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Philip Carl Salzman's avatar

Perhaps it is because so many Israeli leaders are secular that they did not take Hamas' religious motivation seriously. For Hamas and Palestinians more generally, their conflict with Israel and Jews is not about land or a state, but about the Jew's disobedience to Islam. In the Islamic perspective, Jews should be subservient dhimma, not independent actors. Israel is also seen as stolen Muslim land, which, having been conquered by Muslims in the 7th century, must remain Muslim in perpetuity. The Palestinian war against Israel is a religious war. If you don't get that, you don't understand the most fundamental fact about the conflict.

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Laurence's avatar

It would have been nice if you had explained what the hell a z-squirrel is and why it matters. Sounds to me like more of the usual X/Twitter anger-fest; more about the unpleasant personalities involved in the thread, than about the topic at hand. Not worthy of Tablet.

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Unwoke in Idaho's avatar

My goodness, did everything the Biden administration touch turn to you know what?

Zelensky may have posted some gooey thanks to America but he did himself no favors when he appeared on Bret Baier and continued to look like an ungrateful wretch going on and on about how the US needs to be responsible for Ukraine security. His ambassador with her head in her hands said it all. And when you’ve lost Miss Lindsay….

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Sean's avatar

0. We should not have allowed a "peace" festival of Israeli hamas/palestinian apologists happen so near to Gaza.

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Mar 1
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Sean's avatar
Mar 1Edited

I'm not blaming them, I'm just adding an item to the IDF's list of things that maybe should have been considered before October 7th.

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Steven Brizel's avatar

One hopes that the IDF will operate under what appears to be a new set of rules of engagement and application of force and siege warfare in going back into Gaza

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Steven Brizel's avatar

The report about the lack of preparedness of the IDF rivals a similar report after the near debacle in 1973 Pearl Harbor and the undue reliance on the Maginot Line by France in 1940 . Hopefully the brass of the IDF who were responsible for this near debacle will be rendered politically persona non grata in Israeli politics

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