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Conflict in the Middle East

Thoughts on Israeli elections?

69 replies

mids2019 · 18/10/2026 07:08

https://arabcenterdc.org/resource/israels-election-and-eisenkots-arab-coalition-dilemma/

With a very complicated Islraeli election about to take place there is some possibility that a new Israeli prime minister may have to form sort of coalition with Arab parties to form a government.

It will be interesting to see how all those that have the Israeli government in the anti Israel community will react to a government which may include those of Arab hertiage. Will the pro Palsstinains continue to hate the Israeli government or simply he Jews in part of it?

Israel’s Election and Eisenkot’s Arab Coalition Dilemma

Israelis are set to head to the polls on October 27, 2026, for what some have touted as the most consequential election in the country’s history. Gadi Eisenkot, the former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff and leader of the Yashar (Straight) P...

https://arabcenterdc.org/resource/israels-election-and-eisenkots-arab-coalition-dilemma/

OP posts:
Mondayname28 · Yesterday 09:13

AnyfoolcanknowThepointistounderstand · 18/10/2026 19:06

A government's primary role is to protect its citizens and keep society running smoothly through a "social contract.". A government should provide:
Safety and Defense
Justice and Laws
Infrastructure
Public Services
Economic Stability

Quite a bit of difference in voting for a terrorist organisation with Charter to annihilate a much stronger neighbour with a long history of the deliberate targeting of civilians in suicide bombings, shooting and stabbing rampages, car rammings, the use of child soldiers and civilians as human shields, the torture and murder of dissenters etc. In essence, an OFFENSIVE force, which comes secondary to the basic role of a government as above.

AND

People voting in a Government with the basic provisions as above already in place to a high standard so with their main focus on protecting it's citizens from the clear and evidenced risk of the terrorist organisation and it's supporters.

If I was voting in the Israeli elections, I would be voting for a Government which will not allow a Palestinian State to be formed because I would only care about my family's safety and my children's future.

Not that Jew haters/dumb morons on a fashionable bandwagon, thousands of miles away sitting on their comfy sofas getting riled up by terrorist propaganda, (as intended), without living with rocket attacks, Oct 7th massacres, terrorist attacks and bomb shelters, want the poor Palestinians to have free reign to murder me and my family under the fallacy of 'justified resistance'.

This!

GeneralPeter · Yesterday 09:15

mumumental · 24/10/2026 23:09

Has the country not yet been held accountable? It’s been reduced to rubble, nearly 80, 000 are dead, and Israel controls almost everything, even food and money. The hospitals are all blown up? It’s led to war across the Middke East, and even in the UK, we are all paying. What more can Israel possibly want?

What more can Israel possibly want?

Disarm and demilitarise Hamas and IJ. That’s been the stated aim since 8 Oct.

Is it really an unreasonable goal, considering every other approach that has been tried and failed over the years, and given 7 Oct?

mumumental · Yesterday 10:15

Yes, if it means killing the last innocent standing. That’s not a difficult moral argument. It wouldn’t explain why the IDF is standing by whilst butchery is going on in Gaza in several places, as we speak, in order to grab land.

gullgal · Yesterday 10:25

Accusations of antisemitism are being used cynically to undermine criticism of Israel. This is crystal clear.

ThreeDeafMice · Yesterday 12:24

OpheliaWasntMad · Yesterday 08:21

I don’t know @ThreeDeafMice .
I don’t think wanting peace is naive or childish.
Innocent civilians have suffered on both sides.
“An eye for an eye means the whole world becomes blind” and all that.

Your error seems to be conflating "wanting peace" with agreeing with flabby liberal western opinions, opinions whose holders have the undisputed luxury of not a shred of skin in the game. So would I if it were your tooth, as it were.

OpheliaWasntMad · Yesterday 13:11

ThreeDeafMice · Yesterday 12:24

Your error seems to be conflating "wanting peace" with agreeing with flabby liberal western opinions, opinions whose holders have the undisputed luxury of not a shred of skin in the game. So would I if it were your tooth, as it were.

I don’t agree with flabby Western liberals. But I don’t think going to the other extreme is the answer

ThreeDeafMice · Yesterday 13:17

OpheliaWasntMad · Yesterday 13:11

I don’t agree with flabby Western liberals. But I don’t think going to the other extreme is the answer

We’re all entitled to our own opinions. But we should recognise that Israeli youth is more invested in the outcome than we are.

