‘Existential threat’ is a thin excuse: the out-of-control force that is pushing the Middle East to the brink is Israel itself
Hezbollah and Hamas both pooclaim as a goal the destruction of Israel and also work to that end.
To oppose this is to be the extremist, is it?
I’m still looking forward to Nesrine’s column on the Arab oppression of darker skinned Sudanese myself….
Pooclaim?
Is that a typo or an opinion on the quality of the claim?
Your subsequent piece “This is lovely” also has a few typos in.
You feeling ok, Tim?
“But there is a risk that Hezbollah and Iran, which have so far refrained from a clear-cut declaration of war, will be goaded into a face-saving conflict which neither they or Israel can win outright.”
If military strategist Nesrine’s assessment is correct, then the hope is of course that the civilised countries come to Israel’s aid, or better still that the Iranian people rebel against the religious mentalists and avert destruction.
This one’s fun….
“And so to the threat to Israel. Why does it continue to cast itself as besieged in a region that has either long been domesticated or has too many of its own problems to care?”
Ummm… Because Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran are ran by Very Opinionated People who have vowed that they won’t rest until Israel is completely eradicated? And actively work towards that goal?
Maybe? It’s not that hard….
Not helped by a certain Israeli Opinion about what its borders should be, especially since those are roughly Bronze Age relics and haven’t been relevant since ummm.. let’s be nice, Roman Era, so 2 millennia , give or take a century.
Not content with already having nearly 80% of what was ‘Palestine’ at the end of WW1, on the 15th of May 1948 the arabs made it abundantly clear that they did not / do not want Israel to exist at all.
“defence of Israel’s actions”? What planet are these people living on? Like people talking about trying to negotiate a ceasefire. These are groups that Israel tried to negotiate with, had at negotiating tables asking them where borders should be, and the likes of the PLO just refusing to answer.
Then you take civilians hostage and rape them? And you start talking about what Israel are doing, or that there should be a ceasefire? It just ain’t going to happen. Israel are now at war with Hamas, Hezbollah and the people who help them. Not just protecting Israel, but taking the fight to them. Smashing up their organisations. I have no doubt that there are lots of operations like the pager bombs being set up. And the Israeli people are even more belligerent than the politicians.
defence of Israel’s actions”? What planet are these people living on? Like people talking about trying to negotiate a ceasefire. These are groups that Israel tried to negotiate with, had at negotiating tables asking them where borders should be, and the likes of the PLO just refusing to answer.
And that’s why the proposed two state solution that western politicians lazily fall back on will never work. Israel insists that on of those states is Israel and the Palestinians insist that neither of the states is Israel.
Yes
I’d also observe in what is even by her standards an extraordinary piece, that strangely the Jewish population displaced from most of the rest of the Middle East merits no place in Malik’s litany of woe.
I am increasingly coming round to the idea of Jared Kushner that we do need an Israel free from the River to the Sea – one free of Palestinians. If we can extend such a zone into Europe and the UK so much the better.
And I am still looking for the departures of Baroness Warsi, Hamza Yousuf and Sadiq Khan from the UK (in vain I’d wager)
A modest suggestion, but practical.
Admit Israel to NATO. Remind the Arabs of Article 5.
Fund and train the actual Lebanese army to finish the job against Hezbollah.
Yeah, Nesrine, why don’t the Jews just lie. down. and just. die! dammit!
The piece is frankly bizarre. It barely touches on Iran, when all of the forces actively attacking Israel are Iranian imperialist proxies who do Iran’s imperialist bidding. For a ‘commentator’ on this matter Ms Malik seems remarkably uninformed about the role Iran plays. She appears unaware of why Iran needs a conflict with Israel to prop up domestic support for it’s repressive and deeply unpopular regime. Or why the ‘Arabs’ who aren’t on the Iranian payroll aren’t all that keen on swinging behind Iranian imperialism, even so far as to see Israel as the lesser of two evils. She could do with reading up on the concept of revealed preferences in economics, I think it would be quiet eye opening for her.
The “Guardian Picks” highlighted at the top are entertaining.
1 reminder from mods to be polite and 3 spraffs from the author.
Heated discussion below the line (though credit where it’s due – at least comments are open) about why IDF collateral damage is not the same thing as lobbing unguided rockets indiscrimately with the specific intention of killing civilians and that refusing to make the distinction is _actually envouraging_ the terrorists to engage in such unholy behaviour completely ignored.
