25 minutes ago, Arthur Jackson said:

Sorry to circle back to this, but just curious... what gave it away?

heaving chest and healthy lungs, but then I think you already knew that

https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/11/middleeast/israel-gaza-un-security-council-ceasefire-intl-hnk/index.html

Israel has vowed to persist with its military operation in Gaza, saying it won’t engage in "meaningless” negotiations with Hamas, shortly after the United Nations Security Council overwhelmingly approved a US-backed ceasefire plan intended to bring an end to the eight-month war.

Israel’s representative to the UN, Reut Shapir Ben-Naftaly, emphasized at a UNSC meeting Monday that her country wants to "ensure that Gaza doesn’t pose a threat to Israel in the future.”

The senior diplomat said the war would not end until all hostages were returned and Hamas’ capabilities were "dismantled,” accusing the Palestinian militant group of using "endless negotiations… as a means to stall for time.”

Her comments came after 14 of the 15 UNSC council members voted in favor of Monday’s US-drafted resolution, with only Russia abstaining – the first time the council has endorsed such a plan to end the war. Israel is not a member of the UNSC, and so did not vote.

The comprehensive three-stage peace deal, which sets out conditions intended to lead to the eventual release of all remaining hostages, in return for a permanent ceasefire and withdrawal of Israeli forces, was first laid out by US President Joe Biden on May 31.

The landmark vote means the UNSC now joins other major global bodies in backing the plan, increasing international pressure on both Hamas and Israel to end the conflict.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is on a diplomatic trip to the Middle East, said Tuesday that in a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the Israeli leader "reaffirmed his commitment” to the current proposal to secure a ceasefire and hostage release, which is still awaiting an answer from Hamas.

Blinken said that he got an explicit assurance from Netanyahu that he continues to support the deal, and will accept it if Hamas agrees to what is on the table.

Netanyahu has repeatedly and publicly said, however, that his country will press on with the war in Gaza until Hamas is destroyed and the hostages are freed.

 

 

Jewish votes in FL will be what locks it up for Biden

Proof that Hamas supports the Genocide of it's own people.

Hamas leader believes civilian deaths are ‘necessary sacrifices’ in Israeli war, leaked letters show

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/hamas-leader-believes-civilian-deaths-125855400.html

 

The mastermind behind Hamas’s Oct 7 attacks on Israel is stalling ceasefire talks and using the mounting Palestinian death toll to his advantage, leaked messages show.

Correspondence between Yahya Sinwar, the terror group’s military leader, and officials tasked with brokering a ceasefire with Qatari and Egyptian officials indicate he is more interested in securing his own future than peace.

"We have the Israelis right where we want them,” Mr Sinwar said in one of dozens of messages to ceasefire negotiators obtained by The Wall Street Journal.

 

The messages display a calculated disregard for human life and a belief on the part of Mr Sinwar that Israel has more to lose from the eight-month war than Hamas.

More than 37,000 people, mainly civilians, have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, according to Hamas-controlled health authorities. The number of combatants killed remains unknown.

The messages revealed by  The Wall Street Journal appear to support the view that Mr Sinwar is willing to put his political objectives above the preservation of human lives.

In one message to Hamas leaders in Doha, he cites civilian losses in national-liberation conflicts in places such as Algeria, where hundreds of thousands of people died fighting for independence from France, saying, "these are necessary sacrifices”.

 

In a separate letter, sent on April 11 to Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas political leader, whose three sons were killed in an Israeli air strike, Mr Sinwar claimed their deaths and those of other Palestinians would "infuse life into the veins of this nation, prompting it to rise to its glory and honour”.

A recent analysis appears to show a decline in the rate of women and children being killed from more than 60 per cent in October to below 40 per cent in April, coinciding with a change in Israeli battlefield tactics.

Just finish the job

so many bad outcomes in history from not doing so and pretending a long term peace can be an outcome

19 minutes ago, ToastJenkins said:

Jewish votes in FL will be what locks it up for Biden

not a chance 

Florida is deep red, and only getting deeper 

3 minutes ago, we_gotta_believe said:

not a chance 

Florida is deep red, and only getting deeper 

It's going to be interesting with both abortion and weed on the ballot this November in FL. I don't expect the state to go for Biden, but it will be closer than people think. Maybe Biden can force Trump to spend some money down there.

