Sunday, October 8, 2023

The Hamas Assault and the Great Opportunity

There is nothing, nothing, like a tragedy to awaken the urge in Republicans to blame Democrats for it. I don't need to go further back than Benghazi. But I don't want to dwell on that--I will. I don't want to.

The missile strikes on Israeli citizens by Hamas is an unpardonable and wretched provocation that does nothing to liberate a single soul in Gaza. You can empathize with the cause of everyday Palestinians, and still nothing should come more naturally to you than to condemn this appalling and coordinated, obviously long-planned attack on Israeli civilians. They have slaughtered and terrorized families and kidnapped children. Whatever good will I have for Palestinian people and their plight, this is no answer for that. And long history shows the response will only be more misery for the Palestinian people. Hamas is a bad actor, and backed by Hezbollah. The competence of the attack and its failure to be caught ahead of time is owing to materiel support from outside and systemic intelligence failure within Israel's borders.

What does that mean?  It means this wasn't planned in a minute or on the fly, and yeah, I think Iran had something to do with it. I also think it's likely that strategic intelligence and military attention was directed elsewhere (the settlements) instead of expecting intifada. And while I deplore what is happening and the terror Israeli people are facing, that the retaliation will be on Palestinian people as a whole and will not just likely decimate Hamas is tragic. 

The problems of the ME are tragic. I can support the human problem without wanting to see genocide as an answer. For many Americans, however, the troubles in Israel's borders are abstractions. And that is what uncanny valley-faced RNC chair Ronna McDaniel is talking about--abstracting the conflict to be somehow the fault of the Biden Administration. 

You hear that? The deaths of hundreds of people in the nation of our ally was "a great opportunity". And all the little pischers jumped to lying about what happened and blamed the recent hostage deal for what happened just to smear Joe Biden. 

Take J. D. Vance:


Vance already has horrific takes on Ukraine, so why not be fucked up about Israel? Actually, is he going to finish up by sucking Bashar al-Assad off, because that's the usual trajectory for people with this much Putin-enabled shit-opinions. Israel has every right to defend itself (does Ukraine?) But didn't Vance KNOW the unfreezing of $6B assets of Iran oil money located in Doha banks and being watched over by the US Treasury, can only be spent on food and medicine and not a penny has even been touched yet? 

And are a whole mess of other Republicans also repeating the same lie Vance is?


Why yes! It's a great opportunity for every ambitious Republican to get on Twitter (or X if you are feeling like kowtowing to Elon Musk) and pretend that pallets of money went to Iran and they in turn planned in mere weeks an assault that could not have been planned in mere weeks. 
 

Trump blames Biden, of course, and hyperbolically. He went on and on about pallets of cash that never existed about the Iran deal and the Obama Administration back in 2016, too. He has never understood foreign policy or been able to separate fact and fiction. This is what the GOP wants to do--lie. As if we can sustain a competent foreign policy when one party is determined to just wreck the other, regardless of any foreign policy goals. The short-termism! The lack of foresight. The trashiness!

You know who has an interest in Hamas and Hezbollah alike? Russia. Russia says they knew this was up.  Putin met with Hamas in March

I side with Israel and regret what will happen to Palestinians who are civilians and no part of Hamas.  I wish everyone could have so simple a pledge of support without political ambition and unhelpful lies in their mouths. 

But this is no "Great Opportunity". The unself-reflecting opportunism, to simply seize on tragedy and not care about outcomes, without acknowledging the hard work of diplomacy, is appalling. 

One party--Joe Biden's party, can deal with this situation. The other can only snipe and lie. 

UPDATE: I forgot to throw in that the US does not have an Ambassador to Israel and many top military appointments have been put on hold because Republicans are not just dysfunctional themselves--they're carriers.  Oh, and we don't have a Speaker of the House, either.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Intelligence was provided by Trump and rockets were paid for by republican oligarchs,

Vixen Strangely said...

Sometimes I wonder if blaming Trump and Putin for most things is the Ahab in me--but Trump shared Israeli intelligence and Putin's been going around hat in hand to Iran and North Korea for more weapons to use in Ukraine--do I think it *unlikely* there aren't some rich folks internationally that want someone like Trump back in power in the US and would engage in mass fuckery to destabilize the ME in the hopes Biden gets blamed?

Yeah after "Benghazi" and "But her emails" and the 47 Senators who signed the letter against the Iran deal, no. I expect fuckery. I just do. Not in a conspiracy theorist way. In a "motive, opportunity and signs pointing to" kind of way.

bt1138 said...

And the BEST thing about the unfrozen 6 Billion Dollars is that it's SOUTH KOREAN MONEY anyway.

So South Korean money sitting in a bank in Doha is a Joe Biden Terrorist Giveaway of our tax money? You Betcha! It IS another Benghazi, you can see it coming from 100 miles away.

-->Their superpower is that they can lie about anything and they know their voters are really stupid, so it never catches up with them.

Anywho, it's pretty obvious that this is an anniversary attack, 50 years from the YK war. With Russia & Iran egging them on of course because misery loves company.

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