Hamas launches war on Israel

[mapuc]

Edit
Was uncertain to where I should post this video here or in our Nuclear Iran thread.
As I see it the Iran - Israel conflict should have it's own thread
End edit

Markus

[Skybird]

Was uncertain to where I should post this video here or in our Nuclear Iran thread.
As I see it the Iran - Israel conflict should have it's own thread.

Its all interwoven, hard to separate the various aspects from each other.

The guy is funny, involuntarily. The Israel-Iran war has begun, he writes/says - no, it has begun already decades ago and is fought since thern, as a proxy war. And that Israel is trying to close the door for the nuclear ambition of Iran with these attacks, well, I do not see the needed strength and seriousness in these attacks to even get close to that.

The message Israel sends is another one. Of Iranian missiles fired, almost none got through. Of Israeli missiles, obviously quite some got through. Food for thought.

Of course, Iran is said to have so many missiles that they probably can oversaturate Israeli air defences which from some point on simply would run dry on ammo. I have no idea where to set this mark. Its just a base mechanism I point at. If you fire more missiles than the target can have defence missiles ready in time, obviously the excess of attack missiles will get through - small 101 of missile warfare.

There was a rumour reported two days ago that Netanjahu and Biden got a deal - Washington accepts an Israeli offensive at Rafah if Israel does not strike Iran hard/at all. I wonder if this apparently limited attack is part of that "deal" - if it indeed was made -, or indicates a break of it. Or whether the rumour was just a rumour indeed.

[Jimbuna]

'Israel's strikes do little damage but send powerful 'last word' message to Iran'

Early reports of the Israeli retaliatory strikes against an Iranian air base and a nuclear site indicate they were not hugely physically damaging.

But they carry a message from Israel that they can get to Iran and also a strong indication of what its priorities are - the military and Iran’s nuclear interests. The single most important thing Israel feels it has to destroy as a priority is Iran’s ability, sometime in the near future, to gain nuclear capability.

For the short term it seems these demonstrative ping-pong strikes between Israel and Iran are some kind of tit-for-tat chess game to muscle flex. But Israel and Iran have been conducting war against each other for years via proxies - Israel assassinating Iran’s nuclear scientists and military leaders, and Iran’s outreach partners Hezbollah, Hamas and others striking Israel.

Israel may well have to try to take out Iran’s nuclear sites some time soon - with a massive, high-risk operation involving bunker busting bombs, cruise missiles and the list goes on. But this latest escalation was not that.

It appears to be another notch up the escalation ladder towards overt war, which neither side wants right now and which the west is lobbying heavily against. Israel has to keep its coalition partners on board, as shown by the stunning defence by its air force, supported by US, UK, Jordanian and Saudi fast jets.

An unwarranted escalation could put that good will at risk but these strikes attract widespread attention, whilst also delivering a major warning to Iran, telling its regime “we will have the last word.” Plus it is at war in Gaza, whilst having to ward of the constant threat from Iran’s proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

And Iran, whilst needing to placate its Hezbollah and Syrian allies and also show-off military power to the wider Middle East, likely feels it is not ready for all-out war. Nevertheless, this was a major escalation towards war and each step forward is a difficult one to go back on.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...f8bc2bfb&ei=18

[mapuc]

Markus

[Jimbuna]

Netanyahu has done what the world warned him not to

Israel’s strike on Iran on Friday morning will not come as a surprise to Western observers – but it will cause great concern in Washington and London as the region tips closer towards an all-out war.

Following Iran’s attack on Israel on April 13, itself a response to an Israeli strike on an Iranian consulate, Israel was clear a response would be required.

That night, Joe Biden talked down Benjamin Netanyahu from launching an immediate response, warning him that America would not support or join in any offence against Iran.

The president reportedly told the Israeli leader to “take the win” from his stunningly effective air defences, which restricted the effect of the Iranian strikes to a damaged plane and a battered runway.
However, that advice has not been heeded universally by Mr Netanyahu’s colleagues.