2 minutes ago, vikas83 said:

It's going to be interesting with both abortion and weed on the ballot this November in FL. I don't expect the state to go for Biden, but it will be closer than people think. Maybe Biden can force Trump to spend some money down there.

I think it'll be a wider margin than 2020. It's a complete lost cause. Ohio went the same way prior to FL. 

 

26 minutes ago, we_gotta_believe said:

not a chance 

Florida is deep red, and only getting deeper 

Yeah i dont buy into that narrative but we shall see, i guess

20 minutes ago, we_gotta_believe said:

I think it'll be a wider margin than 2020. It's a complete lost cause. Ohio went the same way prior to FL. 

You are discounting the female vote too much

48 minutes ago, ToastJenkins said:

Jewish votes in FL will be what locks it up for Biden

 

That would be a major surprise. I'm pretty sure FL is a lost cause for the Democrats.

5 minutes ago, ToastJenkins said:

You are discounting the female vote too much

 

A few months ago, it was reported that it was basically a 50/50 split among female voters, which is mindboggling.

56 minutes ago, ToastJenkins said:

Jewish votes in FL will be what locks it up for Biden

If that were to happen, which I'd be pretty surprised if it did, it would almost certainly be the 6-week abortion ban on the ballot over the Jewish vote.

 

7 minutes ago, EaglesRocker97 said:

 

A few months ago, it was reported that it was basically a 50/50 split among female voters, which is mindboggling.

If a poll says 50/50 for women it's not a poll, it's just a random person guessing

1 hour ago, ToastJenkins said:

You are discounting the female vote too much

You are discounting the Florida Man vote too much

58 minutes ago, EaglesRocker97 said:

 

A few months ago, it was reported that it was basically a 50/50 split among female voters, which is mindboggling.

Those are not accurate. It was a 55/45 split in 2020, so there's just no conceivable way that dropped to 50/50 post-Roe. 

19 minutes ago, we_gotta_believe said:

Those are not accurate. It was a 55/45 split in 2020, so there's just no conceivable way that dropped to 50/50 post-Roe. 

 

That was the amazing thing, women actually swinging more in favor of Trump since '20. I'm really starting to believe that Americans are just that stupid.

2 minutes ago, EaglesRocker97 said:

 

That was the amazing thing, women actually swinging more in favor of Trump since '20. I'm really starting to believe that Americans are just that stupid.

Polls are just that sheety

There aren’t as many progressive women as y’all think there are

13 minutes ago, Dave Moss said:

There aren’t as many progressive women as y’all think there are

And many progressive women are as shortsighted and self-defeating as others on the left and content to stay home on election day.

What a happy accident and absolutely not their strategy from the jump!

Quote

Hamas leader said civilian death toll could benefit militant group in Gaza war, WSJ reports

The military leader of Hamas has said he believes he has gained the upper hand over Israel and that the spiralling civilian death toll in Gaza would work in the militant group’s favor, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal, citing leaked messages the newspaper said it had seen.

"We have the Israelis right where we want them,” Yahya Sinwar told other Hamas leaders recently, according to one of the messages, the WSJ reported Monday. In another, Sinwar is said to have described civilian deaths as "necessary sacrifices” while citing past independence-related conflicts in countries like Algeria.

The WSJ said it reviewed dozens of messages sent to ceasefire negotiators from Sinwar, who has not been seen in public since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel left 1,200 people dead and another 250 taken hostage. The ensuing Israeli assault aimed at eliminating the group has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians in the strip, according to health authorities there.

Sinwar’s whereabouts are unknown but he is assumed to be hiding deep underground in Hamas’ labyrinthine tunnel system below Gaza. The messages reported by the WSJ offer a rare glimpse into the mind of the man steering Hamas’ thinking on the war and suggest an uncompromising determination to continue fighting, regardless of the human cost.

