"Alarms Some on the Right" says the headline, but it must also alarm the Biden team:
Mr. Biden has called for a six-week cease-fire in exchange for Hamas releasing Israeli hostages.... ... Trump did not qualify his call for Israel to finish the war by insisting on the release of hostages.
“Trump effectively bypassed Biden from the left, when he expressed willingness to stop this war and get back to being the great country you once were,” [wrote Ariel Kahana, a right-wing settler who is the senior diplomatic correspondent for Israel Hayom]....
In 2021, Mr. Trump told the Axios journalist Barak Ravid that he had concluded that Mr. Netanyahu “never wanted peace” with the Palestinians. Mr. Trump’s first reaction to the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack was to criticize Mr. Netanyahu and Israeli intelligence services....
... Mr. Trump has long clung to the possibility of a grand bargain between Israel and the Palestinians, insisting that only he can broker the “deal of the century.”...
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“Both U.S. presidential candidates, Biden and Trump, are turning their rhetorical backs on Israel,” concluded Ariel Kahana, a right-wing settler who is the senior diplomatic correspondent for Israel Hayom.
This is something that would motivate me to get out and vote in this election, but it would need to be more than just rhetorical.
Israel is making a mistake going with the current half measures. Israel had a range of options, but they decided to act in the most predictable and stupid way.
Israel chose to bleed this out slowly and trying to not kill civilians. Now we are months in and there are predictably videos of wars atrocities every day. This shit has always happened in every war. Everyone has a phone camera now though. Israel didn't think this through. Netanyahu should have known.
I am not saying what Israel has done is wrong. I am saying it was stupid.
I personally think most likely to succeed solution and the only permanent one is for the Palestinian leadership to be killed and the Palestinian people driven to surrender and absorbed into whatever group would absorb the women and children. This is the solution chosen for this type of conflict throughout history. It had to be quick and overwhelming.
The best in my opinion and bravest course of action would have been to have the most expensive humanitarian mission in history. Israel needed to move in and start building schools and infrastructure and helped Palestinians escape the poverty that Hamas inflicts on them.
It would have been deadly and very difficult with no guarantee of success. But it would have been best.
Israel did not choose to start this war; but having chosen to respond (as they had to do) they better be the ones to finish it. Which is what Trump is saying--unlike the Biden posse buffoons, Trump has a firm grasp of political reality. Why take all the stick from the various wienies of the world, and then quit before it's finished.
The USA didn't start Pearl Harbor, but it danged sure finished that particular war in the Pacific.
the war is proceeding nicely. more hamas fighters are being captured and surrendering daily. it's only a matter of time. can't leave a signle done left. the cancer will get re-established.
I agree with Trump.
Go into Rafa, and finish it.
Everyone knew that there was a time limit on this - even if the Biden Admin had all the good will in the world (and they don't), they could only hold back world opinion for so long. Even consistently vetoing in the UNSC only does so much. It's been 6 months now - that's actually a remarkable amount of patience for the modern world.
Give a few days warning - anyone who wants to leave Rafa can do so - with Israeli help on transport and food packages - but for males over 12 they have to go through screening for terrorist association. After that, anyone who stays is either terminally stupid, or a terrorist. And send in the IDF to kill the rest of the terrorists.
Is there any evidence that the hostages are still alive?
Trump advocates victory over Hamas. After that, with a conquered Gazan population, re-education is required to overcome decades of Palestinian Islamic fanaticism. How that works is anybody's guess. In Germany it worked by just showing the beaten populace that (1) the Allies weren't gonna eat their babies and (2) Nazis were genocidal maniacs and (3) their choice was between Nazis, communists (also genocidal maniacs) and the West. The Germans chose wisely, although it took decades to get the East free from the Russians.
Any hope of a Muslim Ghandi or MLK arising among followers of Islam? Or do they just get tossed off buildings, like gays?
"You have to get it done" sounds to me like, Kick their fuckin' ass and get it over with already.
Hamas can end the war tomorrow by releasing the hostages and surrendering. But they won’t do it. Hamas alone is responsible for all the war dead in Gaza.
Lololol!
Tweet from Jonathan Swan:
Jonathan Swan
@jonathanvswan
New: Two right-wing Israeli journalists traveled to Palm Beach, Fla., a little over a week ago, hoping to elicit from Donald J. Trump a powerful expression of support for their country’s war in Gaza.
Instead, one of them wrote that what they heard from Mr. Trump at Mar-a-Lago “shocked us to the core.”
Oh how I am looking forward to a Trump campaign where he campaigns on a national right to an abortion <15 weeks, and on telling Israel to wind up its war on Gaza. Oh; and where he campaigns on a "law and order" anti-crime platform. (If only he had a platform.)
The key words in Trump's quote are: "Get it done."
Finish the war covers all bases, could mean ceasefire, or bomb the s..t out of them
I sense some selective and/or out of context quoting of Trump's statements.
