Hamas attacks Israel
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IDF says they’re still battling Hamas on Israeli territory.
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According to Sec Blinken, the hostages dragged across the border include a holocaust survivor in a wheelchair.
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We are all shell shocked. No other way to describe it.
We need time to digest this.
And there is going to be more to come.
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@Jolly said in Hamas attacks Israel:
Another observation...I assume most, if not all of the weapons that Hamas and Hezbollah are using are of Russian manufacture. Following the money, who sold them and where did the funds come from to purchase them?
And I assume the supply of weapons would have been included in a secret protocol attached to a wide ranging ODA (Russian equivalent to USAID) technical assistance programme for the both Palestinian Authority and Hamas. In other words, the financing would have come from Kremlin’s budget for international aid and global mischief. That’s how Moscow conducts itself in the world.
I realise that you really want to make this into a story about the failure of recent US foreign policy. Hate to break it to you, but it’s not all about the US. It’s about Israel and a well planned large scale terrorist attack against it during the last 48 hours. After Israel has secured the situation, only then the hows, why’s and extent of various intelligence failures can be examined.
“Little by little I am learning the art of being quite content by doing very little slowly” ~ Lionel Hardcastle
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@bachophile said in Hamas attacks Israel:
We are all shell shocked. No other way to describe it.
We need time to digest this.
And there is going to be more to come.
Hope you and yours are safe.
On the morning news shows the moderators are still trying to play gotcha with Michael Herzog about how the IDF was taken by surprise. Ghoulish.
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I can only imagine the numbness of the shock. Hopefully things will be secured sooner or later. Main thing is that you and your family are safe.
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@Renauda said in Hamas attacks Israel:
@Jolly said in Hamas attacks Israel:
Another observation...I assume most, if not all of the weapons that Hamas and Hezbollah are using are of Russian manufacture. Following the money, who sold them and where did the funds come from to purchase them?
And I assume the supply of weapons would have been included in a secret protocol attached to a wide ranging ODA (Russian equivalent to USAID) technical assistance programme for the both Palestinian Authority and Hamas. In other words, the financing would have come from Kremlin’s budget for international aid and global mischief. That’s how Moscow conducts itself in the world.
I realise that you really want to make this into a story about the failure of recent US foreign policy. Hate to break it to you, but it’s not all about the US. It’s about Israel and a large scale terrorist attack against it during the last 48 hours. After Israel has secured the situation, only then the hows, why’s and extent of various intelligence failures can be examined.
I don't want to make it into anything. I don't have to. It is a failure of U.S. foreign policy. It is also a failure of Israeli intelligence, something I can't fathom.
Lastly, and this might send you into orbit...Don't be surprised if you find a Ukrainian connection to some of the weapons being used by the Arabs. Weapons paid for by U.S. tax dollars.
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“Little by little I am learning the art of being quite content by doing very little slowly” ~ Lionel Hardcastle
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“Little by little I am learning the art of being quite content by doing very little slowly” ~ Lionel Hardcastle
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Lawrence Freedman’s analysis of the current situation. A long read but worth the time and effort:
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@jon-nyc said in Hamas attacks Israel:
And even that guy uses only future tense verbs. The fungibility argument is reasonable, just not yet.
Putting aside the $6B for a moment, there's this, from a while ago:
State Department officials in 2021 outlined the concerns in private communications, asking the Treasury Department to exempt them from laws that bar the U.S. government from injecting taxpayer aid into territories controlled by Palestinian terror groups. The Biden administration needed this authorization in order to move forward with its plans to unfreeze more than $360 million in U.S. funds for the Palestinian Authority that were cut off during the Trump administration due to the authority's support for terrorists.
"We assess there is a high risk Hamas could potentially derive indirect, unintentional benefit from U.S. assistance to Gaza. There is less but still some risk U.S. assistance would benefit other designated groups," the State Department wrote in a draft sanctions exemption request circulated internally in March 2021, shortly after Biden took office. "Notwithstanding this risk, State believes it is in our national security interest to provide assistance in the West Bank and Gaza to support the foreign policy objectives."
The documents—obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the watchdog group Protect the Public’s Trust—show the Biden administration was privately worried its efforts to restart Palestinian aid could benefit Hamas and other terror factions operating in the Gaza Strip. As officials publicly provided assurances to Congress and the press that this aid would be doled out "consistent with U.S. law," the State Department was scrambling to secure a sanctions exemption that would let it skirt anti-terrorism laws.
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