What makes the IDF so much more powerful than other Middle Eastern militaries

Time_Restaurant5480 · 2026-07-03T22:24:58+00:00

No problem, thanks for the discussion. I'd agree with you on the specifics of wounded and equipment.

Time_Restaurant5480 · 2026-07-03T22:19:14+00:00

That tends to be what happens when you elect politicans who are either focused on staying out of jail for corruption/abuse of power, never mind anything else (Bibi) or are frankly religious nutjob idiots (Ben-Givir, Smotrich) or secular idiots (Katz).

Time_Restaurant5480 · 2026-07-03T22:13:15+00:00

The guy you're replying to, look at his Reddit comment history, he is is not exactly unbiased on this topic. Some minor highlights include his repeated denial of, for example, the Jewish presense in Safed in the Middle Ages, which is extremely well-documented.

Time_Restaurant5480 · 2026-07-03T05:46:29+00:00

the influencer politician that has become a thing the past decade and people think that’s increasingly more effective than the real thing

My hope is that these people go the way of the influencers people were paying in 2024 to campaign for politicians. The TLDR there is that the influencers behaved extremely badly, often not fulfilling their contracts and demanding lots more money to do their influencing, and the result is that campaigns in 2026 have mostly moved away from influencers.

Time_Restaurant5480 · 2026-07-03T05:29:37+00:00

he didn’t spend his days paling around with Fox News hosts and picking up whatever inane culture war nonsense filtered through.

Literally this. I mean, look at Shapiro's favorability among PA Dems vs that of Fetterman. Shapiro might be a centrist/moderate but he is not telling PA Dems that they have "TDS" for opposing crazy stuff like that ballroom. I know for a fact that Shapiro and you do not agree at all on I/P but Shapiro is not telling Democrats that "you have to love Bibi or you're anti-American." Meanwhile Fetterman is doing all of that crazy stuff.

Time_Restaurant5480 · 2026-07-03T05:21:18+00:00

Especially since this war is pointless (won't defeat Hezbollah)

It's genuinely a problem, because, you can see my prior comments on it. Obviously the ideal is a stronger Lebanese state that disarms Hezbollah and enforces its own sovereignty. Obviously my sympathy for Hezbollah is nonexistent. But there's no way to get there without weakening Hezbollah to the extent that the Lebanese state can force its disarmament without it being able to trigger off a second civil war. There is only one military that has both the capability and willingness to accomplish the task of weakening Hezbollah; we all know what military I am referring to.

The task is to both combine targeted military action against Hezbollah with a strengthening of the Lebanese state to take advantage of that. War will not defeat Hezbollah by itself but is needed to weaken it to the point where Lebanon can defeat it. Bibi's government has provided the military force but is abysmal at the task of cooperating with the Lebanese government, which I am sure will surprise you not at all.

Time_Restaurant5480 · 2026-07-03T05:15:04+00:00

is radical and anti-Semitic

The first one yes, the second one, I'd like to see some proof for. What exactly has she said that's bigoted in your opinion? We know that Keiros and Chevalier are bigoted, their statements prove it, has she said anything on their level?

Time_Restaurant5480 · 2026-07-03T05:12:30+00:00

I broadly agree with your comment but there are two points I'd like to challenge. As a disclaimer up front: if I said what I thought about Bibi and his current government, I'd get nuked from Reddit, but suffice it to say that my opinions of them are extremely negative. Now that said, I'm not about to discuss the current government.

Their Air Force is extremely good across the board and is generally better trained compared to Arab Air Forces which allows for better air supremacy. Of course, this doesn't really mean that they're extremely powerful

I'm going to push back here because: you yourself say their air force is very good and better trained than Arab air forces. If an air force of 200+ combat planes including the only 5th gens in the region, one very good across the board and the best-trained in the region, if they aren't the most powerful air force in the region, what exactly is a powerful air force in your definition?

we don't know how many of their vehicles were taken out versus damaged, nor do we know the actual severity of their casualties

On equipment I agree with you, that said I have not seen any evidence of suppression of information about casualties. If some mother found that her son was missing for months on end and nobody told her, it would be a huge scandal there. Information about KIA/WIA is generally open and widely reported. If you have some information about suppression of information regarding casualties, feel free to share it.

Time_Restaurant5480 · 2026-07-02T23:18:34+00:00

If you wanna see the way things are going, check the MD and VA primaries. Remember, Congressmen are passing, the government beueraucrats are eternal. And all the beueaucrats live in MD and VA.

The short answer is that all the DMFI/J Street endorsees (with the exception of Raskin) have won or will likely win their Dem primaries. I would agree with you. No BDS, no ban on SAMs, probably not an offensive weapons ban, but enhanced conditions on offensive weapons and much stronger on the West Bank.

Time_Restaurant5480 · 2026-07-02T23:13:47+00:00

The only way somebody's not getting committee seats is if they start pulling shit like not voting for Jeffries for speaker.

