Hamas hits Israel in unprecedented attack.

[Cerveza Fria]

Curiously, Emirates Airlines is running a heavy rotation of advertising on FOX MLB playoffs games. Middle East air travel sounds exciting

Dunno if Penelope Cruz fishes or owns a flashlight but she’s hot.

Is caviar kosher?

Actually met her and her family back in 2018 at a beach barbecue at Jumby Bay in Antigua. Javier Bardem doesn't look as creepy in real life as he did as Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men. He was actually cool and interacted with the resorts guests and even said hi to me and wifey for a bit. Penelope, on the other hand, was more reserved and private (perhaps because he was with her kids) One morning they were on the beach, and this photo crew was disembarking from a boat and walking down the dock towards the resort. She runs toward them and says please no pictures, no paparazzi- please. They looked at her and said..."lady we're not here for you. We're here to do a photoshoot of the resort." I couldn't stop laughing.

[dwai]

What's with this proxy war bullshit anyway?

Trump and Biden are both pussies.

We should aim all nuclear warheads squarely at Russia and Iran and empty the barrel. We die too, but at least it's over.

[VaughnP]

putin is the ultimate strongman politician and maga wants that security. trump knew it and he did and continues to do everything in his power to capitalize on its strengths.

anyway.

one of the reasons why the hamas / israel situation is so fucking bonkers is it obliterates the narrative that america's billions somehow were enough to insulate israel from the blowback of maintaining a whole ass apartheid state.

its impossible to ignore the timing.

america is going to back an oppressive regime and in doing so, its going to call into question the validity of its position on ukraine.

at a time when maga republicans just crippled one of the core legislative bodies in the american government.

the saudis get to walk away from israel, iran gets to turn israel and the US into pariahs, and russia gets to fracture the western support for its land grab in ukraine, which gives it beach front access to repatriating half a dozen other breakaway nations, and the dumbest people in america get to blame it all on 'the libs'.

 

https://www.mandiant.com/resources/b...ptive-playbook

There are 9 million Israeli citizens. 2 million of them are arab with 1.5 million being palestinian. Don't sound much like apartheid to me.

The Saudi's get to walk away from Israel? Where did you get that one? The Saudi Prince was on Fox News just a few weeks ago saying they and the Israeli's are "getting closer every day."

The Saudi's and Iranians have been fighting proxy wars for 50 years. It's heated up in the last several years. They are enemies. Iranian proxy's have recently attacked Saudi oil storage facilities. The Saudi's, and the other Arab countries, need Israel.

I'm not sure where you got those numbers, but this is the most up to date estimate from our state department:

"The U.S. government estimates the total Palestinian population at 3 million in the West Bank and 2 million in the Gaza Strip (midyear 2022)."

The 1.6 million you are referring to are the older estimates of Palestinians that are Israeli citizens that live in Israel outside of those areas. This population is estimated now to be around 2 million. The combined estimates are over 7.5 million, meaning Palestinians are actually the ethnic majority in what is known as Israel.

Israel is essentially put in a no win situation long term. Flattening Gaza is obviously not the right move, but I'm not sure what else they are supposed to do without risking countless soldiers in an urban warfare setting if they don't flatten it. By the end of day one our media was blaming this on Iran. This is 15 straight years of a Zionist push to invading Persia. There are a lot of dominoes that could fall this time leading to it actually happening. All we need is Netanyahu to pull a Bush/Iraq scenario and here we go.

[Krypt]

There are 9 million Israeli citizens. 2 million of them are arab with 1.5 million being palestinian. Don't sound much like apartheid to me.

The Saudi's get to walk away from Israel? Where did you get that one? The Saudi Prince was on Fox News just a few weeks ago saying they and the Israeli's are "getting closer every day."

The Saudi's and Iranians have been fighting proxy wars for 50 years. It's heated up in the last several years. They are enemies. Iranian proxy's have recently attacked Saudi oil storage facilities. The Saudi's, and the other Arab countries, need Israel.

I'm not sure where you got those numbers, but this is the most up to date estimate from our state department:

"The U.S. government estimates the total Palestinian population at 3 million in the West Bank and 2 million in the Gaza Strip (midyear 2022)."

The 1.6 million you are referring to are the older estimates of Palestinians that are Israeli citizens that live in Israel outside of those areas. This population is estimated now to be around 2 million. The combined estimates are over 7.5 million, meaning Palestinians are actually the ethnic majority in what is known as Israel.

