An American is unhappy with the state of /r/Israel: "Any kind of defense of Israel is now taboo"

If you don't know, then you should read about the core issues. Suffice to say that returning to 67 armistice lines, effectively puts ALL of israel in the front line (population centers and industrial).

I'm admittedly no Israeli policy expert, but I am quite aware of what going back to the '67 borders would mean for both Israeli and Palestinian major population centers. My point was that aside from what I believe would be some very legitimate security concerns for Jerusalem in particular, it's not like Palestine or Hamas actually have the capability of mounting a full scale invasion of Israel, or at least one that would at all threaten its existence in any meaningful way. Any other hostile nation with those capabilities is 100% deterred by western powers, chiefly the United States.

The ending of the occupation of Palestinian territory as well as the Golan Heights doesn't suddenly change that calculus and if anything would go a very long way to ending one of the most toxic sources of tension in the Levant.

yeah sure. Americans were very concerned with world opinion when nuclear missiles were headed for Cuba.

How at all are those situations even remotely comparable? Other than the exceedingly disparate geopolitical situations, at the end of the day it's ridiculous the claim that international opinion shouldn't be extremely important factor for Israel, which needs the west far more than the west needs Israel. It's a fact which Israeli policy takes for granted, and one in which the worm is unfortunately slowly beginning to turn.

Saying this is belittling the lives of Israelis. If you had rockets raining on your head/suicide bomber in your malls/Children abducted and murdered, you wouldn't think that it's a nuisance.

I absolutely disagree. Hostilities from terrorist organizations and international criminals is a political reality for the vast majority of the developed world, the United States included (there are US citizens being kidnapped and murdered all over the world, even as close as a country like Mexico). I'm at all not condoning or excusing the attacks, and each of those deaths is unequivocally a tragedy, but big picture Hamas is a geopolitical flea and has about as much of a chance of successfully dismantling or damaging the Israeli state as Al-Qaeda does to America.

As far as your other points are concerned I never once disputed the fact that Iran is actively working against Israel and funneling resources towards terrorists organizations looking to destroy it, but they're also doing that for the US, Saudi Arabia, and an undoubted laundry list of other countries. But the odds of Iran mounting a full scale assault on Israel are nil (because frankly there wouldn't be much of an Iran left if they did).

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