Charles,

I feel your pain. I'm a gentile, but I stand by the Jewish people and Israel.

The answer to the hate is to stand up and not be bullied. That, and to realize the haters are actually in a minority. They cannot win unless we stand by and do nothing.

I for one, will say "no" to them by voting for people who are not anti-semites. And speaking up if I ever hear that garbage.

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Thursday, October 24, 2024 - 10:06 pm: Edit

Mike G, and the world would say; "Yeah, technically they started it a year ago, if you want to take the short view, but it's been brewing for long longer than that hasn't it? BTW, who killed the two state solution by ever expanding the number of settlements on the west bank? Now you want us to believe you can make peace through an everlasting bombing campaign? Pardon us if we don't want to be seen close to you"

Iow, the Israelis got a harder message to sell than any supporter of the palestine people.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, October 25, 2024 - 06:58 am: Edit

The two-state solution was killed in 1948 by the Palestinians, who refused to accept any Jewish state in the region and vowed to fight until Israel was destroyed and the Jews were dead.

You are just plain lying when you say "there would have been peace except for the settlements." That is just not true. The Arabs said in 1948 there would be no peace with Israel.

By Jason E. Schaff (Jschaff297061) on Friday, October 25, 2024 - 07:06 am: Edit

Mr. Carlson:

Gaza pretty much disproves your point. Israel pulled out all the settlers and granted local autonomy. What was the result? A Hamas government that spent 17 years indoctrinating the population that Israelis are illegitimate. Note; not that the state of Israel is illegitimate but rather that having jews living in that part of the world is some sort of offense against God. There is an entire generation in Gaza with no coherent memory of a time when they weren't being fed a steady diet of such propaganda.

By Mike Erickson (Mike_Erickson) on Friday, October 25, 2024 - 09:05 am: Edit

>> who killed the two state solution by ever expanding the number of settlements on the west bank?

I'm not sure that's entirely accurate.

Since the creation of the Mandate for Palestine after WW1, there have been something like 7 plans floated for the partition of the land west of the Jordan River into 2 states, an Arab one and a Jewish one. All of those plans have been rejected by the resident Arabs, the Arab League, and/or the various Palestinian organizations (VPOs).

Those rejections are what killed the two state solution.

--Mike

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Friday, October 25, 2024 - 09:28 am: Edit

IIRC Arafat killed the Clinton Plan because a Jewish PM was going to visit the wailing wall.

Gaza had NO settlements in it when they committed the attack on Israel.

And your point about timeliness is not valid. If the Jews are supposed to get over the October attack a year ago, what about the Palestinians who lost to Israel almost 80 years ago?

Like I said, this was will continue until there is a formal surrender by one side. Kind of like how WW2 was prosecuted until surrender.

It has been said that every time the Palestinians reject a peace plan, they later whine that they want it now... They never pass up the chance to screw it up. I suspect because their leadership are sitting pretty in Qatar living in luxury.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Friday, October 25, 2024 - 01:52 pm: Edit

The Palestinians are pretty much following the Jew's example who for a 1,000 years said "next year in Jerusalem" and refused to give up their identity as Jews. The Palestinians have created a racial identity out of whole cloth and want to return to the good old days when they could ruin any local Jewish (or Christian) settlement when the local Imam said it was okay.

By Ryan Opel (Ryan) on Friday, October 25, 2024 - 07:27 pm: Edit

Air attacks ongoing in Iran.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, October 25, 2024 - 09:17 pm: Edit

Explosions heard around Tehran. Reports of something in the northwestern part of the country being hit. Unknown if this is aircraft, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, or air launched missiles. The US says it is not involved. Israel said the attacks hit military targets but not the oil industry.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, October 25, 2024 - 09:19 pm: Edit

The attack on Houti positions in Yemen included B2 stealth bombers carrying 5000 pound bunker busters. These did not include the massive 25000 pound bunker busters designed to kill underground nuclear factories in Iran and North Korea. The involvement of the B2 bombers is thought to be a US signal to Iran that the US can hit any target it wants inside Iran if the Iranians do something that deserves it.

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Saturday, October 26, 2024 - 03:07 am: Edit

Mike G, I am sorry that I made a poor job of it but I merely wanted to show why Israel is at an disadvantage in the "propaganda war" in the world's eye and why the proposed message you suggest wouldn't work.
(Your message would work well for the war between Russia and Ukraine, however.)


FWIW, I try not make moral judgements about these events. The chain of events started long before the first destruction of the temple, and, imo, we just see history playing out. That's what I meant by
"...it's been brewing for long longer than that" (a mistake on my part to include that in the fictional quote). Palestinians and Israelis are all pawns to causality. They are all victims. We all are.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, October 26, 2024 - 12:26 pm: Edit

The strikes in Iran were made by F35s, F16s, and F15s. The targets included airfields, missile launch sites, and air defense sites that protect the nuclear sites, missile factories, and oil refineries. The aircraft used standoff weapons to stay clear of air defenses.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Saturday, October 26, 2024 - 04:01 pm: Edit

patreon hosting service has had a Russian Television news segment posted to it.

