The aftermath

Exactly, sadly it's all part of the dehumanisation of people they don't like, at best it's ignorance at worst it's indoctrination

You missed out the 'etc, etc'. I'm not sure why this is addressed to me anyway, as my post was not about the weight of bombs or about any sort of comparison with costs of damage to gaza. It was about the proportion of US funding to Israel compared to Iranian funding to Hamas/Hezbollah. You are welcome to take up the figures with the Israeli Treasury.

evacuating 60k people from the border, housing them, repairing damage

The cost of this is going to be tiny, not even an order of magnitude, a whole exponential at least less than that wrought on Gaza.

As of June, the last stats I could find, Israel had dropped 70,000,000 kg of explosive on Gaza. Seventy million kilogrammes. I'll say it again seventy million kilogrammes.

I don't blame Israelis for leaving if they can, I would as well. Likewise if I was Palestinan and could go live somewhere else.

They spend a lot trying to keep their people safe. A year of attacks from Hamas and Hezbollah.

Thats why I used the word 'proportion' (i.e %) not 'amount'. It costs vast amounts more to defend rather than attack & the Iron Dome is expensive while H& H rockets are relatively cheap. Its hard know exactly as Israel and those who either sell them military equipment, or the US who also gives military aid, are transparent about publishing figures while of course Iran, Hezbollah & Hamas are not. But most commentators I've read suggest that Iran supplies most of their military spend in one way or another. US annual aid is around $3billion and there was a one-off package of $14billion. Israeli spending on the war over the last year was about $60billion, around half of which was civil rather than military - evacuating 60k people from the border, housing them, repairing damage from incessant hezbollah attacks etc etc.

What an ignorant statement, all Arabs are not the same, they don't all share the same language, religion or culture, should all Catholics be banished from the UK to Italy just because they are Catholics, some people just love segregation it seems

And how do you know that? I'm sure I read US military aid to Israel in the last year was something like 17 billion! And that's just the US. I highly doubt Iran is sending the same amount to Hezbollah and Hamas.

The aftermath will include the global effects of trauma experienced by everyone with loved ones affected. How can people who have seen their entire families, entire communities massacred be expected to be ok on The Day After? How can people who have seen what some organisations and governments want to do to them be expected to trust those same organisations and governments on The Day After? Who's going to rebuild the ruins of Gaza, of Lebanon? Who's going to free people from occupation and prevent further terrorism? Who's going to provide reparations and justice for the innocent people who have suffered beyond what most people could imagine?

The aftermath will include repercussions for innocent people in other societies who now, more than was perhaps necessary 18 months ago, need to think about safety on a whole new level. If we send our children to a mainstream school, will they be even more at risk of harm and will the adults tasked with keeping them safe actually contribute to that harm? If we let our children go to play in the local park, will they be attacked with weapons? If we take them out for a walk, how many graffitied death threats will be on the route? If we speak our own family's languages in public, will we be targeted? These were things people needed to consider, but it's on a whole new level now.

Except Russia/Iranian aid as a proprtion is far greater than US aid to Israel.

BTW, the Mexico analogy is terrible but a slightly better analogy is perhaps the Cuban missile crisis where destructive weapons were placed far beyond the borders of the relevant countries. The ultimate issue behind this conflict is the balance of power between countries aligned to the US/Israel/moderate Arab states and countries/groups aligned with Russia/Iran. Often comments on these forums note Western military aid to Israel without noting that the same is the case on the other side: Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis are funded and armed by Iran/Russia.

I agree largely with @mouthpipette's reading, though I wouldn't say "relatively harmless". The level of fire from Hezbollah has been immense - something like 13,000 rockets and UAVs during the course of the war. There have been few deaths on the northern border because Israel has great air defences, there is an alarm warning system and most homes have a protected room, and the towns right by the border have been evacuated - though for example in Majdal Shams, Kiryat Shmona and the Golani base we have seen what happens when the systems fail. The lack of deaths is not for want to Hezbollah trying, and they are trying pretty hard at the moment to hit civilian infrastructure too (how do I know? I live 50+ miles from the border and was woken up this morning again by sirens from a rocket attack targeting energy infrastructure in my area).

The damage around the northern border is colossal, and so is the societal impact of having 60,000 people evacuated from their homes and businesses. Even a year later there's a kid in my kid's kindergarten whose address is a local hotel being used to shelter displaced people, and everyone I know from the northern villages just south of the evacuation line is completely frayed from a year of rocket fire.

