You wrote: "I believe the government of Israel has pursued a ruinous strategy that has managed to fail on all fronts."
I live in the United States and I believe the only reason the strategy has not yet succeeded is because of our lack of support for Israel to finish defeating Hamas in Rafah and lack of US support to invade Lebanon to destroy Hezbollah's rocket capacity and tunnels and re-establish a buffer that international security guarantees failed to deliver. Doing these things would deter the Islamist Republic of Iran and terrorism around the world.
I know you have friends in Gaza and you are very concerned for their safety. I am too. However I think they are far less safe if Israel can't finish the Rafah operation and take control of the border with Egypt. As we speak, Hamas is using the drawdown of troops from Gaza to kill people who it deems collaborators with Israel. I'm sure your friends will be highly likely to be on their list of suspected collaborators. And if Hamas kills them and their bodies are later dug up in a mass grave, Hamas will claim that Israel killed them during the war.
And if Israel isn't supported by the United States to win the war that was launched on it simultaneously by Hamas and Hezbollah, Israel will have no bargaining power to require that Palestinian leadership drop the "right of return" demand as a precondition to negotiation for recognition of statehood. This is what Einat Wilf has been saying is an essential precondition. No leverage = no precondition.
What is in the works is that European countries are going to unilaterally recognize Palestine as a state at the United Nations and the US is not going to veto. By protesting against the current government in Israel you have sent a message to Americans that you want the war to be forced to end before Israel can win. If this plays out like I think it will, Israel will have no leverage to make any demands and all the power will be in the hands of the alliance of dictatorships and the terrorist groups that give them plausible deniability when they attack democracies.
There's an article on JNS called "How MBS will prop up Ramallah—and sideline Israel" - please take a look at that. Israel needs to win the war and for American politicians to support Israel to do it, they have to see that you are standing in solidarity with the current administration to finish the job.
I hear you - and I think it is a reasonable opinion. I agree that US/EU could have done much more, earlier on, to put pressure on Hamas and make it clear that it will not stand their continued involvement in the PA or any other forum. I will read the article.
This ongoing story about the idf has done more to protect civilians in urban warfare than any other army in history! where does this come from? we know that eyes in the sky can see exactly who the target is! we know that the precision bombs can hit exactly where they are meant to! we know this because the idf told us so when they took out hezbollah leadership in Lebabnon and Iranian leadership in Syria. So why the high kill rate? why the destruction of all civil infrastructure? and so many homes? Have you actually tracked the destruction of civilian infrastructure? How long will it take to be rebuilt? What sort of life will the people there live if the war ends? Do you think they will like Israel for destrying wgat they had? will this build peaceful future generations?
Then you go on to suggest where the students should protest they want genocide to end in other parts of the world etc BUT this is not on their screens day in and day out and their govt is not funding those govts with the largest proportion of foreign aid to any other country to the tune of $3.5 billion excluding additional support for the war in gaza!
using that argument is like saying the anti vietnam war movement and the anti iraq war movement should have focused on something else! which indeed they should have. like the abiliity of the state to lie to its people and conduct a war in violation of UN resolutions on trumped up evidence. I can think of many reasons to protest but normally it takes one flash point in this case the war in gaza and the slaughter of innocents. How can you now state that the protests is antisemitic because its focused on israels aggression !!!! sorry but it doesnt add up. You may want it to but it doesnt.
The problem in the world is that leaders are not held accountable, there should have repurcussions for the lies in the Iraq war but the west contrils the narrative and they are the good guys and good guys cant be charged with war crimes.
To further state that the protests are for the destruction of the Jewish state is a leap. The protests are to stop the killing and destruction of Gaza. How will that result in the destruction of the zionist project ?
And then finally the blame is shifted to Hamas they must release the hostages and everything will be ok, there will be a ceasefire. But how many times has Hamas offered to release hostages ? the problem is that The Israeli war cabinet doesnt like the terms as there is another agenda we have heard it vocalised live on TV by the leadership!
Nicolas, two things can be true: first, Israel could -- as military experts worldwide have been saying -- be doing more than any other military in any other war to protect civilians. Second, far too many innocents have been killed in this horrible, tragic war. They do not contradict. In many ways this underscores how horrible of a situation Hamas has trapped Israel into, how the Oil powers who funded Hamas for decades have so brilliantly laid a trap - and how Israel's leaders fell into it.
