meh. Iran hate is so last century. Netanyahu should have made a speech about their Saudi buddies, which are way more loathsome and a general threath to the world.
You don’t say anything about the Kardashians and we’ll call it even.
The rock star reception reminded me of this old joke.
Q: Why doesn’t Israel want to be the 51st state?
A: Because then they’d only have two senators.
I don’t think this is correct.
Is this Netanyahu’s last fuck-you to the world, or is Labour in too much disarray to win in two weeks?
So Iran can keep its centrifuges, keep building its plutonium reactor, continue to enrich, and continue to develop ICBMs so that in ten years time they won’t want to build any nukes?
The Iranians haven’t been very good about keeping their promises to date -
[QUOTE=astorian]
Bottom line: Obama is deliberately creating a weak, toothless agreement, KNOWING it will be unacceptable to Israel. And Obama sees that as a feature, not a bug.
[/QUOTE]
I don’t know that it is deliberate - he wants an agreement, and this is the best he can do. That Israel may act unilaterally is the feature.
Iran and the rest aren’t going to hate Israel any more if Israel bombs their nuclear sites. And it is better to be feared than loved. Bombing the piss out of the nuclear sites is at least as likely to delay Iran’s nuclear program as a promise by them to play nice this time.
The speech seems to have helped Netanyahu a bit. It will be interesting to see what happens after the elections.
Regards,
Shodan
In this particular case it probably is. Not that Israel shouldn’t have had cause to be concerned about an existential threat to its non-occupied territory borders. Egypt and Syria would have taken advantage if some massive breakthrough ( however unlikely ) had occurred.
But Egypt, the driving force in the military planning, seems to have always considered this to have been a limited campaign with limited goals. This played out pretty much exactly in what happened. Egypt performed surprisingly well while sticking to their early script of assault and then dig in and defend. But once Egypt began deviating from that initial plan in part to relieve pressure on an increasingly beleaguered Syria, whose entirely less imaginative offensive had bogged down much more quickly, they started getting hammered.
At any rate virtually all of the serious fighting did take place in the Sinai or the Golan Heights ( not yet annexed ).
A recent Gallup poll of Americans found that only 12% have a favorable view of Iran. It is a country that is just not likable.
Might have to do with that whole sponsoring of terrorism and chanting “Death to America” thing that makes it hard to warm up to them.
Regards,
Shodan
On the other hand, Iran is more popular than Congress.
They faced a more serious threat on the Syrian front, where had the Syrians broken the outnumbered Israeli defenses they might have invaded Israel proper. It gets overlooked because after the first few days it became clear that this was not going to happen, but earlier it was uncertain.
That’s because Iran only chants Death to America. Congress is busy ensuring it happens! 
Most Americans know jack about Iran, or what we know is heavily influenced by anti-Islamic State propaganda.
From what I can see, the biggest problem with Iran is its [del]heavy reliance on[/del] sporadic use of extremely violent tactics for the sake of domestic power politics. Political factions that will terrorize their own citizens may or may not be good neighbors to other countries.
There is no path to coalition for Herzog. It is 100% certain that Netanyahu will be PM.
Can you please elaborate on this? Or weigh in on the Knesset thread in elections?
I responded: Israeli Knesset election 03/17/15 - Politics & Elections - Straight Dope Message Board It’s not Labor’s “disarray”. It is the fact that the left in the country does not have nearly enough support among voters.
A telling point, to be sure. Of course, you have the boney fido numbers at your very fingertips, perhaps you can shove them onto the screen?
Not for you, no. You can google the polls.
While I wouldn’t give it 100%, this is probably true. It’s like this:
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Israelis usually vote according to principle, rather than personality - they’ll vote for the party whose stated ideology is closest to their own, regardless of the dipshits in charge.
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The operative phrase for Israeli elections is “It’s the security, stupid”. People may talk about economics and civil rights, but in the end, it’ll be national security that decides their vote.
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The Israeli public has become overwhelmingly hawkish over the past 15 years, as a result of the collapse of the Oslo Process, the Second Intifada, Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the general breakdown in the Arab world. This has caused people - especially young people, who grew up with suicide bombers and Katyushas - to lean strongly to the right in terms of voting patterns, even though they’re largely much more liberal on other issues.
It’s a mess, and one I don’t know how to fix. Sometime I wish we were a bit more like you Americans, deciding our elections based on stupid beauty contests and bullshit issues, but alas. If there’s any chance for Labor to win the elections, it’ll be by attacking Bibi not on his beliefs, but on his competence. If they manage to crack his fake “Mr. Security” facade, they might have a chance.
How is that different from their parents? If anything they face less day to day threats than earlier generations. Or has the narrative gone more rightwing?