this feels like the opposite - a repeat of 1981 and Raygun's inauguration day.

Same thing that happened with Jimmy Carter and the Iranian hostage situation.

...letting this go on and on. And from each cycle of violence the terrorists come by more vicious, dedicated and in greater numbers.

Trump will get credit for ending the conflict (or cease fire) when in reality Israel could have declared victory months ago.

Not while there are still buildings, schools and hospitals to destroy!

as long as there was even one hostage left behind. You obiously have no idea how Israeli's think.

an agreement, including releasing the hostages, if it were not for Netanyahu. I also think that until Israel abides by International law regarding the settlements, there will never be peace. I can not understand why that is hard to understand?

in exchange for what?

With all due respect, I think it's ridiculous to think hamas would have given back the hostages. Blaming just Bibi is delusional.

ended this tens of thousands of deaths ago.

Why don't they want them from Trump?

The US sends more weapons to Israel than to any other country. Israel gets 70% of their arms from us. This link from the Council on Foreign Relations has several charts laying it out.
https://www.cfr.org/article/us-aid-israel-four-charts

Israel does make weapons but not on the scale necessary to sustain the current genocide in Gaza. And if they were self-sufficient in weapons manufacturing, then why are we spending so much on supplying them? And what difference would it make if we cut them off?

If you pay attention to reporting on the conflict, it is mentioned over and over again that the bombs falling on Gaza are US made. So are the planes. This is why there has been so many protests here in the US.

In the '80s when Israel invaded Lebanon Reagan called up Menachim Begin and told him to get out of Lebanon or he would cut off all arms shipments. Begin called back in 20 minutes to inform Reagan that they were withdrawing. US presidents have historically used this leverage to keep Israeli expansionism in check. Until now. Biden could have used this pressure to force Netanyahu to accept a ceasefire deal in exchange for the hostages a year ago. It says something when Ronald Reagan has the high moral ground on this.

Does Israel have free will???

This whole protest stuff was staged to get Trump elected.

The protesting miraculously stopped as soon as Trump won.

Once again the protests were all about "genocide Joe" and "killer Kamala". They never said a negative word about Trump...ever....

10/7 made this an existential issue for Israel. They like our congressionally appropriated bombs, but they make plenty of their own.

an existential threat to the US.

The Palestinians do not have fighter aircraft, tanks, 500 lb or 2000 lb bombs, cruise missiles, a navy, or nuclear weapons. Israel has been an existential threat to the Palestinians since the Nakba. Israel has systematically taken their land, diverted their water sources, destroyed their homes and crops, and shot their children through the barrier fences. Look at what's been going on in Gaza and the West Bank for the last year, if you don't believe me. Who exactly is on the brink of extermination here?

If Israel doesn't need our weapons, then why are they the largest recipient of US weapons in the world?

And they've been fighting wars and terrorism with Arab Muslims over Israel's existence for 80 years, 10/7 was most definitely Existential for Israel.

10/7 was designed to provoke such a crisis, and to provoke nearly irrational, violent vengeance.

If the US had cut them off in the face of 10/7, they would have persevered with their own weapons.

Cutting them off after 10/7 would have been political suicide for Biden. Turns out NOT cutting them off was too, so that was probably part of Sinwar's calculus.

I know it's terribly inconvenient to mention that but that's the history.

Doesn't mean a Pogrom like 10/7 won't trigger generational trauma.

That was never going to happen.

Biden could have used the threat of cutting off arms shipments to force Netanyahu to negotiate in good faith and accept a permanent ceasefire deal in exchange for the hostages -- but he didn't.

See posts #24 and #25 above for more detail.

I literally cannot believe you think that was possible.

I said. Israel has a long history of sabotaging talks by piling on a tranche of unacceptable demands at the last moment, because they never wanted an agreement in the first place. They want to annex Gaza and the West Bank, and to ethnically cleanse or annihilate the Palestinians. White European settler colonialism always decimates the indigenous population, all the while calling them “savages” or “terrorists” and blaming them for their own demise. Small wonder it was Britain and the US who spearheaded the establishment of Israel, which they did, by the way, because they didn’t want all those Jewish refugees landing on their shores.

made peace with its neighbors - try Egypt (treaty holding for 50+ years) and Jordan (treaty holding for 30+ years). When has freaking hamas ever made peace with anyone? But you go ahead and blame bibi and give the freaking terrorists a pass. Since you and the bbc consider hamas not being allowed to return as leaders of the Gazans (something your side has been saying the poor innocent Gazans wanted all along) is an unacceptable condition, we are done with this ridiculous conversation.

and I love Joe... but this is my only disappointment with him

"demanded" a cease fire fire before agreeing to send 8 billion in bombs and bullets to Israel just last week? Biden has been a great President but his handling of the situation in Gaza has been confusing?

Netanyahu doesn't want any protesters tarnishing his baby Trump

PBS - “U.S. military aid for Israel tops $17.9 billion since last Oct. 7”

Hamas has 100 prisoners- Israel holds close to 10,000 Palestinians.

Leave it to the orange bullshitter to fan the Mideast flames.