Events since Oct. 7 have torn to shreds any remaining pretense by Israel that it is a benign entity responsible for the safety of Jews. For so long we have heard of the Palestinians "they teach their children to kill us" though over the course of history, Palestinians have died in a ratio of 10 to 1 compared to Israelis and since the first all out attack on Gaza in 2009-10 and the similar attacks called "mowing the grass" this ratio rose to 20:1. Now, as a result of the Gaza operation of a fully equipped modern army with armor and artillery against an overwhelmingly civilian population with no way to defend itself, that ratio of 20:1 is put in the shade.
The world now sees the actual activity of what was billed as "the world's most moral army" composed of soldiers so reluctant to use force that they would "shoot and cry". It is surprising that Oct. 7 was so long in coming given the decades of terrible treatment of the natives by Israel. And now we have mere citizens able to stop aid from reaching the starving while the US must get permission from Israel to drop a tiny amount of food by air into Gaza.
There is simply no propaganda possible that can begin to cover for the open atrocities and it is clear who it is that wants to do the killing without pause or restraint. The period of cover provided by the holocaust to Israel has definitely ended, the current activity putting the holocaust definitely into history, it now being evident that most Israelis now living did not learn the lesson it posed for all humanity - that any human beings are capable of forgetting the humanity of others. The self-righteous mantle of eternal victim has made Israelis incapable of seeing anything they do as other then defensive and just.
Uncle Sam has made a monster by unquestioningly supporting a bully in all that it has done, both by military support and by diplomatic protection in the UN. How can anyone expect anything but even worse behavior when power goes not just unrestrained but fully supported, and by the home of "liberty and justice for all"!!!!!
The US and Israel have arrived together at their lowest point since WW2 and the soon after creation of The Jewish State. The US, home to half of world Jewry, is the true safe haven for any and all people seeking refuge (Trump's views notwithstanding) and most outrageously is home to many Jews who are dual citizens, enjoying full freedom and rights as any American should, but being uniquely able to at the same time take land from people not allowed any rights.
If ever Zionism could be called a rose in bloom, in that it had sympathy in the world, the bloom is now gone and the foundational effort of the movement clear for all to see. The creation of Israel in violence in 1948 taking the land by force has never ended, just as Ben-Gurion advised, reaching a climactic frenzy now with no apology or remorse, as if the slaughter we are seeing is justice in action, a right being exercised. That there is no hesitation by the IDF, some soldiers even celebrating, only goes to show how effectively what has been taught to young Israelis along with "they want to kill us"
"Israel’s total population is around nine million, of which two million are Palestinian citizens and another two million (and growing) are ultra-orthodox Jews exempt from society."
Israel has closer to 10 million people (9.85 as of the new year). It doesn't have 2 million Palestinian citizens. It counts 2.05 million Arabs including both citizens and east Jerusalem Palestinians who are not citizens. It has roughly 1.7 million arab citizens, including both people who overwhelming identify as palestinian (like those in um-al-fahm), and those like druze who militantly reject that identification, and consider themselves Israelis solely.
It doesn't have 2 million ultra-orthodox jews either, the haredi jewish population is 1.3 million. The haredi jewish population is by no means exempt from society, haredi jews are exempt from the army, and a large percentage of men are not employed, and study religious texts full time, but the overall employment rate among haredi jews is 67.5% (55.8 among men 79.3 among women). That is low for a developed country but higher than Turkey as a whole which is 63.3%. I don't think anyone would say turkish people as a collective are exempt from society.
Israel is less isolated regionally and internationally than ever before. Have you seen mass rallies in Arab states on behalf of Palestinians? No. They don’t even have huge rallies in Iran which forces people to attend. So the real question is why? The answer is that the Gaza conflict has very little to do with Israel and Hamas and more to do with the rise of messianic Shia Islam versus the gulf Sunni states.
And as far as China or Asian countries, China is anti Israel because Israel is a US ally. U really think the country that is genociding Uygher Muslims gives a crap about Palestinians? Russia is aligned with Iran and a China because the US has sided with Ukraine.
There is so much more going on here.
Btw maybe start blaming Hamas and its backers for the disaster in Gaza. They started this war. They hide behind babies. They are the worst kind of cowards.
"Absent such a deal I predict a future of ethnic cleansing, genocide, state collapse, the use of tactical nuclear weapons, and dissolution of international legal and human rights norms. :
I suppose state collapse, nuclear weapons have not happened yet. But international legal and human rights norms have been murdered. I don't see a way out of this. The gig is up, lasted 70+ years but did not make it to 80. There is absolutely no fucking way barring some divine intervention that anyone on the planet, beyond rhetoric takes international law or human rights seriously again. We are going to see some of it last a little longer because of inertia like the first few moments of a building collapse but it will be a short, short period before everything else comes crashing down. These past four months are the most extreme example of western states basically overturning their own coveted values to protect an elite ethnic group. It is over.
As much as I'd like to believe this to be true, this conflict has shown in stark terms that overwhelming force has a distinct advantage over public opinion, be it local or global. Israel has the backing of the entire West, not just the US, and that will continue until they are defeated militarily or economically, neither of which are likely to happen any time soon. Yes, American power is declining, but it is still by far and away the foremost military power in the world and will continue to be for decades to come. Even at number 2 economically, that is an enormous power. Why would Israel not be able to withstand isolation better than Iran? It has more powerful allies than Iran and a more unified nation, despite low opinion polls of Netanyahu. When this war moves to a slower pace, will the global outrage continue to be so overwhelming? What about 2 years from now? Would most not just accept the new status quo? I would like to believe that isolation is a game-changer, but I'm not sure the evidence for it is very strong.
