We don’t know if during his visit Biden authorized or forbade a ground attack of Israel on Gaza. I’m talking about a real, not a soothing, cosmetic attack. I think he forbade but it’s nothing but a guess.
If Biden allowed the attack, that would be a very gutsy move given that the most engaged part of his voting base is pro-Palestinian.
My bet is Biden is trying to delay things as much as possible to cool things down a bit. An invasion resulting in massive Palestinian bloodshed would play right in the hands of Hamas, undo decades of diplomacy and set the middle east on fire.
Biden must also hate Bibi, so I don’t see him playing along.
Israel needs US money to survive, so they’ll do what the US says. We will only find out from the results what Biden didn’t allow in terms of Israel’s retaliation.
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For whatever reason, the Israelis have been delaying their promised “exterminate every last Hamas terrorist” invasion for almost two weeks now — and looking more indecisive and weaker everyday that they hesitate.
Hamas must thank Allah profusely for seeing to it that Biden won the 2020 election.
Dreidel (Damn WordPress to hell for not recognizing me after all these years.)
That’s why I’m saying that I think Biden said no to any serious ground operation. As we say, whoever pays for the music, chooses the tune.
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An invasion of this magnitude is not something you can prepare for a few days or weeks. People really underestimate how difficult invasions are against an entrenched enemy. If you still have doubts about it, ask the Russians.
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I do not believe we in Israel should or will think too much about Biden’s voting base.
This voting base only becomes worse for Israel with the pass of time.
We must do something smart and decisive now before the Democratic “Squad” becomes “Center” and before Iran acquires nuclear abilities.
Feelings in Israel about Gaza:
Я бесконечно далек от поиска ответов на два вечных вопроса: кто виноват и что делать? Прежде всего, потому что не люблю дилетантов и диванных экспертов по абсолютно всему и еще чуть-чуть, которые тут же рвутся все объяснить, владея апломбом вместо информации. Так что не собираюсь им уподобляться. К тому же у меня действительно нет ответов. Поэтому только мысли.
https://avva.livejournal.com/3600410.html
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If Biden doesn’t allow the ground invasion, there won’t be one. Sucks but it’s true.
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The linked post is great, and we should all keep in mind that our trivial squabbles about insignificant things are just that, trivial squabbles. Life’s serious questions don’t disappear because we hide from them amidst banality.
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Read this opinion on a telegram channel of Israeli blogger and started wondering how far we’ll really go and what is meant by “we’ll destroy Hamas”:
// On the official FBI website you can find a list of the 45 most wanted terrorists from the US point of view. … The Americans systematically find their main terrorist enemies and destroy them from drones throughout the Middle East.
Why does Israel not touch the leaders of Hamas, with whom it is currently at war? Netanyahu does not want to spoil relations with one of the main sponsors of terrorism, the Emir of Qatar? Afraid of ruining relations with Turkey, which publicly supports Hamas terrorists at the level of ministers and head of state? Afraid of ruining relations with the Saudis? UN? How long can you tolerate hypocrisy at the expense of Israeli lives?
Here are just two Hamas leaders who live abroad with impunity:
Ismail Haniya is a millionaire (and according to some estimates, a billionaire), lives in Qatar, has flown to meetings in Moscow, meets with the President of Turkey, is the best friend of the Emir of Qatar, publicly kisses the head of the Iranian Foreign Ministry on camera and more. Responsible for hundreds of terrorist attacks against Jews. Recognized as a terrorist in the United States. By the way, publicly, sitting on his throne, he condemned the liquidation of Bin Laden.
Khaled Meshal is very rich, lives in Qatar, met Lavrov and even former US President Jimmy Carter in 2008, came to the congress of Erdogan’s party as a special guest. In 1997, Netanyahu gave the go-ahead for his liquidation (yes, Netanyahu was also prime minister at that time), Mashaal was poisoned, but Mossad operatives were caught, and under US pressure they sent an antidote to a hospital this freak. Can you imagine this in relation to Bin Laden or ISIS leader Baghdadi?
If Israel declared war on these demons, then it must be uncompromising. For the sake of all those tortured and crippled over all these years of impotence and powerlessness. Negotiations, if they are necessary to save the hostages, must be from the position of an imminent threat to the lives of these villains or in the cold offices of the Shin Bet under pressure. But if negotiations, like the liquidation of Mashaal in 1997, are carried out under external pressure and the position of diplomacy, then there is every reason to doubt the entire outcome of the war. //
Funny from Russian telegram channel:
// Если “лицо нетрадиционных отношений” ищет приключений только на собственную задницу, то имперец ищет приключений на задницу всей страны.
