Radio War Nerd EP #402 — Israel-Gaza War Update #2

In further developments in stopped clocks, Trump made remarks about Hezbollah that are largely in line with RWN (although I think he was actually talking about Hamas - never mind, you know what the guy's brain is like): cutting and pasting from the article, so not my wording Hezbollah – a Lebanese group also backed by Iran and supportive of Hamas: "very smart" Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant, "a jerk" Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, had been “hurt very badly” [my note: where's the lie???] "He was not prepared. He was not prepared and Israel was not prepared." "You know, Hezbollah is very smart. They’re all very smart.” Israel’s enemies, he said, were “vicious and they’re smart and boy, are they vicious”. Naturally this clashes with the undiluted support of the imminent genocide by the Biden WH. Been a big week for giving credit where due, however difficult!

If possible it would be great to have Mouin Rabbani on as a guest. He was on Finkelsteins podcasts and had a great contribution about the political motivations of Hamas for doing this.

Apparently nothing wrong with having a rave next to a concentration camp. Someone call Poland and see if Auschwitz is available for the next event, ya?

In addition to being the site of the rave, Reim is also the location of the Gaza Division of the IDF per the Times of Israel. In that respect targeting military age men and women in the area makes more sense. https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-regains-control-of-reim-military-base-from-hamas-terrorists-in-southern-israel/

The “Naked Gun-style meeting” reference is such a funny coincidence. I’m a little young too to remember anything about it, but I put the first Naked Gun on yesterday evening because I thought a dumb comedy would lighten things up and my wife and I wanted something that wasn’t too political for 90 minutes. Lmao we only made it 120 seconds, right until Nielsen rubs the birthmark off Gorbachev’s head and starts punching an Iranian.

I'm kind of suprised theres not a RWN lebanon civil war episode?

Y’all gave a lot of thought as to why Hamas did this terrible-PR massacre at the rave, but even if Hamas is supposedly principled & disciplined enough not to do it, isn’t Islamic Jihad also openly involved with the attack? Maybe those guys, who are to the right of Hamas and basically Islamic State level IIRC, were the ones who pulled the triggers. I have to say though, that the Arabs I know (admittedly secular leftists) love old secular Palestinian resisters like Leila Khaled but seriously dislike Hamas and wouldn’t put this massacre past them. Jennifer Jajeh did a leftist standup comedy routine back in the 2000s titled “I Heart Hamas” but the feeling is not universal among pro-Palestinian Arabs. I hope Hamas kicks ass against the IDF, but they’re still repressive fundamentalists.

on the rave I can see how if your pr imperative is we don't fuck with old people and kids you would see it as a self selected group of acceptable hostages. I can also see how a Hammas planner could completely miss the reality that taking a music festival hostage without causing an blood bath would be much more challenging than overrunning an IDF Camp.

Anyone have any good telegram channels to follow that aren’t just gore war porn? I’m using @mangopress for info/videos on the conflict and it’s decent.

I think you stated John that they IDF didn't develop the Merkava into an APC or make an APC based on it's chassis I believe that is incorrect as there is the Namer which is based of the merkava Mk IV chassis (and actually just looks like a Merkava IV with the turret off unless its the autocannon variant). Currently the IDF only fields around 120 or so but they will acquire around 550 by 2027.

You want real idiot takes, check out Michael Tomasky in TNR writing about how obviously Hamas wants Trump back in power

naturally the online discourse is hilarious, as far as I know Hamas hasn't moved one inch from their ideological positions since the days when they were colluding with Shin Bet against the PLO, but that hasn't stopped twitter nerds from trying to figure out which strand of marxist revolutionary thought Hamas is supposedly embodying. Do Palestinians even support them on any level more complicated than needing a vent for all the repressed rage they have after decades of abuse and misery at the hands of the psychos running the IDF?

I really look forward to your show. You give me a perspective I don't get anywhere else and also I get excited when I see the notification of a new episode.

