A lot of people in Lebanon want to have a functioning state. The West Bank is more comparable to Gaza.
Big picture Israel will be taking what it wants and leaving. What's left should be expected to be a failed state.
If they had a lick of sense that’d largely be of Jewish settlers into the new Israeli borders...
Doing this without Palestinian approval means breaking international laws on ethnic cleansing. They might as well go all in. Also if the Palestinians aren't sitting at the table drawing lines then the Settlers will be.
Hamas avoided serious attacks for years to build up forces and get ready. I can't see the World supporting Israel going into Gaza having a serious war in that context.
A serious West Bank war would be much worse than Gaza. I get what you're saying, but there's a really good chance that the West Bank would become Gaza-on-steroids.
Further, if they're going to set boarders, there's going to be forced land swaps and population exchanges.
Israel forcing various groups of Palestinians to leave to preserve the larger settlements will be ugly.
If the argument is "this should be done for world support" then we need to take a good look at what the cram down will look like.
Israel's real world choices are to have an urban war (i.e. what you call genocide), or live with terrorists running cities. I'm not sure India is willing to (or needs to) level Kashmir considering it already runs it.
What needs to happen is we-the-World should stop pretending that the openly genocidal Jihadists are reasonable.
The world should be calling on Hamas to surrender and disarm, not for Israel to go back to waiting for the next mass murder.
The conflict goes on because we-the-world keep encouraging the Palestinians to continue it. In other situations they'd lose the war, accept that they've lost, do a lot of soul searching, and redo their ideological choices that led them into this disaster.
First, :amusement:, that's my cat. It's like I sent you a photo and you put it up there. Handsome fellow.
2nd, Coffee is evil. I love it, but it's evil none the less.
I used to get migraine headaches every few months. They were bad enough that I'd also get nausea and then go through caffeine withdrawal as well as just being sick. Then I gave up all forms of caffeine and the migraines went away.
almost twenty years after the Gazan withdrawal, I don’t think anyone can pretend the settlers aren’t a major component of the Israeli side of the problem.
OK, hold up there. Full stop. Why are the settlements a problem?
The Palestinians are genocidally inflamed by the existence of Israel to the point where it's rare for the settlements to show up in their news. They don't make a distinction between the settlements and the rest of Israel.
That's a big deal.
The settlements make peace deals based on the 1967 lines of control impossible, but so what? Israel was able to offer peace in 2000 and 2008 based on land swaps, they still can.
I would expect if we had to do it today there would also have to be population transfers as well. So various groups from both sides would have to pick up and move after boarders are established, i.e. exactly like what happened in Poland after ww2.
There hasn’t been an administration since Sharon that is capable of plausibly agreeing to any such peace deal even if the Palestinians were to offer one.
2008 wasn't the most recent proposal to be rejected. The Trump peace plan was shot down as "hot garbage" because the Right to Return would only be into a Palestinian state and not Green Line Israel.
If the Palestinians were to offer an peace plan then we'd see a huge amount of life put back into Israel's peace wing and huge political pressure to accept it.
But as long as the Palestinians are openly genocidal and constantly committing terror attacks it's hard and pointless for a peace wing to offer them the proposals that they've made clear they'll never accept.
However we need to be careful not to read too much into them. Hamas is brutal to it's own people, corrupt, and abusive so of course they're unpopular.
But that shouldn't be read an a desire to make peace with Israel. The protesters could just want the Jews driven into the sea by a group that's not self serving.
RE: Iceland
Iceland was settled by Vikings and their slaves.
What makes it different for Israel is that the Israeli’s are doing it right now.
That's not what the wars are about, nor is it why the Palestinians refused peace in 2000 or 2008 (etc).
The Palestinians make it very clear they view every inch of Israel as stolen and want the Jews gone.
The settlers are a problem but in theory if the Palestinians ever agree to a peace deal we'd have land swaps and whatever to set boarders and clean all of that up.
It's not just the Jews, it's also the jihadist Arabs. If you actually listen to them and understand they're serious about what they want and why, then the Left is dealing with a "repressed minority" that can't be handled in any other way.
