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Rikard's avatar

Side A has superior tech and can hit Side B wherever and whenever, with little risk of retaliation.

Side B therefore puts its assets where Side A "may not" strike them.

However, said assets may not be used as shields for military assets, else they too become military assets and may be attacked.

Side A therefore always claim Side B puts its assets in or around disallowed targets, and Side B always claims they don't, and they both lie about most things all of the time, because from the perspective of either, they don't have any choice but to do what they do, and then lie about it.

That's about the sum total of it, before going into issues such as "rules for war" is a modern Western delusion that no other culture group or civilisation respects or adheres to unless it can be used as a weapon itself against Westerners.

As for Jew vs Arab, round infinity plus one, I don't care. Let them murder each other's civilians if they like: our words won't stop them, and we have not the military power to step on them, slap them around and decimate them every time they step out of line.

Pull all funding of either, allow them no travel to Europe, not even tourism, and send every one of them back.

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epimetheus's avatar

No comments there--re your last line in particular: I suppose before any western gov't does either (cut funding, deport the Arabs), they'll cut everything else first domestically.

This in turn tells you everything you'd need to know about those who wield power in the West. (Here's looking at the Trump admin…)

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WJM's avatar

Decrying or condoning?

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epimetheus's avatar

EDIT: just saw what you meant and fixed it, thanks for notifying me.

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WJM's avatar

No probs. Being a pedant is easy. Writing the articles is what’s difficult. Depressing reading actually, another example of debasement and our fall from grace. The egos are extraordinary when measured against experience and competence. I was particularly impressed by the lady who’s going to do a bit of reading and tell us all how to control climate. There’s no cure for this kind of arrant stupidity. And it’s everywhere.

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epimetheus's avatar

Have you seen Dave Smith vs. Douglass Murray on the Rogan podcast? 'Somehow', I'm thinking about that one in response to your comment!

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WJM's avatar

No but obviously I’ve seen victory dances on both sides. It’s a tough one for me, as is the entire Israel/Gaza conflict. I do think it’s important that people should be informed if they’re going to occupy a public space, and I don’t believe all sources of information are equal. Smith has cited some pretty poor sources and seems occasionally to sail uncomfortably close to Elders of Zion-type thinking. And I find it hard to take him seriously intellectually. But I felt DM was a little too prescriptive on the nature of the necessary credentials and that weakened his position.

As regards the conflict itself, I go from pro to anti Israeli daily. I have very little inherent sympathy for Palestine, who could have spent the past 75 years more productively, and am inherently pro-Israel (people) in most ways - right to exist, right to defend itself, talented people etc. - but I do believe their reaction was a catastrophic mistake and that their dreadful PR will result in their losing whatever the merits of their case. And I particularly dislike Netanyahu whose influence on US foreign policy has been an unmitigated disaster for the world.

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epimetheus's avatar

Same same.

I wrote about the eventual outcome some time ago:

https://fackel.substack.com/p/the-end-of-israel

I'm more inclined to consider abstention (and no more funding of both sides) a good idea; two or so years ago, I considered qualified support for Israel as an option due to it taking some pressure off mass-immigration to Europe. No longer.

At this point in time, while I don't 'like' either side in this conflict, I think in terms of realpolitik, that conflict has run its course for Europe's peoples: mass immigration continues apace, conflicts between those Sharia-loving moslems--why don't they stay in their shithole countries?--and the various locals is rising. Perhaps the downfall/defeat of Israel will galvanise Europeans and, by extension, North Americans into action, but who knows?

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