Many more thoughts on the Hamas war [UPDATED]
(1) On the report about Hezbollah invading Israel from the north with drones – I’ve read contradictory things about it, but this seems to be the most recent news:
IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari says there is no security incident in northern Israel, adding that the military is investigating what caused the drone alerts to sound across northern Israel earlier this evening.
Returning to the southern front, Hagari says five Palestinian gunmen were identified near Zikim earlier today.
Three were killed in a gun battle with troops, while another two apparently fled. Hagari says troops are searching for the pair in the area.
By the time I publish this post the news on that may have changed, but that was the report just a couple of moments ago.
(2) More on Iran and Hamas, and the following should come as no surprise. Perhaps the only surprise is that it’s from an NBC report, and that the Biden administration is “investigating”:
American officials are investigating whether some of the Hamas militants who carried out the unprecedented attack on Israel received advanced training from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to current and former U.S. officials.
They are also examining whether Hamas used recent Palestinian protests along the Gaza border fence as cover to place explosives that were later used to breach the Israeli barrier. The advanced training and placement of explosives, if confirmed, would be the latest example of the decades of support Iran has provided to Hamas.
The attack, which was far more sophisticated than past Hamas operations …
That last bit was the “tell” right there. This was unlike Hamas in its scope and cleverness, but it had the whiff of Iran. More:
Experts said the Hamas assault on Israel bore a striking resemblance to tactics the Hezbollah militia used in Lebanon. It was “straight out of the Hezbollah playbook,” Levitt said.
I’m not familiar with the tactics of Hezbollah in Lebanon, but both Israel and the US should have been. They are now.
(3) I’m not sure how all of this will affect the Biden administration’s continuation of the destructive Obama policy of coddling, conceding to, and enabling Iran. They have refused so far to blame Iran directly, which could either mean they have every intention of continuing on their awful path – or it could merely mean they see no need to inflame Iran right now by blaming them but are going to pull back from appeasing and financing them. I very much think the former, based on previous experience, but I hope the latter.
I do think it somewhat intriguing how the MSM seems to have picked up on the story that Malley, the Obama and Biden negotiator with Iran, has been discredited and is under a cloud. From the articles I’ve read, the MSM is acting as though this is some sort of revelation. But it’s been obvious from the start that Malley is very pro-Iran and I have written about it before (see this). In particular, see this article from March of 2022 – that’s a year and a half ago – that I quoted at the time:
Anyone seeking to gauge the imminent outcome of the international talks over Iran’s nuclear program being held in Vienna should take a look at reports from late January that three top U.S. diplomats had quit–largely in protest over the direction set by U.S. Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley, who serves as the U.S. government’s chief negotiator.
Having served for two years in former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s Iran Action Group, I knew that this development was tantamount to a public cry for an intervention. Such resignations–not of conservative dissenters, but of career staff and President Joe Biden’s own political appointees–should have been cause for Biden or Secretary Antony Blinken to recall Malley and investigate. Their failure to do so is a sign either of a troubling lack of attention to the talks, or else the possibility that Malley–who served in the same capacity under President Barack Obama when the first Iran deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was originally negotiated and signed–has been given a free hand to negotiate whatever he wants, as long as he gets Iran to sign.
I wrote this at the time: “Are these people being paid off? Are they Iranian moles? ”
(4) Why would anyone be surprised at the silence of Representative Rashida Tlaib when directly asked about Hamas killing/decapitating babies? Tlaib has a long anti-Israel pro-Palestinian history, and I’m not sure most people are aware that although she was born in the US, her parents had emigrated from Ramallah and East Jerusalem.
(5) Mass rape was absolutely the intent of Hamas, to “dirty” the women. That’s quite an idea – an ancient one – that it dirties the women but not the men doing it. The words “barbaric” and “primitive” are appropriate. Any person pretending to defend women or women’s rights who “stands with the Palestinians” or “stands with Hamas” is a defender of this horrendous anti-women (really, anti-human) atavism. I think that fact should be rubbed in their faces over and over.
ADDENDUM (the stories just keep coming):
(6) It’s not about “oppression.” It never was. It’s a holy war of Islam against the infidel world. It’s an old old story, and the Koran orders and approves it.
