Yesterday 11:34 PM
Israel’s attacks on Lebanon ‘poisoning the atmosphere’ ahead of Pakistan talks: As US-Iran talks in Pakistan near, professor Mehran Kamrava of Georgetown University in Qatar identifies three core obstacles to a durable agreement. According to Kamrava, the first obstacle is Lebanon and Israel’s refusal to halt bombardment as “poisoning the atmosphere” before talks have even begun. The second obstacle, according to Kamrava, is sanctions, which he said are non-negotiable for Iran “Washington’s 15-point proposal did acknowledge sanctions relief as a subject for discussion, but the extent of primary and secondary sanctions removal remains deeply contested,” he said. The third is the Strait of Hormuz. Iran is determined to retain some measure of control over it and will not easily relinquish that leverage, he added.
Bad Israeli history repeats yet again
https://themedialine.org/news/opinion/ba...yet-again/
EXCERPTS: “We learn from history that we learn no history,” said my eighth-grade history teacher back in the early 1960s. Sure enough, now Israel has done it again, this time with the unwelcome addition of unrealistic expectations and unfounded braggadocio.
Israel and the United States have been pounding Iran from the air for more than a month, but Iranian missiles kept falling on Israeli population centers until a ceasefire took effect—leaving thousands of Iranian missiles in place... [...] Undeterred, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu keeps insisting that the Israeli military is the best in the world, while implying that Iran’s regime was significantly weakened (but not overthrown).
A realistic assessment would add “for its size” to the “best in the world” description of the Israeli military. In fact, the long war in Gaza has stretched the Israeli army to the breaking point—even its military chief of staff has said the current situation raises “10 red flags” about the army nearing collapse under the weight of repeated reserve call-ups and refusal of the government to force ultra-Orthodox Jews to serve.
Here are the facts: Israel’s “best army in the world” has fought to a standstill in Gaza, facing a well-armed but relatively small force of Hamas terrorists. Likewise, in Lebanon, despite weeks of heavy bombing as well as occupation of a strip of territory across the Israeli border, the Israeli military admits it can’t disarm the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon without a full-scale ground invasion...
[...] So, an army that can’t sweep away terrorists in either Gaza or Lebanon is going to vanquish Iran, forcing regime change in a country with nine times Israel’s population and eight times its land mass? Well, no—despite the exaggerated claims and outlandish predictions from Jerusalem and Washington... (MORE - details)
Bad Israeli history repeats yet again
https://themedialine.org/news/opinion/ba...yet-again/
EXCERPTS: “We learn from history that we learn no history,” said my eighth-grade history teacher back in the early 1960s. Sure enough, now Israel has done it again, this time with the unwelcome addition of unrealistic expectations and unfounded braggadocio.
Israel and the United States have been pounding Iran from the air for more than a month, but Iranian missiles kept falling on Israeli population centers until a ceasefire took effect—leaving thousands of Iranian missiles in place... [...] Undeterred, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu keeps insisting that the Israeli military is the best in the world, while implying that Iran’s regime was significantly weakened (but not overthrown).
A realistic assessment would add “for its size” to the “best in the world” description of the Israeli military. In fact, the long war in Gaza has stretched the Israeli army to the breaking point—even its military chief of staff has said the current situation raises “10 red flags” about the army nearing collapse under the weight of repeated reserve call-ups and refusal of the government to force ultra-Orthodox Jews to serve.
Here are the facts: Israel’s “best army in the world” has fought to a standstill in Gaza, facing a well-armed but relatively small force of Hamas terrorists. Likewise, in Lebanon, despite weeks of heavy bombing as well as occupation of a strip of territory across the Israeli border, the Israeli military admits it can’t disarm the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon without a full-scale ground invasion...
[...] So, an army that can’t sweep away terrorists in either Gaza or Lebanon is going to vanquish Iran, forcing regime change in a country with nine times Israel’s population and eight times its land mass? Well, no—despite the exaggerated claims and outlandish predictions from Jerusalem and Washington... (MORE - details)