Lone Candle
Champion of Truth
When it comes to all things politics and religious, but especially Israel-Palestine…people are prone to black and white thinking, as well as horrible evidence cherry picking, as well as blowing up evidence to be bigger than it is, and even citing evidence
Israel and the settlers make life in the West Bank difficult. Random attacks, difficulty getting anywhere, disrespect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdxgsCrEDY8
Israel is intensifying its West Bank settlement project, taking land that was supposed to be Palestinian.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Zrphez0-nA
Nice bit of Israeli history, although…Zionism ended in 1948. Once Zionism was achieved and the state of Israel was formed, we just have the policies of Israel and the ideologies of its citizens, not something special called Zionism. It doesn’t make sense to have a word that means the ideology to form a particular state for a particular people when that state has already been formed. Other countries don’t have a special term that means people think that that country should continue to exist, neither should Israel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKELq9Jdc0k
According to interviews with people who have been in the room with Trump as president, Trump isn’t playing 4D chess or putting on a front. Trump actually has nonsensical economic and foreign policy views. He thinks trade deficits are what determine whether he should be friendly or mean to a foreign country. He believes the US would be strong if not for the huge impact of political correctness holding us back. Trump has limited moral values in foreign policy and just wants to make what he views as good one-on-one deals. Trump seems to be a legitimate Iran hawk. Trump formed his views during his formative years based on what was happening at the time and based on his gut, and he just sticks to that, even if his gut intuitions are nonsense.
When it came to the war with Iran, Trump was convinced that the regime would fall. He was less convinced by Israel’s persuasion and more by Iran’s lack of response after the 12-day war and Israel’s success in that war.
The CIA told Trump that Iranian regime change was not likely, but Trump believed in his gut that it was.
Risks, like the Strait of Hormuz, were presented to Trump, but super softly. Trump was advised by a small group of scared yes men. Only Vance seriously tried to dissuade him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmaoPUpf5I8
Iran expert who used to advise the White House thinks Iran was willing to do a deal that was better than Obama’s deal before the 12 day war, but not anymore.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Qq9nYWH24w
Apartheid in Palestine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsVDPzJzc98
“The Israeli military is quietly but quickly building a giant earthen barrier separating the over 50% of the Gaza Strip it controls from the rest of the territory, according to satellite imagery, further entrenching the division of the tiny Palestinian enclave.
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Gaza’s population has been crowded into the coastal area west of the yellow line, most living in squalid tent camps and dependent on aid.
On the other side of the line, satellite imagery shows that Israeli forces have leveled the vast majority of buildings using bulldozers and explosives, virtually erasing several towns and Rafah, once home to more than a quarter million people.
They have carved new road networks and erected new bases on the ruins of Palestinian towns. Agricultural land has also been destroyed. The Israeli military says it is demolishing infrastructure used by Hamas.
…
sraeli forces have killed more than 1,100 Palestinians since the ceasefire began, most in airstrikes and drone strikes around Gaza. Militant attacks have killed five Israeli soldiers in the same period.
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A former U.N. diplomat now in charge of coordinating the ceasefire has blamed Hamas’ failure to disarm. Sporadic talks to reach a formula for decommissioning its weapons appear to have made little progress, and Hamas accuses Israel in turn of violating the ceasefire.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/world/articles/israel-building-miles-long-earthen-050314782.html
Israel’s plan for the war on Iran was to overthrow the regime.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSzGyi5lYK0
A regime change war against Iran had a chance of succeeding, but it required both commitment to a longer war and preparing the Iranian opposition on the ground. The Trump administration, despite essentially declaring a regime-change war at the beginning by calling on the Iranian people to soon rise up, did not appear to much help the Iranian opposition and had no stomach for the length of war necessary to give regime change a chance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmNCB7522Yc