(7) You know those action movies where a brave woman is the leader? Well, apparently that happened at this kibbutz.
(8) The New York Times doesn’t want to call babaric Hamas terrorists “terrorists.” It changed the word to “gunmen” – probably the better to implicate guns as the culprit. Of course, the terrorists used more weapons than that, including knives or machetes, and burning alive.
(9) You may have read, as I have, about some of the murdered Israelis having taken shelter in “safe rooms.” I have wondered about that; obviously, the rooms were not safe. I’m not sure whether they were these, but my guess is that this is the explanation: they are made to resist bombs and rockets, which prior to this weekend were thought to have been the main mode of attack.
(10) One bleak but useful result of what’s going on is the clarity on who the vicious Jew-haters in the US are. No surprise that a lot of them are in academia.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-days-of-indecision-netanyahu-gantz-agree-to-establish-emergency-war-government/
Israeli political uncertaities remain a high priority for resolution. The simpleton Yair Lapid, we note, holds out, demanding cessation of the desperately needed judicial reforms in exchange for his joining the “unity” government.
sdferr:
I doubt they even need him. I also assume those reforms might be on hold for a bit anyway.
Terrific roundup in the face obscene events. Thank you.
As to Lapid, quite so. As to the reforms, please excuse my paranoid skepticism, for it’s my guess the reforms — for which passage I think there exists a sufficient Knesset majority at present — will be held back until such time as they can no longer be squeaked through. They’ve already been watered down significantly, so the opposition has the great stall at hand to close them out altogether. Who knows how the Likud will be viewed after the shitstorm Hezbollah will rain down multiplies Israeli losses by 100 fold?
It’s out there, this view, I know. But in the other sense, it is indeed out there waiting to happen.
Last week I tried to relisten to William Forschen’s Day of Wrath. it was written when ISIS terror was peaking, but it’s no less relevant today. Forschen warns that the reader/listener won’t like it, that he hated writing it.
It’s fairly short. I wrote that I tried to relisten to it, but I stopped about an hour in, because I know how it ends, and I’m not in the mood to take that now. It is utterly believable and utterly depressing.
And, it was written before Biden et al threw open the border.
Simple summary: 50 four-man teams are infiltrated. The targets are elementary schools across the country. The terrorists don’t expect to survive. They are very heavily armed and well trained. They have planned to engage any responding police.
Not all will reach their targets because stuff happens. They will lash out wherever they are stopped.
It’s horrific. And utterly believable.
“Any person pretending to defend women or women’s rights who “stands with the Palestinians” or “stands with Hamas” is a defender of this horrendous anti-women (really, anti-human) atavism. I think that fact should be rubbed in their faces over and over.” Neo
Absolutely and I intend to do so in my small sphere. With the amount of money that has poured into that small area (twice the size of DC ?) over so many years, it should be a crown jewel on planet earth instead of a hell-hole. Didn’t Arafat’s wife live like a princess in Paris? 2 + 2 = 5 for all the virtue-signaling ignoramuses.
A question I have is, after the dust settles so to speak and after Hamas is removed from the face of the Earth (as it must be) and a level of stability is achieved, how long will it take the American Mainstream Media, Academia, and the Left in general to return to their old anti-semetic and anti-Israel ways? Will it take a month? 6 months? A year? How long did it take the Left to revert after 9/11? How long will it take the collective consciousness of the mainstream Left to either downplay or outright “forget” the atrocities of Saturday October 7th, 2023?
Nonapod,
The world may have change. This may evolve into world war. Israel could target BLM for instance, after all if you are for murder and rape as weapons you can’t really complain when your people are at the end of targeted killings.
“No surprise that a lot of them are in academia.”
Just out of curiosity, I looked up my former college’s statement from it’s current president, just issued today a short while ago, 3 days after the fact…mealy mouthed and careful not to name the real aggressor. This president already has a rep for antisemitism, and the reaction is already building to the statement from the Jewish community. Typical sort of statement from what I’ve read from the vast majority of higher ed prezes.
