Then just ban it in public spaces and let businesses have private smoking areas if they want to. That's what was done here in India and it seems to have worked out okay in my state at least.
SirVer
joined 1 year ago
I'm highly skeptical they could actually survive modern warfare - they have drone pilots, not infantry lol
What gave you that impression? AFAIK the IDF is one of the best trained militaries in the world, and certainly better than most of their enemies - that's one of the reasons why the casualty numbers during Yom Kippur were so lopsided in their favor despite being caught with their pants down. Plus, it's not just drones (they don't even use those for actual combat) - they have arguably the strongest Air Force in the region, rivaled only by Egypt, and Israel has a distinct technological advantage. The IDF haven't done well as aggressors, but defensively they punch well above their weight class - you'd hope so, given that they spend over 5% of their annual GDP on defence.
That's not really a good reason to continue supporting them.
If he loses the next election, do you think whoever the GOP gets in will be better for Palestine? As it stands, Biden has courted Israeli favor less than I expected (current events notwithstanding), probably because Democrats were majority pro-Palestine for the first time in 20 years. He's already said that he wants Israel out of the West Bank (even before October 7th) and that, and it sounds like he's been applying some pressure in that regard.
That said, I do think he's been a bit too passive thus far, and while I have my speculations as to why that is, I don't see how any of them could justify the apparent lack of push back. A complete ending of relations is out of the question, but he should be able to push for more restraint, and as far as I can see it would be in his best interest to do so. Unless of course what we're seeing now is the restrained version, which doesn't really bear thinking about.
Lebanon and Iran and Qatar and Yemen and Iraq and Afghanistan and Turkey and Egypt and maybe even Russia would obliterate them.
I have serious doubts as to the ability of some of these countries to be able to match up to Israel militarily, even aside from having other things to worry about at the moment - Russia in particular does not have the privilege of fighting two wars right now.
There's also the fact that Israel is a nuclear power - they almost used their nukes in the Yom Kippur war, which is what prompted the US to actually start resupplying them. If an Arab coalition were to attack Israel now (especially with Netanyahu in power), there is zero chance that they wouldn't actually do it this time, and everyone knows this. No one in their right mind would try and pressure Israel to that extent, and most foreign powers would be highly motivated to do whatever it took to make sure that didn't happen.
Finally, if the US were to leave Israel alone, China would probably step right in to fill that void, and would be well-suited for it too, given that they have relatively good relations with most of the Arab nations (IIRC). So not only would the US lose a massive channel of influence in the region, they'd be allowing their largest geopolitical rival to consolidate their influence in the region as well - wouldn't Biden be absolutely raked over the coals for that?
I think it depends a lot on what type of wax you have, which can vary depending on your ethnic/racial/generic background. For some people it's like wax, for others it's more like caked dirt - potentially q-tips are better for the former.