Israel is essentially put in a no win situation long term. Flattening Gaza is obviously not the right move, but I'm not sure what else they are supposed to do without risking countless soldiers in an urban warfare setting if they don't flatten it. By the end of day one our media was blaming this on Iran. This is 15 straight years of a Zionist push to invading Persia. There are a lot of dominoes that could fall this time leading to it actually happening. All we need is Netanyahu to pull a Bush/Iraq scenario and here we go.

Persia is not Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan, and these other clown countries in the middle east. Geographically speaking, good luck trying to invade an extremely unforgiving mountainous terrain. The Islamic Republic is an abomination and a disgrace of the highest order, but this is a civilization with immense pedigree and a sizable military force. Now pair this with the American public’s lack of an appetite for direct military intervention and there’s about a 5% chance a single missile is lobbed @ Iran.

[Sanlmar]

lets not kid ourselves, the narrative is already being spun for war with Iran. The Iranian regime could use a war given its precarious footing economically, socially, etc. Israel has the prerogative now and this type of conflict may be a net net positive for democrats and Biden in 2024.

From the outset I voiced my disbelief about the alleged Israeli intelligence failure. There was an odd aroma and I trust my nose generally.

There is a fine line between premeditation and being opportunistic but maybe it’s a difference without a distinction.

[Dan Druff]

I know some of you don't like Ben Shapiro, but if you watch the below video, or at least the first 20 minutes or so, you'll see some pretty ugly videos of Hamas' activities against civilians. Nothing too graphic, but disturbing enough to where you can tell they're callous pieces of shit who enjoy murdering Jews.

[Dan Druff]

I see so many dumb takes on Twitter that this is a "both sides are wrong" type matter, where a "cease fire is the solution". Not gonna happen.

There are 2 questions at this point:

1) Does Israel invade or destroy Gaza?

2) Does Israel start a war with Iran?

100% Israel will get more than a pound of flesh out of each before laying off. This was not only the worst attack in 50 years, but they also look bad at the moment given how their defenses were breached so easily, so they have to show some force and power in order to avoid looking like doormats.

There were so many terrorists involved that entire police stations and IDF stations were overpowered by the terrorists, until the IDF got over there in large numbers and killed them.

These terrorists also apparently knew it was a suicide mission, as most didn't have an exit strategy. 1500 terrorists were killed inside Israel once the IDF got to the breached area.

It does raise some questions how a force of over 1500 terrorists could have been secretly assembled without word getting out. I believe that Egypt probably did warn Israel about something coming. However, Israel's lack of action could have been the result of arrogant or incompetence, and not necessarily any conspiracy to give themselves an excuse to invade Gaza. Note that the US had lots of warning signs about 9/11, which were missed or mishandled due to bureaucracy and/or incompetence.

[Dan Druff]

Just want to say, since there aren’t a lot of leftist voices over here, that BLM can fuck off. I’ve been saying that for a long time. It’s almost like BLM was an op to divide people on the left and make us look bad. They should go away and we’ll start a new movement in their place called NWTGBUBC. Nobody Wants To Get Beat Up By Cops.

BLM was a scam. Glad you acknowledge they suck.

The BLM organization sprung from the "black lives matter" slogan, but it was incredibly corrupt, and its own leaders enriched themselves with donations. Most of the mainstream media did not cover this because they didn't want egg on their faces for previous pro-BLM rhetoric.

BLM was both a corrupt scam and a far-left organization with goals far beyond fighting for the rights of black people. One of their stated goals was to "disrupt the nuclear family structure", which is the last thing black people need.

[desertrunner]

Those rifles came from the botched Afghanistan pull out by Biden…

[sonatine]

Hezbollah has entered the chat.

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/WarMonitors/status/1712130116363428261

[BCR]

I see so many dumb takes on Twitter that this is a "both sides are wrong" type matter, where a "cease fire is the solution". Not gonna happen.

There are 2 questions at this point:

1) Does Israel invade or destroy Gaza?

2) Does Israel start a war with Iran?

100% Israel will get more than a pound of flesh out of each before laying off. This was not only the worst attack in 50 years, but they also look bad at the moment given how their defenses were breached so easily, so they have to show some force and power in order to avoid looking like doormats.

There were so many terrorists involved that entire police stations and IDF stations were overpowered by the terrorists, until the IDF got over there in large numbers and killed them.

These terrorists also apparently knew it was a suicide mission, as most didn't have an exit strategy. 1500 terrorists were killed inside Israel once the IDF got to the breached area.

It does raise some questions how a force of over 1500 terrorists could have been secretly assembled without word getting out. I believe that Egypt probably did warn Israel about something coming. However, Israel's lack of action could have been the result of arrogant or incompetence, and not necessarily any conspiracy to give themselves an excuse to invade Gaza. Note that the US had lots of warning signs about 9/11, which were missed or mishandled due to bureaucracy and/or incompetence.