And those countries that ethnically cleansed an area to exist were criticized for it
It is pretty normal for state creation to involve ethnic cleansing. Witness India and Pakistan, also created by Brittan pulling out. The abnormal part is we're still talking about Israel's 70+ years later.
We had two sets of natives in that section of the world. The UN tried to split the difference and give both of them states. The Arabs refused and are still refusing.
And that's basically the conflict in a nutshell.
Put differently, please describe what "peace" would look like and how far each side is away from accepting it.
eviscerated the Dept. of Education’s staffing and thus have eviscerated said Dept’s ability to collect or pursue on the debtors.
If memory serves, the proposals to eliminate the Dept of Education included shifting student loan administration to the Treasury Dept. More importantly, it's possible to make collection a priority.
“What to do with a loan for a degree that wasn’t worth it?”
We have institutions and experts who can answer that question, they're called "bankruptcy judges". Make these loans dischargeable in bankruptcy and a lot of these moral hazards and other issues go away.
On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/21/2025”
His own editorial doesn't talk about "challenging incumbents" much less how and why they'll be challenged.
In theory a stronger party would avoid someone like Trump taking over but he's arguing for the opposite.
So it's much emotional noise without any description, much less details, on what he's trying to do.
"
RE: Cowing the West Bank Lebanon-style
A lot of people in Lebanon want to have a functioning state. The West Bank is more comparable to Gaza.
Big picture Israel will be taking what it wants and leaving. What's left should be expected to be a failed state.
If they had a lick of sense that’d largely be of Jewish settlers into the new Israeli borders...
Doing this without Palestinian approval means breaking international laws on ethnic cleansing. They might as well go all in. Also if the Palestinians aren't sitting at the table drawing lines then the Settlers will be.
"
Hamas avoided serious attacks for years to build up forces and get ready. I can't see the World supporting Israel going into Gaza having a serious war in that context.
A serious West Bank war would be much worse than Gaza. I get what you're saying, but there's a really good chance that the West Bank would become Gaza-on-steroids.
Further, if they're going to set boarders, there's going to be forced land swaps and population exchanges.
Israel forcing various groups of Palestinians to leave to preserve the larger settlements will be ugly.
If the argument is "this should be done for world support" then we need to take a good look at what the cram down will look like.
"
Israel doing a unilateral withdraw is probably also the West Bank becoming a terror camp.
Which will result in a Gaza style war.
"
Israel's real world choices are to have an urban war (i.e. what you call genocide), or live with terrorists running cities. I'm not sure India is willing to (or needs to) level Kashmir considering it already runs it.
"
What needs to happen is we-the-World should stop pretending that the openly genocidal Jihadists are reasonable.
The world should be calling on Hamas to surrender and disarm, not for Israel to go back to waiting for the next mass murder.
The conflict goes on because we-the-world keep encouraging the Palestinians to continue it. In other situations they'd lose the war, accept that they've lost, do a lot of soul searching, and redo their ideological choices that led them into this disaster.
Instead we keep shielding them from that outcome.
On “Weekend Plans Post: Caffeine Rituals”
First, :amusement:, that's my cat. It's like I sent you a photo and you put it up there. Handsome fellow.
2nd, Coffee is evil. I love it, but it's evil none the less.
I used to get migraine headaches every few months. They were bad enough that I'd also get nausea and then go through caffeine withdrawal as well as just being sick. Then I gave up all forms of caffeine and the migraines went away.
And we have an anima club meeting this weekend.
On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/21/2025”
almost twenty years after the Gazan withdrawal, I don’t think anyone can pretend the settlers aren’t a major component of the Israeli side of the problem.
OK, hold up there. Full stop. Why are the settlements a problem?
The Palestinians are genocidally inflamed by the existence of Israel to the point where it's rare for the settlements to show up in their news. They don't make a distinction between the settlements and the rest of Israel.
That's a big deal.
The settlements make peace deals based on the 1967 lines of control impossible, but so what? Israel was able to offer peace in 2000 and 2008 based on land swaps, they still can.
I would expect if we had to do it today there would also have to be population transfers as well. So various groups from both sides would have to pick up and move after boarders are established, i.e. exactly like what happened in Poland after ww2.
There hasn’t been an administration since Sharon that is capable of plausibly agreeing to any such peace deal even if the Palestinians were to offer one.
