AC,

" taking out Hezbollah's leadership doesn't make any difference,...."

Well taking out their leadership, the weapons systems, their lines of communications and their sources for rearmament. Hezbullah has been neutered, as the Syrian rebels realised and that's because Israel decided to neuter them. That you refuse to see or acknowledge it is revealing.

AC's view of Hezbullah's current mere scratch... http://tiny.cc/9qwzzz

"that I'm automatically wrong about everything, but really you're just advertising how clueless you actually are."

AC, you're not automatically wrong...I'm sure it takes real effort. I'm not sure if you reach wrong conclusions and then go looking for some video that reaches the same wrong conclusions or if you're led down the garden path by the people you beleive, but either way, you've made all sorts of assertions over the last year or so that have been utterly wrong.

Israel has been completely victorious.
Iran is defeated and its proxy empire is unravelling.
Hamas is all but wiped out - its leadership now enjoying their 70 virgins.
Ditto Hezbullah - although you've pivoted to claims that leadership is immaterial.
You told us that Odessa would soon fall to Russian troops!!
You told us that the fall of Bakhmut would led to a general Russian breakout into Ukraine's hinterland.
You told us that Ukraine was banning the Russian language.

All wrong. All provably wrong. But all fervently beleived by you at the time based on you 'impeccable' sources.

Yet you still believe those sources and still beleive that your next predictions are obviously certain to happen

Dear Banjo Paterson,

Thank you for your well-wishing.

«Knowing your interest in religion, I just wanted to share my thoughts with you on the origin of religion that I was surprised to discover had already been posited by the Scottish philosopher and historian, David Hume in 1757 and by the English anthropologist, Sir Edward Burnett Tylor in 1871.»

Yes, I am indeed interested in religion - but not necessarily in the history of superstitions.

I do not doubt these men's proficiency in the field of anthropology.
Their descriptions look true:
People were afraid - perfectly understandable.
People thought that natural forces are living beings - perfectly understandable.
People thought that propitiating these natural forces could benefit them - perfectly understandable.
These primitive attitudes and behaviours eventually evolved into polytheism, then monotheism, including Christianity - perfectly understandable.

So far so good, so far that is pure anthropology.

But once these two gentlemen stepped out of their field of expertise to claim that this has anything to do with religion, there they failed miserably.

Any connections between these fear-based survival strategies and God or religion, are completely incidental.

Elements of animism, Christianity and everything in between can indeed be incorporated into one's individual religion if one so chooses, and I could elabourate on that if you like, but otherwise these traditions are being maintained mainly just as the collective gluing-lore of specific belonging-groups.

Dear Critic,

«"What connection has your last post with the topic?"
- Well it's all to do with 'religion' isn't it.»

No: Netanyahu is anything but religious, neither in universal terms nor even in Jewish terms.
His Nazi partners too, use "religion" just to cover their sheer racism.

«I wasn't implying to deny Jews their religious freedoms in Australia, nor was I saying religious Jews should go back to Israel.»

You weren't saying it explicitly.

But once one synagogue burns down, Jews are afraid to visit another, or other Jewish institutes, or to place a Mezuzah on their doors, or to wear a tzitzit, etc: this particular attack didn't cost lives or limbs, but the next one could.

If Australia, where Jews are a minority, proves dangerous, if following the Jewish commandments is too risky in Australia, then the logical conclusion is to leave and go to where Jews are a majority... i.e. Israel.

«I don't support the harming of innocents, but I'm not entirely opposed to 'a little bit of pressure' that says 'We're displeased with Israels is currently doing'.»

A little bit of pressure which harms innocents!

Well Netanyahu doesn't care in the least, neither for Jews in Israel nor for Jews outside Israel, only for himself and his close family, so that doesn't apply any pressure on him or make him change any policies.

So let us suppose that Netanyahu somehow had a deep sentiment for the Australian Great Barrier Reef:
would you then support destroying the Reef, bit by bit, in order to pressure Netanyahu and tell him that we are displeased with his policies?

You know, it is this kind of indiscriminate terrorism, like this attack on a Melbourne synagogue, which historically pushed moderate Israelis into the arms of Netanyahu and his Nazi friends.

Without this terror, Netanyahu's Likud party would have remained tiny.
Without this terror there would have been a Palestinian state some 40 years ago.
Without this terror, those Gazan women and children (and men too) which you claim to care about so much, would still be alive today, prosperous and smiling.

Dear Foxy,

«
Netanyahu does not care?

He should.
»

And why?

«It's his actions that have revived the centuries old
stereotypes of Jews ( as both alien and all powerful).
So the distinction between opposition to Israel's
actions and hatred of Jews becomes blurred.»

Yes, but why should he care?

Is stereotyping Jews good or bad for Sarah [Netanyahu] - that is the question, the only question!

---

Dear Mhaze,

«"Netanyahu - a man of vision?"

He predicted that the middle east would look very different at the end of this war. He's been proven right.»

Indeed, it looks like Syria is going to become the only democracy in the Middle-East!

Why should Netanyahu care?

Because he's morally wrong.

The world just may stop doing what hasn't worked.
Instead it just may take international action to
force Israel to comply with international law.

One can only hope.

"Indeed, it looks like Syria is going to become the only democracy in the Middle-East!"

Whoa! And I thought AC was delusional. Not a single one of the various rebel groups has the slightest interest in democracy. This is all just tribal warfare on a mechanised scale. Sargon the Great would have fully understood the motivations of his descendants. (As)syria has been doing this for millennia.