In comments to the parliament, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett talked up Israel’s ability to attack Iran without restraint. He said Israel is in the midst of its largest rearmament in years.
Bennett played up the increase of the military budget to $19.2 billion, noting that much is earmarked for planning a military attack on Iran. Of course, Israel has been threatening this attack for decades, and its military budget has long gone at least in part for long-range strike capabilities.
Bennett further sought to get out in front of the ongoing Iran nuclear talks, and the risk that a nuclear deal would get in the way of his attack. He said Israel isn’t party to any deal, and therefore would not be bound by any deal with Iran.
Now, he says that, but in reality if a nuclear deal is in place and everyone agrees Iran is abiding by it, it would be extremely risky for Israel to attack Iran unilaterally in the middle of that. Israel would no doubt keep threatening Iran, and trying to undermine the deal, but a full-scale attack would be inviting a major backlash.
Not so much the IRGC missile arsenal, but Hezbollah’s. Iran’s missile arsenal will be occupied with attacking US military assets and Saudi oil fields. Which is why Israel won’t attack Iran until Hezbollah is dealt with – which will require direct US military assistance.
Ah yes Hezbollah. The only Lebanese force that handed the Israelis their ar…es in war.
Hezbollah is an Iranian proxy army,which has seized control of Lebanon. Once Iran has its nuclear umbrella, its proxy army will wear Israel with a few missiles a day-slow painful attrition.fuel air explosives will quiet the terrorists.
You sound like a terrorist.
Well Finster, he’s a Zio…that’s synonymous with “terrorist”.
you sound like a fool
you look like one and are one.
Heh, I just saw a Youtube video yesterday about “home-made” fuel-air explosives. I suspect it won’t be long until Hezbollah has them, if they don’t already (I’m sure Iran does.) That will quiet the Israeli terrorists.
neutron bombs will be useful.
Damn. You really don’t value human life. At least those you demonize.
At US taxpayers expense. Thats what happens when Israel owns the US govt.
For as long as the United States has a military presence in the region, thus making it inevitable that America would be drawn into one, the danger of this war is itself ever-present, though I have heard it argued, somewhat convincingly that our presence is what holds back the rabid Zionist extremists. I can’t help but try to be more hopeful that the withdrawal of the American military from the region would force cooler heads to work towards solutions. And America can still be part of those solutions. Military non-interventionism is not isolationism. America should remain deeply engaged in global diplomacy, and it is not against the laws of physics that America could be a fair mediator between Israel and Palestine or even Iran and Israel if the Israelis did the right thing and withdrew from the West Bank to allow a statehood referendum based on the Green Line. Even Hamas supports this. That would pressure Iran to acknowledge the fair and just peace achieved. They have offered to recognize Israel before. See the Grand Bargain rejected by the Bush Administration..
Back to Israel, this is just pomp and bluster from the attention-hungry Israeli State, acting as always like a tantrum-throwing child. They won’t dare. They know Iron Dome, so effective on the comparative firecrackers of Hamas, stands absolutely no chance against the IRGC’s ballistic missile arsenal. Iran has been preparing for this war as well, focused on the missile forces just mentioned, and on a Navy to engage in swarm tactics against any Western warship trying to escort tankers through Hormuz, which is 20% of global oil distribution.
Neutron bombs will quiet terrorists.
Anyone who uses a neutron bomb or any weapon of mass destruction is a terrorist.
When the US nuked two Japanese cities, was that terrorism?
Yes. The purpose of the attacks was specifically to inspire terror by killing large numbers of civilians rather than to destroy or disable actual military targets. That’s the very definition of terrorism.
Just like the fire bombings of Tokyo and the fire bombings of Dresden and other German cities.
Thats your definition. Certainly the Japanese were hated because of their race,the fact that they launched a sneak attack, and were nuked to scare Russia.The primary purpose was to crush Japan, end the war and avoid a costly invasion.-period.
People suffer due to their evil leaders.Before the war,moderate Japanese politicians were murdered-ala Wellstone, and a secret police organization let loose. I
Absent the nukings, no “costly invasion” would have been required.
The Japanese regime had been attempting to negotiate a surrender for months, with only one condition — that the emperor not be dethroned, executed, etc.
They ended up surrendering unconditionally — and then the emperor wasn’t dethroned, executed, etc.
The US could have had exactly what it wanted, and got, without nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki. QED, the purpose of the attacks was something other than what it wanted.
Scaring the Russians might have been a big part of it. Murdering more than 100,000 civilians to do that was terrorism, full stop.
Part of it may have been political, on the thinking that only unconditional rather than conditional surrender would be acceptable to the American public. Murdering more than 100,000 civilians to achieve that was terrorism, full stop.