I hate conspiracy theories, and agree this is probably just a rare miss by the worlds best intelligence agency, but that’s almost impossible to believe on the other hand.

What I really hate are conspiracy theories that make no sense.

You can kind of make sense of why they might have knew something was coming, just maybe not to this degree.


I felt the same after 9/11. Like the Jews did it was a moronic take. That Israel might have known and let it transpire, I could see a logic in that.

Israel is unique in that’s its incredibly powerful and influential, but they still need the support of their allies given their size and being surrounded by enemies. And all their allies are modern progressive countries who urge restraint and default to sympathy the browner the face of the “oppressed.”

So it takes a lot for them to endorse Israel truly taking the gloves off. So if you’re Israel and feel like you need to address Iran in a serious fashion or face getting wiped out, but don’t have the support of US leadership and your European allies, do you take a small cut, and a few thousand people is still a small cut compared to being obliterated? Do you make that necessary sacrifice to get the world to get behind you?

That’s plausible to me. I felt the same after 9/11. If they knew, what would be the logical choice for them to make? I think if I’m Israeli intelligence in 2001, do I allow the people urging restraint to take a blow and start taking Islamic terrorism seriously? I could see that argument.

I see the same argument here in regards to them taking a small blow for the greater good.

Obviously I’m just speculating, but do you feel like sacrificing a few thousand people is better than a few million if you’re Israel? Who doesn’t?


We’ve talked for 15 years about rising anti-semitism. You always seem to think I’m overstating it, and push back when I say it’s on the right that I see the rise. College kids and elected members of congress from countries who have always been anti-Semitic isn’t new. But I lived 25-30 years without hearing every day people make anti-Semitic remarks. Like never. Now every day I hear about Jewish control of media. Jewish control of banking. Jewish influence in government. Almost entirely on the right. And clearly, it’s true.

You can be too bright and too good at shit where it blows up in your face. If Jews have a blind spot, it’s historically not understanding the animus they create. They tend to forget the old proverb often co-opted by poker players that you can shear a sheep many times, but only slaughter it once. This tends to come to a head more when the economy is bad. You don’t hate the winners if you’re doing well, you hate them when they’re still winning and you’re struggling.

That’s the anti-semitism I see. Not let’s kill all the Jews. That’s reserved for guys who got out of prison with swastika tattoos. The right has set its aim for a long time at media, which lets face it, is ran by jews. Soros backs everything bad. It’s also a very conspiracy theory heavy movement right now. Lots of Jews in those conspiracy theories. And it’s coming from people who also identify as Christian, which is something that hasn’t been popular since maybe the 50s in Catholic circles. Many of them too uneducated to appreciate Jewish contribution to medicine and science.

I see evangelicals posting mildly anti-Semitic things they are largely too dumb to realize are essentially anti-Semitic.



You might miss that shift, but they don’t. I think they much prefer a Trump, but may be really uncomfortable with many of his supporters and see disturbing trends. Better option than a left always urging restraint, more black, more young with a soft spot for every oppressed victim, etc. One option better than the other, but not great either way. And Europe is way more woke than we are.

They obviously have very smart people studying this around the clock. It’s just incredibly hard to wrap your head around what’s more likely? The smartest people in the world missing something that took months of planning right around the corner? Or we need to deal with Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, and right now, don’t have the public support or friends in power amongst our allies?

Are they in a better position today to deal with what they perceive as their biggest threats and likely to receive more support and help than a month ago? I think yes.

It’s very hard to take this intelligence blunder at face value when you look at the big picture.

[country978]

What an awful state of affairs this is. At what point is all of this referred to as WWIII? When were WWI and WWII declared world wars? I don't suppose it matters much but it sure does seem like that's where we're at.

[sonatine]

Hezbollah has entered the chat.

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/WarMonitors/status/1712130116363428261

IDF claiming it was a 'system error'

[Sanlmar]

What an awful state of affairs this is. At what point is all of this referred to as WWIII? When were WWI and WWII declared world wars? I don't suppose it matters much but it sure does seem like that's where we're at.

I offer to simply get the wheels turning.

Pearl Harbor. You’ve heard this before

Three days before the Dec. 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt was warned in a memo from naval intelligence that Tokyo's military and spy network was focused on Hawaii, a new and eerie reminder of FDR's failure to act on a basket load of tips that war was near.

