Hamas strike on Israel

I think of Qatar as straddling both sides of the fence. They do after all have the largest US military base in the entire region on their soil (willingly so and for more than a quarter of a century i.e. before 9/11 remade the map). And then, as you rightly call out, they funnel money to Hamas and allow their leadership to base themselves, in quite luxurious fashion, in Doha. They also enjoy all the usual nice things the West has to offer, including horse racing (where we in Ireland benefit massively from their largesse). So yeah, like Saudi Arabia, they are facing in two directions at once - the Janus of the Middle East if you like.

The West fully understands and tolerates this stance.

Iran however is not straddling any fence. It means what it says when it screams 'death to Israel, death to America'. Its entire polity is a strange mixture of Islamo-facism and nihilism - it stands for confrontation, death, misery. All in the name of some crazy interpretation of Islam. It actively seeks to stoke and promote violence in the name of Islam, or just plain old violence in the case of its Russian alliance.

So no, I don't see Qatar and Iran as being remotely the same.

Go south to Rafah they say. It's safe there, they say.

Where are these people supposed to go? 1.9 million people in this area.

That's nearly 30,000 people per square km. Someone explain to me how the IDF can effectively hit targets without civlian casulaties. How the **** is this using the population as human shields? Someone explain that to me. The IDF forced the people south and is now indiscriminately bombing them. I honestly believe Hamas could release all the prisoners but the IDF would continue it's campaign regardless. They have shown nothing, not one iota of desire to stop.

The force asymmetry is clearly enormous. Why doesn't Hamas just unconditionally surrender?

The protester stood up and said "I'm Jewish, I support Palestinian human rights" calmly and repeatedly until he was angrily ejected from the room.

Can you please explain how this is anti-Semitic?

https://twitter.com/i/status/1754616548650528865

Another day, another example of Israeli scumbaggery

"But opposition to Israel typically comes from either Islamists or the Western Left, many of those Leftists who are supposedly with Ukraine."

Opposition to Israel also comes from people with no particular political affiliation, who are not happy to stand by and watch the murder, starvation and collective punishment of innocent civilians and the mass destruction of their living space.

The same is true for the opposition of Russia / support of Ukraine.

Condemned.

TBF I’m not sure I’ve seen a single post defending such actions on here.

Do any of the countless people you follow on X ever post anything about Hamas or Hezbollah “scumbaggery” or the like?

He is right wing in his views, so he doesn't like to believe any one with the same political outlook as him could oppose Israel. This thread is an opportunity for him to slate the left and support Israel at the same time. He can't conceive that opposition to Israel maybe more nuanced than his simplistic outlook

The Jews are at it again I guess....

*sigh*

I made a lengthy post about this, but suffice to say a lot of what UNRWA and Hamas was up to is not public knowledge and their own security agencies will have the finger on the pulse a lot more, than some dude with a podcast.

No it's not, although I would conclude the same as I did yesterday with the German fella trying to hang up posters of Israeli hostages at a Palestinian demonstration. Clout and stirring, it does nothing to reduce tensions.

And again you choose to attack the source while always avoiding the content, pretend the source was jesus christ, or Tucker Carlson or whoever your favourite reporter is

Now comment on the content.

Yes. They fell out over which terrorists to support. At one stage, prior to Russia holding the winter Olympics in 2015, as reported by the Daily Telegraph, the Saudis threatened Putin that their proxies would cause trouble for him if he didn't agree with them on something . It really is a moral maze when you look into the world of geopolitics. It reminds me of an episode of West Wing when Martin Sheen's character says to one of his aides: " I prefer you to address me as Mr President when I have to make these decisions".

Let's stick with the original question - 'why doesn't Hamas unconditionally surrender?'

Pros:

• The shooting and bombing would stop
• Gazan suffering could be alleviated with aid allowed to flow
• They can't win against the IDF. The odds are too great. Lay down arms, return hostages, honourable surrender.

Cons:

?