Mailwatch(ed) Forum

I heard it suggested today that the beard-burning hand-choppers' taking the fruity stuff to 60% was merely sabre-rattling. "See? We have the Power."

There is some decent logic in that, albeit laced with irresponsibility which tempts the FAFO maxim.

A double-tap on journalists and rescue workers in Gaza. That has to be up there with the most egregious and wanton crimes of this bestial, criminal enterprise in Tel Aviv.

Utterly hateful.

No worries - Netanyahu has called it a "tragic mishap". I'm sure there'll be a full and open inquiry with the blame correctly apportioned.

davidjay wrote: ↑Mon Aug 25, 2025 10:19 pm No worries - Netanyahu has called it a "tragic mishap". I'm sure there'll be a full and open inquiry with the blame correctly apportioned.

Bibi's pals on Facebook "know" they were all Hamas.

Some credit due to Trump - never thought I’d write that - for bringing Netanyahu to heel and getting Hamas to realise that holding onto the hostages is no longer either benefitting their cause or protecting Palestinians from the Israelis’ decimation of Gaza, so a peace agreement is in both parties’ interests.

Two things, though :

A near identical deal was available to Netanyahu when Biden was still president, but he gave it the rubber ear. What has changed ?

The Nobel Prize committee decides tomorrow who will be awarded this year’s prize for pursuing peace. Technically, though, the prize is apparently being awarded for work during 2024, not today. So maybe the president who decided to rename the USA Department for Defence the Department of War will not be getting the vanity-boosting award that he so publicly craves. As someone has just observed, the peace prize is awarded to someone who has worked to achieve peace for the greater good of the world, not for the sake of his own narcissism.

Cynic in me thinks Netanyahu agrees to it with Trump around because it suits their mutual needs better than doing it when Biden was around.

Short answer is that Netanyahu is scared of Trump but wasn't of Biden.

The leverage that a US president has against Netanyahu is the threat of cutting off US arms sales to Israel.
For this to work, Netanyahu has to believe the US will follow through. Biden, like all previous presidents, needed the support of the US electorate and this involves not upsetting the pro-Israel lobby therefore Netanyahu could safely ignore any such threat.
Trump doesn't care about the US electorate, they voted him in, there's nothing further he needs from them. He has nothing to lose by upsetting the Israel-lobby and is free to carry out his threats.