Neo,
How soon before one of more American hostages surfaces someplace else in Greater Iran? I assume that with an operation planned this well, the extensive tunnel network under Gaza, and the lack of immediate sea closure of Gaza, it was a high priority, and feasible, to move at least a few of the hostages to Lebanon/Syria or even Iran.
And how, you ask, was this kind of thing handled in the past? https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-01-07-mn-13892-story.html
It is also evident how many of the haters of Jews are Democrats, because there is no stigma attached to Jew hated by Democrats.
Gordon Scott- It is amazing that people don’t understand that this will happen, much sooner than later.
So many people are asleep, or support left wing groups. they also tend to live in cities, which will be disasters when this happens.
If there is a ray of hope in all this darkness, it is that millions of Americans are well armed.
But what is coming will be terrible.
The gang rapes and violent humiliation of the captive women is exactly what I knew would happen to them. Women in general are merely objects, and infidel women are assumed to be already dirty.
The right doesn’t lack for anti-Semites or those who argue for moral equivalence between Palestinians and Israelis.
This afternoon I was talking with another conservative cafe friend and I mentioned the Israel-Hamas War (or whatever we’re calling it). I spoke from a clear pro-Israel position. Yet he immediately responded with the “fact” that Israel is keeping Palestinians in apartheid conditions.
I cut off further discussion with an agree-to-disagree. It’s an intricate debate requiring historical grounding going back to the 1940s, then everything since. Furthermore, my blood gets up on the subject and I find it difficult to make calm reasoned arguments in person.
Then there’s the whole alt-right version of anti-Semitism, which we saw here during the Zaphod incursion (which led to his banning, as I understood it).
Anyway. Anti-semitism is not just a problem with stupid, evil, woke Democrats and the left. There’s plenty to found on the right, if one looks.
“This is the opening attack in a war, one intended to amplify and accelerate the destructive effects on Israel, with devastating consequences in view. This is a hybrid war, and it’s being waged by Iran, with Hamas as its initial proxy.”
https://theoptimisticconservative.wordpress.com/2023/10/10/winds-of-war-why-is-this-hamas-attack-different-from-all-other-attacks/
J.E.Dyer makes the case that Iran is orchestrating events to assert itself as the regional power and solve the Israel problem without getting its hands dirty.
huxley:
I think a good idea is to suggest they read Dershowitz’s book The Case for Israel or this one by someone who was initially sympathetic to the Palestinians until she started researching it.
Anyone with any recent historical memory knows that the Gazans voted massively to elect Hamas as their governance just a few years ago. So I do not give a hoot for their women, kids or real estate. Bulldoze Gaza into the sea. You cannot kill a mortal enemy too dead. One Israeli is worth 100 Palestinians. Remember the Quran, Allah’s dictation to Mohamed the Prophet (peace be unto him, but not to Christians and Jews).
Neo: Thank you for the excellent round-up, as well as your other posts.
In case people missed it, AesopFan posted this link to a very good article by Daniel Greenfield on another thread. Worth reading:
https://www.frontpagemag.com/savages/
@ huxley – IIRC, one or more studies of political ideology found that left-wing extremists and right-wing extremists are more like each other than either is like their wing’s moderates: IOW, ideological characteristics are a circle on at least that factor.
Some people like the 2-axis Nolan Chart, but it’s easy to see that the R and L authoritarians can meet at the bottom point.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nolan_Chart
Highly recommend the Dyer post that crasey linked.
I don’t follow her or anyone on X-Twitter, so have to wait for her long-form analyses, which are always broader than the usual punditry.
Also worth reading, because the existential fight between Islam and the West (personified most clearly by Hamas and Israel) is, at the root, the same as the fight between tyranny and liberty in all times and places.
https://theoptimisticconservative.wordpress.com/2023/10/04/these-are-the-times-that-try-mens-souls/
Gordon Scott,
Islam’s proxy terrorists infiltrating 50 four-man teams to slaughter elementary school children across the country would provide a sufficient casus belli to drop thermobaric bombs on Iran’s ‘sacred’ city of Qom and Mecca itself. It’s not the means that it’s lacking in stopping Islamic terrorism, it’s the will.
AesopFan:
Yes, I’m familiar with that argument. Nonetheless, I don’t think it applies here. I’ve met moderate conservatives who get that weird look in their eyes when they talk about the Jews.