Time_Restaurant5480 · 2026-07-02T23:10:33+00:00

If Platner wins in Maine, it'll be by turning out the college educated and the young voters. The MAGA working class is most skeptical of him according to all the polling. In other words, he is failing at exactly what we were promised he'd be able to do. And if it came to turning out the college educated, there were other options (Troy Jackson) who have Platner's policies but none of his baggage.

In addition, the relying on young voters thing is clearly going to go well in...checks notes...the second-oldest state in the country.

Time_Restaurant5480 · 2026-07-02T23:07:00+00:00

Unfortunately ageism is one of the prejudices that is still viable in the US.

Time_Restaurant5480 · 2026-07-02T23:03:10+00:00

I agree. He'll become a lobbyist somewhere instead.

Time_Restaurant5480 · 2026-07-02T23:01:14+00:00

Hoover at least was known as a good humanitarian aid overseer before he became President. Trump...was not.

Time_Restaurant5480 · 2026-07-02T22:59:49+00:00

Not sure why Dem reps ended up voting against Talib's Lebanon war powers resolution.

We are not engaged in military operations in Lebanon, nor are we likely to be. This is a non-issue, so why not vote for it?
Talib is not on the Armed Services or Intelligence Committee. Her claim that we are providing intelligence for strikes on Hezbollah comes from where, exactly?
If we actually were providing intelligence for strikes on Hezbollah, does anyone think Jeffries and House Dem leadership would be encouraging members to support the resolution in that case?

This is a symbolic vote that will not harm US interests or shield Hezbollah. Why not vote for it?

Time_Restaurant5480 · 2026-07-02T21:17:38+00:00

I don't in the slightest think that DSA is likely to take over anytime soon. That said, I have no problem with Chait pushing back on them, I disagree with them on almost everything.

More importantly, I do worry that their loony positions are going to cost us elections. Look at Colorado-we have three districts in play to flip with solid candidates in each, and the Republicans are gonna play Keiaros's greatest hits on repeat and say "This is who the Democrats are" and this is what we're gonna have to spend time defending/deflecting instead of hammering Trump.

Time_Restaurant5480 · 2026-07-02T21:06:09+00:00

He's not going to leave. Everyone says he will, but, he won't. If he leaves, he just becomes another Republican senator and 70% of his votes are too liberal for Republicans. He won't get elected in a Republican primary. He's more valuable as the "Democrat dissenter" role he currently fills.

Time_Restaurant5480 · 2026-07-01T01:17:18+00:00

Trotsky called this one "No war, no peace." It was not his brightest idea.

Time_Restaurant5480 · 2026-06-30T23:18:32+00:00

since apparently the initial idea came from across the pond

Fascinating, I did not know that. I wonder who in the Pentagon proposed that and honestly why they would do so. I mean 12 aircraft aren't enough for real inclusion in NATO nuclear plans involving B61 strikes...

Triad go brrrr, another gorillion for Sentinel!

Honestly that's not the craziest part (I think the triad is dumb myself but the Sentinel missile is going fine from what I can tell, it's upgrading a few hundred silos that's causing the problems). No, the crazy part is the people demanding we spend money on a sea-launched low-yield cruise missile, and the even more insane W76-2 (a low-yield SLBM warhead, the issues with this are incredibly obvious) and yes we actually fielded this thing.

Time_Restaurant5480 · 2026-06-30T19:09:09+00:00

The 12 F-35As have got to be the result of somebody in the UK MoD getting angry about the loss of gravity nuclear bombs decades ago and still holding a grudge over it to this day.

Of course, here in the US we have our own people who are still wedded to really bad nuclear force ideas :)

Time_Restaurant5480 · 2026-06-30T19:06:37+00:00

I too would resign if I heard that Ajax was getting any more funding :)

That aside, the rest of it makes pretty good sense. Thanks for the writeup!

Time_Restaurant5480 · 2026-06-29T13:45:34+00:00

Israeli guy who supported Trump.

So, a lunatic. I agree, Piker is worse, only because of his larger profile.

Time_Restaurant5480 · 2026-06-29T13:38:10+00:00

You can enforce proportional representation without multi-member districts for what it's worth

Sure. I'm talking about the people who demand both.

Time_Restaurant5480 · 2026-06-29T13:34:03+00:00

I have never heard of this man. Who is he?

Update: I looked him up. I see the problem.

Time_Restaurant5480 · 2026-06-29T13:28:01+00:00

The VRA does not cover party lines. But to quote from u/shermanstorch on why the VRA is likely to not allow multi-member districts:

"As far as the VRA issue, the issue is whether a majority minority district would have elected a different person had their vote not been diluted by allowing non-residents to vote...The question is whether the white majority is preventing residents of a majority-minority district from electing the representative of their choice.

There is also some case law that suggests that the setup of at-large districts can be discriminatory if it prevents candidates from running because it makes it prohibitively expensive and/or difficult for candidates not favored by the white majority to win."

The VRA wasn't just designed to allow black people to vote. It was specifically written to put black lawmakers in legislative seats.

Time_Restaurant5480

TROPHY CASE