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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 22, 2024

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The point is that the Israelis aren't actually a source of instability in the region, except in terms of their relationship with the Palestinians. Get rid of the latter and you've solved the problem. Get rid of the former and you've still got a problem because they're a radicalized Islamist population which hates all of their neighbors.

They are actually still a source of instability in the region due to their contentious relations with the other arab states, and the current state of affairs involves large sums of money being given to their neighbours in order to stop them from attacking Israel. Get rid of the Palestinians and you solve nothing - you give the entire Islamic world a causus belli against Israel and then they do things like attack international shipping vessels to disrupt the region.

And as for keeping the Israelis... ever read much Roman history? The Israelites made absolutely terrible imperial/hegemonic subjects to the point that they brag about it - an efficient hegemon would just exterminate them for good and resettle the territory.

The other Arab states couldn't care less about Israel. The Baathists were the only ones who ever actually disliked Israel at higher echelons of government and Saddam is dead and Assad has got bigger problems to worry about. The monarchies occasionally make anti-Israeli noises for their populaces but otherwise don't give a damn, Egypt has been sucking on the American military funding teet in exchange for peaceful relations with Israel for so long that the mask-for-money has become just standard Egyptian policy, and other Arab states are too distant to actually be bothered.