OpheliaWasntMad · Yesterday 14:57

ThreeDeafMice · Yesterday 13:17

We’re all entitled to our own opinions. But we should recognise that Israeli youth is more invested in the outcome than we are.

Of course. I guess Palestinians and those who live in the surrounding countries are also invested in the outcome.

gullgal · Yesterday 15:55

ThreeDeafMice · Yesterday 12:24

Your error seems to be conflating "wanting peace" with agreeing with flabby liberal western opinions, opinions whose holders have the undisputed luxury of not a shred of skin in the game. So would I if it were your tooth, as it were.

To clarify, are you saying critics of Israeli war crimes are flabby Western liberals? What a convincing rebuttal. Note that there are Israeli critical voices too.

ThreeDeafMice · Yesterday 15:57

gullgal · Yesterday 15:55

To clarify, are you saying critics of Israeli war crimes are flabby Western liberals? What a convincing rebuttal. Note that there are Israeli critical voices too.

I don’t accept there are “Israeli war crimes”.

Martymcfly24 · Yesterday 16:25

ThreeDeafMice · Yesterday 15:57

I don’t accept there are “Israeli war crimes”.

Do you know what a war crime is?

gullgal · Yesterday 16:53

ThreeDeafMice · Yesterday 15:57

I don’t accept there are “Israeli war crimes”.

There's none so blind as those that will not see

JaneJeffer · Yesterday 16:55

ThreeDeafMice · Yesterday 15:57

I don’t accept there are “Israeli war crimes”.

The facts don’t depend on your acceptance of them.

Squeezingwildoranges · Yesterday 17:33

ThreeDeafMice · Yesterday 15:57

I don’t accept there are “Israeli war crimes”.

I don't think Israel recognizes any crime committed by one of its citizens. Abraham Mondrowitz?

Squeezingwildoranges · Yesterday 17:55

AnyfoolcanknowThepointistounderstand · 18/10/2026 19:06

A government's primary role is to protect its citizens and keep society running smoothly through a "social contract.". A government should provide:
Safety and Defense
Justice and Laws
Infrastructure
Public Services
Economic Stability

Quite a bit of difference in voting for a terrorist organisation with Charter to annihilate a much stronger neighbour with a long history of the deliberate targeting of civilians in suicide bombings, shooting and stabbing rampages, car rammings, the use of child soldiers and civilians as human shields, the torture and murder of dissenters etc. In essence, an OFFENSIVE force, which comes secondary to the basic role of a government as above.

AND

People voting in a Government with the basic provisions as above already in place to a high standard so with their main focus on protecting it's citizens from the clear and evidenced risk of the terrorist organisation and it's supporters.

If I was voting in the Israeli elections, I would be voting for a Government which will not allow a Palestinian State to be formed because I would only care about my family's safety and my children's future.

Not that Jew haters/dumb morons on a fashionable bandwagon, thousands of miles away sitting on their comfy sofas getting riled up by terrorist propaganda, (as intended), without living with rocket attacks, Oct 7th massacres, terrorist attacks and bomb shelters, want the poor Palestinians to have free reign to murder me and my family under the fallacy of 'justified resistance'.

'A government's primary role is to protect its citizens and keep society running smoothly through a "social contract.". A government should provide:
Safety and Defense
Justice and Laws
Infrastructure
Public Services
Economic Stability'

I suppose that sadistically eradicating an entire indigenous population in a genocide is a viable way of fulfilling those ideals.

ThreeDeafMice · Yesterday 19:06

Martymcfly24 · Yesterday 16:25

Do you know what a war crime is?

I’ve just finished reading The Third Reich at War: 1939-1945 by Richard Evans, who was Regius Professor of History at the University of Cambridge, 2008-2014. I have a pretty good idea.

ThreeDeafMice · Yesterday 19:37

Squeezingwildoranges · Yesterday 17:55

'A government's primary role is to protect its citizens and keep society running smoothly through a "social contract.". A government should provide:
Safety and Defense
Justice and Laws
Infrastructure
Public Services
Economic Stability'

I suppose that sadistically eradicating an entire indigenous population in a genocide is a viable way of fulfilling those ideals.

Edited

You know that about 2 million of Israel's citizens are Palestinian Arabs, don't you? They're also voting today.