Terrorism consists of attacking noncombatants for the purpose of producing terror in pursuit of political goals. The Hiroshima and Nagasaki attacks were terrorist attacks.
The American public wouldn’t have known the difference and would have been happy to end the war, no matter if it was conditional or unconditional surrender.
There was no need for an “invasion” and the famous American military figures of the time like MacArthur, Nimitz, Eisenhower, Leahy said the the use of the nukes was not necessary.
The victors wrote your history years after the fact.
Yes. There is some debate among international relations scholars whether criminal violence by States is properly called terrorism or war crimes. I consider the whole debate silly. Yes it was terrorism. Truly the air war on Japan was all terrorism, particularly upon the arrival of war criminal Curtis LeMay (who later brashly acknowledged that he would rightly be tried as a war criminal if the allies had lost) and his switch to incendiary area bombings. Over 60 Japanese cities were at least 50% destroyed. The Operation Meetinghouse firebombing raid on Tokyo killed more people than either nuclear bombing. And there was also a little-known raid launched on Tokyo AFTER the Japanese had indicated their surrendered. https://www.fff. org/ explore-freedom/article/bombings-worse-nagasaki-hiroshima/
Japan had brutalized Korea,China,and Manchuria for decades. They sneak attacked Hawaii, and rampaged throughout Asia.Captive people were subject to extreme sadism. Consider the Rape of Nanking, or the Bataan death march. Ask anyone who was on a US naval facing huge casualties if the Us invaded Japans -they wantd to go home.
That bs rationale only surfaced years after the nuclear bombing to dress it up as something other than what is was. Japan had already wanted to surrender and was pursuing that avenue when we nuked them.
Sneak attack? You mean like the “sneak” attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Only military idiots announce in advance where an attack is forthcoming. The invasion of Normandy was a “sneak attack” by that definition because we didn’t tell the Germans in advance.
I don’t recall saying that Japan was not guilty of atrocities. Their worst, Unit 731, was actively covered up with the help of the American government. Note your expected deflection from the fact that burning 100,000 civilians to death in one night is indeed a war crime, as admitted by the perpetrator himself.
Note as well your expected failure to acknowledge the post-surrender raid. Why are you even here? Do you like being embarrassed? Israel sure needs some better Hasbarists.
Ha-when people offer any alternative view, you dismiss them as “Hasbarists”. You can’t handle it. I did not deny your post surrender raid-stop your whining.
RE: Japan:
I did not say you denied it. I said you did not bother to acknowledge it. Do you care that 12,000 American civilians died in all theaters of WWII versus at least half a million Japanese by American bombing?
RE: Hasbara and Israel:
Well that’s what you do here, a weak version of Hasbara, public diplomacy for Israel, not that I am alleging you are an official paid agent. I’ll just assume you have sincere convictions. I want to make clear (though I would hope it is simply obvious in the subtext of our many interactions) that I fully support an independent Jewish-majority State based on the Green Line borders. The Jews have suffered immensely and unjustifiably and they need and deserve a country in which to thrive. Israel is where Israel is, and Israel is not going annywhere. But the fact is that it was not the Palestinian Arabs present at the dawn of the Zionist Aliyah waves who murdered six million Jews in Europe. The suffering the Palestinians have endured due to the crimes of Europeans is infuriating. It is an injustice that must be settled.
Japan did not militarily attack American civilian targets; we did.
Considering most Japanese people supported Japan’s worldwide aggression, killing millions, I support U.S.’ s bombing(punishment) of Japan, including using the nukes.
I acknowledge Japan’s atrocities. Collective punishment remains evil. I cannot find any polling on Japanese public opinion during the war. Perhaps you can provide me with some.
Understand, you are in favor of what the man, General Curtis LeMay, who orchestrated the firebombings and nuclear bombings of Japan, admitted were war crimes. Are you sure you still want to take that position?
That would mean I should be looking for cover. The “punishment” will be coming in so many directions. But I deserve it.
The majority of American people supported the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and the bombings of Libya, Serbia, and Syria. And, Madeline Albright said the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children was worth it on 60 Minutes. So, instead of appearing to be a hypocrite, you would support Pakistan nuking us?
“We’re going to attack you with nuclear weapons to make sure that you don’t get the chance to get nuclear weapons like we have!”
You sure sound like a terrorist.
But Iran doesn’t have any so the terrorists(Israelis)will live on.
Iran has 100,000 missiles in Lebanon-as James has stated.Using them against would be an act of terrorism-use of any weapons to stop them would be justifed.
