Trump's message to Hamas...[peace deal reached]

[Right_in_Virginia]

Flood all the miles of tunnels with Mediterranean Sea water

Why hasn't Israel already done this @DCPatriot  .... ?

[DCPatriot]

Why hasn't Israel already done this @DCPatriot  .... ?

Have no idea, @Right_in_Virginia

Just seems safest and least expensive way to eradicate the tunnels and destroy military equipment/arms.

Heard this discussed on talk radio today.

[Right_in_Virginia]

Have no idea, @Right_in_Virginia

Just seems safest and least expensive way to eradicate the tunnels and destroy military equipment/arms.

Heard this discussed on talk radio today.

I agree with this, which is why I've never understood why Israel pretty much ignored the tunnels for two years.  They could have rescued hostages, retrieved bodies and then destroyed them for good.  Just don't understand the strategy 
 
@DCPatriot

[berdie]

I agree with this, which is why I've never understood why Israel pretty much ignored the tunnels for two years.  They could have rescued hostages, retrieved bodies and then destroyed them for good.  Just don't understand the strategy 
 
@DCPatriot

Maybe for the last 2 years hostages were being held in the tunnels.

[Cyber Liberty]

Maybe for the last 2 years hostages were being held in the tunnels.

Yup!  Nothing to stop Israel from digging a canal to Gaza and fill up them tunnels.

[Timber Rattler]

I agree with this, which is why I've never understood why Israel pretty much ignored the tunnels for two years.  They could have rescued hostages, retrieved bodies and then destroyed them for good.  Just don't understand the strategy 

Because that's where the hostages were held, Sunshine!

[DefiantMassRINO]

Hamas takes hostages because they believe the Israeli's value them.  That gives Hamas leverage by kidnapping Israelis.

Israel needs to devalue the lives of Hamas's hostages to deprive them of leverage.  Think of the hostages as already dead, and proceed to turn Gaza into ash.

It's difficult for terrorists to hijack airliners, because once they reveal themselves, the other passengers presume that they are already dead (or will be dead), that they have nothing left to lose, and they overpower the hijackers.

War has to be cruel to discourage others from making war in the future.

Total war saves live because it shortens the conflict and decisively defeats the enemy to the point of unconditional surrender or complete annihilation.

I have no sympathy for aggressors and the parties that enable them.  If you're dumb, arrogant, or conceited enough to think you can mess with a bull, you deserve the horns.

The United Nations exists so nations can work out their differences without war.

Putin started the war and continues the war because he does not want peace with Ukraine; he wants to conquer it.

[Right_in_Virginia]

Because that's where the hostages were held, Sunshine!

That's a good point @Timber Rattler  ...

But, the very existence and expansion of these tunnels baffle me.  They were uncovered -- with certainty  -- during the war in 2014, yet left alone.

For the next 10 years residents of Southern Israel could hear the tunnel construction, colloquially called the "Hamas Metro", and Netanyahu approved what's been reported as much as a billion dollars in unaudited cash from Qatar to Hamas since 2018, which likely helped pay for the construction.

If the construction and expansion could be heard by those sitting around the breakfast table in a kibbutz, chances are the Mossad, Shin Bet and IDF could hear the sounds, too.  I simply don't understand why this threat wasn't cut off at its knees.   

[Hoodat]

If only Israel had been the 'occupiers' that they've been falsely accused of being, they could have done something about those tunnels.  They were stupid to allow Gaza to have control over their own Palestinian state.

[Right_in_Virginia]

If only Israel had been the 'occupiers' that they've been falsely accused of being, they could have done something about those tunnels.

It is curious ---- all Israel had to do was withhold water, food, electricity, medical supplies, and bomb the tunnels and call it "mowing the grass" --- or at least stop authorizing the transfers of cash ---.   But, for some God-forsaken reason, Netanyahu was okay with the expanding Hamas Metro.  I wish the why was known, with certainty.

[Cyber Liberty]

It is curious ---- all Israel had to do was withhold water, food, electricity, medical supplies, and bomb the tunnels and call it "mowing the grass" --- or at least stop authorizing the transfers of cash ---.   But, for some God-forsaken reason, Netanyahu was okay with the expanding Hamas Metro.  I wish the why was known, with certainty.

Well, not too fine a point on it, Bibi had thousands of people just like you criticizing his every move, and you would have been all over him for trying to find out how extensive the tunnel system really was.  And just about anything else he tries to do now....

[Kamaji]

The Hate never stops with this one.

[Hoodat]

Well, not too fine a point on it, Bibi had thousands of people just like you criticizing his every move, and you would have been all over him for trying to find out how extensive the tunnel system really was.  And just about anything else he tries to do now....

Damned if you do.  Damned if you don't.  But it interesting watching those who condemn Israel for its 'occupation' [sic] of Gaza now blame Israel for not occupying Gaza.

[Cyber Liberty]

Damned if you do.  Damned if you don't.  But it interesting watching those who condemn Israel for its 'occupation' [sic] of Gaza now blame Israel for not occupying Gaza.

Yeah, funny isn't it?

[Sighlass]

Hamas will just pull the equipment out of the tunnels if you flood them, or build new tunnels to hide the loot they still have. Israel just needs to wipe the place clean .... there can/will be no peace with those animals.

[Right_in_Virginia]

Well, not too fine a point on it, Bibi had thousands of people just like you criticizing his every move, and you would have been all over him for trying to find out how extensive the tunnel system really was.  And just about anything else he tries to do now....

Not to put too fine a point on it, I've been all over the great and powerful Bibi since 2014 --- as were hundreds of thousands of Israelis and several key members of his government who quit over his mishandling of the 2014 lawn mowing excursion, especially for allowing the tunnels to remain. 

Netanyahu deserves no rest, no quarter unless and until he explains, under oath:  ---  Why he allowed Hamas to expand its tunnel network and amass weapons of war, the deal he made with the devil to authorize the transfer of one billion dollars through the years to Hamas --- (the last approval he gave was in September 2023) --- why he and his administration ignored the clarion warning in the late 2022 Israeli security report titled "The Jericho Walls" and again weeks before the Oct 7 attack --- and why repeatedly bombing the same territory for two years to turn rubble to dust was more important than finding and retrieving Israeli hostages, both alive and dead.

I pray this peace agreement holds together --- that the Arab coalition can control Hamas and President Trump can control Netanyahu.  And I pray Israelis have both the wisdom and the courage to select a new Prime Minister who is ready and able to lead the nation into a new chapter --- a chapter with new alliances, a functioning membership in the neighborhood and the possibility of tangible peace, stability and prosperity.

Israelis of all stripes should finally offer to help the Netanyahu clan pack.

[Right_in_Virginia]

But it interesting watching those who condemn Israel for its 'occupation' [sic] of Gaza now blame Israel for not occupying Gaza.

You present an interesting thesis:  Is the purpose of the occupation to keep Israelis safe?  If so, Netanyahu is doing a rather poor job, especially where the Hamas tunnels and weapons are concerned.  Or is the purpose of the occupation to insure a Jewish majority in the Israeli State, using mowing the lawn and war to turn Gaza totally unlivable hoping to make ethnic cleansing more palatable and "humane"?

This certainly is food for thought...