I think most people are acutely aware of how little influence they have over the endless conflict in the Middle East and over what used to be called the Middle East peace process. If any of us were ever under any illusions about that, clear eyes prevail today.

Unfortunately for the security and indeed survival of the Jewish state, the many policies that Israel is and has been pursuing with regard to its security and long-term well-being have been demonstrably ... what's the word for it ... counterproductive.

and if even a former PM of israel has limited influence, people elsewhere in the world need to understand that their influence is even more limited, and any attempts to overstep that limited influence, even by the closest of allies with the best of intentions, will be met with staunch resistance. president biden clearly gets this. VP Harris appears to get it as well. other individuals may never get it.

Exactly... definitely counterproductive.

Perfectly stated. :)

Keep yourself safe, please. :)

Here is what Ehud Barak thinks about all of this. His is a voice of reason and reality but those who fail to see the harm that Israel is doing to itself will probably dismiss it as mere propaganda. Which would be quite unwise.

https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2024-06-13/ty-article-opinion/.premium/israel-must-oust-its-failed-government-before-it-sinks-into-the-moral-abyss/00000190-1285-d621-abfa-5bb5e9840000

Forget about Ukraine.

I totally agree with you on Biden and Gaza.

Ceasefire to start then hostage exchanges but after that I don’t see how Israel agrees to a two state solution because the Palestinians have never given up wanting to destroy Israel and cannot be trusted. I’d really like to know what nypoet22 thinks about this.

You’ve been dead wrong that it was somehow Biden’s fault that Putin simply did what Russian rulers have done for centuries.

You keep repeating this nonsense that I somehow blame Biden for Putin's war(s) in Ukraine. Please stop and engage intelligently.

What do I think Biden should do on this file as he draws his political career to an end?

He should work toward regime change in Israel and stop sending secretary of state Blinken and other officials there until Israel agrees to end the war and get out of Gaza in exchange for a return of all of the hostages.

All other options are worse - for Israel and the region and the US.

BUT genocide would be Israel carpet bombing the entirety of Gaza on 9 October year of our Lord 2023.

That's a little, if off-colour, joke, right? There is not much left of Gaza right now BUT, granted, it has taken several months!

Can we at least agree that the IDF have been less than discriminate in their killing of Paletinian (and other) civilians?

What would I have had Biden do, you ask? No time to answer that at the moment. Be back sometime later...

If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that's what I'm going to do.

It is quite a burden to have black people living in one's town. It's odd that the governor and local officials don't feel their constituents' suffering as acutely as Vance and his boss. Fat Donny's middle name is empathy.

Setting aside the fact that Israel is exerting far more care than say, us Yanks killing a million Iraqis hunting for the WMDs. And the fact that the Jews are being held to a vastly higher standard than [name one] other country.

(Full disclosure: I hate the West Bank settlements invasion and Israelis — like all that are at war — committing war crimes and I think bleephead Bibi is prolonging this war because when it’s done then he’s done. Facing charges like his buddy Donold. So I see Israel’s warts along with her promise.)

BUT genocide would be Israel carpet bombing the entirety of Gaza on 9 October year of our Lord 2023.

What did I miss?

Now what would you have Joe do differently? If he completely cut Israel off they could fight for months with wha they’ve been stocking up for a rainy day.

Joe did a fabulous job of unifying NATO and the world against Putin.

That is entirely dependent upon how you define 'unifying' and 'the world'.

Besides Ukraine and oil production what else are you correctly or incorrectly mad at Joe about?

More than 40,000 dead Palestinian civilians in Gaza, along with the death of more United Nations personnel than during any other conflict, the re-emergence of Polio as a result of an egregious lack of water and sanitation in the wake of the IDF's destruction of these life-sustaining systems and infrastructure.

This, more than any other issue, will put a massive stain on the Biden legacy that will never be removed.

In a masterstroke of irony, it was the Biden administration that finally made a bit of a cynic out of me. I can obviously take a lot and a long while but I catch on eventually, given enough disappointment.

You’ve been dead wrong that it was somehow Biden’s fault that Putin simply did what Russian rulers have done for centuries. For the record it’s called revanchism and Joe did a fabulous job of unifying NATO and the world against Putin. United like no one (especially Putin)expected in a million years. The only false step was slow walking the necessary armaments and restricting their use in Russia because Putin keeps threatening to use nukes. Like, back to the beginning over sending Javelins.

Yeah, I am not especially pleased that us Yankees are leading the world in oil production but keeping energy security for ourselves and our allies is important at the moment. It’s just a matter of time before Russia’s four million barrels per day fall off the market and without the actively operating production capacity to take up the slack we’d get $10USD per gallon of petrol…and all of the sudden Trump has a REAL shot at winning in November.

Other than this Joe has been a truly LBJ-level transformative President and a great surprise for Progressives like me. Besides Ukraine and oil production what else are you correctly or incorrectly mad at Joe about?

I understand that his nickname is “Lady Graham” and that he has a bunch of male escorts who have signed NDAs.

I mean, I read it online so it must be true!

If you are unaware that Lindsey Graham is gay, you have not been paying attention. Please don't feel sorry for him. Miss Lindsey made calculated choices that have led to this point.

Fat Donny likes to tell a story about a snake. Lindsey should have paid attention.

“As a native Arizonan, I am proud to endorse Kelli Butler and Karen Gresham to represent LD4 in Arizona’s State House,” she told Mother Jones. “Kelli and Karen are both strong, experienced candidates, born and raised in Arizona. They are working mothers fighting for the rights that matter most to Arizonans, especially every child’s right to a quality education.”'
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lynda-carter-republican-sister-arizona_n_66e4739de4b03e3cc1001d2b

I'm surprised that NO ONE is speculating what Loomer 'brings to the table' for Trump. He is already comfortably in the antisemite/racist camp and she definitely isn't a policy 'wonk'.
Perhaps it's her servicing him UNDER the table?

If Trump had such an incredible night at the debate, then why did Trump say that the moderators were just awful? Usually, when one has such a momentous victory at a debate, the winners don’t feel the need to complain about how unfair that they were treated. If you had such an incredible night, it just seems like you would not be complaining about unfair you were treated. You would be running ads showing off your great performance at the debate…but there have been ZERO of those ads run. Why, Donald? It almost appears like you did not win the debate against Harris!

But how can that be?!?!?

I joined the estimated 20% of all us hillbillies that didn’t go no damn place. Yeah, it’s been smokey but the fire never got closer than four miles and has long since burned due east rather than due north towards where I am.

The only thing that sucked is that I lost signal Tuesday afternoon so I missed the debate. So thanks for filling in some of the blanks Chris and Weigantia.

His spirit animal is the chicken, but he's a delusional chicken. He knows he's in big trouble and another debate is the only way to get a big enough audience to turn things around. Hopefully Loomer hangs on long enough to prep him for another one.

His spine is as stiff as a bowl of chicken fat in the fridge. He said this today:

I did great in the debates and I think they've answered everything, but maybe if I got in the right mood, I don't know

It seems like he's experiencing diminishing returns for all of his con man moves. He doesn't seem to know it, but I think he's stuck with her. He'll be sad as she morphs from fluffer to anchor.