Just listened to this most recent update (well done and balance in my opinion, for what it is worth). Given the current Israeli government, given the depth and extent of their intelligence failure, I see a response that will be genocidal in all but name. Gaza will be "rolled up"- squads will be landed by helicopter on taller buildings, the buildings then being cleared from the top down, and the IAF blowing the building down after the clearance operation. These building clearance operations will happen simultaneously with assaults all along the perimeter of Gaza with the cleared areas bulldozed and left uninhabitable. The US won't say or do anything to stop or slow such clearance operations, given Biden's electorally weak position. Ultimate result? An even more impoverished, more abused Palestinian population living in an even smaller, less functional ghetto, an even more right leaning, truculent Israeli government, and even less chance for any abiding accommodation between Palestinians and Israelis. Remember when the US invasion of Iraq was supposed to lead to a more peaceful Middle East? Another "oopsie" there.

Please keep these episodes coming!

I'm a bit late to my patriotic duty here ("Suomi mainittu"), but who's the Finnish OSINT guy mentioned in the last episode?

I think i half remembered that the IDF used M113s. Probably the biggest suprise for me of this recent offensive though is seeing those things trundle around the screen. Thought the IDF had all gucci equipment but apparently not. I guess when a certain portion of your budget has to be earmarked for brutalizing refugees you cut corners in some regards.

John, I often think of your line about the British soldier beating up an Irishman, kicking him when he's already down and whispering into his ear, "We will never forgive you for what we've done to you." Turns out, with Palestine, you need three actors in on this. Europe will never forgive Palestinians for what Europeans did to the Jews

There used to be a whole series of tunnels running under the Gazan-Egyptian border. They sprung up after the blockade started in 2007 and I suspect they're still an important lifeline for the Gazan economy. Israel knows they exist. Egypt knows they exist. But, in addition to entrances on the Egyptian side likely being hidden inside basements, I never got the sense that Egypt (or even Israel) was very committed to eradicating them. My guess is that, by somewhat turning a blind eye to the tunnels, Egypt (and maybe Israel) can claim to be tough on allowing imports to Gaza while tacitly allowing the black market to meet a lot of demand from within Gaza. This might act as somewhat of a buffer against the blockade, keeping the situation inside from getting too desperate. Egypt has to walk a fine line between meeting cooperating with Israel and causing outrage among its own citizens. I recall even that, several years ago, Palestinians knocked down part of the barrier along that border and spent days (weeks?) freely moving and trading across it before Egyptian authorities rebuilt it. I'm not sure how big a role Israel plays in Egypt's border policy, but it might suit them for the tunnels to remain as a kind of informal pressure release valve. And for all the surveillance and intelligence capacity that Israel has, keeping track of everything moving through an underground black market that supplies over 2m people might not be feasible anyway. Additionally, I think these rockets are mostly built with dual-use materials like fertilizer, steel, ball bearings, etc, that you couldn't permanently bar from entering because they're necessary for the basic functioning of a society, even one as impoverished and besieged as Gaza's.

Wait. Around min 23. Are RWN saying that HAMAS opened fire on the ravers BECAUSE there were security guards who were shooting? Are you implying that HAMAS needed an excuse to open fire or that the Israelis provoked them? Lmao

does warmapper have a gaza page? I didn't see it

I think the troubling thing is what leeway this attack gives Israelis, in their minds. What do they feel justified in doing next and what do they feel the public supports them doing. Mobilizing 300k.. would they feel justified in wiping Gaza off the map? God forbid they do

Free Palestine

The Israeli intelligence failure & Hamas's "opsec" or whatever you call it are just astonishing. Your remark that apparently Egyptian Intelligence did know something was up and informed Israel accordingly but Bibi & Co didn't pay much attention because they're fixated on the West Bank and establishing settlements there makes a lot of sense to me - the Neo-Liberal mindset did its job - after all, there's a lot more money to be made in new housing developments than in being a prison guard at the largest concentration camp in the world - I bet they tried to cut costs as much as possible. The Tech Bros persuaded the Govt that electronic surveillance could do the job more effectively and more cheaply, so Shin Bet's human intelligence budget was shrunk & whole networks of snitches were laid off...

Raiders game on with RWN over the audio

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