placnx

"Much of the world and much of their neighborhood really really wants to wipe Israel off the map." You deny paranoia, but your own statement is paranoid. It was tragic for the kibbutzes, but Israel's treatment of the Palestinians for long years, now it's strategy to bring Saudi Arabia into its circle, has reduced the Palestinians to desperation. As the campaign against Palestinians continues in both Gaza and the West Bank, it increasingly seems that the goal is to empty historic Palestine of its people to realize the slogan "A land without people for a people without a land", which was the mythical propaganda starting in the 19th Century.

Taliban or Hamas have not attacked the US. Al Qaeda did.

It helps to understand the reasons historically why we have the Security Council permanent members that we do. Back then evidently the people who drafted the Charter were naive and anachronistic, not understanding the dynamics which could undermine their idealistic view of the functioning of a system to regulate international relations.

Robots are known tech. By now IDF should have planned how to do tunnel warfare and created the appropriate tech for detecting hazards.

US on behalf of Israel, for a starter.

Looking back to the Shah's reign, middle class people were not happy with SAVAK, the secret police, and many thought that Ayatollah Khomeini would be better. Iran had a parliament for a long time, but now the ultimate power resides with the religious elite. I agree that the country can culturally support a democracy, but imposition by external force is problematic. There too much chance for opportunists to come in on the back of occupation.

Concerning IZ, it's existential in a paranoid mind.

You haven't been following Yemen. US is currently containing the situation by naval forces. There has been a war going on in Yemen for years, finally winding down. The US stopped supporting this war several years ago. Your idea of installing a govenment in Iran was already tried in Iraq.

Not sure about Saudi Arabia. They have already seen the mess in Iraq.

Most wars in recent memory planted the seeds for the next war. This is certainly true in the Middle East.

You might say that Trump's Abraham Accords were a proximate factor behind the current war.

I was not talking about Thailand. It was about Putin avoiding a visit to South Africa, which is technically required to arrest hum. The two sides are not consolidated yet, but US will be the core broker on Israel's side, and Arab League/OIC/BRICS, etc, etc will broker the Palestinian side. The old approach with US dominating didn't work and will never work.

This war is really on three fronts: Gaza, Lebanon, and the West Bank. If Israel ends up occupying Gaza, then administrative detention will happen there, too. Thanks for the link. It gives real life accounts of the effect of administrative detention on Palestinians. My link was a technical explanation by B'Tselem, which I posted because others were giving a distorted impression on administrative detention.

Unfortunately the "current events" are a cure worse than the disease.

Thailand was occupied by Japan and occasionally was bombed. It was not an enthusiatic supporter of Japan.

The colonies (or in this case territories taken from the Ottomans) were in the Levant and ruled by France and Britain. It was not the "West", but these two members of the Security Council (SC). I was trying to give more background to the creation of the SC. Russia and China were nonchalantly given permanent member status in 1945 without thinking about how things might change in the future.

The WSJ mentioned last Thursday some of the Hamas asks regarding hostage release. Their usual formula is all Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the captured IDF soldiers. However, the article said this: "Hamas told the negotiators it was ready to extend the truce by an additional four days, the officials said, and discuss the release of fighting-age men in exchange for senior Palestinians jailed in Israel." It's been clear for a long time that the exchange ratio for soldiers would be more akin to the Gilad Shalit case. Does "senior Palestinians" mean political prisoners such as Marwan Barghouti?

Where did I deny the existence of tunnels? However, disproportionate killing is undeniable. Instead of bunker busters, IDF should use their technology to enter the tunnels instead of destroying them. Maybe they can find traces of hostage presence in the process. Bunker busters might kill hostages instead of Hamas people. As for whether they finish al-Shifa off with bombs remains to be seen. So far they are doing a good job of making hospitals unable to function.

If you had looked at the post above, this link was there: https://www.btselem.org/administrative_detention

Well, the settlers and Ben Gvir are working on it.

Your alternative reality?

Maybe Netanyahu is quite content to see Biden twist in the wind in the expectation that young US voters will abandon Biden in 2024 and Trump will win, so that the Greater Israel project can forge ahead full speed.

Didn't he also go to the Sinai side of the Rafah crossing? I have covered administrative detention in a response to Morch above.

Apparently the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem does not agree with you: https://www.btselem.org/administrative_detention A two-state solution for now is the only way to stop this cycle of violence. Maybe in the future, Israel will deal with the apartheid within its borders. Then a one-state solution would be feasible if people wanted that. I believe that Putin did not go to South Africa and sent Lavrov instead.

Somewhere back in this topic I suggested a veto override mechanism. UN Charter followed the WW I outmoded concept of victors dictating to the world, so the "powers" were the countries given veto power in the SC. Two of these were European colonial powers at the time - Britain and France, while the US was supposedly advocating abolition of colonies. In spite of its veto power, USSR was not able to block the UN authorized defense of South Korea, while China a/k/a Taiwan was irrelevant back then. Nowadays China & Russia seem to have imperial ambitions.