Israel and a joint Gaza faction for Hamas and Islamic Jihad continue to
trade airstrikes and rocket fire along the border areas Sunday, with
each having made hundreds of attacks. Israeli officials are vowing escalation, and some are suggesting an invasion is being planned.
Four Israelis are confirmed dead so far,
and school is reportedly cancelled in the area adjacent to Gaza. At
least 22 Palestinians are also confirmed killed, with Israeli military
officials predicting the campaign will continue for several days.
A ground invasion, however, would be a much bigger issue. Historically,
Israeli invasions of the Gaza Strip end with thousands killed. That
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just secured reelection while pushing the idea that Israel can keep any territory it seizes in wars only adds to the potential complexity of the situation.
So far, indications are that there are not peace talks being brokered in
the region. That’s usually Egypt’s responsibility, but they’ve yet to
get to the two sides together. Egypt did, however, open the Rafah
crossing to Gaza for aid, after Israel closed their Gaza crossing.
Israel has threatened ground invasions in previous flare ups around
Gaza, only for last minute deals to stave it off. It’s not clear if such
a deal will be made this time,
What invasion?
One side has ALL the modern and devastating weaponry supplied gratia by the USA – whilst the other has stones, catapults, and primitive sky rockets.
This is not war – it is murder and genocide.
Well, it’s textbook ethnic cleansing, pursuit of lebensraum.
Notice how 4 Israelis dead features well above the 22 Palestinians, and I also saw that AlJazeera and others wrote of “Israeli retaliation” as if the constant murders by Israel did not count. The whole year of “March of Return” thousands of IDF maimings of Palestinians plus the hundred or more deaths seem not be seen as relevant to the latest threats and actions.
It seems it would be cheaper for Israelis to just pay Palestinians to leave.
Would you hand over Dixie for a fat paycheck? Ethnic cleansing is still ethnic cleansing, even if you do use a carrot instead of a stick. Though, considering the last 60-70 years, Palestine has already had several lifetimes worth of stick. Throwing them a carrot now is bit like offering Christ codeine on the cross.
Balance of power. Most of what I love will be erased and destroyed, likely people like me will be persecuted and targeted for genocide.
The lesson is not to be weak. The weak get slaughtered. The strong may choose not to slaughter.
Remember the Amish. Surrounded by the wicked world they peacefully prevail.
For now. The Fates, metaphorically speaking, decide which traits triumph at a particular time. Until now, the Amish have thrived in the US. Tomorrow they might not.
Similarly, a cautious king might prevail over a daring one at one point in history, but later an ambitious, risk-taking king might prevail over a prudent one. Fate.
All returns to dust, but I think one may at least lament what is lost. At a deeper level, the struggle seems to be against the Enlightenment and against a loss of the ability to form meaning in life. That one people replace another is but the way of things. And someone like me who’ll very likely lose everything, politically speaking, really has no place trying to intervene in the affair of others. A butterfly flaps its wings: If Israel were to return to its original borders or to be destroyed, or if it were to grant citizenship to Arab Palestinians thus becoming majority Muslim; there would be unforeseen consequences. Maybe good would result for me, maybe ill.
Sometimes it’s best to be selfish. What I want is stability in the ME, so that the US may leave and never return. (Israel of course wants conflict between Sunni and Shia.) Palestine seems to be all but gone already. Why not speed that up? Some sort of shift is needed so that the US is no longer drawn to that God-forsaken region of the world, a region that seems to be a literal Hell on Earth inhabited by literal demons who perform monstrous deeds upon one another due to race, religion, ideology, and likely greed as well. Likely at some point overpopulation will become a concern again there, which could result in further ethnic cleansing. The region is cursed, a reminder perhaps of why some were drawn to the evils of the Enlightenment.
What I would very much like is for it not to be the US which decides all matters. Let the Palestinians and Israelis, others, fight out their own conflicts. Americans are nearly entirely a nation of morons. Why must we decide, especially since everything America touches there only gets worse?
Kuchner’s great plan is probably just that. For people like him, and Trump, of course,money is all. Not for Palestinians.
Bibi has been given a blank check by both Trump and the Israeli people to slaughter with total impunity and I’m more than willing to bet he’ll use it, if for nothing else, to throw people off the stink of his own corruption with the sweet smell of genocidal jingoism. Dangerous times. We must stand with Palestine before Palestine ceases to exist.