Palestine

[Leonardo17]

Why would Israel want Iran to attack?  That seems a little counter-intuitive.

As for Palestinians being relocated to Egypt, what is the downside from that?

Israeli would like to strike at key facilities serving Iran’s nuclear weapon program.   To Israeli and particularly the Nutenyahu government the chance to able to do so without incurring the diplomatic and PR fallout of a largely unprovoked attack is a god send.     Conducting such a move would also have the advantage of putting pressure on Saudi Arabia to slow its own quest to acquire nuclear weapons as part of Saudi-Israeli rapprochement. 

From a grand strategic view,  Israel’s long investment in its armed forces and its long support by the U.S. has left Israel with defensive organization and array of armament that is much cherished but significantly mismatched with the need of securing it environments and providing adequate deterrence.     A high intensity long range air war to destroy Iran’s nuclear facility along with key parts of its air defence and ground forces capabilities however will serve to justify continued investment in the existing organizational and force stricture.

Many people would be happy to see that happen but:
- The IDF has 600,000 personnel, 400,000 of these are reservists.
- Hamas has 40,000 fighters and they are defending a city still full of civilians with an underground tunnel network (a bit like Vietnam)
- The number of Hezbollah fighters is between 40,000 and 100,000. They have between 40,000 and 150,000 missiles.
- The size of the Iranian army is 600,000 + 350,000 reservists. (Roughly 1 million).
 
The last issue: We saw in the US invasion of Iraq that none of these will really matter. But I still don’t believe the Israelis can wage war with Iran all by themselves. Also: I don’t think Iran would want something like that either.
 
So I would try not moving into Gaza at all. First you need to make Hamas (and Hezbollah) unable to recruit new people. For these you need to do the opposite of what has been done in the past 75 years: You create a zone of stability and peace. With stable governments who truly care for their own people. So that people can make plans for the future instead of joining criminal activities. Than you can bring democratically elected politicians and make sincere commitments for the future.
 
But there is truth in the opposite perspective too: Israel is still a power of annexation. A force of invasion in that region. It may not be willing to stop until it takes and colonizes all of Palestine. And that’s where the international community has to come in (in this completely hypothetical scenario of course )

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Hollywood celebrities are signing a petition and sending it to Joe Biden in which they say:

 
(…)
 
   Thank you for your unshakable moral conviction, leadership, and support for the Jewish people, who have been terrorized by Hamas since the group’s founding over 35 years ago, and for the Palestinians, who have also been terrorized, oppressed, and victimized by Hamas for the last 17 years that the group has been governing Gaza.
 
 We all want the same thing: Freedom for Israelis and Palestinians to live side by side in peace. Freedom from the brutal violence spread by Hamas. And most urgently, in this moment, freedom for the hostages. (…)
 
https://www.nohostageleftbehind.com/