I think some people still can't get past the trope that Jewish people = zionist.

Completely different things.

Hey emperor! You forgot your undies! What, will no-one tell him?

kingdragonfly:

Technofreak: You really hit the nail on the head here. The Zionists/Israelis have been a major irritation n this area one way or another since 1949.

In my opinion, the Levant/the Eastern Mediterranean has been f____ed even before Christ's arrival.

But saying "The Zionists/Israelis have been a major irritation in this area one way or another since 1949" is reductionist

It's similar to the oversimplification "The Sunnis/Shias have been a major irritation in this area one way or another since 632."

Both slip into sectarian generalization, even if that’s not your intention.

I have no problem with blaming leadership such as Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump, Pete Hegseth, Israel Katz ...

But broad statements about entire peoples start sounding like dog whistles, and they don’t help us understand what’s actually going on.

I'd suggest blaming the true culprits: choices of governments, parties, and leaders, not whole peoples.

Yes there has been sectarian violence for thousands of years, nothing new there.  I'm not blaming whole people's, Zionists are a subset of the Jewish people. Many Jews are opposed to what has gone on.

A very quick and dirty Readers Digest version of what I was getting at.

Jews, Arabs and other nationalities lived in relative peace in the area of Palestine until the state of Israel was created and the Zionists chose to disregard rules under which Israel was created. The Zionists grabbed more and more land and settled more people than was agreed to, displacing more and more of those who originally lived there. Thus causing the unrest and resentment of the Israelis from the Palestinians we see through to this day. Hezbollah would have no support in Palestine if it weren’t for the actions of the Israeli government. 

The British were responsible for policing the establishment of the state of Israel. Britian was essentially broke after WWII and couldn't afford the military manpower to police it effectively. The British handed the responsibility over to the UN who didn't a very good job, hence the Zionists just went ahead and did as they pleased.

An unusually blunt editorial from the NYT - worth reading ...

The NY Times - Editorial - Trump Is Hiding the Truth About the War in Iran  (unlocked link)

March 21, 2026

From his first announcement of the attack on Iran on Feb. 28, President Trump has issued a stream of falsehoods about the war.  ...

 

Lying is standard behavior for Mr. Trump, of course. His political career began with a lie about Barack Obama’s birthplace, and he has lied about his business, his wealth, his inauguration crowd size, his defeat in the 2020 election and so much more.

 

A CNN tally of Mr. Trump’s falsehoods during one part of his first term found that he averaged eight false claims per day.

 

Many people are so accustomed to his lies that they hardly notice them anymore. ...

 

Now who has the cards? 
Paying for the drones and missiles your opponent fires at you is a new war winning strategy.
MAGA logic of stable geniuses.

Makes one wonder, if you are going to end up buying Iranian oil at an inflated price anyways.
If you had offered a great deal in the negotiations before war, maybe?

roobarb:

gzt:  With the marines arriving in the gulf next week I'm guessing Trump will have another go at a market calming victory declaration around landing time.

Where will they go and what will they be able to achieve?

Why the U.S. is sending 2,500 marines to the Gulf — and what they might do there

gzt: Executions have restarted:

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/03/20/middleeast/tehran-sends-clear-warning-with-execution-of-protest-linked-men-analysts-say-latam-intl

Evil bastards! What else can you say? I wish something good could come out of this shit pie but that is probably too much to hope for. I do hope there will be just retribution at some point for the victims of this stinking fecal regime that shits in the face of god!