[Sanlmar]

I know some of you don't like Ben Shapiro, but if you watch the below video, or at least the first 20 minutes or so, you'll see some pretty ugly videos of Hamas' activities against civilians. Nothing too graphic, but disturbing enough to where you can tell they're callous pieces of shit who enjoy murdering Jews.

I would have not the bullet and looked at your suggestion but apparently this idea is age restricted by Google’s info police.

I do not and never will have a Google account.

[sonatine]

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/annakhachiyan/status/1711925065074532815

[Sanlmar]

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/annakhachiyan/status/1711925065074532815

I am highly suspicious of social media reporting on this affair. I don’t really know who is doing any trustworthy journalism here. My suspicion is sound policy.

Israel and Palestine have been engaging in military battles for decades and it has resulted in no progress. I am not going to support further military action. This would serve to embolden them now and in the future.

This bizarre occupation and apartheid just wasn’t gonna be the answer.

I refuse to fall into the trap of post 9/11 type sabre rattling hysteria by the right and the left. This is always a mistake with tragic consequences guaranteed.

One side being wrong does not mean the other is right. This is a simple fact of life. Israel is led by the most right wing government in history. They will flatten Gaza. Civilians and hospitals will be cancelled. Israel will pay for that later - memories are long.

Our military interventions post WWII are always failures. I’m just gonna play the stats

[Sanlmar]

I know some of you don't like Ben Shapiro, but if you watch the below video, or at least the first 20 minutes or so, you'll see some pretty ugly videos of Hamas' activities against civilians. Nothing too graphic, but disturbing enough to where you can tell they're callous pieces of shit who enjoy murdering Jews.

I would have bit the bullet and looked at your suggestion but apparently this video is age restricted by Google’s info police.

I do not and never will have a Google account.

Text to speech lulz

[country978]

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/annakhachiyan/status/1711925065074532815

Israel and Palestine have been engaging in military battles for decades and it has resulted in no progress. I am not going to support further military action. This would serve to embolden them now and in the future.

I refuse to fall into the trap of post 9/11 type sabre rattling hysteria by the right and the left. This is always a mistake with tragic consequences guaranteed.

One side being wrong does not mean the other is right. This is a simple fact of life. Israel is led by the most right wing government in history. They will flatten Gaza. Civilians and hospitals will be cancelled. Israel will pay for that later - memories are long.

Our military interventions post WWII are always failures. I’m just gonna play the stats

The war is coming home, my friend. You might have a different outlook in the not-so-distant future. The people who are going to hit us are already here and planning thanks to our border failures. My brother is in New York and I worry that city is not safe in more ways than we might think. Boston is a target too. We are not safe.

I asked the Army if they wanted to take me back a few months ago and they said I was too old at 53. I'd heard they were having recruiting issues. I never made it to 20 years for retirement and now that my kids are all grown up and on their own I can easily serve. Soon enough they'll be calling me.

[Sanlmar]

Israel and Palestine have been engaging in military battles for decades and it has resulted in no progress. I am not going to support further military action. This would serve to embolden them now and in the future.

I refuse to fall into the trap of post 9/11 type sabre rattling hysteria by the right and the left. This is always a mistake with tragic consequences guaranteed.

One side being wrong does not mean the other is right. This is a simple fact of life. Israel is led by the most right wing government in history. They will flatten Gaza. Civilians and hospitals will be cancelled. Israel will pay for that later - memories are long.

Our military interventions post WWII are always failures. I’m just gonna play the stats

The war is coming home, my friend. You might have a different outlook in the not-so-distant future. The people who are going to hit us are already here and planning thanks to our border failures. My brother is in New York and I worry that city is not safe in more ways than we might think. Boston is a target too. We are not safe.

I asked the Army if they wanted to take me back a few months ago and they said I was too old at 53. I'd heard they were having recruiting issues. I never made it to 20 years for retirement and now that my kids are all grown up and on their own I can easily serve. Soon enough they'll be calling me.

I’m in complete agreement. The generation that last experienced a world war is now extinct. The cycles of politics and finance tend to follow the passing of generations allowing mistakes to be repeated. We are reentering the ‘70’s in finance as an example. The ‘70’s are outside the edge of folks memory.

I really hate the idea of solar and battery pack nonsense like Elon Musk offers but I have to take at least a minimal effort for the family. I have a nat gas generator in NH but there is no reason not to have one at home.

A cyber attack, mag pulse or nuke is not a nonzero likelihood.

If you didn’t have phones/communication or power would life be worth living? It’s a silly but serious question. We’ve been so spoiled.

My not being a neoconservative definitely puts me in a growing minority. I understand war is trending. I’m a realist