There has also been a strategic impact: one of Hezbollah's aims was to make sure a big proportion of the IDF would be tied up on the northern border dealing with the rocket attacks.

For Israel the big issue driving the present conflict with Hezbollah is the need to have the northern residents return to their homes. For this to happen, they need to be confident that Hezbollah is not sitting right on the border. A lot of posters here have ridiculed Israeli fears of a 7/10-style attack from the north, but the 2006 war with Hezbollah began from a cross-border raid and this time at least one Hezbollah tunnel crossing the Israeli border has been found.

I hope that there is a diplomatic solution rather than a military one. The international community needs to take implementation of UN resolution 1701 which requires Hezbollah to remain north of the Litani river seriously. It's all very well that 10,000 UNIFIL soldiers are deployed in the area, but they have been utterly ineffective in preventing Iran's proxy army from establishing very significant military infrastructure in the area. Southern Lebanon needs to be governed by Lebanon, not by Hezbollah.

Thank you OP and mouthpipette for your balanced and considered responses. Much appreciated.

What's ridiculous is trivialising Hezbollah's year-long assault as "relatively unimportant", and then bitching when Israel retaliates.

Realistically, imagine this was Mexico lobbing rockets across the US border, meaning that several million people (if you look at percentage of population) had to evacuate and hundreds (again extrapolating to population size) were killed. Do you imagine that the US would dismiss that as "relatively unimportant", or do you think they'd retaliate? @Hunglikeapolevaulter

Ridiculous analogy, Mexico and the states have not been engaged in a brutal and bloody set of wars over the past 60 years. It's as irrelevant and superficial as the "What if Norway ...."
Whilst engaging in this discussion, try to include context.

But Hezbollah did not join in. Up until about a month ago, their contribution was relatively harmless. There were exchanges of artillery and rockets across Israel's northern border ( mostly directed at the other sides military positions) but in the grand scheme of things, they were relatively unimportant. Few people were killed in the 11 months since Oct 7 and the main result was that there were lots of brush fires and 60,000 Israelis had to evacuate.

Realistically, imagine this was Mexico lobbing rockets across the US border, meaning that several million people (if you look at percentage of population) had to evacuate and hundreds (again extrapolating to population size) were killed. Do you imagine that the US would dismiss that as "relatively unimportant", or do you think they'd retaliate?

I think he (Netanyahu) has actually been played by Hamas, in the sense that they wanted him to react the way he has, in the hope that other terrorists would join in and the conflict would broaden, which it has. @Auvergne63

But Hezbollah did not join in. Up until about a month ago, their contribution was relatively harmless. There were exchanges of artillery and rockets across Israel's northern border ( mostly directed at the other sides military positions) but in the grand scheme of things, they were relatively unimportant. Few people were killed in the 11 months since Oct 7 and the main result was that there were lots of brush fires and 60,000 Israelis had to evacuate.

The only really devastating weapon that Hezbollah have is their "doomsday launch" in which they simultaneously send thousands of missiles and rockets into Israel. They were estimated to have anything up to 120,000 before the conflict, though a good proportion of these will have been destroyed in the past 3 weeks.

Iron dome ( a battery of 20, which takes time to reload) , David's sling and Arrow 2 and 3 would be unable to cope with this onslaught and enough Hezbollah missiles would get through to cause extensive death and destruction. Hezbollah have held back on this option, because it would be a major escalation that could drag Iran and the US in on more than just the token "we're here to help.. up to a point" that they have done so far.

So whilst you might think what is happening at the moment is bad, it could get far, far worse.
Of course the whole thing could stop now if certain parties would entertain the idea of a ceasefire.... but they won't.

Israel should have lined up its tanks and artillery along the border to prevent any repeat, and then sat down and negotiated a hostage release, as a first stage towards negotiating an end to a conflict that has been festering for decades.
Surely that would have been better than this.
Until November the Israelis didn't even try to negotiate the hostages out of Gaza.

100% this 👆

If you value accuracy you might want to edit George Floyd comments, his murder was absolutely not universally or quickly condemned.

Holdup, what Hamas did to Israel was indeed appalling but don't pretend for even one second that Israel have no responsibility for the genocide in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank.

OP, this is a genuine, respectful and curious question. No sarcasm or spin in it at all:

What would you have had Israel do, as its response, in the aftermath of 7/10?