If US based private military contractors are brought before the Hague, do we still get to invade the Netherlands? Sick and tired of their smug claim of being an older Republic.

(The US and Israel are looking into hiring contractors to distribute aid delivered to the Gaza dock to try to avoid getting US service members getting roped into the ongoing goat rodeo)

Additional info from WSJ on post-war plans:

https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israel-gaza-hamas-war-buffer-zone-explained-2a7347af

How many times is Israel going to raid the Al-Shifa hospital? The entire Gaza operation just seems like a more intensive version of "mowing the grass". If they aren't attempting to take and hold territory, what is the end game?

Can it be an existential threat if they can choose to deactivate most of their reserves just a few months in?

What do you do for a living? I just realized I have no idea.

I'm a professional bad opinion haver, clearly.

There are mitigating strategies to address that. For example, have you considered not posting?

My family has worked in the posting mines for three generations. It's the only life we know.

I hadn’t pegged you as a union man.

Looks like the switch from a blockade to the establishment of a permanent Korea-style DMZ against Gaza to limit weapons production and strike capability post 07.Oct.

If they backed off from 'dismantling' Hamas to merely 'degrading', it bolsters their critics that this was about wanton collective punishment more than strategic concerns.

There is literally nothing Israel could possibly do that wouldn't be twisted into something like that. Plans always run into practical realities and the reality is they couldn't kill enough Hamas fighters before sympathy for 07.Oct and their weapons supplies dried up, so it's better to just focus on threat reduction at this point. The good news for the Gazans is that this means a large scale attack in the south is starting to look unlikely.

They could've achieved the same threat reduction without leveling quite so many empty buildings. Did they (or the US) not have an understanding of the limits of support that would be provided, or was it being casualty averse that resulted in this waffling? Can you call taksies backsies on a declaration of total war?

On Saturday, I thought we’d run head on into the St. Patty’s parade, but turns out it was a pro Palestine protest march.

did you grab some lamb and flatbread?

I read this as "did you grab some land?". Mind my must be occupied elsewhere.

The protestors weren’t serving food.

there has to be a business model for that

Hamas is popular amoungst Palestinians and is their choice to rule Gaza after the war:

https://www.pcpsr.org/sites/default/fil ... 202024.pdf

Israel just blew up an orphanage.

I mean why not. There’s tens of thousands of newly made orphans now anyways
Who needs a building that houses them and processes them into care

https://english.alarabiya.net/amp/News/middle-east/2024/03/22/Israel-says-seized-800-hectares-of-West-Bank-land-

Israel reported Friday the seizure of 800 hectares (1,977 acres) of land in the occupied West Bank, which activists called the largest action of its kind in decades.

Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared as “state lands” the area in the northern Jordan Valley, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel for Gaza war talks.

Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now said the size of the seized area is the largest since 1993’s Oslo Accords, and that “2024 marks a peak in the extent of declarations of state land.”

Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.