Israel’s war cabinet has since been locked in negotiations about the timing, scope and location of a military response.

For some “doves” in the Israeli government, the risk of all-out war with Iran was simply too great.

Tehran has vowed to respond in kind to any attack on its territory, plunging the two countries into a series of retaliatory strikes that would escalate the situation beyond either’s control.

But for the Israeli “hawks”, a direct missile and drone attack on home soil after months of Iranian support for Islamist proxy groups was one provocation too great.

Mr Netanyahu has now done what Mr Biden, other G7 leaders and the UN warned him not to do.

He has further provoked a hostile and unpredictable regional power with uncertain nuclear capabilities.

For years, Iran and Israel have existed in a state of cold war, driven by Tehran’s support for Israel’s enemies close to home.

But the events of the early hours of Friday morning make a hot war between the two countries a realistic possibility for the first time.

Unlike other recent conflicts in the Middle East, a war between Iran and Israel would pit two of the region’s superpowers in direct conflict.

There is also concern about the ongoing relationship between Israel and the United States, which has been increasingly critical of Mr Netanyahu’s strategy in Gaza and his willingness to launch a strike on Tehran.

Until now, the importance of Israel’s relationship with the US has restricted Mr Netanyahu from what may be his instinct to fight as hard as possible against Iran and its proxies.

The risk to peace in the whole of the Middle East is now greater than ever. In Washington, as in Tel Aviv, leaders are now holding their breath to see what Iran does next.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...d8882e8e&ei=13

[em2nought]

For Biden it's all about his off their nut radical "potential" voters.

[Skybird]

Of blasé, stupid little girls.

As Bild reports, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has received a metaphorical slap in the face for trying to prevent Israel's Prime Minister from launching a military counter-attack in Iran by warning of an "escalation spiral".

It is helpful to know the following:

When Annalena Baerbock wasn't even born, Bibi Netanyahu had already served five years in the special unit Sayeret Matkal, including participating in a commando operation to free hostages from a hijacked plane and fighting in the Yom Kippur War, graduating at the top of his class at the MIT Sloan School of Management and working as a management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group.

By the time she started school, Bibi had already been Deputy Ambassador in Washington for two years and then Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations in New York.

When Annalena first won bronze in the double mini tramp (junior division), Bibi was already party leader and still two years away from becoming prime minister for the first time.

Now she is flying around the globe, stuttering into microphones and trying to tell Benjamin Netanyahu what Israel can and cannot do in its defense because she thinks she knows everything better. She is actually still well served with the verbal "slap".

https://www.achgut.com/artikel/der_b...etenzvergleich

[mapuc]

Do you think Iran will revenge this attack ?

Or have they learned a lesson.

Both side know they can hit each other with their drones, missiles and ballistic missiles.

Markus

[Reece]

That is the big question Markus!!

[Skybird]

For now they are finished.


For now.

[Jimbuna]

An audible sigh of relief in the Middle East

The latest round in the region's most dangerous rivalry appears to be over, for now.

Israel still has not officially acknowledged that the attack in Iran in the early hours of Friday morning was its doing.

Meanwhile, Iran's military and political leaders have downplayed, dismissed and even mocked that anything of consequence happened at all.

The accounts over what kind of weaponry was deployed on Friday and how much damage was caused are still conflicting and incomplete.

American officials speak of a missile strike, but Iranian officials say the attacks, in the central province of Isfahan and in northwest Tabriz, were caused by small exploding drones.

"The downed micro air vehicles caused no damage and no casualties," Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian insisted to the semi-official Tasnim News Agency.

But these simple quadcopters are Israel's calling card – it has deployed them time and again in its years of covert operations inside Iran.

This time their main target was the storied central province of Isfahan, which is celebrated for its stunning Islamic heritage.

Of late, however, the province is more famous for the Natanz nuclear facility, the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Centre and a major air base, which was used during Iran's 14 April attack on Israel.