2008 wasn't the most recent proposal to be rejected. The Trump peace plan was shot down as "hot garbage" because the Right to Return would only be into a Palestinian state and not Green Line Israel.
If the Palestinians were to offer an peace plan then we'd see a huge amount of life put back into Israel's peace wing and huge political pressure to accept it.
But as long as the Palestinians are openly genocidal and constantly committing terror attacks it's hard and pointless for a peace wing to offer them the proposals that they've made clear they'll never accept.
"
I haven't been following the protests.
However we need to be careful not to read too much into them. Hamas is brutal to it's own people, corrupt, and abusive so of course they're unpopular.
But that shouldn't be read an a desire to make peace with Israel. The protesters could just want the Jews driven into the sea by a group that's not self serving.
"
RE: Iceland
Iceland was settled by Vikings and their slaves.
What makes it different for Israel is that the Israeli’s are doing it right now.
That's not what the wars are about, nor is it why the Palestinians refused peace in 2000 or 2008 (etc).
The Palestinians make it very clear they view every inch of Israel as stolen and want the Jews gone.
The settlers are a problem but in theory if the Palestinians ever agree to a peace deal we'd have land swaps and whatever to set boarders and clean all of that up.
"
Three fourths of the modern Jews aren't citizens in other countries. So the Jews mostly have no where to go.
Historically, many of those who do/did have passports are to Arab states that kicked them out and don't want them back.
It's not useful to pretend they all have European passports and can just move back if enough pressure is put on Israel.
"
Nut picking. You have one very angry guy with his fellows pointing out that the rest of Israel society doesn't agree with him.
More importantly, Israel has an army right there and if they ever start treating "everyone as a terrorist" then we'll see scary fatality numbers.
"
It's not just the Jews, it's also the jihadist Arabs. If you actually listen to them and understand they're serious about what they want and why, then the Left is dealing with a "repressed minority" that can't be handled in any other way.
"
And those countries that ethnically cleansed an area to exist were criticized for it
It is pretty normal for state creation to involve ethnic cleansing. Witness India and Pakistan, also created by Brittan pulling out. The abnormal part is we're still talking about Israel's 70+ years later.
We had two sets of natives in that section of the world. The UN tried to split the difference and give both of them states. The Arabs refused and are still refusing.
And that's basically the conflict in a nutshell.
Put differently, please describe what "peace" would look like and how far each side is away from accepting it.
"
We had about a half dozen countries created and/or changed when Brittan pulled out of the Middle East.
I don't see why it's "moral" to insist that none of them be Jewish.
"
Antisemitism is a sign of a sick society. Jews are a safe enemy for a group/government that needs someone to blame for their own failures.
Rather than own what's wrong it's much easier to blame [others]. So they're the designated scape goat.
Jews are hardly the only lightning rod (distraction), we see the same sort of thing on [gays/trans/racism].
On “Less Than a Decade Prior to the MPAA”
Interesting. Thank you.
On “US Department of Education Announces that it is Restarting Loan Collection”
eviscerated the Dept. of Education’s staffing and thus have eviscerated said Dept’s ability to collect or pursue on the debtors.
If memory serves, the proposals to eliminate the Dept of Education included shifting student loan administration to the Treasury Dept. More importantly, it's possible to make collection a priority.
"
Not giving loans to people who we're pretty sure won't be able to pay them back is a good thing, not a bad thing.
"
“What to do with a loan for a degree that wasn’t worth it?”
We have institutions and experts who can answer that question, they're called "bankruptcy judges". Make these loans dischargeable in bankruptcy and a lot of these moral hazards and other issues go away.
On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/14/2025”
Interesting. Thanks.
"
The gov isn't arguing in court that he's a gang member. It doesn't even come up because every court that has looked at it has ruled otherwise.
The gov's argument to the Supremes openly claims that he was deported because of an "administrative error".
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a949_lkhn.pdf
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Law enforcement is easy when you're dealing with the law law-abiding.
"
Far as I can tell, most press conferences are not open to the general public. That seems to be what the cops who took him away thought.
"
It's in NY, against an unpopular victim, with an attractive killer whose motivation was presumably social justice, with a well funded the defense.
The Death Penalty is unrealistic.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.