erupts to the extent that the PA’s security forces are completely overwhelmed?

It’s pretty clear that Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and their sponsors in Tehran are far better at sophisticated, well-coordinated operations than the Arab armies of the 20th century who tried and failed to destroy Israel by waging war on multiple fronts. I suppose that’s the advantage of highly motivated networks of non-state actors (with plenty of crucial support from a highly motivated state actor in the Islamic Republic, of course) with basically the same goals, as opposed to the corrupt and incompetent regular armies of a bunch of rival dictators. In any event, I’m genuinely worried about multiple fronts here.

[Vosem]

So, what happens if Hezbollah decides to launch a massive attack of their own while Israel is busy trying to destroy Hamas? Or the West Bank erupts to the extent that the PA’s security forces are completely overwhelmed?

It’s pretty clear that Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and their sponsors in Tehran are far better at sophisticated, well-coordinated operations than the Arab armies of the 20th century who tried and failed fight Israel on all sides. I suppose that’s the advantage of highly motivated networks of non-state actors (with plenty of crucial support from a highly motivated state actor in the Islamic Republic, of course) with basically the same goals, as opposed to the corrupt and incompetent regular armies of a bunch of rival dictators. In any event, I’m genuinely worried here.

Is it? There wasn't a general mobilization in 2006 and Israel walked over Hezbollah pretty easily. The difference in resources compared to actual state actors is enormous.

The more information comes out about the cross-border attack, the more it becomes clear that there were roughly 1000 Israeli deaths to roughly 1500 Palestinian militant deaths, and the more it becomes clear that the attack's planning was very decentralized, and many aspects of it were probably not intended to happen by Hamas leadership.

https://twitter.com/AP/status/1711624044288659792

This doesn't seem to have been a very sophisticated and well-coordinated operation at all. It just seems to have been a surprise, and a surprise in a bizarre way that the Israel of...uh...2018-19 could not possibly have fallen for.

I think the way to square the circle is deliberate unreadiness, and the easiest explanation for that would be legitimate fear of a military coup on Netanyahu's part. (My guess is "Bibi thought the IDF+Supreme Court were plotting to take power" will end up being the explanation.) But it isn't as though Hamas could press their advantage (they basically failed to take a military advantage!), and given time to mobilize Israel just is a militarized First World society with powerful friends.