To Understand Hamas, Remember Aristotle

I’ve been monitoring the situation in Israel as best I can, me being a monolingual, provincially-minded ‘Murican who would be THRILLED to forget the Old World even exists. The Western Hemisphere has enough excitement for me.

Alas, my cuntry is a pawn of Israel and/or China… and/or Satan… the problem with buying politicians is they never stay bought… so I’ve cared to notice, unlike most major American media outlets, that Israel has been on the brink of civil war ever since Netanyahu’s Orthodox/Likud faction gained power in the November 2022 election.

Support for his coalition has plummeted since, as it consolidated power and warmongered against (COUGH, HACK, AHEM) the Palestinians… and while polls are propaganda at the best of times, IDF servicemen threatening to stand down is pretty serious.

Now, Palestine’s Hamas has just launched a very expensive and very sophisticated attack on Israel. It was unusual not in size and cost, actually, but because the Israeli border with Palestine was inexplicably unguarded while it happened.

Which. Never. Happens.

Israeli parliament votes in Netanyahu’s controversial supreme court changes

h ttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/24/israeli-parliament-votes-in-netanyahu-controversial-supreme-court-changes

Israel.s far-right, ultra-religious government has succeeded in passing a key part of the coalition’s judicial overhaul, seven months after introducing the legislation, in the face of widespread, sustained opposition from protesters.

The bill abolishing the “reasonableness” clause that allows Israel’s unelected supreme court to overrule government decisions was passed into law by a final vote of 64-0 in parliament on Monday. Every member of the coalition voted in favour, while opposition lawmakers abandoned the Knesset plenum in protest, shouting .Shame!. as they left.

“Alexa, how many members does the Knesset have?”

“The term “Knesset” is derived from the ancient Knesset HaGdola (Hebrew: …….. ………..) or “Great Assembly”, which according to Jewish tradition was an assembly of 120 scribes, sages, and prophets, in the period from the end of the Biblical prophets to the time of the development of Rabbinic Judaism . about two centuries ending c. 200 BCE.”

Sooo… a 64-0 vote means the winning faction had a bare majority, and the entire ‘everybody else’ stormed out in protest. Maybe they were trying to prevent a quorum.

The Sadducees controlled Israel via the court system, but this was the Pharisees de-throning them in favor of the Parliament that they control.

But the Pharisees’ control of Parliament is based on Dumbocracy, which is not reliable… and 64-56 is a very weak majority.

I checked if they had elections coming up. They do at the end of October, but seems to be local elections only.

In the Knesset, which was empty of opposition members, the mood was jubilant…

The streets around the parliament building in Jerusalem were thronged with approximately 20,000 protesters waving blue and white flags, some of whom marched to the city over four days last week. There were cries as news of the vote result filtered through the crowd, together with shouts of “we will never give up..

VERY weak majority. The two sides are literally not talking, and only riot cops were keeping them separate.

Israel may now have a full-blown constitutional crisis on its hands, as a political watchdog group immediately moved to file a supreme court appeal on the grounds that the new law was a .de-facto elimination of the judicial branch..

Upwards of 10,000 military reservists . some in crucial roles, such as special forces, pilots, and intelligence officers . may stop reporting for duty as promised now that the overhaul has advanced, sparking fears both inside the military and outside over the army’s operational readiness.

And wide-scale industrial action is expected after the head of Israel’s largest trade union said he would meet other union officials to discuss the possibility of a general strike . similar to a strike in March that brought the country to a standstill and forced the prime minister to temporarily freeze the overhaul.

QED, “brink of civil war”.

What might Prime Minister Netanyahu do, to BOTH cement his grip on power AND get his opposition to see him as a good guy?

The Palestinians, that Netanyahu already wanted to exterminate, and was already in process in exterminating, suddenly managed a “Pearl Harbor” soon after he gained ultimate power but was in danger of Israel disintegrating as a result?

And like America’s Pearl Harbor, “nobody” saw it coming?

It’s good to see that the Jew doesn’t treat his own people any better than he treats me. Netanyahu sabotaged Israeli border security and incited a massive attack to kill many of his own people, to ensure that he and his rivals would now have a common enemy that Netanyahu was planning to exterminate anyway.

And to judge from the reactions of his rivals thus far, this act of domestic terrorism is, indeed, keeping Israel united.

‘We Are at War’: Netanyahu Responds to Hamas Attack

h ttps://www.yahoo.com/news/war-netanyahu-responds-hamas-attack-094825655.html

By Storyful, 7 October 2023

Israel.s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the country was “at war” following a large-scale attack on October 7.

Netanyahu said Hamas had launched a “murderous surprise attack against the State of Israel and its citizens..

He said he had ordered a mobilization of Israel’s military reservists and that Israel would return fire with a magnitude “that the enemy has not known..

Ten thousand reservists, am I right?

Netanyahu wins everything, and his enemies feel good about him “defending” them. Or, “avenging” them. Depends if he cares to rescue those hostages.

Biden and Netanyahu meet to discuss “hard issues” as tensions simmer

h ttps://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/20/biden-netanyahu-meeting-u-s-israel-00117069

20 September 2023

President Joe Biden and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu met Wednesday for the first time since the prime minister took office last December, placing the leaders face-to-face at a time of strained relations.

The location of the high-stakes bilateral, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly instead of the White House, was viewed as a signal of U.S. discontentment with Israel. The president and his White House have raised alarms about Netanyahu’s efforts to weaken the power of Israel’s judicial system, a move that critics say leads the country toward authoritarianism.

Behind closed doors, the two leaders broached Netanyahu’s court reform agenda that seeks to curb the power of judges. Biden has publicly urged the prime minister to find compromise, saying that he “cannot continue down this road” amid monthslong protests against his government. But the Israeli leader has forged ahead even as his negotiations with Israeli opposition drag, moving the first major piece of legislation through the parliament earlier this summer.

U.S. sends aircraft carrier group to eastern Mediterranean in response to Hamas attack on Israel

h ttps://www.cbsnews.com/news/hamas-attack-israel-secretary-austin-american-aircraft-carrier-group-eastern-mediterranean/

8 October 2023

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced Sunday that he has ordered American military ships, including an aircraft carrier and additional aircraft, to move closer to the eastern Mediterranean in response to Hamas’ unprecedented, multi-front attack on Israel. Several U.S. citizens were among those killed in the attacks, a National Security Council spokesperson confirmed Sunday after Austin’s announcement.

“Today, in response to this Hamas attack on Israel, and following detailed discussions with President Biden, I have directed several steps to strengthen Department of Defense posture in the region to bolster regional deterrence efforts,” Austin said in a news release.

The announcement came shortly after the White House confirmed that President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke again Sunday morning. The two leaders discussed Hamas’ taking of Israeli hostages, with Mr. Biden assuring Netanyahu that U.S. assistance for the Israel Defense Forces was on its way to Israel, with more to follow over the coming days.

Not even three weeks for a full-blown policy reversal. I don’t know the details of how Benny arranged this; I only know Cui Bono.