Israel’s decision to assassinate Nasrallah, using some of the enormous bunker-busting bombs the United States has been arming it with, is beyond foolhardy. It is outright deranged. Israel has removed – and knows it has removed – a moderating influence on Hezbollah.

Israel’s action will achieve nothing apart from teaching his successor, and leaders of other groups and countries labelled as terrorist by western governments, several lessons:

  • That Israel, and the West standing squarely behind it, do not play by any known rules of engagement, and that their opponents must do likewise. The current restraint from Hezbollah that has been so baffling western pundits will become a thing of the past.

  • That Israel is not interested in compromise, only escalation, and that this is a fight to death – not just against Israel but against the West that sponsors Israel.

  • That Israel’s ideological extremism – its Jewish supremacism, and its endless craving for Lebensraum – must be met with even greater Shia-inspired extremism.

Decades of western terrorism in the Middle East unleashed a Sunni nihilism embodied first in al-Qaeda and then in ISIS. Now, the West, via Israel, is fomenting for the Shia resistance its own ISIS moment. The moderates in what the West dubs “terrorist organisations” have once again lost the argument. Why? Because the US imperial project known as “the West” has once again demonstrated it will not compromise. It demands full-spectrum, global dominance – nothing less.

Israel may make very short tactical gains in killing Nasrallah. But we will all soon feel the whirlwind.

  • davel [he/him]@lemmy.mlOP
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    2 months ago

    If you waved a magic wand and made the whole world atheist, nothing would materially change, because this isn’t about religion, it’s about imperialism and settler-colonialism.

    • Carvex@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      They believe their side has a right to those lands because they are gods chosen people, according to their own religion. Without religion what excuse would they have to commit genocide against “the others”? Those lands have been fought over for thousands of years, and every one of those battles was against non-believers.

      • eskimofry@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        If this was not about God it will be about something else. It’s actually isn’t about God now too as it is about believers and non-believers. The underlying ideas can be anything: God, Capability (of leadership/rule), Resources, Geography, insults, etc

      • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 months ago

        Those lands have been fought over for thousands of years, and every one of those battles was against non-believers.

        No they haven’t. This is just lazy history in service to colonialism.

            • QuarterSwede@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              Hard disagree. It is. It’s the root of most of humanities problems. I don’t know how you could think otherwise.

              Israel wants Gaza so they’ve finally found a way to take it. That’s selfishness at the most root. Monopoly Capitalism is a higher level issue.

              • Gloomy@mander.xyz
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                2 months ago

                I agree completely.

                It comes down to wanting the best for yourself and only for yourself. There can’t be any other motivation for destroying a whole planet in order to get a live with vastly more money than you could ever spend.

          • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            2 months ago

            The problem is that the zionist cult is based on an ideology of genocidal theft.

            There’s nothing worthwhile in pseudo-scientifically generalizing this to all of humanity. It’s just a lazy way to justify obvious oppression as phony “human nature”.