Israel versus Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, Syria, aid workers, journalists, and UN peacekeepers. 2023-24

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Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said that once Hamas had been defeated, Israel would end its “responsibility for life in the Gaza Strip”.

A second Israeli official said: “Israel will not be part of the solution in terms of giving [Gazans] work. We’ve disconnected the umbilical cord.”

The official added that the crossings from Gaza to Israel that functioned before the war would not be reopened, saying: “That’s over.”

About 18,000 Gazans had Israeli work permits before the war. The vast majority of Gaza’s exports are sold to Israel and imports of fuel, power and potable water from Israel are critical to Gaza. FFS, Gaza uses the Israeli shekel as currency.

Total sanctions would be devastating.

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I occasionally read these guys for their stark analysis on Ukraine. Their analysis of Israel seems equally severe.

Second, kidnappers’ choice of hostages often says a lot about their intentions. Kidnappers typically target wealthy individuals to coerce ransom payments and government officials to coerce prisoner exchanges. But across these different dynamics, kidnappers almost never capture the kind of victims held since Saturday—children, mothers, the elderly. On the contrary: Across conflicts and over decades, most hostages have been able-bodied adult men.

Why target adult male hostages? Captivity is brutal and survival is hard. When kidnappers aim to keep their captives alive to secure a trade, they prioritize taking those most likely to survive a long and difficult captivity. In grabbing a wide range of victims—not only soldiers but also foreigners and Israeli civilians of all ages—Hamas communicates that hostage survival may not be the point.

Israeli anger and the hardline nature of the Netanyahu-dominated joint government—its past support of new settlements and hardline anti-Palestinian positions—make it all too likely that Israel’s solution to “peace” will be to isolate or occupy Gaza, to exert even more economic and security pressures on Gaza’s population, introduce new security restrictions on Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank, expand Israeli settlements and the Israeli presence in Jerusalem, and take only cosmetic diplomatic steps toward a true political and solution to creating a viable peace.

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And now they’re bombing the West Bank (in addition to letting Settlers attack Palestinians with impunity).

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:thinking:

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Here’s a “headline” from the NY Post… Fucking trash.

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Do you think anybody wearing that mask has read V for Vendetta or knows who Guy Fawkes was?

Remember, remember, the 5th of November,
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason
Why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, 'twas his intent
To blow up the King and the Parliament
Three score barrels of powder below
Poor old England to overthrow
By God’s providence he was catch’d
With a dark lantern and burning match
Holler boys, holler boys, let the bells ring
Holler boys, holler boys
God save the King!

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… apparently Guy Fawkes there was menacing everybody with a paintball gun :clown_face:

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