Israel-Gaza War (and Iranian Distractions)

US officials tell AP that the United States was not involved in tonight's air raid on Yemen.

Many vids on YouTube suggesting the NK’s are not very good soldiers and are getting annihilated at every turn. Are they really that bad? Are they actually involved much?

Night before last, US aircraft attacked both Sanaa and Hodeida, in the Houthi controlled portion of Yemen. Reports of loud explosions on a mountainside overlooking Sanaa, where the Houthis had military facilities. The US Central Command says only that missile storage and command and control sites were hit.

The attacks weren't without incident. A US Navy F/A-18F jet launched from the carrier USS Harry Truman was shot down in a friendly-fire incident, by a surface to air missile launched by the escorting cruiser USS Gettysburg. The ships were under attack at the time by Houthi drones and anti-ship cruise missiles. Nevertheless it's a major screw-up that will inevitably be the subject of an investigation. There are supposed to be Identification Friend-or-Foe (IFF) electronic systems to deconflict the air space to prevent just this kind of thing from happening.

Luckily, both crew from the two-seat jet were able to eject and have been recovered. One suffered injuries described as minor, the other was uninjured.

https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-mili...-incident/

nsNS

Apologies for post #492…. you’re getting old when you get wars mixed up.

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/-WUWYWwa668

Reports are claiming that former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad fell violently ill in his Moscow apartment, coughing and choking. He was transported to a hospital where tests revealed that he had been poisoned. He is said to be in stable condition.

(Dec 22, 2024 10:16 PM)Yazata Wrote: The attacks weren't without incident. A US Navy F/A-18F jet launched from the carrier USS Harry Truman was shot down in a friendly-fire incident, by a surface to air missile launched by the escorting cruiser USS Gettysburg...

Luckily, both crew from the two-seat jet were able to eject and have been recovered. One suffered injuries described as minor, the other was uninjured.

Here's a first-person account of the shootdown purportedly by the pilot of the F-18. It was on X for a short time before it was quickly deleted. Assuming it's real, it was probably information that they weren't authorized to make public. ("DCA" means "defensive counter air", jets launched to shoot down incoming drones.)

Interestingly, it appears that they ejected when they saw that the American surface to air missile was locked onto them and that they were toast, but before it hit which would have killed them.

Cease fire agreed to! Hostages to be released! Thank you Mr. Biden!

Steve Witkoff, President-elect Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, has also played an instrumental role, meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the weekend to express Trump’s interest in attaining a deal before his inauguration on Monday.
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/202...ews-hamas/

The only thing that has changed to motivate this is an incoming administration that will not try to threaten Israel to take it easy (as Biden as done).

Good grief. I can't believe the title that The Atlantic, of all mags, used. But they did add the caveat.
- - - - - - - - - - - -

Trump made the Gaza cease-fire happen (But not for the reasons he or Biden’s critics say)
https://www.theatlantic.com/internationa...mp/681325/

EXCERPT: The tentative agreement is nonetheless a victory for the foreign-policy teams of Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump, who worked in tandem with regional partners Qatar and Egypt to bring it about. The terms largely echo a proposal laid out by Biden himself in May 2024, but the incoming president dragged the parties over the finish line.

What changed was not Washington’s general orientation toward the conflict. Far from turning up the heat on Israel, Trump telegraphed a further embrace of its positions during his 2024 campaign, repeatedly attacking Biden for restricting arms sales to Israel. But this posture may have helped deliver both sides: Hamas could reasonably surmise that it would not get a better deal during Trump’s presidency, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government likely acceded to the arrangement in order to stay in the new leader’s good graces as he assumed office.

The Israeli far right, whose lawmakers hold the margin of power in Netanyahu’s coalition, had previously threatened to collapse the government should a deal be reached without Hamas fully vanquished from Gaza. But amid Trump’s return, the radicals have their eyes on bigger prizes, such as the annexation of the West Bank—which the Palestinians claim for their future state—and are loath to forgo such opportunities. For this reason, they will likely vote against the cease-fire but leave Netanyahu in power, allowing him to enact it.

Put another way, it’s not that Trump had a stick with which to beat Israel that Biden didn’t have; it’s that his presidency holds out the prospect of carrots that Biden would never offer. It was less the president-elect’s pressure than his potential promise that brought the Israeli far right onside. With Trump, everything is a transaction, and for his would-be suitors—not just Israel, but also Hamas’s sponsors in Qatar—the Gaza cease-fire is a down payment. (MORE - details)

I.e., "with Trump, everything is a transaction..."

The Shield ... Season 6: Episode 7 - aired May 2007

QUOTE: You think you could convince the Salvadoran grand Pooh-Bah to let that satisfy his blood lust? Octavio's not gonna promote me to captain if I'm talking like Gandhi.

Talk like Trump. Tell him it's about settling the beef so everyone can get back to business.