The whole thrust of the Abraham Accords was decoupling the Palestinian mess from achieving normal relations between Israel and the Arab states minus Iran. In other words, not giving the Iranians via the Palis a veto over it. 180 degrees from the Obama/Biden plan to make Iran an unneeded 'counterweight' to Israel in the ME.
Either that or Kushner just let Trump talk and did his own deal.
Confession: I love this man. Warts and all.
Get it done, and get it over with. Make it so that October 7 never, ever happens again.
War is always a tragedy. When we firebombed Dresden and Tokyo, or dropped the nuclear weapons, no doubt there were innocent casualties. But sometimes you have to finish the job, because letting the enemy linger is far worse.
End Hamas, and every enabler, and then we can discuss the future.
Trump lacks skills in diplomatic-speak. He makes up for it by living in the real world.
Confession: I love this man. Warts and all.
Get it done, and get it over with. Make it so that October 7 never, ever happens again.
War is always a tragedy. When we firebombed Dresden and Tokyo, or dropped the nuclear weapons, no doubt there were innocent casualties. But sometimes you have to finish the job, because letting the enemy linger is far worse.
End Hamas, and every enabler, and then we can discuss the future.
Trump lacks skills in diplomatic-speak. He makes up for it by living in the real world.
Is there any evidence that the hostages are still alive?
The fact that Hamas is working so hard not to release them, or even to allow access to them, is strong evidence that they are not.
The imperial capital of Washington has decided to support the establishment of an irredentist religious state on the conquered lands adjacent to a client state rather than a democratic multi-cultural solution supported by multilateral international institutions. This issue is starting to attract opposition on its inconsistencies and contradictions both domestically and abroad.
The Gaza situation has created a situation where the US Navy can no longer guarantee free passage of maritime traffic on the high seas of one of the world's leading sea lanes in the Red Sea. A major international public good provided by the world's leading maritime democracy is being compromised by irredentist religious considerations much to the consternation of its allies and the wider global community.
One of the United States' leading foreign policy journals, Foreign Policy, has a current article entitled "Israel is a strategic liability for the United States."
The pieces are starting to move.
Neither Hamas nor the PA wants a two state solution. Since 10/7, the overwhelming majority of the Israeli public realizes this and doesn't support pursuing the same illusion that left it defenseless and exposed on 10/7. That's the reality there. The rest of the world keeps calling for the two state solution, seemingly thinking that reality won't matter but it always does. I keep thinking, "The garden of the Finzi-Continis, the world is walking around in that garden."
“You might as well appeal against a thunderstorm as against these terrible hardships of war. War is cruelty, there is no use trying to reform it; the crueler it is, the sooner it will be over.”
--Gen. William T. Sherman, USA
Yes, Trump is telling Israel to make their play. Ramadan is over next Tuesday. Israel needs to move the populace north and give them food and health care within a week or so. Those who will not go need to be surrounded and reduced. I don’t think they will fight too hard.
Hezboalla and Iran are not going to start much if there is no anti Israel force in Gaza, it would result in conquest of the West Bank.
When Beiden finishes his boat dock the IDF can be watching from the beach waiting, and inspect all the freight for bombs and guns. Then pass it out to Gazans. But all building materials would be quarantined and given out in small quantities, after verification that all materials show up in new buildings, not tunnels or forts.
The difference is Trump is not calling for a cease fire, or negotiated truce. He is telling Israel to root out hamas and kill them all. Quickly
Achilles said...
Israel is making a mistake going with the current half measures. Israel had a range of options, but they decided to act in the most predictable and stupid way.
yes! there is More Than One Way, to "finish up a war"
Israel chose to bleed this out slowly and trying to not kill civilians
yep! and the result was "experts" like rcocean telling us that "the jews" had brutally murdered..
in cold blood, EVERY SINGLE PERSON in gaza.. Many of them nine to twelve times.
THAT is what happens if you pull your punches..
Serious (yet hypothetical) question;
how much worse, would rcocean have cried and moaned; IF the Israeli's HAD committed genocide?
you can ONLY cry on moan so much
mikee said...
Any hope of a Muslim Ghandi or MLK arising among followers of Islam? Or do they just get tossed off buildings, like gays?
they sorta almost had one. Anwar Sadat. Remember what happened to him?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Anwar_Sadat
Twisting Trumps words again. He didn’t say to stop the counter attacks on the monsters. He said to finish them. And finish them Bibi will.
Hamas can end the war tomorrow by releasing the hostages and surrendering. But they won’t do it. Hamas alone is responsible for all the war dead in Gaza.
THIS.
Why dont the ignorant woke snow flakes demand the release of ALL hostages? Instead of demanding Israel lay down there arms a turn the other cheek.
Not sure why Trump wants to appease the left. Dumb.
I don't understand this 'urge to finish' in GAZA yet the Ukraine war keeps going and going and going...
It must be because the Israelis ARE WINNING and will destroy HAMAS.