Regardless, I don't recognize Palestinian Arabs as indigenous, rather as colonial settlers themselves; they came from the Arabian peninsula (the clue is in the title) around the sixth century. Jews have been living there for thousands of years longer. We even wrote some book about it at the time.

Martymcfly24 · Yesterday 22:54

ThreeDeafMice · Yesterday 19:06

I’ve just finished reading The Third Reich at War: 1939-1945 by Richard Evans, who was Regius Professor of History at the University of Cambridge, 2008-2014. I have a pretty good idea.

Edited

So with your indepth knowledge which of these war crimes has Israel not committed :

• Intentionally targeting or killing civilians or civilian objects
• Torture, inhumane treatment, or biological experiments
• Taking hostages
• Rape and other forms of wartime sexual violence
• Wanton destruction of cities, towns, or property not justified by military necessity
• Attacking hospitals, medical personnel, or cultural/religious monuments
• Using prohibited weapons or starvation as a weapon of war

With the usual caveat acknowledging the war crimes committed by Hamas also.

ThreeDeafMice · Yesterday 23:56

Martymcfly24 · Yesterday 22:54

So with your indepth knowledge which of these war crimes has Israel not committed :

• Intentionally targeting or killing civilians or civilian objects
• Torture, inhumane treatment, or biological experiments
• Taking hostages
• Rape and other forms of wartime sexual violence
• Wanton destruction of cities, towns, or property not justified by military necessity
• Attacking hospitals, medical personnel, or cultural/religious monuments
• Using prohibited weapons or starvation as a weapon of war

With the usual caveat acknowledging the war crimes committed by Hamas also.

We're a little off topic, but I'm happy to answer.

Intentionally targeting or killing civilians or civilian objects
Targeting was aimed with the best intelligence to hand at Hamas members and infrastructure built or used by Hamas. That civilians are standing or sleeping next to Hamas members when they are targeted is not an Israeli problem.

Torture, inhumane treatment, or biological experiments
Experiments? Bizarre suggestion. Inhumane treatment: sure, I'll accept that some Palestinians receive what they consider to be inhumane treatment. Torture - that one I don't get too worked up about. See Guantanamo Bay etc.

Taking hostages
Armies take prisoners, not hostages.

Rape and other forms of wartime sexual violence
By individuals, possibly. And should be punished, severely. As a policy? No, I don't accept that accusation.

Wanton destruction of cities, towns, or property not justified by military necessity
I don't accept that the destruction caused was not justified by military necessity.

When you're a combat soldier facing an enemy going in and out of any and all buildings, many of which were booby trapped to kill you, then the bar for the necessity of destroying the buildings in question to make your mission safer for you and your comrades - literally so you don't get killed - is very very very low. You, in your safe country thousands of miles away might choose to leave a building standing at the risk of my life - but I, the person close to that building, and at risk of being shot by someone in it, don't. Down comes the building, and I get to go home on foot and not in a body bag. Buildings can be rebuilt.

Attacking hospitals, medical personnel, or cultural/religious monuments
Hospitals and other infrastructure that are used by enemy combatants lose their protected status. If Hamas had stayed out of hospitals they'd still be standing.
Medical personnel: Israel used the best intelligence it had to target the precise Hamas members as accurately as possible literally to kill them - a legitimate goal. Having dropped a munition on a selected target, it makes no sense at all to allow medical personnel to try to save that target person's life, and it's perfectly proper to prevent anyone from doing so with further lethal force if necessary. Bluntly, if Israel wants you dead, it will not stand to let anyone get in the way of that outcome. That makes perfect sense to me.

I'll just add: if you're thinking this should be some kind of fair fight under Marquess of Queensbury rules, then you're mistaken. If I'm an Israeli infantry soldier engaged in fighting a Hamas cell that's using civilian buildings as infrastructure to fire on me and my platoon - I'm calling in close air support and down comes that building. I don't give a damn what you think.

Using prohibited weapons or starvation as a weapon of war
I don't accept that any country has a duty to provide food to its enemy during combat. Doubly so when that food is used to extort money to further those combat operations. I don't know what prohibited weapons you're referring to, but I don't believe Israel used any chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.

Rules about what are considered war crimes and what aren't were written in an era when nation states fought nation states, not when nation states fought ideological terror groups embedded inside a civilian population and having co-opted the machinery of government for terrorist ends. If you think what Israel has been doing to make itself safer from Hamas constitutes war crimes (as I said, I don't), then the problem is the definition of war crimes and that needs to be changed.

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