Events since Oct. 7 have torn to shreds any remaining pretense by Israel that it is a benign entity responsible for the safety of Jews. For so long we have heard of the Palestinians "they teach their children to kill us" though over the course of history, Palestinians have died in a ratio of 10 to 1 compared to Israelis and since the first all out attack on Gaza in 2009-10 and the similar attacks called "mowing the grass" this ratio rose to 20:1. Now, as a result of the Gaza operation of a fully equipped modern army with armor and artillery against an overwhelmingly civilian population with no way to defend itself, that ratio of 20:1 is put in the shade.
The world now sees the actual activity of what was billed as "the world's most moral army" composed of soldiers so reluctant to use force that they would "shoot and cry". It is surprising that Oct. 7 was so long in coming given the decades of terrible treatment of the natives by Israel. And now we have mere citizens able to stop aid from reaching the starving while the US must get permission from Israel to drop a tiny amount of food by air into Gaza.
There is simply no propaganda possible that can begin to cover for the open atrocities and it is clear who it is that wants to do the killing without pause or restraint. The period of cover provided by the holocaust to Israel has definitely ended, the current activity putting the holocaust definitely into history, it now being evident that most Israelis now living did not learn the lesson it posed for all humanity - that any human beings are capable of forgetting the humanity of others. The self-righteous mantle of eternal victim has made Israelis incapable of seeing anything they do as other then defensive and just.
Uncle Sam has made a monster by unquestioningly supporting a bully in all that it has done, both by military support and by diplomatic protection in the UN. How can anyone expect anything but even worse behavior when power goes not just unrestrained but fully supported, and by the home of "liberty and justice for all"!!!!!
The US and Israel have arrived together at their lowest point since WW2 and the soon after creation of The Jewish State. The US, home to half of world Jewry, is the true safe haven for any and all people seeking refuge (Trump's views notwithstanding) and most outrageously is home to many Jews who are dual citizens, enjoying full freedom and rights as any American should, but being uniquely able to at the same time take land from people not allowed any rights.
If ever Zionism could be called a rose in bloom, in that it had sympathy in the world, the bloom is now gone and the foundational effort of the movement clear for all to see. The creation of Israel in violence in 1948 taking the land by force has never ended, just as Ben-Gurion advised, reaching a climactic frenzy now with no apology or remorse, as if the slaughter we are seeing is justice in action, a right being exercised. That there is no hesitation by the IDF, some soldiers even celebrating, only goes to show how effectively what has been taught to young Israelis along with "they want to kill us"
"Israel’s total population is around nine million, of which two million are Palestinian citizens and another two million (and growing) are ultra-orthodox Jews exempt from society."
Israel has closer to 10 million people (9.85 as of the new year). It doesn't have 2 million Palestinian citizens. It counts 2.05 million Arabs including both citizens and east Jerusalem Palestinians who are not citizens. It has roughly 1.7 million arab citizens, including both people who overwhelming identify as palestinian (like those in um-al-fahm), and those like druze who militantly reject that identification, and consider themselves Israelis solely.
It doesn't have 2 million ultra-orthodox jews either, the haredi jewish population is 1.3 million. The haredi jewish population is by no means exempt from society, haredi jews are exempt from the army, and a large percentage of men are not employed, and study religious texts full time, but the overall employment rate among haredi jews is 67.5% (55.8 among men 79.3 among women). That is low for a developed country but higher than Turkey as a whole which is 63.3%. I don't think anyone would say turkish people as a collective are exempt from society.
Israel is less isolated regionally and internationally than ever before. Have you seen mass rallies in Arab states on behalf of Palestinians? No. They don’t even have huge rallies in Iran which forces people to attend. So the real question is why? The answer is that the Gaza conflict has very little to do with Israel and Hamas and more to do with the rise of messianic Shia Islam versus the gulf Sunni states.
And as far as China or Asian countries, China is anti Israel because Israel is a US ally. U really think the country that is genociding Uygher Muslims gives a crap about Palestinians? Russia is aligned with Iran and a China because the US has sided with Ukraine.
There is so much more going on here.
Btw maybe start blaming Hamas and its backers for the disaster in Gaza. They started this war. They hide behind babies. They are the worst kind of cowards.
"Absent such a deal I predict a future of ethnic cleansing, genocide, state collapse, the use of tactical nuclear weapons, and dissolution of international legal and human rights norms. :
I suppose state collapse, nuclear weapons have not happened yet. But international legal and human rights norms have been murdered. I don't see a way out of this. The gig is up, lasted 70+ years but did not make it to 80. There is absolutely no fucking way barring some divine intervention that anyone on the planet, beyond rhetoric takes international law or human rights seriously again. We are going to see some of it last a little longer because of inertia like the first few moments of a building collapse but it will be a short, short period before everything else comes crashing down. These past four months are the most extreme example of western states basically overturning their own coveted values to protect an elite ethnic group. It is over.
As much as I'd like to believe this to be true, this conflict has shown in stark terms that overwhelming force has a distinct advantage over public opinion, be it local or global. Israel has the backing of the entire West, not just the US, and that will continue until they are defeated militarily or economically, neither of which are likely to happen any time soon. Yes, American power is declining, but it is still by far and away the foremost military power in the world and will continue to be for decades to come. Even at number 2 economically, that is an enormous power. Why would Israel not be able to withstand isolation better than Iran? It has more powerful allies than Iran and a more unified nation, despite low opinion polls of Netanyahu. When this war moves to a slower pace, will the global outrage continue to be so overwhelming? What about 2 years from now? Would most not just accept the new status quo? I would like to believe that isolation is a game-changer, but I'm not sure the evidence for it is very strong.