The Present Israel-Palestine Conflict Thread

[Foucaulf]

I don't like talking about this issue much - people either frame it exclusively in IR or ethical terms, without weighing both perspectives - but I'll say a few things.

"Israel's right to defend themselves” and "Israel's right to fight for their land" are two different things. Of course Israel has the right to defend itself - it's called the Iron Dome, and it has been working very well (zero long-range missile related deaths so far). Israel's right to fight for their land is a much harder issue, because we cannot agree on what "Israel's land" is. Jerusalem would think it's Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Golan, plus effective control of Gaza.

It's not as relevant who exactly started the missile launches this iteration. The fact that Israel has staged a naval blockade around Gaza for years is sufficient grounds for military retaliation.

I remember going to a lecture by John Mearsheimer - IR realist at Chicago - and he answered a question about the future of Israel. He made an interesting point about how the current climate in Israel will continue to drag policies rightwards, up to the point where American Jews and similar audiences can no longer support the state. That will be the breaking point of sorts. It seems to me that more and more people are indulging in these "long run" solutions to the conflict (think also people who predict Israeli demographic collapse). The theories may be right, but they all sound so indulgent, fielded by those never in a hurry.

[Foucaulf]

ISIS is now threatening to get involved in the conflict.

If that happens, you would basically have the beginning of World War III.

Time for Israel and Hamas to get their sh!t together.

Don't feed the doomsayers. The Second Congo War had more interlocking alliances than this.

There's a bit more to be said about media representation of this conflict: Graun article about disproportionate screentime to Israeli officials here, Atlantic article about I/P sucking up public interest here. I will say that public protest is a very specific measure of dissent, something that I think has a high decay rate. The theory is that protests will likely be ineffective, so once people realize that they move on again. It could also be that the fervour surrounding I/P is maintained by Western nations acting so slowly on it; since western nations blockaded Syria so quickly, there is not much to demand further absent arms funnelling.