Good on Spain. I hope more follow suit.

Sanders speaking truth as usual.

is just some unexplainable enigma that boils down to personal grievances between leaders

That’s about the reading comprehension I expected of you as well.

Get real. If Egypt clamped down on the suez canal they’d be thrown out of the UN and sanctioned so fast their economy would collapse before the first flood gate closed.

What is 1967-1975?

I find it amusing, as well, that you find Israel’s military capacity to disrupt trade as important here. But I suppose that reflects your generally low level of education on the history and geopolitics of the region.

Not many others with the same ideological alignment and geological position to exert control over access to trade routes through and around the Mediterranean, we don’t.

Ah, yes, the important thoroughfare of Israel, the crossroads of the Middle East. Israeli shipping and port systems definitely aren’t notoriously corrupt and inefficient, and we all know the importance of Israel’s territorial waters, which don’t even extend into the Red Sea, much less the Gulf of Suez. And who doesn’t pass by Israel’s Mediterranean territorial waters when shipping to many other countries, such as [checks notes] Turkiye, Syria, or Israel? Good thing we don’t need other aligned states in the area which Israel agitates, like Egypt, or Saudi Arabia. I mean, imagine if Egypt had some sort of vital canal to world trade running through it, or if the Saudis’ coastline extended along one of the most traveled shipping lanes in the world? Ha ha, wow, we would have to be really stupid to back Israel if that was the case!

To say nothing of the significance of Israel as an intelligence apparatus - Israel is probably the most important ally in that region by a mile.

Israeli intelligence is useful, but very far from indispensable, especially considering Israel’s political objectives in presenting and sharing evidence.

I don’t think most democrats would take action against Israel because most of them know that losing them in the ME puts most of their foreign operations there at risk.

Yes, as we all know, Israel is our only ally in the region, and certainly a very reliable one. /s

Seriously though, I think it’s a little conceited to conceive of the escalating middle-eastern conflict as revolving around some personal vendetta against our specific domestic political party.

I love how you lot swap between “ISRAEL IS UTTERLY RELIANT ON THE US AND DEPENDENT ON ITS OPINION” and “The US doesn’t matter because a shitlib spoke”

Sorry for suggesting that a political leader is trying to help his political allies who are interested in assisting him in his ongoing goals, I’ll remember next time that the US has no influence on Israel.

Can we launch it against Spez?

Call me paranoid, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Bibi’s insane escalations have two reasons. Both to keep the war tempo up (and thus the excuse to keep him in power and out of jail), and to dare the Dems to come out against him. Either they don’t, and prove they’re whipped; or they do, and open themselves up to a new line of attack. Bibi’s blatant alliance with the GOP is well-known.

No, the distinction being made between article 4 and 5 is intended to separate intentionally and mindfully placed mines

Landmines are addressed entirely separately, but thanks for confirming you don’t have the first clue you’re talking about.

Hiding behind the verbiage of the UN charter is cowardly.

“How dare you quote the law when talking about the law”

Sorry, your feelings on the matter override international law, I know.

Cool. You got a plan to do that inside of the next month-and-spare-change?

Please, point out to me which prohibition here was violated.

Didn’t say it was a good look. In fact, I quite explicitly noted that it was a shit move and likely a war crime. Just probably not because of international law on booby traps, but because of international law on discriminate use of force.

I think you’re splitting hairs.

I think you’re looking for excuses. Fuck’s sake, splitting hairs? That’s quite literally the legal fucking definition.

Ordinary objects, when used as the vector for unexpected explosive discharge, become something distrustful and fearsome.

You’re right, that’s also why maskirovka is illegal. If you disguise a tank as a house, what comes next?

/s

Also why anti-tank landmines are illegal. If you disguise an explosive under a road, what other dastardly things can you do?

/s

It was a war crime in 2008 when a bomb was disguised as a spare tire in an SUV used to kill the head of Hezbollah’s international operations, whether we agree the target needed to be taken out or not. A drone strike would be “lawful” a car bomb is not.

Far from an uncontested view, at least insofar as why it was a war crime.

This essay argues that making a military object appear to be a civilian object—such as disguising a bomb as an SUV’s spare tire—is a permissible ruse of war, not a prohibited act of perfidy, as long as the civilian object in question does not receive special protection under international humanitarian law (IHL). It nevertheless concludes that Mughniyah’s killing was, in fact, perfidious, because outside of an active combat zone a remotely detonated explosive device disguised as a civilian object must be located in the close vicinity of a military objective, which the SUV was not.

2. “Booby-trap” means any device or material which is designed, constructed or adapted to kill or injure and which functions unexpectedly when a person disturbs or approaches an apparently harmless object or performs an apparently safe act.

As these were remotely detonated, they do not fit the definition of a booby trap. Rather, the issue becomes a war crime because of Israel’s choice to detonate, which was very likely done in a manner that was reckless and without regard for collateral damage.

Sabotaging dual-use communications devices that are used, specifically, by members of an enemy paramilitary group is not a clear-cut war crime. On the other hand, there is a very strong argument that ‘blind-firing’ such devices en-masse without regard for the proximity of civilians or possibility of civilian harm is a war crime via insufficiently discerning use of force. But even that is something that could probably be argued in a legitimately-unbiased international court - not that it’ll ever fucking get to one, considering Israel’s history with international courts.

Either way, it’s a shite move that was only meant to escalate the situation so Bibi can stay in power a few more minutes. Vile shit.

If Israel was saving innocents by doing this, that might be a more compelling argument.

Man, we’re watching one side commit genocide in real time, and the other side wishing they could commit genocide.

If one’s primary interest in the region is “No genocide please”, both sides are, indeed, pretty fucking close.

Israeli intelligence is simultaneously precise enough to target high-security enemy individuals, and yet not precise enough to [checks notes] avoid murdering 1-out-of-every-50 Gazans.

Damn. Mossad is in a really tight spot, apparently. /s