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Wow, I’m breaking all my rules today! Okay, let’s get to work.
I was watching Ian Bremmer on GZero World yesterday and I had to keep stopping the video to ask him what the heck he was babbling about. Bremmer is a pretty decent commentator and I like his work, despite the fact that we share very little political space. Still, he’s good at representing his arguments and I appreciate it. Yesterday, not so much.
Oh, he presented just fine. The trouble was the he presented 2008’s argument. In fact he presented the same old, now totally ridiculous arguments that have been tossed at Israel for the last seventy-five years. Hey, I agreed with those arguments back in the Eighties and Nineties when we were seeing some light. But just how many times do the Palestinian representatives have to tell you they don’t want Israel to continue to exist before you take them at their word?
But no, it’s ‘Israel has to worry what the rest of the world thinks so they have a way forward to the Two State solution’ – I’m not being terribly fair here but yeah, that’s what it amounted to. Israel play nice so maybe someday, there will be peace.
Seriously Ian? They did that already and it’s failed so far at least five times by my count.
What I really take issue with is the total idiocy of assuming that Israel is still using the same losing playbook. The political left seems incapable of taking anyone at their word these days. It’s normal for them to ignore all those ‘problematic’ statements on behalf of or directly from the Palestinians. To be somewhat fair. Bremmer did make some legit reference to the October 7 Massacre but like most, he ends up brushing past the Hamas nastiness and scolding Israel. Ian, buddy, I think they’ve seen this movie. They didn’t like the ending.
Israel flat out stated they weren’t settling for anything less than the destruction of Hamas. Believe them.
What they aren’t saying is just as interesting. That Bremmer and others haven’t noticed the glaring omissions is getting old, fast. Israel refuses to say what its endgame will look like. Guys, you cannot be this stupid. Israel isn’t keeping quiet because they don’t know; they are keeping quiet because OH BOY are you NOT gonna like it!
Media commentators – those guys from media outlets that give commentators a bad name – keep rambling on about occupation and humanitarian aid. Are they insane? In 2008 Israel had the same problem and opened ‘humanitarian aid’ to Gaza. Hamas benefitted. They actually profiteered off the food, seizing the lion’s share and selling the rest. Great guys, huh?
Who took the blame? Israel. Not in Gaza, the Gazans are under no illusions that Hamas is anything but a terrorist organization bent on using the Gazans as martyrs, whether they like it or not. But never let the truth get in the way of leftist politics, amiright? Gotta protect those martyrs-to-be and cry those alligator tears.
So what do the media commentators suggest? More humanitarian aid and another ceasefire – well, at least on the Israeli side. Wash, rinse, repeat. Back to the status quo which was of no benefit to either Israel or the Gazans. Hamas had fun, though.
I’m pretty sure everyone over thirty knows how this movie ends if Israel plays by pleasing the ‘international community’ that’s obviously on Hamas’ side anyway playbook. Why, pray tell, does anyone expect Israel to do that?
Seriously, Ian, why?
Yes, I’m picking on Bremmer. I wouldn’t bother with someone I didn’t respect but Bremmer should know better.
Dude, have you not noticed that Israel gets the short end of any stick that involves international goodwill? At least realize that whether you agree or not, that’s exactly how the Israelis feel.
And stop trying the ‘it’s all the right wing’s fault’ nonsense. It’s all Hamas’ fault, period. The Hamas idiots stirred up the hornet’s nest one time too many. There’s no going back. Israel is NOT playing the silly ‘peace process’ game anymore. You guys on the left have been promising them peace for four decades – when, exactly, were you planning to deliver? Israel has extended the olive branch so many times the poor thing is dry enough for firewood but every time it’s batted away by the Palestinians as their self serving representatives set them up as the political pawns they are in some vain hope that someday they will destroy Israel.
Give me a break. You guys on the left knew full well peace wasn’t possible. Oh, it was worth the shot, I freely and wholeheartedly give you that, but when the ‘peace process’ incessantly failed, all you guys did was blame Israel. Lip service about Hamas and the rest of their terrorist ilk but full throated condemnation of Israel no matter what they did. The peace process became a joke.
