Dear LEGO,

Indeed, your description of the Yom Kippur war is glorious, thank you!

But alas, that was in 1973 where Israel still had a strong moral advantage over the Arabs. Sadly, since the wave of arrogance that accompanied the 1967 occupation, that gap keeps narrowing and when moral corruption slips in, physical destruction is not far following. It happened before, not once had the Jews lost their land due to their sins.

I write this in tears since I have family in Israel and I want them to live and thrive. They and I understand that only the ending of the 1967 occupation can save them.

I don't care one iota about the so-called "Palestinians" - I only care about the restoration of the underpinning moral fabric of Israel which was torn in 1967, nor do I fear those "Palestinians" and their allies, but rather what might be their historical role behind the scenes:
“Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of my anger, in whose hand is the club of my wrath!
I send him against a godless nation, I dispatch him against a people who anger me, to seize loot and snatch plunder, and to trample them down like mud in the streets.“ [Isaiah 10:5-6]

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Dear SteeleRedux,

Even the police chief - recently appointed by Netanyahu and who proved himself to be Israel's least competent ever and accounting for that many preventable disasters?

Indeed, that Nazi filth Ben Gvir (lit. son-of-a-rich-man) was the immediate visible cause, but why did the police fail to prevent his provocations, and why did they zigzag all the way in the matter of the Ramadan prayers, demonstrating extreme weakness thus inviting further provocations from both sides? The most likely explanation is being thus instructed by their political superiors. Being a Knesset member, Ben Gvir himself could not be arrested - but his followers could, so why weren't they?

All this talk of 1967 and Yomkipper war etc is irrelevant.
You must remember that Arabs have been marrying their cousins for some
thousands of years and it has affected their average intelligence.
This makes it easy for the clever ones among them to manipulate the majority.
If you doubt this talk to someone with experience of even mildly
intellectually handicapped people how easy it is to misguide them.

To talk of wars in the last 40 years is pointless.
The Koran, Hadith etc only talks to them of the wars since 623 etc.
That is what they believe and why a two state solution is not viable.
They are instructed to kill all the jews and even Christians get the chop.
Perhaps this all explains to you why the Islamic terrorists act in
the way they do even while domiciled in western countries.
It is not pleasant to talk of this but the facts must be faced.

Dear Bazz,

Do you know any Muslim people?

At this time only one couple. In previous times some others but not
very well.
I can see where you are about to go, but it is not relevant.
I have however read a few reports on the subject related to schools
for the handicapped.

Dear Bazz,

Once again you are full of it. Cousin marriages? How's this?

“What is clear, is that no opinion in the Talmud forbids marriage to a cousin or a sister's daughter (a class of niece), and it even commends marriage to the latter - the closer relation of the two. The implied support for marriage between cousins appears to have historically been taken to heart; in 19th century England, the proportion of Jewish marriages occurring between cousins was 3.5 times higher than for the marriages of other religions; in 19th century Lorraine the proportion was twice as high as that for Roman Catholics, and 12 times higher than that for Protestants.”
Wikipedia

Doesn't seem to have stopped them?

Dear Yututusu,

A Nazi indeed. Ben Gvir doing it as a favour for Bibi I can see as a more realistic scenario. Whatever the motivation is really must be very frightening for moderate Israelis. I wish for all the best for your family.

As to LEGO's description of the Yom Kippur war as glorious, most myths are.

Dear mhaze,

I got the list of the dead from the B'Tselem website a very well respected Israeli rights organisation. What you are trying to do now is flag it as Hamas propaganda which is utterly disrespectful to those who have perished and absolutely craps on any faux acknowledgement by you.

You bluster: “But the timing was a surprise and consequently they were unprepared for the attack when it came. You just asserting otherwise doesn't cut the mustard.”

The timing was not a surprise at all. Dayan was the only one in the room who thought it was not going to happen on that day. Meir and Elazar knew it as did Henry Kissinger who messaged Meir and said “Don't Preempt”.

What was a surprise was how many tanks the Syrians were able to muster and how quickly the Egyptians crossed the Suez. The IDF had estimated it would take 48 hours for a beach head to be established in which they would have time to respond . The Egyptians led by the brilliant General Shazly managed to have 500 tanks across the canal in under 10 hours. The plan was always not to advance outside the range of the anti aircraft defenses with Artillery Road being the furtherest point east, nowhere near threatening Israel proper.

“After that initial victory, Shazly clashed with president Sadat over Sadat's decision to launch a new offensive to advance towards Sinai Passages. General Shazly strongly opposed any eastward advance that would leave Egyptian forces exposed to IAF without adequate air cover. Sadat insisted and ordered the generals to execute the order which aimed at helping the Syrians. On October 14, the offensive was launched but failed with heavy Egyptian losses.”
Wikipedia

Finally it is utterly laughable the either Syria or Egypt would have even thought about invading Israel proper. Israel was nuclear armed and fully prepared to use nukes against Cairo and Damascus. Meir repeatedly threatened to do just that. All they were after was to reclaim their own territories. Nothing you have provided nor in the historical record suggests otherwise.

Berk.