As for the students, they are directly financing the genocides worldwide through their purchases of Chinese goods, their reliance on Oil which props up the Iranian and Russian regimes. Their contribution to those regimes are FAR more direct, and far larger, than their relative tax payments, yet I do not see any of the same anger towards those imperialist, extractive powers than I see towards Israel. Do you see differently?
If Hamas has trapped Israel as you state then Hamas have already won the war in terms of getting the response they wanted and the growing global anti zionism and the adoption by the UN general assembly of Palestine !
As to the students as i said above you are being idealistic or simply trying to substantiate an argumnet that deflects from what the core message is at least to me and many others around the world and even increasingly amongsy Israels allies to stop the killing! Is it not possible that Israel has crossed a line and its not working? in this case you may win the war but lose the battle? Simply put targeting civilians and their infrastructure required to sustain life is not democratic, imprisoning people and children without trial and subjecting them to torture is not democratic, destroying olive fields/livelihoods/culture and removing people from their homes for jewish settlers to occupy is not democratic, nor is denying aid and enforcing an air, sea and road blockade! surely these create the conditions for resistance? Then of course we havent even looked at how Oct 7 even happened in terms of intelligence failures, breaching of a suposedly impenentrable border etc as it raises the question is what agenda is actually playing out here and who is enabling it to what end? as you know things are not what they seem and we can make solid arguments for any position as any decent debating team will attest to and any academic paper relies on. I still maintain that wether funded or not funded organised or not organised their is a certain tipping point that has to be reached for popular uprising, dissent or opposition and Israel has created this through its stratgey in Gaza
Yes, Israel's leadership has conducted a failed campaign and must be replaced. Yes, too many people have died. I cry for them, all.
No, the students on campus are not spontaneously reacting to injustice. They have been organized and egged on by efforts founded and funded by strategic forces arrayed against the Jewish State, aligned with the same money and political support backing Hamas.
The media, both social and mainstream, has been bought and sold by these same actors - billionaires who have extracted the Earth's resources and used it for their person gain at our collective peril.
Were the campuses to be color-blind, we would see far more protests in support of Africans enslaved across Islamic kingdoms, Tibetans who lost everything, Indigenous across South America who keep losing more and more land to oil concerns. That the activists turn out in spades when it comes to the Jews, and not against Oil when the 3 degree milestone seems to have passed, is evidence enough.
You wrote: "I believe the government of Israel has pursued a ruinous strategy that has managed to fail on all fronts."
I live in the United States and I believe the only reason the strategy has not yet succeeded is because of our lack of support for Israel to finish defeating Hamas in Rafah and lack of US support to invade Lebanon to destroy Hezbollah's rocket capacity and tunnels and re-establish a buffer that international security guarantees failed to deliver. Doing these things would deter the Islamist Republic of Iran and terrorism around the world.
I know you have friends in Gaza and you are very concerned for their safety. I am too. However I think they are far less safe if Israel can't finish the Rafah operation and take control of the border with Egypt. As we speak, Hamas is using the drawdown of troops from Gaza to kill people who it deems collaborators with Israel. I'm sure your friends will be highly likely to be on their list of suspected collaborators. And if Hamas kills them and their bodies are later dug up in a mass grave, Hamas will claim that Israel killed them during the war.
And if Israel isn't supported by the United States to win the war that was launched on it simultaneously by Hamas and Hezbollah, Israel will have no bargaining power to require that Palestinian leadership drop the "right of return" demand as a precondition to negotiation for recognition of statehood. This is what Einat Wilf has been saying is an essential precondition. No leverage = no precondition.
What is in the works is that European countries are going to unilaterally recognize Palestine as a state at the United Nations and the US is not going to veto. By protesting against the current government in Israel you have sent a message to Americans that you want the war to be forced to end before Israel can win. If this plays out like I think it will, Israel will have no leverage to make any demands and all the power will be in the hands of the alliance of dictatorships and the terrorist groups that give them plausible deniability when they attack democracies.
There's an article on JNS called "How MBS will prop up Ramallah—and sideline Israel" - please take a look at that. Israel needs to win the war and for American politicians to support Israel to do it, they have to see that you are standing in solidarity with the current administration to finish the job.
I hear you - and I think it is a reasonable opinion. I agree that US/EU could have done much more, earlier on, to put pressure on Hamas and make it clear that it will not stand their continued involvement in the PA or any other forum. I will read the article.
