https://www.wsj.com/articles/israel-must-can-and-will-win-hamas-defeat-rafah-war-gaza-22e9a19d
By: Ophir Falk
Published: Mar 14, 2024
Jerusalem -- Mounting international pressure to end the war won’t weaken Israel’s resolve to accomplish its mission of destroying Hamas, freeing the hostages and guaranteeing that Gaza will never pose a threat to Israel again. Detractors dismiss total victory as implausible, but the facts on the ground indicate otherwise.
Israel has already dismantled 18 of Hamas’s 24 battalions, incapacitated more than 21,500 Hamas terrorists—about two-thirds of its force, including two of the top four leaders—and destroyed significant terror tunnels. By contrast, it took U.S. military forces nine months to take out 5,000 ISIS fighters in Mosul.
John Spencer, chairman of urban warfare studies at West Point, described Israel’s achievements as “unprecedented,” especially given the complex combat conditions above and below ground. Mr. Spencer says that Israel is setting the “gold standard” for avoiding civilian casualties.
Israel doesn’t need prompting to provide humanitarian aid or to act with caution. According to retired British Col. Richard Kemp, the average combatant-to-civilian death ratio in Gaza is about 1 to 1.5. This is astonishing since, according to the United Nations, the average combatant-to-civilian death ratio in urban warfare has been 1 to 9. Israel seeks to minimize civilian casualties, while Hamas seeks to maximize civilian casualties and use them as a propaganda tool. We cannot let Hamas’s strategy pay off.
Hamas has four terror brigades in Rafah. That city is Hamas’s last stronghold, and its defeat is a prerequisite for victory. Whoever pressures Israel to refrain from entering Rafah is preventing the destruction of Hamas and the freeing of Israel and Gazan civilians from Hamas’s stranglehold. Gen. David Petraeus, who led the 2007 American surge in Iraq, said last week that the “key now is to not stop until Hamas is fully destroyed.”
Asking Israel to stop the war now is akin to telling the Allies to stop halfway to Berlin in World War II. If Hamas isn’t eradicated, genocidal terrorists will continue to emerge. As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told new Israel Defense Forces cadets last week, “when we defeat the murderers of October 7, we are preventing the next 9/11.” Global leaders should take note.
High-intensity combat will wind down after Rafah, humanitarian aid will no longer be hijacked by Hamas, and safety for civilians can be realized. Total victory is within reach. Israel will finish the job. Anything less will endanger the rest of the civilized world.
[ Via: https://archive.today/aioGF ]
==
the average combatant-to-civilian death ratio in Gaza is about 1 to 1.5. ... the average combatant-to-civilian death ratio in urban warfare has been 1 to 9.
The Palestinian "genocide," ladies and gentlemen. The lowest combatant-to-civilian ratio of any urban warfare.
17 notes
·
View notes
Cependant que les flots exhalent leurs soupirs,
Sur les fûts brisés zigzaguent les hirondelles;
Le terrain caillouteux resplendit d'asphodèles
Qui naissent au printemps vierges de souvenirs.
Pénétrant de leur or les vagues de saphir,
Les rayons moribonds du soleil étincellent
Je rêve. Expire au loin le chant des tourterelles
Où suis-je ? A Tipaza ? Dans le pays d'Ophir ?
Le soir tombe. La nuit voilera les ruines
Mais surgit Séléné, riche en clartés divines
Bientôt donc renaîtront tous les dieux disparus,
Et le pas souverain des légions romaines,
Et, proches de la mer où chantent les sirènes,
L'ombre de Jean Grenier et l'ombre de Camus.
Jean Bogliolo
11 notes
·
View notes
Obey Me! Characters with a [???]!MC
When Diavolo told them the exchange program student is a religious female, they were expecting someone who was working towards becoming a nun, but for some reason, this person was pretty chill about religion???
“What religion are you exactly?” They ask, the human answered “INC.” with pride and happiness at their curiosity. INC, or Iglesia Ni Cristo in tagalog and Church Of Christ in english, is a Christian organization. Registered on the very start of World War 1, they fulfilled a prophecy of a church being built in the far east during the end of times. Not eating blood, not celebrating Christmas, they were questioned most of the time, and they would only answer with passages from the bible. Yes, they were called weird but this human didn’t seem to mind, just going on their day.
Obey Me! Charaters with a >>>INC!MC who also happens to be Filipino
As far as they could tell, the exchange student was pretty…normal.
Well, apart from she doesn’t eat animal blood, which was strange, considering she has no problem eating a whole baby duck from the egg-
And the fact she doesn’t seem to have any sort of bible or cross on her at all times??? Is this human really religious?
Part 1: Purgatory Hall +Mammom
Simeon and Luke
-Simeon met INC!MC at lunch one time.
-The menu that day wasn’t exactly…for angels like him.
-If he didn’t find anything suitable for him and Luke, he was considering just taking the younger angel back to Purgatory Hall and cook something.
-There he met MC, scratching her head at the menu, why, almost everything had blood in it!
-Shaking her head she turned around to head back to the House of Lamentation to cook something for herself.
-Accidentally bumping in Simeon.
-Both profusely apologizing to each other, they scrambled to find ways to say sorry.
-Simeon noticed MC was going to leave without eating anything and asked why.
-“I…can’t really eat anything with blood.”
-He invites her to Purgatory Hall, and they get along quite well.
