From Newsgroup: alt.buddha.short.fat.guy

On 7/19/2026 2:11 PM, Dude wrote:

On 12/5/2025 6:49 PM, Dude wrote:

"The situation in Lebanon offers a compelling example of a new Middle
East where IsraelrCOs reach is near ubiquitous. The Iran-led rCLaxis of
resistance,rCY of which Hezbollah has been a central part, is a shadow
of its former self.

Iran, battered by Israel in a brief June war, is weaker. Syria, after
the fall of the Assad regime last year, is no longer a friend of
Tehran; nor is it the pipeline for Iranian arms to Hezbollah that it
once was.

The region is adapting to what Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a prominent
political scientist in the United Arab Emirates, calls an rCLimperial
Israel,rCY a country that will kill enemies anywhere: from Lebanon to
Syria, Gaza to Iran, Yemen to Qatar.

Pre-emptive Israeli strikes are the new norm." - Roger Cohen

Imperial Israel in the New Middle East
New York Times, Nov. 26, 2025

Apparently, Israel wants the US to go to war with Iran. They have wanted this for a long time.

"ItrCOs understandable why this is the case. Since 1979, Iran has been incredibly hostile to Israel to the point of threatening to destroy the country and by funding terrorist groups in the surrounding countries
that routinely attack Israel.

But Iran is not Palestine, itrCOs not Gaza, itrCOs not even Lebanon. ItrCOs a
much more powerful country, a much larger country and the goals that
Israel would have in Iran are much harder to achieve.

Israel could never take on Iran on their own. We have seen now what it
looks like and even the US had to back down because of the economic
costs of such a war. But thatrCOs precisely why they want the US on board, because with US backing of a more protracted war, they might be able to
pull it off.

In Trump, Israel thought they had their ticket.

Trump is easy to manipulate with some simple flattery, herCOs fueled by
the Evangelical base which would welcome such a war and he has a pre- existing bone to pick with Iran.

As I said, I understand why Israel wants to go to war with Iran and why
it wants the US to join in. But at the end of the day, I care about my
own country first, and I donrCOt want such a war.

Neither did the Obama administration, which is why they put together the JCPOA, otherwise known as the Iran nuclear deal.

Critics of this deal were upset that it allowed Iran to access
previously frozen funds, which allowed them to continue funding their proxies. The Netanyahu government was amongst the critics of this deal
for that very reason.

They thought they could push the US into resolving this problem once and
for all but the bet has blown up in their face. Because now, not only is Iran rapidly accelerating towards nuclear weapons in absence of the
JCPOA, but now they are getting $300 billion from the US government.

This is essentially all of the bad parts of the JCPOA with none of the
good parts.

But this is what you get when you get in bed with a guy like Trump. At
the end of the day, Trump cares only about Trump. Any war like this one
was going to be costly for the American economy and that means itrCOd be costly for the midterms, costly for TrumprCOs popularity and costly for TrumprCOs 2028 run (which he very likely believes he will be able to pull off). Trump was always going to bail on this project.

So the Israelis, and Netanyahu in particular, are going to be left
holding the bag on this one.

They will now have to deal with an Iran that is much more radical, more emboldened and more powerful than the one that they were dealing with
before this war." - Judy, X

"The Middle East was wrecked by the Arabs 1,300 years ago during the
Islamic conquests. Since then, it has never been a quiet place. Islam is
an expansionist ideology, and, therefore, Muslims are unable to live in
peace with anyone, even their own kind.

Do you really think that if there were no Israel, Muslims would stop
killing Muslims in Sudan, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Somalia, etc., Muslims
would stop killing Christians in Nigeria and Egypt, Muslims would stop
killing Kurds in Iraq and Turkey, Muslims would stop killing Druze in
Syria, Iranian Muslim bigots would stop killing women for not wearing
the hijab, and Muslims would stop committing terrorist acts all over the world?

But for you itrCOs only Israel that prevents the Middle East from becoming
a peaceful region. That is a very interesting point of view from a
psychiatric perspective, considering that more than a million Muslims
have been killed by other Muslims in the MENA over the last ten years
alone." - Glad, Quora
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