hundreth

Well, I hope you're right. Because there are many quotes of Palestinian leaders expressing as much.

The issue is that the majority of both Palestinians and Israelis won't accept anything but 100% of the land. How do you solve an issue where either side won't accept any compromise?

Also keep in mind that Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel on October 8th. One day after the massacre, and before any Israeli response. This is what they signed up for.

There is a side of this we aren't mentioning. Hezbollah hijacked Lebanon. They were considered a necessary evil because of their so called protection capabilities. Now, it is clear they have had their state enlisted in a war for a cause they did not choose. Even more, they have not been protected. This has been a wake up call for many Lebanese, who are already facing many challenges outside of Israel - that it may be time to take their nation back.

Hezbollah may be a hydra, but it's running out of heads.

Iran is the only one motivated enough to go to war, and they aren't very motivated. Their best chance was months ago, when Hamas and Hezbollah were at full strength. Now with their proxies weakened, it is way more difficult for them. Israel is winning the war from a military standpoint.

But raw numbers aren't the only thing an organization is. This is the opposite of 2006, where Hezbollah stayed on relative even footing which resulted in a huge morale boost for Hezbollah.

You don't think the events of the past few weeks have been a huge blow to Hezbollah as an organization?

A few gems from Nasrallah:

For months we had posters here claiming big bad Hezbollah was going to come in and take down the IDF. Now they've had their balls blown off and their head cut off.

Your oversimplification of things aside, doesn't have to do with my point - which is that there is a characterization of Hezbollah as some kind of defensive force against Israeli expansion, when Israel never has had any expansionist goals around Lebanon.

It's worth noting that while the Israelis were in Lebanon, this had nothing to do with expansionism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_occupation_of_Southern_Lebanon So really, the Israelis were involved in Lebanon because Palestinians were using Southern Lebanon as an attack outpost. Now the PLO isn't around, but Hezbollah essentially took their place.

He makes good points, but one thing is clear: Every single group involved in this conflict is blame shifting. Unfortunately our greatest problem is holding ourselves accountable.

I don't think these are effective talking points, as you don't need to have similar values to have compassion for others and the value of life. That said, these green thinkers have overcorrected on much of this and run with the West is bad, America is bad, Israel is bad blanket mentality and don't hold the other side accountable for anything.

I understand this perspective and there's truth to it, for sure. I think you're discounting what a burden Hezbollah has been to northern Israel and it's hard to Imagine a comparable scenario in the U.S. Let's just say we would have a very strong response. When the U.S. gets involved in Middle Eastern affairs and then gets attacked as a result, we say well fair enough - we meddled and now we are part of the war. The same has happened to Lebanon. This is a conflict between Israel and Hamas. Hezbollah involved themselves, now they are part of the war. Israel isn't going to leave Gaza and agree to a ceasefire until Hamas is no longer the dominating force there. So Hezbollah's involvement isn't going to stop Israel, it is another pointless skirmish leading to additional turmoil. Will Israel's latest attacks push Hezbollah back? I don't know. We'll see if it achieves anything. It's possible you are right and instead of helping the situation in the North, we will be pushed deeper into a regional war. I wouldn't put it past many in Israeli leadership to make the wrong call there.

I don't really understand how this is considered indiscriminate when it's literally as surgical as you can get in terms of reaching Hezbollah members. Of course there will be some civilian casualties, but what methods are there to hurt a guerrilla warfare organization? "That's what the military is for"... so should the IDF do more Gaza style airstrikes and ground invasions? Would that be preferable? There's literally no way to fight these groups without everyone crying foul. Please, tell us one way Israel can legitimately kill ONLY Hezbollah members without harming civilians that is satisfactory for you. War isn't what it used to be, there is no scenario where the IDF and Hezbollah or Hamas will engage in classic warfare. This is what it has come to. And as a Jew, I'm not going to be apologetic for using what tactics are available to us. We don't see the same outrage when Hezbollah literally fires rockets indiscriminately into civilian areas. "Oh but the Iron dome..." - ok the same Iron dome that these same voices cry about the U.S. helping with. And if that didn't exist, it certainly wouldn't have stopped them.

https://nypost.com/2024/09/18/world-news/hezbollahs-handheld-radios-explode-in-second-wave-of-remote-detonated-attacks-on-terror-group/ Round two.

The part that isn't true is that she is the first and only report of a death. It's just selectively using information to create a narrative.

Here comes the spin... attack which surgically targets hezbollah militants -> "first confirmed death: 10 year old girl" Which isn't even true. https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/hezbollah-member-son-of-terror-group-mp-said-killed-in-pager-explosion-girl-also-killed/

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/dozens-hezbollah-members-wounded-lebanon-when-pagers-exploded-sources-witnesses-2024-09-17/ Hezbollah's testicles are exploding.

This is good advice. The universe did you a favor. Rejoice.

Israeli propaganda punches above its weight class given the number of Jews - but is outdated, misdirected and easy to spot. Palestinian / Qatari propaganda is more well obfuscated, having aligned themselves with academics and the funding of universities. Its a very natural friendship, where western academics who are already experts in white colonialism, systemic racism, oppressor vs oppressed narratives take this conflict and pigeonhole it. Where this framing can be somewhat useful in understanding, they've run wild with extremist interpretations that rationalize terrorist attacks, blame Israel 100% for everything, use context selectively for Palestinians but not Jews, rewrite basic history related to two state negotiations, etc. In the long run, the Qataris have bet on the right horse, as their propaganda targets the youth and next generations. Israeli propaganda targets the old. These two schools don't really clash, as there's no university where these ideas are tackled from a non emotional lens. At these universities where Jews have been labeled as white oppressors, there's not much constructive dialogue which can happen. Jews also have influence in universities, but its mostly in the form of anti-semitism watch dogs. While there's tons of anti-semitism on campuses, this can't be the only substantive push back, and Americans have mostly become desensitized to the term after its overuse. https://airmail.news/issues/2024-6-1/when-your-teacher-is-qatar

Some Jews and Israelis have lost the plot and it is sad to see.

Very true. Israeli propaganda is there, but if you're wondering how we've gotten to the point where we say things like: "Terrorist attacks are the only option Palestinians have." - that's why. The brainwashing is real. Stop. Rationalizing. Terrorist. Attacks.