Однако запретить пытаются именно первых, а вторые процветают.
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I think you may find interesting the parallels between Kissinger’s position re Yom Kippur War of 1973 and today’s situation with Ukraine:
Уроки Киссинджера и уроки Израиля
https://trim-c.livejournal.com/5239266.html
Now people are noticing the similarities. Good but why did it have to take a massacre of Jews to get here? If Russia were decisively defeated in the spring of 2022, there wouldn’t have even been an attack by Hamas. What are we all waiting for as we empower these terrible people all over the world? Appeasement only makes things worse, as we’ve seen for many years.
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I’ve been trying to track down an account of what happened here, that isn’t wildly biased. This seems to be the straightest, least-embellished account. St. Porphyrios church in Gaza had its annex buildings bombed on the 19th. They were housing possibly some 500 refugees, Christian and muslim. Still digging out, they don’t know how many were killed. Like so much– nobody seems to know for sure whether it was deliberately targeted or accidentally hit, or something else. Some reports that the church had been bombed are untrue– it still stands.
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https://orthochristian.com/156820.html
I think this site is Russian, the bias leans that way… so I take with a grain of salt, but I do not think they have falsified quotes from the Jerusalem patriarchate.
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Here is Jerusalem patriarchate directly: https://en.jerusalem-patriarchate.info/blog/2023/10/20/the-patriarchate-of-jerusalem-condemns-israeli-airstrikes-targeting-humanitarian-institutions-in-gaza/
Honestly not sure what to make of it yet. It’s a jumble. But a sad jumble.
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I tried to find somewhere what Israel says about the church: “The Israeli military said a part of the church was damaged in a strike on a militant command centre and it was reviewing the incident.”
In another news piece I read that :
// “Since the beginning of the war, the Hamas terrorist organization has been exploiting civilians and civilian sites such as kindergartens, schools, and mosques for the purpose of firing rockets at Israel. Hamas deliberately fires its rockets at Israeli civilians,” the IDF says.
And I saw photos of: “Attached is an aerial photo of a missile launcher located near schools:” and “Attached is an aerial photo of a missile launcher located next to a U.N. building:”
In other news, I read today an article about “IDF makes first operational use of Iron Sting precision mortar munition. Army employs munition against Hamas rocket launcher in Gaza and targets in Lebanon; 120 mm mortar munition equipped with both laser and GPS guidance, allowing for pinpoint strikes on terror targets within urban environments while minimizing risk to civilians”
So, I find it hard to believe we decide to bomb churches or hospitals on purpose.
https://twitter.com/AmySpiro/status/1716169573156708590
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Another news article about places of worship in the Holy Land I saw today may hint at what happened with St. Porphyrios church in Gaza:
// The IDF conducted an air raid on a Jenin mosque after a 5-man terror squad took shelter in a tunnel beneath it, the military said on Sunday. This was the first time since the early 2000s that the air force bombed targets in the West Bank.
According to the security forces, the heavily armed squad was preparing to launch an attack like the massacres conducted by Hamas on border communities in the South. Two of the terrorists were killed and the rest were wounded or captured.
Members of the terror squad were affiliated with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and had been involved in attacks carried out in the West Bank over recent months.
The Al-Ansar mosque had sheltered terrorists in the past and was used as a command center for attacks against Israelis. Forces found infrastructure and weapons used by terrorists under the mosque during their incursion into the Jenin refugee camp last July. //
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It is all a confusion right now.
https://www.romfea.gr/diafora/59454-vomvardisan-elliniki-orthodoksi-ekklisia-sti-gaza
This one reports only 50 refugees in the building (a zero makes a difference), and 2 dead so far.
This FB page seems to be posting updates:
https://www.facebook.com/leontesorthodoxias
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// It is all a confusion right now.
Confusion or lies of Hamas?
They posted 500 killed in a ‘hospital bombing’ too.
Gaza health ministry too is a tool of Hamas.
Makes me wonder about other numbers they post.
Btw, read yesterday: “Muslim propaganda came up with the idea of using “AI Image Generator” literally within 2 weeks, but Russian propaganda did not think of it for ten years. And today the boys are being crucified by the same actors who were doing this back in 2013.”
The AI generated images are here:
https://ratrussian.dreamwidth.org/211433.html
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
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