Peloni: Highly recommended video. An intriguing discussion of Israel’s efforts to survive the current intrigues and interests of the latest empire trying to master the Levant.
Gadi Taub, Mike Doran & Tony Badran | TABLET | March 5, 2024
King Herod was a master at using the Roman Empire in order to outmaneuver domestic opposition. But the Romans were no less shrewd at using him. The result was, eventually, the demise of Jewish independence in the land of Israel. Is the Israeli opposition attempting the same kind of move by inviting American intervention in domestic politics? Mike, Gadi and Tablet Magazine’s News Editor Tony Badran discuss Gantz’s visit to Washington in light of Tony’s brilliant analysis of the parallels and differences between King Herod’s time and our own.
Israel lost it’s independence from the time that Pompey was invited to settle the dispute between the two Maccabean brothers. That was about 25-30 years before Herod became “King”. de facto and de Jure. He was a cunning maniac, likely paranoic, schizophrenic, megalomaniacal and a host of other mental maladies.
Herod, at best, was a client Ruler, and only achieved Roman Citizenship after about 30 years of massive help and aid to Rome. Needless to list his proRoman deeds, but they were many.
Israel could have started moving the Gazans to the sea in advance oif Ramadan but she didn’t. This would have added to the pressure on Hamas.
We will see on Mar 11th whether Israel starts moving the Gazans to the sea. I am concerned.
Also there is great pressure on Israel not to attack Hezbollah big time. We’ll see what she does. Again, I am worried.
@Sebastien
This is the basic point which Ignatious, who has long been known to be a tool of the US Deep State made:
Of course, when Ignatious references ‘good ally’, he is intending to imply ‘good vassal’.
He also made use of the metaphor of a one way street in which the US has not been receiving the deference from Israel which the administration believes is due to it, and cutting off the aid will teach Bibi the position in which he stands and restore the US-Israel relationship into a ‘two-way street’, where the US tells Israel what it can and can not do.
@Peloni I don’t feel like subscribing to the Washington Post again. Could you explain the David Ignatius point, please?
@Ted
Gantz warned that the Rafah campaign would begin if the hostages were not released by Ramadan. Consequently, I believe that Israel has agreed to wait til Ramadan to try to get the hostages out before invading.
As to Bibi, he has been ill for the past few days, though it was reported yesterday that he was expected to return to his normal routine either today or tomorrow. Notably he has had few bouts of illness over the past year which has been described as a ‘cold’ and that is how this latest illness was reported as well.
I know Biden is committed to trying to stop the Rafah offensive, but Bibi has given no indication of which I am aware that this is going to happen. Also by all reports except for Biden, the hostage negotiations are at an impass, and Biden has stated that, while he is optimistic that the deal will be agreed to, it is now in the hands of Hamas. Biden is now threatening to prevent the use of US arms in the atttack on Raffah per David Ignatious in order to get Israel to accept US demands, ie no attack on Rafah.
This was a great discussion. Very informative and vary interesting.. Unfortunately they didn’t explain what’s happening to the offensive in Rafah.Bibi seems to have gone silet in the last week.. Now there is even talk about no offensive in Ramadan.
Can any one shed light on what’s happening.