@whipassmt:

they do share one aspect, that being the hard headed "100% or death" idea.

one act the Zealots did during the siege of Jerusalem , was to burn the great food storehouses in the city, the idea was that the people would be so hungry, that in desperation they would break the siege to get food .Of course all it did was create misery and starvation.

Masada as an individual story is somewhat celebrated, but the general Jewish attitude to the Zealot movement is very mixed , not only due to the dumb mistakes, but also their use of nationalism to attack other Jews and total lack of unity , Even if the general idea of throwing the Romans out was celebrated.

thats half true , the Europeans will never act militarily due to how unpopular this would be, but they also can't do much economically because many of them rely on Russian gas (and the Eurozone isn't exactly in the best shape anyways)

what could have been done in Ukraine? short of a military presence by the US or the Europeans, not much..

Like I said , I think he is doing this to discredit the west and build Russian credentials in the USSR region, and he is doing this in baby steps..

@BossPerson:

Putin's goal is ultimately to be the only major player in the former USSR region , that part is obvious, one of the ways he does this is by delegitimizing western democracy.

By showing that he gets his way, and showing how capable he is of supporting his allies (Assad for instance, while any pro western forces in Syria are crushed) , he is telling his neighbors "western democracy is a sham , the western camp is weak , However can protect you and your economies"

South Ossetia was towards the end of the Bush presidency, not to mention the US was too busy drowning in the Iraqi and Afghan swamp. Not to mention going up against Russia is a different ball game than Saddam's Iraq.

Putin is relying on Obama's ideology and the platform he was elected on (driven by the three words "don't invade Iraq) , as such he probably made a cold , calculated assumption that Obama wouldn't do much and neither would the Europeans who think they are at the end of history (or at least they act like it).

Even if this is Obama's last term , he has to think about the future of his party too , unpopular decisions made by him will reflect badly on a future candidate , so there is that to consider. Do I think Obama wants to appear as a leader? maybe (sending Kerry to the Mideast, enduring an Egyptian body search and running to Qatar shows how desperate he is at least in one region) , but the tools he is willing to use are limited, making him pretty useless.

on a slightly more satirical note, Putin was a KGB agent when Obama was smoking dope in college , maybe that has something to do with it .

Im half joking with that comment.

@AmazonTreeBoa:

that was 8 years ago , who knows what people think now. Although its also notable that Hamas didn't win a majority, they were the biggest party (some 45% of the vote I think) but not a majority.

At the same time, there is no denying that Hamas runs Gaza like a state (it has its borders, laws, government, basic arms industry) so Hamas is responsible for the citizens of Gaza whether they like it or not.

@AmazonTreeBoa:

not sure Id agree with the fact that they "chose" to listen to Hamas, at the end of the day, Hamas runs Gaza as a pseudo dictatorship . A lot of them are afraid of retaliation from Hamas if they disobey (if somebody threatens you and has the power to do it, you would obey too most likely). what happens to those who did leave is a good question.

Thats not to say Hamas doesn't have a significant support base of course, nor is it done out of any liking of Israel or Jews.

@Jag85:

I see quite a lot of nonsense in that entire post, do you lie as a hobby or did you get a degree for it?

@MrGeezer:

I never said they should or shouldn't say anything, as I said in my first comment they have a right to say what he wants even if its stupid (and frankly insulting), the problem is that people & the media pay attention to them as though they are either knowledgeable or even smart.

the comments common people make (which are indeed no worse or better than that of some celebrity actor , model , footballer or whatever) don't get published in the newspapers , nor do they attract attention.

If nobody paid attention to what they said regarding issues they know little about, it wouldn't be different.

But of course people will scrape the floor for whatever comment they find to support their particular arguments, no matter the source. Its one of the reasons I think why some people choose to follow the Middle Eastern narrative of someone like Chomsky (who by training is a linguist and alot of what he says sounds like nonsense detached from reality), over somebody like Bernard Lewis who studied the Middle East, its language and culture all his life. I think its more a matter of preaching to the choir as opposed to wanting an actual opinion.

I find this line rather hilarious

"I cannot understand this barbarism, even more brutal and incomprehensible considering all of the horrible things the Jewish people have gone through in the past."

who does this fool think he is? so because his ancestors among others wouldn't stop in their slaughter and attacks on us (and my family has history in Spain), means that the Jews have to somehow be overly nice or adhere to some (mostly Christian inspired it seems) perception of war , peace and morals? were we supposed to learn something? was it a university course? if so does he require payment for this service?

seriously though , if he wants to stick his nose into an affair or issue, he has a right to express his opinion , no matter how dumb it is.