The actual location of a aRussian Army Training facility was not released for “security reasons” but what made the report interesting, was several things:

1. Training facility for North Korean soldiers in Russian service, with instructors fluent in Korean.

2. The vehicles displayed were mostly T-72 models, support vehicles. (Bridging equipment, tank recovery, communications, anti aircraft, artillery etc.)

3. At the end of the line, the only combat model tank on display, was a late model (upgraded?) T-34.

For months now, there have been reports of the Russians planned on using the Korean troops for rear area security, support activities and logistics

MY guess, for what it is worth, is that North Korea is going to be very insensitive to casualties, but will not agree to a 100% loss rate.

What the number of casualties has to reach for the Koreans to pull their troops out will be, I honestly do not know.

I would guess 50% or more, but that is only a guess

By MarkSHoyle (Bolo) on Saturday, October 26, 2024 - 04:10 pm: Edit

What the number of casualties has to reach for the Koreans to pull their troops out will be,

At what point before planting, will the troops be pulled out, since a portion of their agriculture is done by the military....

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Sunday, October 27, 2024 - 09:59 am: Edit

Well, if Russia is feeding them...

By the way, NK troops fighting would erase the "no foreign national troop units" red line Putin like to spout.

So perhaps a few regiments of Legion Etrangere?

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Sunday, October 27, 2024 - 12:52 pm: Edit

Mike, Russia has been active in hiring middle eastern arab troops. They advertised high pay, good food and rear area support missions only “so more Russian troops could fight”.

Anecdotal evidence after the fact appears to show that , at least for some of the “non combat hires”, none of the promises were kept.

Does anyone here think the North Koreans will be given more consideration than the Algerians, Palestinian, Syrian or other middle eastern recruits got?

By A David Merritt (Adm) on Sunday, October 27, 2024 - 02:01 pm: Edit

I would say yes, given that they are being provided by a state actor and ally, the others were individual volunteers. Not very much more, though.

By MarkSHoyle (Bolo) on Sunday, October 27, 2024 - 08:22 pm: Edit

NK troops will get consideration, otherwise NK will cut off Arms/Ammo shipments....

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Sunday, October 27, 2024 - 09:31 pm: Edit

You mean the old sixty year old ammunition that is so dangerous to use, artillery and tank guns need to be remotely fired for safety reasons?

I realize Putin has painted himself into a nasty corner, but what evidence do you have that the middle and lower level officers in the Russian Army will give consideration to theNorth Korean conscripts being sent to Ukraine?

If you go back to the F.Y.E.O. Archives, you will see several reports about the quality, health and general education of said North Korean soldiers. It is not good in any of those categories.

Given that the average (I emphasize, average) dud rate is 60 percent. I would suspect that there may be a significant variation between different lots of ammunition.

I am not disputing your point, only pointing out that the ammunition may not be the important issue.

Putin must have enough boots on the ground to keep the Ukrainian army penned in Ukraine.

If he does not, heaven only knows how far afield the various Ukrainian columns will reach, and even just calculating the damage to the Russian GDP will be a herculean challenge.

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Monday, October 28, 2024 - 08:26 am: Edit

ONE breakthrough to Mariupol or Berdiansk and 50% + of the Russians in Ukraine are in the sack. It's about 100 miles from the front to the Black Sea.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Monday, October 28, 2024 - 08:56 am: Edit

The problem, Mike, is getting that breakthrough, and it's frankly not likely, no matter how many HIMARS and F-16s Ukraine may manage to get.

The situation right now in the Russian-occupied areas of eastern Ukraine is the ugliest possible combination of World War I layered trench systems, World War II minefields, and Cold War weaponry. Just about the only thing we haven't seen yet is nuclear landmines (and I'm honestly not counting that out unless/until we see Ukraine make significant penetration through the aforementioned mess).

By Mike Erickson (Mike_Erickson) on Monday, October 28, 2024 - 10:01 am: Edit

Our strategy of seemingly endlessly extending the stalemate while smiling at all the Russian equipment being destroyed will most likely end with Russia holding onto all the territory they current occupy.

There does not seem to be a realistic breakthrough-and-drive-to-the-sea option pending. Would be nice if there was one though.

---Mike

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Monday, October 28, 2024 - 10:39 am: Edit

Wars can be won by other means; the Russian economy is totally dependent on oil and gas exports and the Ukrainians are actively targeting that infrastructure.

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Monday, October 28, 2024 - 11:40 am: Edit

UNVERIFIED!!

There are reports that in certain ethnic enclaves within Russian territory that there is unrest due to Russian weakness in the Ukraine war.

The unverified report that I heard even went so far as to say that there are small independence movements going on in these enclaves.

However, I MUST stress that these are unverified reports, so I must also stress the need to be skeptical of them.

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Tuesday, October 29, 2024 - 10:05 am: Edit

Recruitment (and casualties) in non-Rus ethnic minorities has been particularly heavy. Could be a source of disaffection that they are seeing all their young men come back in boxes or listed as "missing in action" and not coming back at all

Ukraine has also been hitting vodka distilleries. The justification is that the alcohol is a fuel additive for russian tanks, but given that drunken oblivion is the only thing that makes living in russia bearable...