-“You say you can’t eat blood, why is that?”
-“Because it symbolizes-”
-“Life.” Luke chimes in.
-MC raised an eyebrow then smiled, followed by a nod.
-“So my religion got something correct, I suppose?” She looked at Simeon.
-“That would seem to be the case.” He smiled.
-“So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. Genesis 9:1-4.” Luke said, looking to Simeon for approval.
-MC gaped in amazement.
-“Does living for thousand of years give you good memory?” She joked.
-“You don’t have the bible memorized?” Luke said, albeit a bit judgmental.
-“I never really read the bible, I’m afraid I’ll make a misinterpretation,” MC smiled.
-Simeon nodded at that, a soft smile on his face.
-“Dear God, you are hopeless with technology!” MC bemoaned.
-“Please don’t bring Father into this.”
-“Simeon…just- just give the phone, please.” Luke snagged it from him.
-“Like I said go to the App Store- hey where are you going?!”
-“You said go to the App Store, is it far?” Simeon asked.
-MC and Luke just sighed in defeat.
Solomon
-Oh hello, fellow human.
-They met when MC visited Purgatory Hall to visit Luke and Simeon.
-MC literally took a double take when he introduced himself.
-Like “?! You’re named after the King?”
-“Would you believe if I said I am the King?”
-“Nope.”
-“Suit yourself~”
-MC found out that he in-fact, was the King Solomon, still alive; how? Yeah she doesn’t want to know.
-“I ate something and then this happened.”
-“I..see,” MC made a mental note to not eat anything he cooks.
-“I’ve been meaning to ask, what country are you from?” Solomon asked.
-“Philippines.” MC answered, wrinkling her nose and moving away from the stove, where Solomon was conjuring cooking(?) up something.
-“Ah yes, Ophir.” Solomon chuckled.
-“No, I’m from the Ph—”
-“I meant what I said.” Solomon smiled.
-(MC.exe processing)
-“pHILIPPINES WAS OPHIR-?!”
-“Yes, yes it was. And I see the pearls harvested there are still as pristine as ever,” he looked at MC’s pearl earrings.
-MC smiled. “Now, Solomon; you might want to take that off the heat it smells like it’s burning.”
-“It is not!”
Mammon
Hah, him??? Take care of this human??? No way-
He agreed after that encounter with Lucifer.
Andddd the fact that he can see something valuable on her.
Pearl earrings, and they look like they’re oriental, which might fetch a lot of grimm here in Devildom
(Haha too bad she places it inside a hymn book used in worship, no he did not burn his hand trying to get it, pft, he totally didn’t)
And he’s actually caught off guard, this human is just nodding along his threats with a small smile on her face.
“I’d kill ya-” “No, you really won’t. The exchange program would fail, are you sure you want the demon prince’s disappointment?🙂”
She’s already concluded that he’s scared of Lucifer.
Once saw her praying, head down and eyes closed and thought she was scared.
And Mammon being, well, Mammon, started walking towards her to tease her.
So uh,
He kind of—
Got burned? It was just a sensation but he pretty much shouted in pain.
“WHAT WAS THAT, HUMAN?! ARE YE TRYING TO MAKE ME TURN INTO DUST?!”
“NO I WAS PRAYING WHY WOULD YOU WALK TOWARDS ME KNOWING YOU’LL BURN?!”
“I DIDN’T KNOW YA WERE PRAYING, WHY WEREN’T YA DOING THE SIGN OF THE CROSS?!”
“MY RELIGION DOESN’T USE IT DANG IT!”
Mammon was treated by Lucifer(who was trying to keep in his laughter)
This is my way of spreading doctrine ig^-^*
By the way, the Ophir=Philippines one isn’t confirmed, it’s just a theory.
(A game theory.)
73 notes
·
View notes
Job Chapter 28
Wisdom
I feel like Job is going to contradict this statement
And he said to the human race,
“The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom,
and to shun evil is understanding.”
The rest of this chapter is rather beautiful. Where does wisdom come from. Iyov really goes into a major discourse on how humanity digs into the earth for all the metals, all the diamonds. Food comes from the ground.
It sounds like a very humanist chapter. Like Job is praising humanity for being able to find sapphires, grow food and dig into the earth.
But wisdom? How the fuck do you find that? It's not like you can just go exploring. It's not in the ocean. It's not in the sea. You can't buy it. "A pouch of wisdom is better than rubies."
It's an interesting question since there's an entire book of the Bible dedicated to the aphorisms of the society (Proverbs) and then a book of wisdom when you understand that life isn't about all the nice sayings (Qoheleth). And of course, the section of the Bible (Tanakh) is calls Kethuvim so all of it is considered Wisdom (basically Wisdom is everything that isn't Torah or Prophets. Prophets is history plus the Prophetic works - major and minor).
And unlike in Dungeons & Dragons, intelligence and wisdom tend to be inversely proportional. Grow up gifted and you think you know everything. That is the opposite of wisdom.
But yeah, G-d makes rain and wisdom. G-d knows everything, so fear G-d. What does that mean on a symbolic level? Fear everything or fear whatever makes the rain and the waters.
Fear G-d. Because G-d is beyond the rest. If you fear G-d, you don't have to fear anything else - not fire, murder or zombies. G-d is running things.
Also, it's ironic in the context of this book since G-d can always fuck with you, so you better fear g-d.
4 notes
·
View notes