This ongoing story about the idf has done more to protect civilians in urban warfare than any other army in history! where does this come from? we know that eyes in the sky can see exactly who the target is! we know that the precision bombs can hit exactly where they are meant to! we know this because the idf told us so when they took out hezbollah leadership in Lebabnon and Iranian leadership in Syria. So why the high kill rate? why the destruction of all civil infrastructure? and so many homes? Have you actually tracked the destruction of civilian infrastructure? How long will it take to be rebuilt? What sort of life will the people there live if the war ends? Do you think they will like Israel for destrying wgat they had? will this build peaceful future generations?
Then you go on to suggest where the students should protest they want genocide to end in other parts of the world etc BUT this is not on their screens day in and day out and their govt is not funding those govts with the largest proportion of foreign aid to any other country to the tune of $3.5 billion excluding additional support for the war in gaza!
using that argument is like saying the anti vietnam war movement and the anti iraq war movement should have focused on something else! which indeed they should have. like the abiliity of the state to lie to its people and conduct a war in violation of UN resolutions on trumped up evidence. I can think of many reasons to protest but normally it takes one flash point in this case the war in gaza and the slaughter of innocents. How can you now state that the protests is antisemitic because its focused on israels aggression !!!! sorry but it doesnt add up. You may want it to but it doesnt.
The problem in the world is that leaders are not held accountable, there should have repurcussions for the lies in the Iraq war but the west contrils the narrative and they are the good guys and good guys cant be charged with war crimes.
To further state that the protests are for the destruction of the Jewish state is a leap. The protests are to stop the killing and destruction of Gaza. How will that result in the destruction of the zionist project ?
And then finally the blame is shifted to Hamas they must release the hostages and everything will be ok, there will be a ceasefire. But how many times has Hamas offered to release hostages ? the problem is that The Israeli war cabinet doesnt like the terms as there is another agenda we have heard it vocalised live on TV by the leadership!
Nicolas, two things can be true: first, Israel could -- as military experts worldwide have been saying -- be doing more than any other military in any other war to protect civilians. Second, far too many innocents have been killed in this horrible, tragic war. They do not contradict. In many ways this underscores how horrible of a situation Hamas has trapped Israel into, how the Oil powers who funded Hamas for decades have so brilliantly laid a trap - and how Israel's leaders fell into it.
As for the students, they are directly financing the genocides worldwide through their purchases of Chinese goods, their reliance on Oil which props up the Iranian and Russian regimes. Their contribution to those regimes are FAR more direct, and far larger, than their relative tax payments, yet I do not see any of the same anger towards those imperialist, extractive powers than I see towards Israel. Do you see differently?
If Hamas has trapped Israel as you state then Hamas have already won the war in terms of getting the response they wanted and the growing global anti zionism and the adoption by the UN general assembly of Palestine !
As to the students as i said above you are being idealistic or simply trying to substantiate an argumnet that deflects from what the core message is at least to me and many others around the world and even increasingly amongsy Israels allies to stop the killing! Is it not possible that Israel has crossed a line and its not working? in this case you may win the war but lose the battle? Simply put targeting civilians and their infrastructure required to sustain life is not democratic, imprisoning people and children without trial and subjecting them to torture is not democratic, destroying olive fields/livelihoods/culture and removing people from their homes for jewish settlers to occupy is not democratic, nor is denying aid and enforcing an air, sea and road blockade! surely these create the conditions for resistance? Then of course we havent even looked at how Oct 7 even happened in terms of intelligence failures, breaching of a suposedly impenentrable border etc as it raises the question is what agenda is actually playing out here and who is enabling it to what end? as you know things are not what they seem and we can make solid arguments for any position as any decent debating team will attest to and any academic paper relies on. I still maintain that wether funded or not funded organised or not organised their is a certain tipping point that has to be reached for popular uprising, dissent or opposition and Israel has created this through its stratgey in Gaza
Yes, Israel's leadership has conducted a failed campaign and must be replaced. Yes, too many people have died. I cry for them, all.
No, the students on campus are not spontaneously reacting to injustice. They have been organized and egged on by efforts founded and funded by strategic forces arrayed against the Jewish State, aligned with the same money and political support backing Hamas.
The media, both social and mainstream, has been bought and sold by these same actors - billionaires who have extracted the Earth's resources and used it for their person gain at our collective peril.
Were the campuses to be color-blind, we would see far more protests in support of Africans enslaved across Islamic kingdoms, Tibetans who lost everything, Indigenous across South America who keep losing more and more land to oil concerns. That the activists turn out in spades when it comes to the Jews, and not against Oil when the 3 degree milestone seems to have passed, is evidence enough.