Let's face it Iran is indiscriminatly hitting Israeli civilians targets including schools using cluster bombs.....

[mids2019]

Iran is firing missiles into heavily populated Israeli towns and have abandoned the pretence of targeting anything military.....this is just pure terrorism and does make you think what would happen if Iran did manage to develop a nuclear weapon.

Just hoping more of the missile launch sites can be taken out and this terrorist regime falls.

But dropping a tomahawk on a school and killing 180 children is ok?

At the same time, the Iron Dome could be said to be a barrier to discussions, and it could potentially encourage outward aggressiveness.

I ain't keen on Clarkson, but a quote from him might apply. The best road safety feature to fit to a car would be an eight inch steel spike to the middle of a steering wheel.

A key feature of MAD is mutual. Remove that and MAD can fail. And MAD can be applied to conventional war too.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/mar/28/parents-victims-iran-minab-shajareh-tayyebeh-school-bombing-describe-day?

The people who want to destroy Israel aren't interested in discussion. I assume you have a locked door on the front of your house. It might encourage aggressiveness from those who wish to rob your house, so why don't you take it off? Let them in and have a chat! See how that goes.

Palestinian Christians, Muslims, and Druze make up over 20% of Israeli citizens. They are, on paper at least, full citizens with exactly the same rights as Jewish citizens. In reality they are routinely oppressed and brutalised.

That's a gross generalisation and not true. Israel has issues with internal prejudice and different sections of society having privilege or not, like any other society, but minority rights are protected and minorities play a full part in many aspects of Jewish society. Unlike Jews in maby other parts of the Middle East.

There were plenty of countries that wanted to destroy Israel. Now almost all of them that did, don't. And that is down to a combination of wars and talking. Not much talking has happened with Iran. And when talking did start and the 2015 nuke deal was signed, Trump ripped it up.

Yes I have a front door that locks. So do my neighbors. I don't have a steel reinforced door that means I can kick my neighbours door in and nick from them while they can do nothing to me back. Especially as Israel have the steel door and the local cops turn a blind eye and supply them with crowbars to rob the neighbours.

Irony of this statement considering the US were in discussions with Iran before Israel started bombing them, current Israeli government are not interested in discussions either.

Fgs this is pure hyperbole, spoken with the specific intent to incite hatred of Israel.

There are some issues of discrimination and inequality between different ethnic groups of Israeli citizens. This is often the case in many different nations- different groups with differences in outcome. This needs addressing by Israeli government- which is vanishingly unlikely under the current administration. All this can be said and discussed sensibly.

But you've taken it as far as saying Israel routinely oppresses its Muslim, Christian and Druze populations.

Why? What's the point?

And whats say even 3 examples of routine brutalization of non Jewish citizens of Israel?

Oh please, the Iron dome is defensive. Nothing about it forces anyone to lob a missile at Israel. Talks here and there containing aspects of Iranian aggression never solve the fundamental problem and never stopped Iran backed terrorist activity inside and outside Israel.

Yes. While the Iranians were negotiating, they were attacked by the Israelis. It is the Israeli government who are interested in aggression and not discussion.

You can't actually believe that the Iranians do anything in good faith?

But the war isn’t about regime change. So Iranian terrorism will continue. There maybe a pause whilst they focus on internal control - but it’s not an end.

It's clearly you who doesn't believe that. You are willfully ignoring the fact that the Israelis started this war and drew the US in and that they have been committing a genocide in Gaza, which the Iranians are appalled by, and that they constantly attack various other ME countries, Lebanon being the chief one currently.

Let's assume for a moment that the Iranians are 100% to blame for all the violence and death in the ME. How do you think starting a war with Iran, without any strategy whatsoever is going to reduce the levels of violence exactly?

Trump stated that regime change was a key objective at the outset.

Yes, it's defensive. But my point is does it lead to offensive acts of war and no talking ?

Think back to the Reagan era and his Starwars. It had the potential to change the status quo of MAD.

Yes but I think he thought it would be like Venezuela and he’d bomb a more amenable leader in to place.

Talks here and there containing aspects of Iranian aggression never solve the fundamental problem and never stopped Iran backed terrorist activity inside and outside Israel.

So are you supportive of the US/ Israeli attacks?
From I what can tell it has plunged the world into a global financial crisis and not changed a single thing for the Iranians living in Iran, and thousand of innocent civilians in the region have been killed with tens of thousands displaced. All that winning can't cope.

The Iranians don’t want what the IRGC do to them either. The leaders need to be discussed separately from the people, the latter sadly hit with oppression and brutality by the IRGC.

The only posts I have seen (on CITME) that you may consider 'justifications for why Israel has to bomb hospitals etc' are those which explain that Hamas' tunnels are underneath them. Hamas doesn''t care how many civilians in Gaza are killed as a result.

Edited for clarity.

Iran's 'negotiations' are nothing new. They were/are never going to accede to anything that the West wants through diplomacy.

At the same time, the Iron Dome could be said to be a barrier to discussions, and it could potentially encourage outward aggressiveness.

What an utterly offensive remark to make. Without the Iron Dome defence system there is no doubt that Israel as a country would have been wiped out by now.

They did in 2015. The JCPOA, that Iran was adhering to. Before Trump tore it up.

What other times has the US sat down with them?

Apart from last time when Trump and Netanyahu blew them up.

And it's the same with the Iron Dome. Israel could have said " Look, you can lob missiles but they can't hurt us. So lets talk". Nope. Instead of talking they are flattening/ invading Lebanon.

Diplomacy does work 2 ways.

Yes it’s pretty bad as a comment.

Why ? It's hypothetically true

If I have a suit of armour which means my neighbour can't hurt me, it means I am free to do as I want to that neighbour.

If neither of us have armour but are both armed, then talking is preferable to guaranteed hurt.