I think it will fizzle out soon enough.  However, leave it to American Republicans to start beating the war drums, calling for war on Iran.  We couldn't have worse people running our nation right now.  Wait - I take that back. I suppose we could have worse people in office hypothetically, but the ones in charge right now often disappoint me.

So, Donnie, what is your take on it?  For me, it's is a somewhat tricky situation.  I side with Israel and for its peace against the terrorism inflicted by Hamas.  At the same time, I also recognize the plight of innocent Palestinians and I wish there was a path to help them, and especially to prevent Israel's backlash from falling upon their laps. 

I will admit that I do not understand all the politics going on in the region, but from what I am able to gather, the Israeli blockade of Gaza has proved to be costly for Palestinians.  Further, the fact that Egypt has closed off its Rafah border is indicative of a larger concern with Palestinians in general.  The problem seems to clearly lie with Hamas and perhaps other Islamic extremists who live in Palestine.  I feel particularly concerned for the Palestinian Christian minority living there.

Lastly, I think if the U.S. were pressed to send troops to Israel, it would open up Pandora's Box.  This is where a real WWIII situation could erupt, or a War on Terror 2.0.  Sadly, America is run by too many leftists and too many Neocons to make wiser decisions.  We're not in a good situation right now.

First off, I'm beginning to wonder if Israel "allowed" this attack to happen.  Every square inch of Israel is closely monitored and protected by some of the most sophisticated equipment and well trained people on earth.  I cannot fathom they were just caught with their pants down.  I have read that Israel was tipped by Egypt and other foreign governments that something big was coming.  Yet, Hamas was able to inflict incredible amounts of damage whereas they were never able to do so before.  Either it is a case of gross incompetence/negligence or deliberate inaction to inflame the world against Hamas so that the IDF can go in and solve the problem once and for all.  I'm leaning toward the latter.

You are correct about what would happen if American boots were to be placed on the ground.  Russia, China, and maybe even Turkey would likely decide to get involved then and likely Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Lebanon too.  Unlike the previous wars where Israel was able to handle the combined militaries of the Arab coalition, I don't think they will be able to conventionally win another regional war.  They will have to resort to nukes or have Europe and America intervene on their behalf.  No matter what happens next, it will be unprecedented and will alter the geopolitical landscape of the Middle East in a way that will be far worse than it is now.

Interesting observations.  I did see some chatter on Twitter about the possibility that Israel allowed this to happen, but I didn't think much of it until what you just said.  I will be interested in hearing Israel's explanation.  I still do not understand fully what this would mean; it would not quite be a false flag, since Hamas would still be responsible, but it would instead be akin to a "muted false flag" of sorts (allowing bad things to happen to give justification for a subsequent reaction). 

Also, I saw a former (general?) military guy on Fox News say that if Israel asked for troop assistance, the U.S. would almost have to provide them.  Looking like a President Trump may be our only hope of avoiding this catastrophe in the making.  That is, unless the 2024 election is somehow "suspended" because of WWIII....

Would Biden use this situation to declare martial law and suspend the elections just to remain in power?  Kinda makes you go hmmm....

My guess is that declaring martial law to suspend the election would be too transparently authoritarian.  My guess is that a war would be cover for other more subtle forms of election manipulation.  For example, it could give justification for government censorship of certain media stories that are damaging to the Democrats; wider FBI action against alleged "domestic terrorists" (MAGA supporters); laxer voting restrictions to allow for online voting and other forms that are easy to manipulate. 

I can tell you that the U.S. government has a history of increasing censorship and infringement of citizen liberties in times of war.  There is a famous speech case (U.S. v. Schenk) which goes back to World War I.  Heck, Lincoln even had a paper raided during the Civil War because he was afraid what it was going to publish could lead to riots.  In our day, even if the government is later sued in court and loses its case, the Democrats will still win because any resolution would no doubt be delayed until after the election.

This was an interesting clip. Why won't other nations from the Arab world step in to help the Palestinians?

CNN's @JakeTapper: "Egypt, Jordan, I mean, Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, all these countries that prepare--that talk about how much they care about the Palestinians, they could help right now. They could help the Palestinians escape. They could say okay, stop bombing and we will… pic.twitter.com/6q67JAfkrV

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 12, 2023

I can envision a scenario in which the U.S. decides to send in its military to aid Israel in ridding Palestine of Hamas once-and-for-all, "for the good of the region". No doubt this idea is being considered at this very moment.  I'm so very tired of these people thinking they can tinker with global affairs and think that everything will turn out just fine in the end.

So with Iran threatening a pre-emptive strike, which could trigger the entry of other nations to join the fight, are we closer to World War III right now than we were during the Cuban Missile Crisis?

We are going to get a world war I have no doubt about that.  The stage is being set and the nations will meet their appointment with Destiny and be judged by God for their evil.

With the US conducting airstrikes in Syria, and Israel prepping for a ground invasion of Gaza, it is looking more and more like we're heading into war after all.  Whether it will be localized to the five nations or so of U.S. and Israel vs. Syria, Iran, and Gaza is the question.

I still don't understand how Hamas terrorists were able to just stroll across the border, go through Israeli neighborhoods, and gun people down.  Isn't it all highly surveilled by the IDF?  Have we had an explanation as to how that happened without any immediate Israeli response taking place?

Many in Israel believe it was an inside job that someone allowed to happen.  Netanyahu may not politically survive this because fingers are pointing at him as either complicit or at the very least, negligent.  Israel could erupt into a civil war before all of this is over...though I doubt it will get to that point as Bibi would likely step down before letting Israel destroy itself.

Interesting.  I did just see a clip from his "time for war" speech the other day, so it sounds like Israel means business.  Then just today, I saw that Yemen officially declared war on Israel.

Isn't it kind of odd that other Arab nations would use this moment to attack Israel out of solidarity with Palestine, but they apparently don't want to let Palestinian refugees into their countries?  Or am I missing something here?

They remember how the Palestinians tried to overthrow the Jordanian Hashemite kingdom and don't want to give them the ability to try again.