Neither are stupid. Hamas, surely, would have anticipated the reaction to their lethal attack, surely deliberately poking a stick into the Israeli nest. Expecting Israel to send most of its manpower to Gaza, leaving much of Israel under protected. They must, surely, have prepared a second wave of attack, probably at somewhere like Tel Aviv, with suicide squads based and established in nearby countries, co-ordinated to seize planes like Isis did 22 years ago. To destroy Tel Aviv like Gaza City. To dump fuel over the massed troops on the border. And surely Israel must be aware of this. But, then, they seem not to have anticipated the first attack. And seem to have reacted just as expected - provoked by acts of meaningless violence (why behead babies?). Odd.

If I was booked on a flight from Damascus to Amman or Cairo to Beirut or any other regional plane journeys today, I'd be very nervous.

Does make you wonder doesn't it why they have undoubtedly drawn as much wrath and fire onto Gaza as they could?

But perhaps it is we who are applying too much cold calculation. I suppose it comes down to whether the horrors committed by Hamas were emotional psychopathic, drug fuelled acts, or calculated.

I guess soon we will know...

Surely virtually ALL the people of Gaza would say RELEASE ALL THE HOSTAGES NOW to their horrid leaders. And almost all Israelis would say TURN BACK ON ELECTRICITY, WATER and STOP BOMBING NOW.
It's the leaders, be they democratically elected, dictators, military, police obeying orders - the "cream" of our species has gone sour.

Yes all leaders around the world, it seems, coming down on one side of this argument or another. Not on the side that most of us are on - humanity.

But what do we do? Where are we? We saw the pro Palestinians in London yesterday. Where are the 70 odd million - just taking the UK - who just want this shit to stop?

It is crazy - and even the majority online are just those who shout loudest and think shortest. Social media has given voice to the voiceless but sadly a majority of the voiceless do not deserve to have their thoughts heard as they are opinions made without thought.

Wyot wrote:
Yes all leaders around the world, it seems, coming down on one side of this argument or another. Not on the side that most of us are on - humanity.

But what do we do? Where are we? We saw the pro Palestinians in London yesterday. Where are the 70 odd million - just taking the UK - who just want this shit to stop?

Ukraine are now pissed off their billions of hryvnya from the West has slowed down and no longer in the limelight. If the GI Joe lookalike will stage an incident to get Biden to pay out. USA is going bankrupt like the UK.

I'll write it again, more slowly: relativism is not relevant here. It's not about opinions. Terrorism and freedom fighting...take a deep breath...are objectively not the same thing. Truly. It's a very basic part of political understanding. If you use terror, it's not freedom fighting, regardless of what side you think you're on. It's astounding some journalists have come this far without understanding this really basic distinction.

Rick wrote:
I'll write it again, more slowly: relativism is not relevant here. It's not about opinions. Terrorism and freedom fighting...take a deep breath...are objectively not the same thing. Truly. It's a very basic part of political understanding. If you use terror, it's not freedom fighting, regardless of what side you think you're on. It's astounding some journalists have come this far without understanding this really basic distinction.

But the concepts of freedom/occupation/terror[i] have to be established first in order to get to the objectivity you claim. And they are subjective.

Claims for objectivity from subjectivity has a fishy smell; best avoided my old fruit.

My tip is to adopt an opinion that Hamas and Israeli leaders are evil murdering motherfuckers.

Much easier and means you can cease your fruitless quest for objectivity through words; and can start looking the only place it can be found: mathematics.