Before I say anything, I highly recommend William Spaniel on YouTube, who makes incredibly good videos explaining why countries do what they do, using game theory and crisis bargaining theory. Outside of YouTube, he’s a professor on the subject (“my self-respecting academic alter-ego”), teaching students and conferencing with politicians and governments worldwide. If you want to actually start making sense of anything happening in this World At War, I can’t recommend him enough.
Now here’s my take. I don’t know shit and don’t follow the news so take it with a grain of salt.
The reasoning does make sense. Hezbollah in Lebanon attacks Israel often, so Israel wants to create a buffer zone between itself and Lebanon. If they’re farther away, they can’t cause as much damage.
But if this is successful, will that area stay an uninhabited buffer zone? Or will Israeli settlements start popping up there, like they do in the West Bank? Probably the latter, and Israel has no way to credibly commit to not doing that, even if that’s not what they mean.
That said, it’s not a region that’s very attractive to Israelis, not to mention any settlements there would be the easiest targets for Hezbollah, so only the biggest crazies would actually choose to try to live there. But… There’s no shortage of those, sadly. (In any country, mind you)
Full disclosure: I am Israeli. Throughout all my life, but especially over the past few years, I’ve had to rush to an underground shelter countless times when an alarm sounds for an incoming missile from Lebanon. I’ve heard the explosions (some of them very close), and I’ve seen the damage caused. Any government must do something when it and its citizens are subject to this.
But “do something” does not have to mean this. I don’t know what the best response would have been, or if there was any road to peace at all, but I know that the current governing coalition is the worst we’ve ever had and seem to be hell-bent on starting all the wars they can and isolate us from the whole western world. The actions they take are not good, not for us and obviously not for our neighbors.
I voted against them, I protested against them, and I think each and every one of them deserves to be locked up for life. So please don’t attack me just for being born here.
Before I say anything, I highly recommend William Spaniel on YouTube, who makes incredibly good videos explaining why countries do what they do, using game theory and crisis bargaining theory. Outside of YouTube, he’s a professor on the subject (“my self-respecting academic alter-ego”), teaching students and conferencing with politicians and governments worldwide. If you want to actually start making sense of anything happening in this World At War, I can’t recommend him enough.
https://www.youtube.com/@Gametheory101
Extras channel: https://www.youtube.com/@LinesonMapsExtra
Now here’s my take. I don’t know shit and don’t follow the news so take it with a grain of salt.
The reasoning does make sense. Hezbollah in Lebanon attacks Israel often, so Israel wants to create a buffer zone between itself and Lebanon. If they’re farther away, they can’t cause as much damage.
But if this is successful, will that area stay an uninhabited buffer zone? Or will Israeli settlements start popping up there, like they do in the West Bank? Probably the latter, and Israel has no way to credibly commit to not doing that, even if that’s not what they mean.
That said, it’s not a region that’s very attractive to Israelis, not to mention any settlements there would be the easiest targets for Hezbollah, so only the biggest crazies would actually choose to try to live there. But… There’s no shortage of those, sadly. (In any country, mind you)
Full disclosure: I am Israeli. Throughout all my life, but especially over the past few years, I’ve had to rush to an underground shelter countless times when an alarm sounds for an incoming missile from Lebanon. I’ve heard the explosions (some of them very close), and I’ve seen the damage caused. Any government must do something when it and its citizens are subject to this.
But “do something” does not have to mean this. I don’t know what the best response would have been, or if there was any road to peace at all, but I know that the current governing coalition is the worst we’ve ever had and seem to be hell-bent on starting all the wars they can and isolate us from the whole western world. The actions they take are not good, not for us and obviously not for our neighbors.
I voted against them, I protested against them, and I think each and every one of them deserves to be locked up for life. So please don’t attack me just for being born here.