Israel under attack from hamas, war declared.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

Hezbollah has been caught with their pants down standing in doodoo of their own making on more than one occasion.

Good analysis there tamada although one wonders why no one has thought of creating a Hezbollah-Israel thread yet.

As far as Stewart is concerned, he's just an above average comedian who can articulate controversial political points well. In other words, don't look to him if you want Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, George Gobel or George Formby type humour.

[AlexO]

Jon Stewart shares more unfiltered thoughts about war in the Middle East
"Do you even hear yourself?"

Jon Stewart called out the “cognitive dissonance and language calisthenics” used when describing Israel‘s attacks against Hezbollah. On Monday’s episode, the Daily Show host offered a “golden soundbite” to explain how “flucking convoluted this has to be.”

Escalate to de-escalate - FFS

Escalation in order to de-escalate has just been implemented in Beirut, successfully delivering another black eye to Iran.

From what's being shown, the Lebanese civilians are following the warnings from Israel and evacuating to open spaces where it's impossible for Hezbollah militia to infiltrate and thus be targeted. If they chose to stay in tower blocks with deep basements that can be used as Hezbollah war rooms, then sorry if some dishes get broken when a bunker bomb is dropped. It appears that the militant's offence is limited to their diminishing stock of missiles while IDF forces mass on the border.

This in contrast to Gaza where the locals repeatedly "evacuate" from one hospital to the next school or UN facility, where the militants can easily blend in and guess what? Shock and horror when innocent women and children are killed. There's this idea that there are no safe and open spaces in Gaza but when foreign media is banned, who can argue with the claims that the population is forced by Hamas, under all sorts if threats and retribution, to be their human shield.

Of course Hamas's and Hezbollah's armed forces are structured differently with the former embedding themselves within the population whereas the latter have been allowed to create a regular army that's far bigger and better armed than the Lebanese armed forces. An open state within a state.

Hezbollah claims to be fighting for the restoration of Lebanese land which, if I am not mistaken, Israel did not create but only inherited from an unresolved border dispute between Lebanon and Syria, a situation that was created before any Israeli incursions and "occupation".

As much as I like Jon Stewart, yes it is "flucking convoluted" but it has been already been that for a very, very long time.

[tamada]

I did consider a separate thread for the looming conflict with Lebanon but deferred until it really kicks off. That doesn't prevent anyone else from creating one though. It's a public forum and being or making the OP doesn't confer any thread control or ownership.