Iran hasn’t attacked anyone without being provoked for over 200 years. If Israel provokes them, which they have tried to do through assassinations and sabotages, Iran using those missiles would be justified. Hardly terrorism. Pre-emptive use of WMD’s on the other hand, would be textbook terrorism. Just like the aforementioned Israeli attacks on those scientists and sabotages.
If Iran were to launch against Israel in either a first or second strike, the bulk of early salvos would be (were I a commander in the IRGC missile force) against Dimona and all known missile sites. Of course, Iran is never going to launch a first strike (and of conventional weapons) against a nation with a nuclear triad because, as heirs to one of the oldest continuous civilizations in the world, they seem to like existing.
And so here the top spins round and round and round as it has since the 2001-3 Western interventions into the Middle East that fell apart so spectacularly, ending the delusional neocon hopes for a 7 nation, 5 year blitzkrieg, with Iran as the finale, and secular democracy spread thro– lol I can’t even type it.
Hezbollah
Hezbollah DOES NOT have nuclear weapons, what are you replying to Jake.
I was going to ask that same question. I think it was his way of substituting Hezbollah for “Israelis”.
So, they increased their budget by $19 billion bringing it to $60 billion. That means it took $41 billion to stave off the outdoor prison of Gaza and rock throwing children in the West Bank and such. I’m thinking they might be underestimating the difference between shooting fish in a barrel and taking on a genuine military threat that Iran and Hezbollah pose. But that’s what parasites do when they know their host will come to their rescue.
And then there’s that ridiculous commercial asking for donations for starving Holocaust victims (strangely all starving, sobbing old women). Have they no shame?
Israel is a loose cannon. It is impossible to say it will go this way or that, until they have done it. Once they have done it, we will be in a sh-t storm…
I often wonder if the state of Israel will ever grow up… Forever throwing temper tantrums causing the US to cover its (Israel’s) backside, at some point, the US will be drawn in and we will be in the middle of a mess. It is time to put the Israelis on notice, they attack Iran, it’s their asses on the line not the US.
Israel, the spoiled child thinks only of itself. They need to be sat in the corner, all their toys (weapons) taken away and made to behave.
Part of the reason we have no peace, are the constant threats from Israel to do this, that, or the other thing…
Israel enjoys rights but no responsibilities. (This is why Israel has never requested a formal treaty of alliance with the United States, as such a treaty would impose obligations on Israel not not merely give Israel rights.)
It will never grow up until circumstances force it to do so.
Well said Mr. Finster, well said…
Hi FF:
Well said, well said…
Time that the Palestinians grow up and accept that their Israeli neighbors will not go back to Europe or be driven into the sea.
Once again, your arguments boil down to “might is right”.
At least that is when you are being honest.
Hamas. Wants. The. Green. Line. Borders. Has, For. A. Decade.
U mean they should accept the people who descended on their homes and became their ‘neighbor’?! And if they resisted, they became terrorists?!
I am convinced that there will never be peace on earth as long as the U.S. and Israel exist on the face of the globe.
In their present form. But that seems like a form that will take force to destroy.
And the Force will eventually come one way or another from Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and even from some US allies…. It only takes a US defeat from a potential WWIII to destroy its hegemony…. The Israel would then be after thoughts…!
Like China,Venezuela, Iran,Turkey, Russia, are peaceful This does not begin to include countries that are at war with their own citizens.
including Israel in that last category.
It is the Judaeophobes who are the cause of war.
It’s the Judeophiles who are the cause of war.
There, fixed it for you.
Not even a little. Anyone who actually loves Jews would support peace in Palestine. Which would require the Israeli regime to be told that their welfare checks and veto power over US foreign policy are coming to an end and that they’re going to have to work their sh*t out instead of hiding behind America’s skirt.
Agreed. However Israel has a very large voting base in the U.S. that are definitely Judeophiles, and they hold a commanding power over the GOP especially.
If actual Judeophiles held commanding power over the GOP, we’d see e.g. Ted Cruz standing in the Senate demanding recognition of the state of Palestine and an end to welfare checks/US foreign policy veto power for the Israeli regime.
Not even a little. Anyone who actually loves Jews would support peace in Palestine. Which would require the Israeli regime to be told that their welfare checks and veto power over US foreign policy are coming to an end and that they’re going to have to work their sh*t out instead of hiding behind America’s skirt.
Not even a little. Anyone who actually loves Jews would support peace in Palestine. Which would require the Israeli regime to be told that their welfare checks and veto power over US foreign policy are coming to an end and that they’re going to have to work their sh*t out instead of hiding behind America’s skirt.
Israel exists,the US exists-get used to it.