Meanwhile the Russians and Ukrainians just keep killing each other and the West keeps giving/selling the Ukrainians weapons. Kind of like a we don't want and end of it there.
cassandra lite: "You have to get it done" sounds to me like, Kick their fuckin' ass and get it over with already."
Precisely correct.
The Rafah op needs to commence as rapidly as possible.
Original Mike said...
"Is there any evidence that the hostages are still alive?"
There's no indication of it.
Mr. Trump’s first reaction to the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack was to criticize Mr. Netanyahu and Israeli intelligence services....
If you actually read the article, you see that Trump asked the same question many, many people were asking in the wake of October 7, paraphrased as “How in the Hell did Israeli Intelligence miss something that large and that obviously well rehearsed as this attack?”
“Now, there's another thing I want you to remember. I don't want to get any messages saying that we are holding our position.
We're not holding anything. Let the Hun do that.
We are advancing constantly and we're not interested in holding onto anything -- except the enemy.
We're going to hold onto him by the nose, and we're gonna kick him in the ass.
We're gonna kick the hell out of him all the time, and we're gonna go through him like crap through a goose!”
I think 'their' war would've been more accurate.
"Get it done" means make the rubble bounce.
After that, with a conquered Gazan population, re-education is required to overcome decades of Palestinian Islamic fanaticism.
Not quite.
These are Muslims. We are talking CENTURIES of fanaticism. The failure of the West to recognize the wars in the mid east are centuries in the making, and are being fought for a victory, a century in the future. Victory means no Jews, and no Christians. That's from their Holy book.
Does anyone really believe Trump urging Israel to finish prosecuting the war is going “to the left” of Joe Biden? This sounds like Israeli inside baseball actors taking Trump out of context for their own political agenda. Most of us in the West understand that Bibi has two items of importance on his to-do list: successfully denazify Gaza by completely destroying Hamas then gracefully lose the upcoming election to replace him for not being able to prevent the attack on 10/7.
And Rich shows up right on cue to explain how the Israelis are really annoying to the people who cozy up to the Iranians because they both have a common enemy.
And just so everyone know, Dan Whitney aka Larry the Cable Guy from Pawnee, Nebraska made the phrase “Git R Done” famous.
He still lives in NE and I might see him on Saturday.
It's likely that the hostages can never be release because they have all been raped and tortured to death.
One can now see that the US has tethered its overall foreign policy to a failed policy of tacitly supporting Israeli annexation of the West Bank for over a generation while apparently fooling itself that a "two-state solution" was somehow going to "solve" Middle East dilemmas. This was elite policy construction at its best. That illusion is being shattered by the day.
The central task of US foreign policy is and has been since the Second World War to create a robust architecture of democracies in tight alliance and maintaining their advanced economic strength to counter the rise of any autocratic power or nexus of powers that could threaten the preeminent geopolitical power of the democracies. The theater was always Eurasia; the Middle East was a sideshow except for the need to secure economical energy supplies to world markets. Building a Greater Israel, the generation-spanning aspiration of the Netanyahu family, undermines fundamental US strategy, not supports it, since the 1.8 billion Muslim community— a key swing global community—is so implacably hostile to it.
So the US policy in the Middle East must undergo realignment. Why has that now become such a system-wide threat to overall policy? The answer is Trump.
If Trump is elected, then the backbone of US foreign policy—the maintenance of the global democratic alliance and its security architecture—will be sundered while shifting the US focus entirely to the Middle East and supporting Israeli territorial aggrandizement while providing Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States military and security alliances to protect them from a resurgent Iran. Saudi's $2 billion bet on Jared Kushner will go bingo!
Where did the Americans who stormed Normandy's beaches go? Gone to flowers sings the Kingston Trio.
Whether the hostages are alive or dead, the IDF and Israeli government have through their history held firm to the religious requirement that hostages must be freed and that the dead must be given proper burial. Leave no soldier's body on the battlefield.
Rich is sure that since
"the central task of US foreign policy is and has been since the Second World War to create a robust architecture of democracies in tight alliance and maintaining their advanced economic strength to counter the rise of any autocratic power" and that therefore "Israel undermines fundamental US strategy. . . . "
Because clearly, the "democracies in tight alliance" will do fine if Iran becomes the sole power in the Middle East to which even Saudi Arabia and Egypt must box. And if Iran can nurture all the Muslim peoples of the Middle East to be Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthi terrorists to invade (they are already doing it) and destroy the democracies from within.
It's high time this US policy underwent realignment, as it has been unrealistic from the start.
By the way, the Netanyahu family over its generations has not been the only supporter of
"building a Greater Israel." When your country is surrounded by inimical states who have invaded several times, you start paying attention to whether someone on the hills west of the Jordan River can directly site your largest city with strong binoculars.
Dave Begley (6:50am):
A few years back there was an on-line story about two scary-looking guys, father and son, arrested for making and dealing meth, I think it was. Dad had "GIT 'ER DONE" tattooed on his forehead, "GOT 'ER DID" on the back of his head. Thought you'd like to know . . . .
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