Well, it’s not a joke any longer. Welcome to Israeli Peace Process 2.0, the One State Solution. Israel is doing everything but adopting the slogan ‘from the river to the sea, ISRAEL will be free’. I’m not sure that would be clear enough for the left at this point. Seriously, how willfully blind can you be?
Netanyahu doesn’t give a rat’s backside what the ‘international community’ thinks or how much of their lackluster goodwill he’s giving up. He’s an old soldier and evidently bent on leaving his country with the peace the international left could never secure. Right or wrong, Israel is done playing the old game. You guys can play chess; Israel is playing Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots.
Good grief, Ian, this is Poli Sci 101 – power is the name of the game. You know this so why do you keep yammering about ‘international goodwill’ and ‘losing the political war’? Baloney. Wrong game. Israel has the one supporter it needs, The US, and it doesn’t need us all that badly.
Israel isn’t Ukraine. Israel is more like Russia only if Russia had known what the heck it was doing. Militarily, they are using that so called ‘prison’ as what it really is, a backwards castle, and doing so very effectively. Is that what upsets the Left? That Israel is winning and no one can stop it?
Oh please, don’t even bother with ‘escalation’. The rest of the Arab world, Islamic world and the few stragglers that will get all upset and write nasty tweets are done with Palestine and have been for nearly a decade. They got the memo from the Afghan War. Using Israel and America as targets for your malcontents is a very, very bad idea. That’s forced most of the Middle East into trying to clean up the mess before company comes, namely the end of cheap oil. Eh, it’s kinda spotty so far but there is definite progress.
At the very least, they are unequivocally sitting this one out. Yemen will fuss but that’s gonna be about the extent. How do I know? If Iran had the slightest intent of getting their proxies into the fight, they’d have done it by now. But Iran has to keep their Russian customers happy – mostly because Russia CAN hit Iran if they get ticked off enough – so splitting their supply chains to supply both Russia and Hezbollah is a nonstarter.
Basic Cold War stuff, Ian. You’ve seen this movie, stop pretending you don’t know how it ends.
The irony is that Israel is probably the only nation state that actually cares about the Gazans at all. It’s not the need to preserve ‘international goodwill’ keeping Israel from using very real munitions the way that makes very real, very big holes without the slightest warning. Seriously, think – if Israel wanted the Gazans destroyed, they have the capacity. Okay, one little ‘oopsie, did we drop a nuke by mistake’ might be a few dozen steps too far, but leveling Gaza City – you know, like the Russians did Mariupol – that is cake for a modern, well equipped and totally PO’d force like the IDF.
Instead, Israel opens humanitarian corridors they get no credit for and that Hamas forces Gazans away from, to get the Gazans OUT. That’s the best they can do without putting their civilians at risk and they are doing it.
If you guys cared about the Gazans you’d come down on HAMAS like a ton of bricks. Instead you ignore their consistent use of civilians as shields and unwilling martyrs. This is the part that costs you my respect, Ian. You want to see the conflict in shades of gray so your leftist side doesn’t have to own its utter failure. I doubt you realize it, but that is what you seem to be doing.
Hamas proved themselves to be monsters. They did it deliberately and with malice aforethought. Israel respects them enough to believe Hamas means exactly what is says and does.
Why don’t you, Ian? Stop making excuses for the villains. Even if the ‘occupation’ were real – it’s not – and the settlements were ‘illegal’ – they’re not – neither of those things justify the heinous acts of October Seventh. Not. One. Bit.
It’s as obvious as the nose on your face, Ian. You don’t need to be a political analyst to see the glaring neon sign. Israel is done. No more unfair peace process forced on them by an incredibly one sided international community. Israel is unilaterally starting a real peace process.
No one is going to be happy, not even the Israelis. Even the hardliners actually wanted peace, just not the oppressions the Muslim world wanted to impose with it.
No, no one is gonna like it, but Israel intends to have its long promised peace. Five million Palestinians will either have to accept it or find new homes elsewhere.
Congrats, Ian, your monsters won. No peace with Israel. Just peace FOR Israel.
It didn’t have to be this way. If you wanna know how it came to this, start by asking that guy in the mirror why he was unwilling to be actually fair, as fair as possible, to BOTH sides and why he never took the Palestinians at their word? Then maybe call out Hamas for getting in the way of the Gazans trying to leave.
Seriously, Ian, stop babbling, okay?
