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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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No electricity, water, or fuel for Gaza until hostages freed - Israel

Israel's Energy Minister Israel Katz says the siege of Gaza will not end until Israeli hostages are released.

In a social media post, Israel Katz said no "electrical switch will be turned on, no water hydrant will be opened and no fuel truck will enter" until the "abductees" are free.

[From the BBC news live tracker]

I think this is a smart move. Even if the hostages being released remains very unlikely, it puts more of the moral burden for the siege on the Gazans, who do (broadly) support Hamas.

At this point the optics don't matter. I genuinely believe that Israel could detonate some tactical nuclear weapons in Gaza, killing everybody there, including the prisoners, and would suffer almost no negative consequences for it.

Israel, and by extension the Jewish diaspora, has an absolute grasp on western media and government. During the American house speaker recall debate, one of the congresswomen gave a speech explaining that we should keep McCarthy as speaker because he has done the most to bring other congressmen to Israel. Major American policy debates center around support for Israel, a small foreign country.[1]

The Palestinian terror attacks were a type of brutality I don't think anybody in the modern western world has ever seen before. They were uniquely horrific, and I think this will be remembered as a turning point in modern history the same way that 9/11 was.

Israel is out for blood, and nobody in the west with any real power is going to stop them.

And by the way: good for them. I, a Catholic American, am jealous (although jealous is the wrong word since that sortof implies an animosity, which I have none of) of the power that the Jewish people have. Much of my criticism of The Church centers around not behaving more like The Jews. Why no Catholic equivalent to "Birthright Israel"? Why not make Catholics learn latin anymore? These are good things that people should do.

(Although I don't think they should be nuking Palestine.)

And by the way: good for them. I, a Catholic American, am jealous (although jealous is the wrong word since that sortof implies an animosity, which I have none of) of the power that the Jewish people have.

I'm not the first to notice that the way American neocons seem to revel in Israeli nationalism seems like a bit of a proxy for their repressed desire to express some sort of nationalism while still getting GoodBoyPoints.

Ukraine too. We're not allowed to have pride in our country generally, but it's okay so long as it's only to stomp the face of the Russians. It's sickening how much cheering happens over the bodies of dead Russian conscripts.

We're not allowed to have pride in our country generally.

Speak for yourself.

Oh, he's speaking for Germany, too, intentionally or not.