Cyber_Ghost

After listening to these videos I'm glad my familiarity with German music is limited to the Metal/Gothic/EBM genre

Netanyahu has his faults (And from what I read in other places, some of those statements are accurate), but the sheer number of times that Bibi has caught The Grown-ups in Charge flat-footed since 2008 makes the complaints sound more like sour grapes. Best of all are the complaints from the wonks that Netanyahu acts like he's the mayor of Jerusalem instead of the prime minister of Israel are too rich. Have they looked at their boss' political job history? Don't tell me you buy into this old wive's tale about some ancient connection between Jews and Jerusalem. Its sociopathic for the Adults to expect a small nation's PM to be worldly and statesmanlike when that nation is routinely mortared and rocketed. Its also sociopathic to expect his positions and actions to conform to the marketing needs of the White House. Seriously, how many Jews need to die in order for Obama to get his second NPP? I actually agree with most of the criticism pointed at Bibi. Obama is not a big fan of Israel, I think we knew it from the start, but it seems to me that Bibi has set out from the start to confront him which was NOT a smart thing to do. Bibi meddled in US politics directly and didn't even try to conceal it, his ministers have embarrassed US officials at many opportunities without as much as a formal rebuke from him, with some suggesting building a closer relationship with Russia and even China. Basically, he HAS acted not as a mayor but as a petty local politician, playing the coalitions survival game. He is incapable of taking a hard decision, he hasn't showed any leadership ability whatsoever from the start of his term, so basically his description is quite correct. His refusal to differentiate building in isolated settlements from building in Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem and larger Settlements that are not likely to be evacuated during any Israel - Palestinian deal has lead to a situation that every building project in Jerusalem now attracts international condemnation. Obama on the other hand did every possible mistake he could in his ME policy, he reached a point where no country in the region can say it trusts the US, simply because during his time in the white house he has constantly hurt his allies and helped their enemies. Case in point will be his abandonment of the Mubarak regime, his cold shoulder to Sisi's regime, his attempts to bring Qatar and Turkey into the Israel - Hamas agreement and his attitude towards Iran. The only good thing in the current situation, I think, is that the professional US-IL relations are at their best ever. It's seen on security cooperation issues, business and more, so it can be hoped that a level of trust can be built with the next administration.

Arabs soldier and especially the Egyptians have been good fighters at the personal level, and when competently led could hold on to defensive positions well enough. In a lot of cases, only when threatened by encirclement the units broke and routed, but when that happened it happened on a large scale and was just throwing everything and running away. I guess it has a lot to do with the training and day to day operations of the army, so when cut off from leadership their units don't act independently, that's the reason they aren't that good when attacking - The level of independence needed for the tactical level commanders isn't there so when they can break through, there is no one to give the order. As for Hizballah and Hamas, some of their units are extermely well trained tactically and can match all the IDF regular units one on one, their problem is that war isn't a fair fight.

Reminds me of the IDF attempt to use Llamas in Lebanon. I do remember there was something about regular units who trained with them really liking them while most of the noise came from reserve units who never used them and thus could control them too well. It didn't sit good with the media post Lebanon 2.

Can you give examples? Or do you mean lack of a professional force ala US armed forces (because IDF is conscripted)? 7 Golani dead - Should have dismounted and taken cover around the vehicle. Sitting in a M113 in the middle of Gaza is inviting attacks. 5 Soldiers dead at the pilbox - They just sat there as if there's no fiting going on around them, gate open, pilbox door open, all the Hamas had to do was go in there and take them. 4 Killed near Erez - The Bn CO rushed to the scene in an unarmored vehicle. The guys that died during the mortar attacks - bunching up in a targeted area. There's more.

As for the ammount of casualties, while high and sad, a large part of them are due to our own lack of professionalism.

Well Hamas is in worst shape now than either after the previous operations due to Egypt actively denying it's resupply routes. They have fewer than 50% of ther original rockets and even less of the long range ones and those they can't get from Sinai as easy as they could in the past. As for tunnels, most of the ones leading into Israel are destroyed and will take a long time to rebuild. From what I understand the time it took to bring them down was as long because they had to plant explosive charges all along the tunnel and not only in the shafts. The best solution would be to surround Gaza with a moat and flood it with sea water. It's even possible to build a desalination plant at one end and supply the are with fresh water. The high groundwater in the area will make digging deep enough impractical for Hamas.

Nobu, I think we've done more than our share of concessions to the Palestinians, the only thing we got back was hatred. As long as their media, sponsored by the PA (from EU aid no less) is teaching children to hate and kill Israelis, there will be no peace. You want to see the difference, check out the reaction of the average Israeli to the killing of a palestinan kid by Israeli terrorists and the reaction of the average palestinian to the killing of three Israeli kids by palestinan terrorists. The only solution right now would be for Israel to withdraw unilateraly from most of the WB and let the Palis fend for themselves. This time, we should also declare that in 3 years we will cease any supply of electricity and water to them, suggest aid in building their own powerplants and water infrastructure. They want a state, they should start to act like it.

EU won't go that far because the US won't simple as that. As for Gaza, the same has been said for the WB before, and since we cleaned that place up it's relatively quiet, not totaly but it's ok. With Hamas gone and Gaza under control, we can get the rockets out, Egypt has closed it's side of the fence and so when we're done, they won't be able to threaten us as much. As for the underground aspect, in the long range, it's just a matter of time and digging deep enough, the ground water level is not too deep so it's feasible to dig a moat around Gaza.

The only reason for the ground operation was the tunnels, and they haven't been digign them to bring in gifts or find gold, they've been digging with the intention of killing Israelis. I'm now at the point where I could care less for Gaza, they can all die for all I care. It should end with one result, Hamas, as a force is gone, the place is relatiely pacified and given to a recognized palestinian government, i.e the PA. Until then, we should close the place up and let them eat sand and drink sea water, and frankly, not the EU and not anyone in the world will lift a finger to help because it's clear that all they can do is talk, they can't even police their own backyard in Africa.

I guess a PhD does not make one immune to being an idiot. He's welcome to visit and see the stuff falling from the sky after intercepts... As to the I wonder if you ever heard of the field hospital set up at the Erez crossing to treat palestinians? Have you heard of the appeals the IDF is making to civilian population to evacuate combat zones? Have you seen the videos of airstrikes aborted because of civilians? If we had no sympathy for them, Gaza would long ago be leveld to the ground and we'd go Roman on them. As it is, Hamas has much less sympathy for it's own people than we have.

Well, first of all, the sources you link to show your views, but have you ever seen urban warfare up close? Actual Hamas casualties are probably 20-30% of total count, but the IDF doesn't force anyone to stay in a house about to be bombed, Hamas does. Do you expect us to just quietly while rockets are fired on us daily?

Flights from the US to IL are cancelled due to a rocket hitting a city near Ben-Gurion Airport. Hopefully it'll keep Kerry away from a while... If he didn't get the message from the Egyptians by now.

We're going to adopt sterns warnings and angry looks... That should be ok with then, right?

It's on. A limited ground offensive has begun.