It’s true that Israel has carte blanche to attack its neighbouring countries and rack up civilian death tolls that would get any other country sanctioned by the US and EU and its leadership facing war crimes charges.
I don’t have an enormous deal of sympathy for their victims, since they’d dance in the streets to celebrate killing Jews, but more than one thing can be true at the same time.
What happens if Israel manages to drag Uncle Sam into a wider regional war? Nothing good, right? Has the Middle East ever looked as dangerous as it does now?
There doesn’t seem to be any plan, except more murder.
Sudan appears to be having a little ‘local unrest’ at the moment. Millions displaced and 150,000 dead , but as it’s moslems doing the killing and maiming, the msm and UN don’t appear to give a fuck…..
Steve = the last rational human being left….
Has the Middle East ever looked as dangerous as it does now?
It’s looked as dangerous or worse for most of my life.
I’m not accusing Steve of this, but I can’t help noting that this panic amongst media and politicians about ‘escalation’ and regional wars is happening when Israel has its fighting boots on.
The Iran-Iraq war, two Gulf wars, the post GW2 chaos, the ‘Arab spring’, the collapse of Libya, the Syrian civil war, ISIS, Yemen and intermittent campaigns of terrorism and attempted genocide didn’t seem to raise similar fears….
Alex – the last rational human being left
That’s a scary thought.
Marius – It’s looked as dangerous or worse for most of my life.
Rilly? Totally different vibe in the 90’s.
I can’t help noting that this panic amongst media and politicians about ‘escalation’ and regional wars is happening when Israel has its fighting boots on
The likes of Lebanon and Syria aren’t bombing their neighbours tho, are they?
The Iran-Iraq war, two Gulf wars, the post GW2 chaos, the ‘Arab spring’, the collapse of Libya, the Syrian civil war, ISIS, Yemen and intermittent campaigns of terrorism and attempted genocide didn’t seem to raise similar fears….
But they should, because these have all been disasters for the Middle East and Europe. October 7th – to present has been one long, continuous disaster with no apparent end in sight. Just pain and death. I don’t understand what Israel’s military strategy is supposed to be, and neither do many Israelis.
The most interesting thing is the response from the Arab nations
Hardly a peep from Saudia Arabia, Egypt, Jordan or the Emirates
They have direct experience of the Palestinians and their attempts to overthrow host nations
Seems to me they are quietly letting the Israelis to get on with neutralising Iran and its proxies
They have even started on the Houthis now, Saudi having some time off?
Steve @ 3.29 ” I don’t understand what Israel’s military strategy is supposed to be”,
Self preservation perhaps…….?
You can’t negotiate with people who don’t want to negotiate, so instead of Israel (and the rest of the world via Yemen) putting up with Irans’ proxies continuing a never ending intifada, put the cunts down once and for all.
A nuke on Tehran would calm the whole of the middle east for some time, inshah allah.
Steve, excuse me, I want to say “the last rational man thinking…”
Nietzsche once said something about the danger of fighting monster, because you could became one of them.
Adolff is an example.
I seem to recall another Adolf was fond of quoting Nietzsche
Used it to justify all sorts of things
When the UK was in the same position in 1940-43 what did we do?
Sorry rules of war be damned if they are only going to be applied to one aide
So Dresden was justify by Coventry?
Starfish your comment is puré Nietsche
Dresden was justified the moment the Nazis started putting people in death camps.
– So Dresden was justify by Coventry?
Dresden wasn’t justified by what they did to us first; it was justified by what they didn’t do to us again.
” I don’t understand what Israel’s military strategy is supposed to be”,
It’s fairly simple. They want to remove the cowardly bastards who think it’s acceptable to stab women while they rape them and commit even more despicable acts and then hide behind their own women and children from the face of the earth so they can’t do it again.
There’s a special place for their leaders in this process.
Come On You Yids
With the recent death of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, I wonder if the role might now go to a woman. for the first time.
Come on, Hezbollah. Isn’t it long overdue?
I don’t understand what Israel’s military strategy is supposed to be, and neither do many Israelis.
Bomb the fuck out of your enemies.
Before Oct 7th, Israel left Gaza alone for 20 years. Didn’t do them much good.
Marius
When you talk about bomb the fuck out of your enemies, I must admit I can’t see what else they can do.
As for the proposed retaliation against Iran, I’d have to agree that bombing their nuclear projects makes the most sense. They’re just something the Iranian government pisses away billions on, so it won’t make much difference to the welfare of the Iranian people. And who knows, it might delay a trifle the inevitable Middle Eastern nuclear exchange.