America needn’t disappear, we need to nationalize the “defense” industry, arrest their corporate boards as war profiteers. Eisenhower would be so disappointed. The amazing thing about that farewell address is that immediately preceding the famous line about the military industrial complex, he had defended the permanent profit-seeking war industry as necessary for future warfare. He is of course, wrong, but the fact that he ended with a warning regarding the thing he just defended, the thing he himself help to construct, only makes the warning all the more poignant. FAIL AMERICA.
During the Russian pogroms, Jewish self defense forces would be pre-emptively disarmed. During WW2, Soviet partisans would often slaughter Jews. Never again.
This is what you do when you have no argument. Blah Blah Blah. Never again. Works every time.
If you are too lacking to see the validity of my arguments,then thats your problem.what do you do-? Ha.
I didn’t post any links in the comment you replied to. How in the f*ck am I supposed to know what link you are talking about? Get a god damn clue.
As long as Israel controls U.S. politicians, it doesn’t need to grow up. It will continue to be a demanding child(or boss, to be accurate).
conveniently ignoring Iranian terrorist attacs upon the Israeli consulate in Argentina, the attack upon a Jewish cultural facility in Argentina, and Iranian threats that have initiated this situation.
What years did those things happen? You keep repeating the same thing. Anything from this decade? Century? And there are no Iranian threats that initiated “this situation”. Iran was in full compliance of the JCPOA. You know, the NPT on steroids. Any threats are in your imagination. The only actions have come from Israel in the form of assassinations, sabotages and their very vocal demand for military action. And all in recent history.
The cold hard facts are Iran has many more people than there are Jews in Israel – plus given a war do you not think that Iran will not arm the Palestinians (with real weapons), so that the Jews will be tremendously outnumbered, both on the outside plus the inside. And when the fighting shifts from aircraft sorties to lone snipers, booby traps and “Molotov cocktails” – how can Israel possibly win?
Right – and that is where Uncle Sucker need to come in.
IsraHell is on the verge of attacking Iran…oh wait, I just saw a pig fly by!
Israel must act quickly to ensure that US gets entrained into war before too many US troops and too much US equipment leaves the area.
Regardless of how bad an idea it is, US will come to the aid of the little petulant problem child it helped create and spoil. Israel will attack Iran and the MSM and US politicians will make it sound like poor little innocent Israel was attacked.
More weapons for more Aggressive Wars for that War State in the ME
Israel is dangerously close to having to grow up. It is not in the league it aspires to. It throws toys out of a pram and demands attention. And this is at the heart of the problem, For as ling as US ruled supreme in the Middle East, Israel could stealthily expand its territory at the expense of Pslestinian population, and even take chunks of neighbors. Lebanon would be a desired addition, if only a well behaving regime would come to power. Still not giving up on expanding in Syria. The one and only reason US is there.
But US has been distracted. In Middle East, both Russia and China are increasing presence. Iran is critical link between Mediterranean, Gulf. Indian ocean and Central Asia. And with it, Russia, India and China.
Israel has already been forced to allow Evypt access to Gaza and allow reconstruction. Of course, it has bern spinned as US-Israeli coopting Egypt, but the truth is less comfortable.
Very few countries in Europe are firmly committed to ani-Russia stance. US can count on neo-imperialist mind set in UK. All opponents of US-UK alliance, anti-Russia and pro-Israel stance have been vanquished, and Labor firmly under control, Besides UK, Poland is firmly committed to anti-Russian stance. Vatican has a strong influence, and its desire to undermine old Christianity in the form of Ortodox church, is nothing new. Vatican, particularly the current Pope, has a long history of supporting West Ukrainian Catholics, as well as a brand of Catholicism with Eastern rite. Poland is committed, and has no exit plan. As for Baltics, they are merely tools. I do not believe that a strong anti-Russian stance exists bellow rulung classes, except perhaps Lithuania.
As for the rest of Europe — ruling elites may be pro-US, but below the surface, willl they sacrifice their peace and comforts? I do not see it. Especially in France, where Russia has a deep pool of support. If nothing it is for a distrust of Anglo intentions. As for Italy and Spain — they are mighty quiet. Germany will be a real test. Without popular support for anti-Russian policy, Greens riding on support for ecology — are trying to shove anti-Russian sentiment down German throat. Balkans are again test of European obedience to US. Much words — litte energy.
What is next? Israel may have to go for broke, as the trend of US having less and less influence in the region makes long term prospects for Isrsel bleak.
I just do not know how will going for broke look like — or perhaps I should rephrase it — making US go for broke.
If this is the case — US must make Russia an example. But it turned out — Russia is pushing US to reexamine its position in Europe. Mind you, Europe. Place where US is very vulnerable in spite of apperances.