In another exchange that took place as Israel set a deadline in February to enter Rafah before the Muslim month of Ramadan, the WSJ reported that Sinwar urged Hamas’ political leaders not to make concessions and instead push for a permanent end to the war, adding that high civilian casualties would ramp up global pressure on Israel to halt the conflict.

"Israel’s journey in Rafah won’t be a walk in the park,” Sinwar allegedly said in a message to the Hamas political leadership.

CNN has not seen the leaked messages viewed by the WSJ and is not able to confirm the authenticity of the communications.

Commenting on the WSJ report, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on X: "Sinwar profits off the deaths of Gazan civilians, calling them "necessary sacrifices” in order to urge international pressure on Israel’s efforts to eliminate his terrorist organization.”

Mediators are waiting for a Hamas response to an Israeli proposal presented by US President Joe Biden last month, which aims to release the hostages in Gaza and implement a lasting ceasefire there.

‘Waiting on’ Sinwar
Sinwar’s alleged comments emerged as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was on another tour through the Middle East to push all sides to agree to the latest proposal. Speaking from Tel Aviv on Tuesday, Blinken made it clear that the US believes Sinwar is the ultimate decision-maker.

"I think there are there those who have influenced, but influence is one thing, actually getting a decision made is the is another thing. I don’t think anyone other than the Hamas leadership in Gaza actually are the ones who can make decisions,” Blinken said, adding that "that is what we are waiting on.”

Blinken said that Hamas’ answer to the proposal will reveal the group’s priorities.

"We await the answer from Hamas in and that will speak volumes about what they want, what they’re looking for, who they’re looking after,” Blinken said. "Are they looking after one guy who may be for now safe … I don’t know, 10 stories underground somewhere in Gaza, while the people that he purports to represent continue to suffer in a crossfire of his own making? Or will he do what’s necessary to actually move this to a better place, to help end the suffering of people to help bring real security to Israelis and Palestinians alike.”

In early messages to ceasefire negotiators, Sinwar seemed "surprised” by the brutality of the October 7 attack on Israel.

"Things went out of control,” Sinwar said in one of his messages, according to the WSJ, adding he was "referring to gangs taking civilian women and children as hostages.”

"People got caught up in this, and that should not have happened,” Sinwar said, according to the WSJ.

The US-designated terrorist had also expressed discontent after not being consulted for a meeting between the Hamas political leaders with other Palestinian factions, calling the meeting "shameful and outrageous.”

"As long as fighters are still standing and we have not lost the war, such contacts should be immediately terminated,” he said, adding that "we have the capabilities to continue fighting for months.”

He had also compared the war in Gaza to a 7th-century battle in Karbala, Iraq, a monumental moment in Islamic history where the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed was killed.

"We have to move forward on the same path we started,” Sinwar reportedly wrote. "Or let it be a new Karbala.”

On Monday, 14 of the 15 United Nations Security Council members voted in favor of a US-drafted resolution around the latest ceasefire proposal, with only Russia abstaining – the first time the council has endorsed such a plan to end the war. Israel is not a member of the UNSC, and so did not vote.

The comprehensive three-stage peace deal, which sets out conditions intended to lead to the eventual release of all remaining hostages, in return for a permanent ceasefire and withdrawal of Israeli forces, was first laid out publicly by US President Biden on May 31.

The landmark vote means the UNSC now joins other major global bodies in backing the plan, increasing international pressure on both Hamas and Israel to end the conflict.

Hamas welcomed the adoption of the UNSC resolution, saying in a statement it was ready to engage with mediators to implement measures such as the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, prisoner exchange, returning residents to their homes and the "rejection of any demographic change or reduction in the area of the Gaza Strip.”

The resolution says Israel has accepted the plan, and US officials have repeatedly emphasized Israel had agreed to the proposal – despite other public comments from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that suggest otherwise.

 

1 hour ago, VanHammersly said:

If that were to happen, which I'd be pretty surprised if it did, it would almost certainly be the 6-week abortion ban on the ballot over the Jewish vote.

There are synergies there, no doubt