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Israel's tactic has always been deterrence: I will inflict you so much pain that you will think twice before doing this again. Despite being proven wrong, a "re
by throwaway55479 3y ago
Israel's tactic has always been deterrence: I will inflict you so much pain that you will think twice before doing this again. Despite being proven wrong, a "realist politician' will automatically think of adding more (and then some) deterrence as the only solution.
I remember 20 years ago, during the first bombing of Gaza, they hit just ONE building and felt pressured enough to apologize for the handful of civilian deaths. Unfortunately, faced with larger threats (real or imaginary) and weak international pressure, Israel has been able to escalate the level of deterrence through the years to what we are witnessing now.
That is why any ruling to curb that "automatic" escalation (like today) is wholeheartedly welcomed.
IMO there are also subtler layers of racism coloring these policies. It's not as blatant as the far-right rhetoric, but a persistent undertone within elements of Israeli society justifies severe deterrence tactics and totally overide any empathy learnt from historical lessons.
- bsaul 3y agoNote that the least you can say is that escalation is happening on both sides. Oct 7 level of atrocities has never been seen before in israel.
- throwaway55479 3y agoYes. That is why I said: faced with larger threats What I can add is that this is indeed not just a "larger" threat for them. It "activated" a millennium-deep Jewish trauma (through pogroms up to the Holocaust). Deep, very deep.
- LegitShady 3y agoI think any country faced with the same situation would act the same, or even less restrained. It's not some kind of esoteric jewish trauma.
- throwaway55479 3y agoMaybe. However, the situation itself is so special, I'm not sure how you would "generalize it" to others. And there is really nothing esoteric about the deep trauma. It is widely documented.
- johnnyworker 3y ago[flagged]
- dang 3y agoSince you've continued to post in the flamewar style after we repeatedly asked you to stop, I've banned this account. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39146733 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39146733 also. If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. They're here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.
- objektif 3y agoNo essentially it is as simple as how any abuser bully behaves. They will continue their behavior as long as they are allowed to. Look at US for enabling them.
- exe34 3y agoDoesn't really matter what you choose to call it, they will make sure there's no Hamas to do it again.
- objektif 3y agoHamas should not exist that is not the point. It is the civilians. They will also not exist if it goes on like this.
- exe34 3y ago[flagged]
- objektif 3y ago[flagged]
- dang 3y agoYou've been posting repeatedly to this thread in a way that has been crossing into flamewar and breaking the intended spirit that I tried to express in my pinned comment at the top. Could you please stop doing this? It leads to hellish flamewar, and we don't want that here. I am certain that you have very legitimate reasons for feeling strongly. Whatever your reasons may be, I respect them. At the same time, posting in a thread like this has to do with how one manages one's feelings: do they express themselves in (let's call it) a weaponized way? if so, that's against the intended spirit here. Or can you post in a way that is somehow larger than that? No one can be asked to do the latter, but I do think we can ask commenters to refrain from posting if they can't get there.