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I hope they do. The frustration of the whole thing is that because Hamas survived and is getting a deal, they’re going to use this plan again. It essentially worked. They’re getting their prisoners released, most of who, are members of Hamas, the Strip will be rebuilt, and they not only get to keep power, but because they have the sympathy of the Arab world, can rearm easily.
At the same time, Israel has essentially capitulated. They get nothing except the hostages. They are also much more hamstrung as to what kinds of action can be taken when Hamas rearms for another round. The propaganda networks are in place, and the Palestinians have learned to play PR rope a dope by making sure that anything Israel does is seen as genocide.
They don't actually need to "play PR rope a dope" - what Israel is doing is nakedly and obviously an attempt at ethnic cleansing and genocide, to the point that high-ranking officials admit it and are currently wailing and moaning that they won't be able to continue the genocide due to the hostages being returned. When Israel starts talking about concentration camps and preparing settlers for the parts of Gaza they flattened and bulldozed, people don't need Yahya Sinwar whispering in their ears that something is wrong in order for them to correctly and accurately label something an attempted genocide. The majority of the civilised world can just look at the footage and evidence of what's happening in Gaza and call it what it is, and they would still have been able to do so even if all the Palestinian journalists had been killed.
I mean, during the US Civil War you had Union leaders talking about sending Northerners to take the land and houses of people in the South, but that didn't make it a campaign of genocide.
Yes, and that means they met one part of the definition - but not the rest. If there's historical evidence of an actual attempt to ethnically cleanse the south and replace them with yankees, it would be news to me.
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I mean both sides were playing the media game. Palestine did it much better. There were numerous times when the media was shown images of “good Palestinians who just wanted to help”, except that they were often actually active members of Hamas. There were also faked reports where they’d claim freezing conditions when the actual weather in the region was in the 70s.
To my knowledge, most of the "playing the media game" Palestinians did was sharing clips of what Israel had actually done to them on tiktok and other non-western social media. Have you seen the clip of the man carrying his child's headless body? Visuals like that are extremely confronting, even if the Israelis insist that the four year old was an enemy combatant. It wasn't some Palestinian marketing masterstroke that made Hind Rajab a household name, but the brutality and cruelty involved in her death and foiled rescue attempt.
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I dont know if the Palestinians necessarily played the game better. I think it's more likely that they were simply working with a massive headstart, given the general anti-west/third-world ideology if western elites.
Palestinians played the game badly, but they are a useful player for antiwest types to cheerlead, and thats where the Palestinian momentum comes from. Jews have been a lousy cause to advance, because they are actually winning. They achieve on their own merit, so there is no glory to share. By contrast the Palestinians, should they win and kill every Jew, will OBVIOUSLY credit the brave warriors of the Columbia BDS executive committee for achieving such a great victory, letting these children bask in the glow of their participation trophy.
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It really was extraordinary just how many “Palestinian journalists” were killed. How many there were in general, even. There appeared to be more “Palestinian journalists” in Gaza than American journalists in NYC, which is quite impressive given that there are likely more in NYC than in any other Western city. Every third man in Gaza appears to have been a Palestinian journalist.
I mean the bigger deal is that Journalist is now a protected class on the same order of Doctors, Clergy and Messengers. It is definitely just a coincidence that the moral case for this class upgrade was promulgated by journalists themselves.
Its the same as Women and Children. Given the footage of fi refights, it seems that Gaza has speedrun progressivism by allowing gender conversions for its fighters, and even age conversion for its grown men to suddenly be 'children'.
Hind Rajab's death was reported on CNN as "the death of a Palestinian woman" despite her being five years old. In the mainstream media at least the opposite of this was true, but I'm very willing to believe that it was the case on social media.
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Hamas leaders have a lot of skin in the game. They will think twice before trying this again because at a minimum it will lead to their own deaths.
Israel has proven that they can get to anyone. They executed Hamas's top leader. They destroyed nearly the entire leadership of Hezbollah.
"But they're religious zealots who will gladly die for the cause!"
I don't think so. Would a religious zealot steal hundreds of millions of dollars from his people to live in luxury in Qatar like Khaled Mashal did? These are corrupt, evil people who don't want to get their crotch blown off by a cell phone.
Nothing can bring back the dead hostages. Nothing can undo the rapes and beatings they suffered at the hands of evil men. Sometimes, the only thing one can do is exact revenge. And Israel's revenge has been terrible. It's time now for peace.
If this was the case the October 6th status quo was perfect for Hamas. And yet...
Yeah, eventually Gaza will forget what happened and the cycle will begin again.
But that's not a reason for a forever war.
The ideal solution in the eyes of the western left is the complete Israeli capitulation and return of the holyland to the muslims as part of the wider "decolonization" movement. The the muslims are themselves conquerers and colonists is conviently ignored.
The ideal solution in the eyes of the western right is the final destruction of Hamas, Hezbollah, Et Al. At the hands of the IDF through a combination of support for a long-term ally and a sentiment of "rabid dogs get put down".
Forever war is the compromise position.
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There's no reason to frame what happened as Gaza forgetting (as opposed to jihadis simply trying again), except that it undermines your point. People who continually talk about overturning or avenging a crime done against them almost a hundred years ago are not suffering some sort of cyclical memory wipe.
There's strong evidence that both Jews and Palestinians can hold on to a grudge and ruminate on past injustices. And understand basic cause and effect.
Please be clear about what you are advocating for.
What would you do if you were Israel right now?
As a civilian or soldier I'd want my people back so we can go lick our wounds and hope the next cycle is after I'm dead or past conscription age. As a leader...I don't know. Stay, kill more, try to suffocate Hamas as much as possible.
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What they are forgetting is not the offense, but how badly they got whipped last time they tried "avenging" it.
The Looney Tunes theory of the Israel-Palestine conflict?
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