Recall that in the 1920s prejudice against Jews was a standard position among American elites. Later the Holocaust shamed them out of it.
Anti-Semitism IMO is a special case transcending right, left and extremism. I’ve wondered about it for much of my life and I still don’t get it.
huxley, other than the persistent disdain for Jews for which there is no good explanation, a conservative who thinks Israel is an “apartheid” state is evidence of the very successful Palestinian propaganda campaign over several decades.
Thanks for using the accurate term “Jew-haters” rather than the inaccurate and oh so PC term “anti-Semites.”
In non Isreal news (I have to admit I’m getting fatigued by the deluge), Steve Scalise won the GOP conference vote for speaker. I would have preferred Jordan, but Scalise is still a good choice.
Delay on voting on the House floor since Roy, Massie and others want a coherent plan on the budget from Scalise before they commit. That seems reasonable
I’d love to see a post, with discussion about this.
Thanks for using the accurate term “Jew-haters” rather than the inaccurate and oh so PC term “anti-Semites.”
Marisa:
I will stick with anti-Semites. In discussions I prefer terminology that is not calculated to elicit strong angry reactions.
For the same reason, I dislike the term “climate denier” which the climate orthodox insist on pinning on climate skeptics.
Those who use “Jew-haters” or “climate deniers” both claim the “It’s true!” defense.
I am sufficiently nuanced to understand that the history is blurry. What is clear, however, is that one cannot expect Israel to be negotiated into a resolution that allows the Palestinian’s the right to a nation that has a military. That would be political suicide actually for both sides. So one can advocate for a one or two state solution until the cows come home and were such a settlement to be achieved, the destruction that would follow would be so much more horrible than what we just saw happen. Israel has the right to make sure that does not happen. And those that advocate for the one or two state solutions would be co-responsible for the hellscape that would inevitably follow.
Ackler:
Never fear, I plan to discuss it. I’m waiting for something more substantive to come out other than just the bare fact that it will be Scalise who’s voted on.
Geoffrey Britain left out the capital of the country with largest population of Muslims; it aint in the Middle East, BTW.
Giving the gang of eight, or whatever they are, another shot of disproportionate power would be foolhardy.
Huxley
I’d be tempted to respond with something like, “We both know that’s bullshit. What else you got?”
The idea that someone would believe the apartheid lie seems to me to be a moral failing; failing one’s moral duty to seek the truth. That’s bad. And if the other party actually knows better, that’s bad, too.
You could try to explain it to him; equal franchise for Arab citizens, equal social benefits, some elected to office. But he NEEDS that not to be true.
You could try to explain it to him; equal franchise for Arab citizens, equal social benefits, some elected to office.
And Hamas in control of the Gaza for the last 20 years, with significant benefits – like water and power – provided by Israel.
But he NEEDS that not to be true.
Because otherwise there’s not just no justification for babies targeted and murdered in their cribs – there can’t be justification for that – but no flat-out reason for it either.
a smart policy maker would have conditioned aid on political reform, but all of those seem to be vacant in Washington,
read your koran, the earlier parts and it will become clear,
“Because otherwise there’s not just no justification for babies targeted and murdered in their cribs – there can’t be justification for that – but no flat-out reason for it either.”
Checked out the FB page from my former employer college. After one brave alum posted that the president’s statement was mealy mouthed, the reaction to her post was swift….babies beheaded is a lie, and the moral equivalence posts abounded. With those sort of people here, we are quickly heading to a true clash between them and us. Kurt Schlichter put it more stark and better terms this morning:
https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2023/10/12/leftists-want-the-same-massacre-to-happen-here-n2629629
The idea that someone would believe the apartheid lie seems to me to be a moral failing; failing one’s moral duty to seek the truth.
Richard Aubrey:
My cafe friend is a good, sincere guy. There’s just so much to know in order to seek the truth. I’ve been doing it all my life. I do my best. I’ve been wrong a lot. I’ve changed my positions many times.
Seeking the truth is always a work in progress.
huxley
Instead of your friend waiting on randomnity to bring this particular information to his attention, what do you think would be his reaction if you were to tell him?