Pretty sure they don’t.
This appears to me to be the final stage of what happens when this ‘all or nothing’ mentality world gets what it wants only to realize it didn’t really want what it got.
Israel is no different than any other nation-state in one main respect. It comes only in Size Human. No angels, no demons, just people that stick pants on one leg at a time, sometimes do great things and sometimes do awful things.
Israel is different from most nation-states, even including the US, in that its every action is scrutinized and often condemned regardless of either intent or effect. Probably the best modern proof that Israel is in fact God’s Chosen People is that the whole thing hasn’t catastrophically failed under the intense stress. Any other self respecting nation-state would have crawled in a hole and died long since.
We’re not talking about legitimate scrutiny for things Israel actually did wrong – and they aren’t saints so they certainly have had some international condemnation coming. But what Israel gets is unremitting condemnation having nothing to do with their actual misdeeds but merely as a way for the Arab World along with the Western political Left to try to destroy Israel.
It didn’t work. At least not as intended.
Israel has sold land for peace repeatedly over the last seventy years and they have never gotten their money’s worth. Frankly, no one sane thinks ‘international condemnation’ has even the slightest validity with regard to Israel because of the unhinged way it has been over used in the last forty years especially.
Israel withdrew completely from Gaza in 2005. Hamas moved in and started rocket attacks. That wasn’t the deal but no international condemnation for Hamas beyond some mild words. Israel shooting back is utterly condemned.
Exactly why does everyone seem to expect that they can keep kicking the dog and not get bit?
Israel choose a long time ago to fight for its right to exist. If anything, the October 7th Attacks have reignited that ember into a raging inferno.
Might wanna back away – those flames are hot.
My personal suspicion – and that’s all it is – is that Biden won’t condemn Israel or pull support because Netanyahu has told him point blank that this time there will be no ceasefire and no pullout. Israel is kicking ass and taking names and the US can support them or not.
I suspect that because Biden should ordinarily have been singing verse three of Ceasefire Sonata by now. However, calling for a ceasefire and not getting one would make Biden look not only weak but inconsequential. Biden can’t afford that coming into primary season. With no real primary fights for either party, the general election will be getting a massive head start. All Biden needs is Trump heckling his ineffectiveness from the sidelines.
Which would be truly epic and hysterical but as entertaining as I expect the 2024 Primary Season to be, Biden will probably not go for that particular halftime performance. Pity.
What that means for Gaza is tragic. There are no brakes. The only country Israel might listen to is the US and Biden hasn’t the chops to navigate this particular cage match. Being fair, I don’t think Trump could handle it, either. Maybe Eisenhower but he’s been dead way too long to get him back out of retirement.
Doesn’t really matter because Biden won’t be able to influence this nor is he likely to put his neck out trying.
Israel won’t stop until it feels safe. Oh boy, is THAT a tall order! Gaza is no longer a tenable security threat so it has to go. Hezbollah is no longer a tolerable security threat so it has to go, too. The Houthis aren’t even a threat so Israel will ignore them for now. Syria and Iraq are not capable of playing this round and neither wants any part of the now rabid dog that is Israel. Iran is praying the US will over react to the Houthis and forget about them because they’d rather risk a tangle with the US than Israel at the moment.
The US will stop. Israel is showing no signs of that.
Rabid hornets are a better, if impossible, analogy. The Middle East just got a nasty wake up call. Turns out, you CAN go too far. That’s why the rest of the surrounding nation-states are trying desperately to not get sucked into that particular hornet’s nest.
Oh yeah, lots of noise at the UN, but how’s that different from a typical Tuesday? But military gear up? Nope, nada – no one is coming to rescue Hamas. Hezbollah barely scratched Israel – I mean, in comparison to their normal levels of attack – and Israel is preparing to help Lebanon rid itself of Hezbollah, whether Lebanon wants it or not. The only reason that fight is likely to escalate is that Israel is out for blood and Hezbollah has nowhere to run.
The REALLY scary part is Israel is being smart about it. Smart rabid hornets are really, really not something you want in your nightmares. let alone flying F-16’s over your heads. Israel appears to be self aware enough to escalate where they think they need to without attacking blindly and provoking its neighbors to defend themselves.
Lebanon notwithstanding, of course.
So, does Israel care about what the world thinks? No, because that never gets them anywhere and they seem done with the whole pretentious peace process that never brings them peace. I’m dubious that they even care what the US thinks right now. They are hurt, smart, rabid hornets defending their nest. Bad analogy, I grant, but pretty close to what Israel is behaving like right now.
You can’t reason with people who think you’re unfair to them when they are hurt and angry. Maybe, if Israel had been handled more charitably after October 7th, MAYBE, they could have clamed down and at least listened.
That hope went out the window within days. The idiotic indignation in defense of Hamas just fuels the fire. Any chance of saving Gaza – and there wasn’t much of one on October 8th – was destroyed with the first imbecilic statements blaming Israel. Israel sees no hope of a fair resolution in the international community so they’ll just make their own, thankyouverymuch.
Israel’s resolution does not seem to involve a future in which Gaza exists as a separate political entity, if it even still exists at all. They don’t seem too keen on allowing Hezbollah continued sanctuary in Lebanon, either. This is not going to end well.
The term ‘genocide’ is being tossed into the fray. Yeah, THAT’s gonna help – NOT. It just makes the international community look more biased in Israel’s eyes. What part of ‘sovereign nation-state’ do people not understand? International law is a lovely FICTION. It has no sovereign power to back it up, unless you count the United States, and we’re siding with Israel.
After nearly twenty years with terrorists in its backyard, Israel seems to have concluded that it has the right to vacate the trespassers from their premises, legality be darned.
Is that right or fair? Heck no, but the choice is to continue to live with murdering slime balls in your own backyard. Unfair as all get out to the innocent Gazans but letting them stay is unfair to Israel.
Israel has had enough of this whole mess, that much is very clear. Israel is going to be fair to Israel and worry about the feelings of the rest of the planet later, maybe.
In other words, Gaza is already lost. All the influence that might have gotten Israel to put on the brakes has been so misused over the decades that it no longer truly exists. Biden could call for a ceasefire but Israel would ignore him. Politically dangerous to Biden’s career and utterly pointless as an exercise so there will be no such call. Ticks off Biden’s election committee but no one cares about them anyway. Biden doesn’t have a brake to apply. No one does.
It’s time to start figuring out how to evacuate Gaza. No one wants to say it out loud but it’s the only thing left to the moronic international community that spent the last seventy years setting up this failure. This is far more a failing of the international community, the UN, NATO et al than it is a failing of Israel or even Hamas. IF the international community had treated Israel fairly all these years things would not be this out of control.
Hamas thought they were playing by the old rules. Terrorists attack Israel. UN feigns shock and then condemns Israel. Wash, rinse, repeat. Great for terrorist fundraising although it does tend to thin the herd a bit when Israel lobs cruise missiles over the wall.
I doubt Israel ever liked those rules. They certainly aren’t playing by them now. Israel doesn’t have any brakes and wouldn’t use them if they did. Gaza is doomed. The international community needs to set about redeeming itself by getting the Gazan people out of that hellscape.
As for Hamas, they’re the idiots that started a rabid hornet breeding program. They can just deal with it.
Who knows, maybe it’ll help if they sing verse four of Ceasefire Sonata?
