Israel at war

I still think it was foolish to put that music festival 3 miles from enemy territory. That doesn't excuse the atrocities committed by Hamas.

 

Short answer and reality? It is our only foothold in the region.

 

What about Turkey and/or Egypt? We are also on friendly terms with Jordan.

 

An empire has to have footholds, don't ya know.

 

Or else what? Perhaps extreme sanctions are in order for that country. Biden needs to grow a set.

 

"According to a database maintained by Columbia University, a total of six countries—Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria, and Venezuela—were under comprehensive U.S. sanctions, meaning that most commercial and financial transactions with entities and individuals in those countries are prohibited under U.S. law. An additional 17 countries—including Afghanistan, Belarus, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Nicaragua, Sudan, and Yemen—are subject to targeted sanctions, which indicates that financial and commercial relations with specific companies, individuals, and, often, the government are forbidden under U.S. law.

According to a Princeton University database, another seven countries, including China, Eritrea, Haiti, and Sri Lanka, were under specific export controls. This already lengthy list does not even include targeted sanctions placed on individuals and businesses in countries such as El Salvador, Guatemala, or Paraguay, or sanctions placed on territories such as Hong Kong, the Balkans, or Ukraine’s Crimea, Donetsk, or Luhansk regions.

By 2021, according to U.S. Treasury Department's report, the United States had sanctions on more than 9,000 individuals, companies, and sectors of targeted country economies. In 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden’s first year in office, his administration added 765 new sanctions designations globally, including 173 related to human rights. All told, the countries subject to some form of U.S. sanctions collectively account for a little more than one-fifth of global GDP. China represents 80 percent of that group.
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U.S. policymakers need to be clear and honest about what these intended goals are. Any honest review process must also be willing to examine whether and how sanctions may have strengthened the political and economic weight of the governments and their economic allies in sanctioned countries and illicit actors in both the short and long term.
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Much of this will require a sober willingness by policymakers in both parties to consider a basic fact: Sometimes sanctions don’t work. And in many cases, they are actively undermining U.S. interests."

- rest at America’s Love of Sanctions Will Be Its Downfall

 

Julius Caesar didn’t have any. If you study early Roman history, the Romans were initially slaves to the Etruscan nation and there wasn’t any nation friendly to them. In fact, after breaking their bonds with the Etruscans the Romans had to war with other Latin nations on the Italian peninsula to gain dominance in Italy. Next they fought two protracted wars with the Carthaginians in both navy & army …. And on and on, Greek, Celtic, German, Spain etc. Nobody helped the Romans to achieve dominance, they did it the old fashioned way… by, grit, sweat & blood, determination and discipline.

 

Then there is always scorched earth tactics. Turkey is a poor country, there must be something that can be done to get their attention.

 

Or the United States could stop trying to be world dictator and stick to its own knitting, like, say, its southern border. Maybe a country whose border is a sieve should take care of its own problems and its own border(especially with a rapidly escalating national debt, now at $33,510,833,601,230.21) before worrying about Ukraine's border or Taiwan's border or Israel's border.

 

I totally agree…if you want free money try Go Fund Me.

 

No but it does lend itself to a growing animosity that has be festering for generations.

 

Yeah, I feel so sorry for all of the generations of Israeli and Palestinian children who have been and are living in that mess.

 

Yes they are traumatized… and now it looks like they are going to be the ones to make the peace or wage endless war.

FORGIVE us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Do these people have it in them to do that and recognize that is Gods desire? I don’t know.

 

The festival is irrelevant. It was the source of many foreign casualties and hostages, but Hamas attacked border cities in Israel with populations of over 1000 people in them, so the death count would have been only a few hundred less without the festival (unless the terrorists that attacked the festival had just paraglided to another town to kill those people instead).

 

This statement? ' "What will the aircraft carrier of the U.S. do near Israel, why do they come? What will boats around and aircraft on it will do? They will hit Gaza and around, and take steps for serious massacres there," Erdogan said in a joint press conference with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer in Ankara. '

Turkey's Erdogan says US move of aircraft carrier closer to Israel will lead to Gaza massacre | Reuters

 

This was about three weeks ago:

"Turkey and Israel will soon begin taking joint steps in energy drilling, President Tayyip Erdogan was cited by Turkish media as saying on Thursday, adding the two countries would also operate energy networks to Europe through Turkey.

Erdogan and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in person for the first time on Tuesday at the United Nations, in a milestone as two countries have been working to repair relations long strained by disputes over policies toward the Palestinians.
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Erdogan added that he and Netanyahu had discussed forming a mechanism between their countries, including some ministries, to increase cooperation in energy, tourism, and technology."

- rest at Erdogan says Turkey, Israel to take steps in energy drilling soon, media report | Reuters