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Israel-Gaza Megathread #1

This is a megathread for any posts on the conflict between (so far, and so far as I know) Hamas and the Israeli government, as well as related geopolitics. Culture War thread rules apply.

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  1. Always has been. Most people are not military specialists, but it’s a specialist’s world. Combine that with a general lack of nuance and you should expect to see very confident predictions based on vibes. For an interesting comparison, look up old World War headlines.

On Wednesday, July 14, 1914, the Washington Post declared that “Whether the war will be confined to the two countries can not be said, but the feeling on this point in high official circles is optimistic.”

The irony of decrying armchair analysis while, in the same breath, asserting that you’ve got the nuanced view—well, suffice to say it’s not lost on me.

  1. It might not be fallacious, but it is reductive. No group in America has a habit of firing rockets at random buildings. Such is the privilege of our safe, Western existence.

It might not be fallacious, but it is reductive. No group in America has a habit of firing rockets at random buildings. Such is the privilege of our safe, Western existence.

In the spirit of levity to counterbalance the grimm topics...

Don't you all do that every fourth of July?

Consent matters!

That must be a lot of consent forms in each neighborhood every July. How do you handle it when they don't agree to your rockets coming down on their property?