It is also an industrial heartland housing factories which produce the drones and ballistic missiles that were fired by the hundreds in Israel's direction last Sunday.

So a limited operation seems to have carried a powerful warning – that Israel has the intelligence and assets to strike at will at Iran's beating heart.

It is a message so urgent that Israel made sure it was sent before, rather than after, the start of the Jewish Passover, as was widely predicted by Israel watchers.

US officials have also indicated that Israel targeted sites such as Iran's air defence radar system, which protects Natanz. There is still no confirmed account of its success.

So this attack may also be just an opening salvo. But it was, for the moment, an unintended 85th birthday gift to Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Israel's official silence gave Iran's ultimate decision-maker vital political space. Tehran did not have to invoke its new rule that whenever its arch-enemy strikes, Iran will hit back hard, with the risk of sparking a perilous escalatory spiral.

Iran is also basking in what it sees as its new projection of power.

Hardline President Ebrahim Raisi did not even mention these most recent events in his Friday speeches.

For the Islamic Republic, it is all about what it dubs Operation True Promise – its unprecedented onslaught against Israel in the dead of night last Sunday. He hailed what he called his country's "steely will".

Iran has prided itself for years on its "strategic patience", its policy of playing a long game rather than retaliating immediately and directly to any provocations.

Now, it is invoking "strategic deterrence". This new doctrine was triggered by the 1 April attack on its diplomatic compound in Damascus, which destroyed its consular annex and killed seven Revolutionary Guards, including its most senior commander in the region.

Iran's supreme leader was under mounting pressure to draw a line as Israel ramped up its targets during the last six months of the grievous Gaza war.

No longer just striking Tehran's assets, including arms caches, buildings, bases and supply routes on battle grounds like Syria and Lebanon, Israel was also assassinating top-ranking officials.

A decades-long hostility, which had previously played out in shadow wars and covert operations, erupted in open confrontation.

Whatever the specifics of this latest tit for tat, there is a more fundamental priority for both sides: deterrence – a more solid certainty that strikes on its own soil will not happen again. If they do, there is a cost to pay, and it will hurt.

For the moment there is an audible sigh of relief in the region, and in capitals far and wide.

Israel's latest move, under anxious urging from its allies to limit its retaliation, will have eased this tension, for now. Everyone wants to stop a catastrophic all-out war. But no one will be in any doubt that any lull may not last.

The region is still on fire.

The Gaza war grinds on, causing a staggering number of Palestinian casualties.

Under pressure from its staunchest allies, Israel has facilitated the delivery of greater quantities of desperately needed aid, but the blighted territory still teeters on the brink of famine.

Israeli hostages have still not come home, and ceasefire talks are stalled. Israel still warns of battles to come in Hamas's last stronghold in Rafah – what aid chiefs and world leaders say would be yet another untold humanitarian disaster.

Iran's network of proxies across the region, what it calls an "Axis of Resistance" stretching from Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon through Iran-aligned militias in Iraq and Syria, to the Houthis of Yemen, are at the ready, still attacking daily.

In the last few weeks, simultaneously everything and nothing has changed in the region's darkest, most dangerous days.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68861607

[Jimbuna]

Hamas 'moving goalposts' in hostage talks, US says - as 'they want full-scale regional war'

The US has accused Hamas of "moving the goalposts" in hostage and ceasefire deal negotiations.

In a press briefing, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the militant group had made demands which Israel "moved some way to meeting" before they were changed.

"It certainly does seem like Hamas is more interested in a full-scale regional war," he said, adding that it had declined a "very significant proposal" that had been tabled.

Mr Miller said Washington would continue pushing for an agreement because it was in the interests of Israel, the US and the wider Middle East.

"It takes two to make an agreement, and right now Hamas has signalled that they don't want an agreement," he said, saying the ball was "in their court".

[Jimbuna]

No justification for Hamas to leave Doha while hostage talks continue, Qatar says

We've more now on those reports that Hamas is planning to move its main political office from Qatar after more than a decade there.

