Despite the massive build-up on the border with Gaza, the Israeli Defense Forces seem a little hesitant to start their ground offensive.

The weather is stopping a ground assault? The vaunted IDF is stymied because it is a little overcast? Perhaps it is something else, something the Israelis are smelling in the wind.

What no one seems to be asking about the Hamas attacks is perhaps the most critical question: why?
Sure you can say the reason is simply bloodlust, Hamas wants to kill Israelis, etc. and I am sure that has something to do with it but there is more going on here. Hamas is goading Israel into a response, and it is working. While normies in America are seeing endless stories about dead Israelis, the Arab world and much of the non-White world for that matter, is seeing videos of the devastation in Gaza, the death toll including children, reports of all sorts of human rights violations. While American elites are reading Jews and neocons in the New York Times defending the actions of Israel, many in the non-Western world are reading angry editorials denouncing Israel at places like Al Jazeera. The number of dead Palestinian civilians already dwarfs the Israeli death count and with as many as a million displaced and services being shut off in Gaza that death toll will continue to climb.
Still, why is Israel delaying their ground assault? Perhaps they understand the lessons of the post-9/11 world from places like Iraq and Afghanistan: all of the advanced weapons in the world still are vulnerable when you are going street by street against people willing to die if they can take their adversary with them. Fanatics are deadly. When faced with overwhelming odds on Pacific islands, the Japanese didn’t surrender. Instead they would hide and attack passing U.S. forces, knowing that they would die but willing to make that sacrifice in order to take some Americans with them. Japanese kamikaze pilots intentionally crashed their planes into American vessels to attempt to cripple them. Islamist suicide bombers will blow themselves up with an explosives vest in order to kill others. Killing another person is one thing, but killing yourself in order to do so is quite another.
So perhaps the IDF isn’t looking forward to wandering into a dense urban zone full of lunatics willing to die if they can take some Israelis with them. On the other hand, they kind of have to now. If they back down, they risk looking weak and indecisive, something that would be sure to embolden Hamas into striking again. I don’t think Hamas cares how many Palestinians die in the effort to provoke and weaken Israel, quite the contrary as the more the Palestinians are butchered, the more regional opinions turn against Israel and make it harder for more moderate Arab nations to normalize relations.
It is easier to just pretend that Hamas are all insane and Israel is a completely rational player but that doesn’t really capture what is going on. Hamas is intentionally goading Israel and now Israel is in a pickle, either they go into Gaza and face what could be an insurgent guerrilla war or they back down and look weak. Either way a lot of innocents are going to be killed as these desert tribes continue the latest chapter of the millennia old squabble.
I was surprised to see Times of Israel reporting this morning 289 Israeli KIA. Far more than I had been presuming. IDF is highly casualty sensitive; largely volunteer force; lots of 30 and 40 somethings; most with families; most with productive, technical roles in the economy; many females. The adversary they face is close to completely opposite (except “volunteer”). In short, just those demographics apart from the mindset incentives you note have a real impact on correlation of forces calculations. And the real ugliness and attrition has not even started. 50 years is a long time between “real” wars – in the closest to that, in 1982, the IDF ground forces were not particularly impressive; same for 2014 with limited successes in tunnel warfare. Unless the IDF decides to declare victory and pull back and fudge some hostage exchange, the weeks ahead present incalculable dangers – locally and globally. An Israeli source claims US has committed to attacking Hez. in Lebanon and Syria if their level of involvement crosses a threshold
It will be interesting to see if the IDF is as awesome as they are supposed to be, it has all been theory at this point.
There’s also the aspect of the tunnels under Gaza are like “Cu Chi meets North Korea”. In fact RUMINT is that the Norks gave ‘technical assistance’ to Iran/Hamas/Hezbollah in building some of the underground damned-near cities/factories.
I’ve been watching a lot of the Hajji-propaganda feeds showing the Glorious Islamic Army of Allah (PBUH)™ stockpiling weapons, building weapons yadda yadda.
That’s a MAJOR reason (along with some convos I’ve had) that I think they’re going to pop off a mini-nook and blame Iran. A Nice Deep Penetrating bomb that literally sucks the paint off the house and gives them the permanent orange afro keeps the casualty counts down, and eliminates the whole threat period fucking DOT.
Doesn’t have to be a nuke. There are other ways to cause a big explosion that will suck the sir out of tunnels and destroy them. Ones that dont use a nuke, using one even if blamed on iran crosses a line a lot of countries wont accept.
If anyone could get away with using a small nuke, it is Israel. Our elites will defend their actions no matter what they do.
Odd how many of our* elites have dual citizenship.
I sure as shit wouldn’t want to be trying to root Hamas out of tunnels (or anyone else, the idea of going into tunnels like in Vietnam scares the crap out of me)
“While American elites are reading Jews and neocons in the New York Times defending the actions of Israel”
There’s a difference?
There are plenty of elite Whites in DC/NY that aren’t Jewish racially but might as well be
Palestinian or Israeli, they are are all semites.
LaSagna
Correct, therefore not my people and also therefore not my concern. Let them fight, keep us out of it.
Iran has said that if Israel launches a ground assault on Gaza, it will enter the fray…Israel would be wise to stay out anyway, as the IDF has fared poorly against teenage militia in recent years, and the IDF would take many many casualties…Iran entering would create a potential catastrophe if the US responds, with Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz, and $200/bl oil….
We will see, I read that as well but I chalked it up to Muslim bluster.
Disagree entirely Arthur – but the usual weasel words are in force: I admit I could be full a chit.
The NYT and other spouts and sewer fountains are being met with everything from derisive laughter, to cold fury, to heckling crowds throwing rotten vegetables. The usual narrative construction techniques aren’t working. The jewry is taking beatings all across social media from – of all people – whites. Ben Shitpiro will be lucky if he isn’t wrapped in oily rags and fired out of a cannon. Juden Peterson is getting trolled by the wanks from the Chans to Gab. He’d be getting it in spades on Twitter and Bookface were the tribe not heavily censoring those spaces.
The simple fact is that if Israel starts ethnically cleansing the Gaza, the arabs from the surrounding countries will start cleansing Israel. The Great Satan is reaching his limit. The arabs know it. People are fed up with jewish perfidy.
If the Jews are smart, they’ll take their pound of flesh and call it a day. If the arabs are smart… right now would be an excellent time to attack. Not supporting them or wishing harm or antisemitism on the Jews…I’m just sayin’.
That powder keg has been waiting to blow for 75 years. I don’t think it will be much longer.
I am not so sure of that, the normiecon media sites are mostly full of Israeli cheerleading, probably from sock puppet accounts in Israel but plenty of Boomers are still Our Greatest Allying
We’ll see. There are likely to be a lot of negatives about going in.
It will be ugly if they do
If WW III gets started, let’s go full circle and promise the Jews a homeland in Ukraine and repatriate American Jews as well via Ellis Island, then send over the Hollywood Jews to produce a Fiddler On the Roof reboot. Maybe then we can audit the Fed and send them all a bill
They can keep their homeland in the Levant, just keep us out of it.
If we don’t love Hymie it will mean no ride on the Rapture Express and a free ride to the hot sulfur place instead!
No shirking, get out your hecho en China Israel pin and update all profile pics and current things.
Keep your virtue signal current.
It is amazing how much of our foreign policy is based on simplistic eschatology and pop culture books about the “Rapture”