Israel has essentially lost territory in the north of Occupied Palestine. Hezbollah’s rocket barrages over the last eleven months has driven the settler population out of the North. This is likely permanent. Israel’s settler population in the Gaza envelope has also been thinned out since the 7 October attacks.
Moreover, current ongoing attacks from Yemen, Iraq, Iran and Lebanon are depopulating Israel.
The Houthi have put an unbreakable chokehold on the Red Sea and all Red Sea shipping. There is no way to break this chokehold. The USN and all other Western navies have tried for almost 12 months and failed utterly.
The ensured survival of Hamas: Hamas in the Gaza strip persists after almost a year. For months they’ve demonstrated ability to strike IDF forces daily, destroying IDF ground equipment and troops. This is true, even if incremental in nature. Hamas is still able to launch rockets on the Gaza envelope.
This means their rocket manufacturing facilities are still functional. Hamas has demonstrated staying power and resilience. Compared to Fatah in the West Bank, Hamas has demonstrated an ability and willingness to actualize the Palestinian desire for self determination.
US aid to Israel has consequences-
The US’ ongoing Iraq Occupation is coming apart at the seams: Despite the US presence in Iraq, it is demonstrably unable to exert any influence on the Iraqi resistance movements there, who launch increasingly sophisticated missile and drone attacks from Iraqi territory under the noses of US garrisons.
In addition, the behavior of Israel has stimulated anti-US activity in Iraq and will shortly result in a violent ejection of U.S forces from that country regardless of the current puppet government’s attempts to retain the U.S presence. It may take years to complete but the ejection of American forces from Iraq is all but assured now that the Hashds have demonstrated the ability to use substantial lethal force.
The Syrian occupation is coming apart at the seams: Strikes against U.S bases in Syria have become a weekly occurrence now. The resistance movements in Syria have shown that they have the capability to put American bases under constant pressure. The U.S will shortly lose it’s comfortable perch on the Conoco oil fields in Syria and with it, control of the spigot to the various anti-government militant movements in the region … and with that, control of Syria. Turkey and Russia have become confident to bomb ISIS and Kurdish proxies in Syria.
I look at things realistically. Any hopes I have are meaningless as are yours.
The US War on Terror was a multi trillion dollar failure that ended up creating even more people that hate the United States.
I view the Israeli military adventure similar in concept the US War on Terror with likely the same result as our failure. Israel has created many new Hamas recruits to replace the ones they have killed.
The US, Russia, China are hated on one level as colonialist. Including Chinese advantages in trade currently.
It is what it is. We are respected on the larger level.
Hamas has recruited fighters who often are now dead or wounded. Some 4000 were arrested. Hamas’s numbers are under 10k and perhaps as low as 5k men at this point.
The trainees are not sure about joining or staying with Hamas.
Hamas and the PLA are not natural governing bodies. The Arabs are tribal still. The governing bodies to create nation states are not natural or set up correctly. There are no checks and balances. No traditions. The borders are colonial remnants.
The tribal leaders will rise as Hamas and possibly the PLA are sent packing. You assuming Israel will fail means you know nothing.
The majority of Palestinian tribes work with Israel. You telling it the Palestinians are against Israel. The majority are in all of this with Israel. The Palestinians you are supporting have Russian backing and are a minority of the tribes.
How would you get anyone to love the Americans in foreign affairs?
This seems to worry you greatly. It is total nonsense to me. A complete nonstarter. Mushy ridiculous manipulation by teenage aspiring journalist student
The USian WOT was a device to achieve other goals. The other “General Rants” dealt with the US becoming a police state, with veneers of theocracy and xenophobia.
You should not rely on Main Stream Media for all your information.
You might check out Chris Hedges Pulitizer Prize winner former NYTimes reporter. He took personal and spent 10 days in a Palestinian refugee camp and sent in a report. He was removed from reporting on Palestine. He is one of the few Arabic speaking NYTimes had. He was muzzled by NYTimes when he spoke out on the 2003 Iraq War. He was warned that he would be fired if he continue to fight the government sponsored narrative the Times was pushing.
In 2013 he said “Either I muzzled myself to pay fealty to my career, which on a personal sense would be to betray my father, or I spoke out and realized that my relationship with my employer was terminal. And so at that point I left before they got rid of me. But I knew that, you know, I wasn’t going to be able to stay”.[43]
Hedges was lucky. When truth is revealed and spoken to power the consequences can be dire.
See Assange & Snowden.
Lying to Congress [Brennan-Clapper] is de rigueur behavior of government officials.
Hamas has not been destroyed. Destruction of a terrorist organisation is difficult to measure. Some point to leadership decapitation. However, as Jenna Jordan has pointed out, attriting terrorist leaders seldom brings about their organisations’ collapse. Factors such as popular support, ideology and organisational structure play bigger roles in deciding these groups’ fates.
Another measure used to determine if a terrorist group has been destroyed is if its territorial sphere has been reduced or removed. Israel has failed to deprive Hamas of the territory it governed prior to the war. Hamas has been battered in Gaza, but it is still a political force to be reckoned with. Unaffiliated Palestinian clans have refused to join in a post-war reconstruction effort for fear of retaliation by Hamas.
Israel has not been able to secure its borders. While it has regained control over some border crossings, the underground infrastructure that has allowed Hamas to engage in smuggling weapons and carrying out attacks is still in place.
Lebanon: The Graveyard of Israeli Governments?
Netanyahu wants to avoid another decade-plus quagmire in Lebanon (a la Menachem Begin) as much as he wants to steer clear from being seen as capitulating or backing down against Hezbollah, like Ehud Barak or Ehud Olmert. After having initially enunciated limited aims in the fight against Hezbollah, however, questions remain over whether a plan for the ‘day after’ Hezbollah is defeated even exists.
Israel’s military aims toward Hezbollah in the current conflict are narrower than its aims toward Hamas, but they may prove to be just as costly.
Keep in mind the words of a certain, well connected, son-in-law: words to the effect “that beachfront property in Gaza will be extremely valuable, once all the Pals are cleared out”. Onward with the ethnic cleansing operation.
Steve…hears there are nice beaches in Lebanon too.
The battle continues until someone decides to make peace.
Perhaps the methods used in Northern Ireland can be brought to the mideast. Eventually people realized all the killing did not accomplish much. Certainly did not end the conflict.
The plan put forward was to shove all the Pals into the Negev, land no-one really wants, to clear Gaza for redevelopment. I forget the percentage of buildings in Gaza that have been destroyed or damaged, 50%? 70%? Some not bombed or shelled, but blown up by Israeli ground troops. Gaza is quickly becoming uninhabitable. And now the Israeli government has banned UNRWA from providing any relief supplies at all. Winter is rapidly approaching. It does get below freezing in that area. I have seen pix of Jerusalem with snow on the ground.
Women played a significant role in the peace movement in N Ireland.
Women have little standing in Middle East culture.
So I would place my bet on “not in my lifetime” will we see peace there in the Middle East.
Thank you for pointing out the altitude difference. At what ambient temperature do people start to suffer from hypothermia, due to no wind-tight shelter being available, and their winter clothing being incinerated in an air raid?