Qatar has said there is no justification to end the presence of an office for Hamas in the capital of Doha while ceasefire talks continue.

Earlier, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, said he did not believe the militant group would make the move (see post at 10.53).

Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said his country was still committed to mediating hostage release and ceasefire discussions but that "frustration with attacks" on its efforts had prompted it to reassess its role.

[Skybird]

Isn't it almost fascinating to see how completely the ideological left and anti-Israel lobby has succeeded in making sure that almost nobody never ever talks of the hundreds and hundreds of murders, tortures, rapings, mutilations anymore that started it alol and that were committed by those terorrists so many students by now uncritclala align themselves with?

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68873825

Attending university as a student has two purposes: 1. a job-specific education goal, and 2. a general, idealistical goal of generala humanistic education-gaining. The latter is the old Humboldt-ideal that is almost forogtten in most universities these days, even here in Germany which for long time tried to serve as the last fortress of Humboldt's ideals. But the anglosaxon commercilaisaiton of univerisites take sover here, too. The industry'S influence does the rest.

Anyway, students that waste time and maybe also stipendiums with propagating racism and enforced supression of freedom of thinking, talking, opinion and science, should get immediately exmatriculated. Always, and not just in this case. They help to run a frontal assault on science and the scientific working method itself, and turn the purpose of universities upside down, turn them into brainwashing, ideological breeding tanks. Not to mention the violent destruction of the Humboldtian ideal.

That so many universities and their "presidents" endlessly hesitate and delay to take a stand against this primitive, brutal mob shows how deep the cancer already has worked itself into the very structure of the system itself.

Gesinnungsterror.

Not science and free exchange of views and arguments - but ideologically driven compliance with the commanded thinking.



Who monitors the commanders of the new thinking...? In some years form now on you will get burnt at the stake for asking this question. Professionally ruined and socially sanctioned for it you already get now.

[Jimbuna]

Israel intensifies strikes across Gaza, orders new evacuations in north

(Reuters) - Israeli strikes intensified across Gaza on Tuesday in some of the heaviest shelling in weeks, residents said, and the army ordered fresh evacuations in the north of the strip, warning civilians they were in a "dangerous combat zone".

Strikes by air and shelling from tanks on the ground were also reported in central and southern areas in what residents said were almost non-stop bombardments.

In a post on social media platform X, Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee urged residents of four zones in Beit Lahiya on Gaza's northern edge to move to shelter in two designated areas.

He said the military "will work with extreme force against terrorist infrastructure and subversive elements" in the region.
The renewed shelling and bombing of northern Gaza comes almost four months after the Israeli army announced it was drawing down its troops there, saying Hamas no longer controlled those areas.

This month, Israel also drew down most of its forces in southern Gaza. But efforts to reach a ceasefire have failed, and Israeli bombardment and raids on territory where its troops have withdrawn are making it difficult for displaced Gazans to return to abandoned homes.

Overnight, tanks made a new incursion east of Beit Hanoun on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip, though they did not penetrate far into the city, residents and Hamas media said. Gunfire reached some schools causing panic amongst displaced residents sheltering there.

Tuesday's bombardment came after incoming rocket alerts sounded in two southern Israeli border towns, although no casualties were reported.

The armed wing of Islamic Jihad, a group allied to Hamas, claimed responsibility for the attacks on Sderot and Nir Am, indicating fighters were still able to launch rockets almost 200 days into the war, which has flattened large swathes of the enclave and displaced almost all of its 2.3 million people.

Hamas said Israel had achieved only "humiliation and defeat" 200 days into its offensive.

Speaking in a video aired by Al Jazeera television, Abu Ubaida, the spokesman for Hamas's armed wing, called for an escalation in conflict across all fronts and praised Iran for its first direct attack against Israel earlier this month.

He also said Hamas was sticking to its demands in ceasefire talks for Israel to permanently end its war, pull all of its troops out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to the north.

Israel has baulked at a permanent ceasefire, saying that would only allow Hamas to regroup.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...2690099&ei=251