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Israel lost the PR war but it was worth it
Credit goes to ginnydmm on x.com
https://x.com/ginnydmm/status/1978357290735460381?s=46&t=ibtDr7vEqup2t3pXMsgVBw
October 10 at 12:09 PM
“I keep hearing that Israel "lost the PR war."
And you know what? Fine. Sure. Whatever.
The world thinks we're monsters. The UN passed over 30 resolutions condemning us. College campuses exploded with protests. "Genocide" trended on Twitter for 700 days straight.
We lost the PR war. Congratulations to everyone who won it.
Now let me tell you what we won instead.
Two years ago, my country was surrounded. Hezbollah had 150,000 rockets aimed at us from the north. Hamas controlled Gaza with an army in tunnels beneath it. Iran was months from a nuclear weapon. The Houthis were firing missiles at our ships. Assad's Syria was an Iranian highway. Iraqi militias were itching for war.
We called it the "ring of fire." Iran spent 40 years building it.
Billions of dollars. Endless weapons. Thousands of fighters. All of it designed for one purpose: to destroy Israel in a coordinated attack.
October 7th was supposed to be the beginning. Hamas attacks from the south, Hezbollah from the north, militias from the east, Houthis from the sea. The final war.
You know what happened instead?
Israel dismantled the entire thing. Piece by piece. Threat by threat.
Not in some distant future. Not "eventually." In two years.
Nasrallah spent 32 years building Hezbollah into the most powerful non-state military in the world. Israel killed him in his bunker and took out his entire command structure in weeks.
Hezbollah isn't weakened. It's finished.
Iran built a nuclear program for decades. Israel set it back years. Killed their top scientists. Destroyed their facilities. Made the regime so weak that its own people are revolting.
Assad survived a civil war, Russian intervention, and American strikes. He couldn't survive losing his Iranian backers. His regime collapsed. The land bridge is gone.
The Houthis thought they could close the Red Sea. Israel crippled their long-range capabilities and neutralized the threat.
Hamas? Sinwar died in rubble clutching a stick. Haniyeh was eliminated in Tehran. Deif is gone. The tunnels are destroyed. And this week, Hamas agreed to a ceasefire and the release of all hostages.
Read that again. The terrorist organization that started this war by massacring 1,200 people just agreed to release every hostage and accept a ceasefire on Israel's terms.
So yeah. We lost the PR war. I'll take that loss.
Because here's what we gained:
My kids don't have to run to bomb shelters anymore. The north is being rebuilt. Hezbollah's rockets are gone. Iran's nuclear threat has been pushed back years. The tunnels under Gaza are rubble. The "ring of fire" is extinguished.
And now? The hostages are coming home. There's a ceasefire. The fighting can finally end.
Two years ago, we were facing an existential threat. Today, we're the dominant power in the Middle East.
Here's the thing about the "PR war" - it's a luxury. It's what people with security worry about. It's optics. It's perception. It's whether someone with a blue checkmark likes you.
Israel doesn't have that luxury. We never did.
When people scream "genocide," we're preventing one. When they cry "disproportionate," we're stopping rockets. When they demand "ceasefire," we're rescuing hostages.
While the world was busy judging us, we were busy surviving.
And not just surviving. Winning. Fundamentally, decisively, historically winning.
Iran's 40-year plan to surround and destroy Israel? Over. The axis of resistance? Shattered. The greatest coordinated threat in our history? Defeated.
So let me ask you something:
Would you rather win the PR war and lose your country? Or lose the PR war and secure your existence for the next 50 years?
Because that's the actual choice.
And Israel made it. Again.
The world can have its hashtags. We'll take our sovereignty.
They can have their protests. We'll take our security.
"Russia requested an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council to discuss Syria, according to Dmitry Polyansky, its deputy ambassador to the U.N., in a post on Telegram.
The arrival of Assad and his family in Moscow was reported by Russian agencies Tass and RIA, citing an unidentified source at the Kremlin. A spokesman there didn’t immediately respond to questions. RIA also said Syrian insurgents had guaranteed the security of Russian military bases and diplomatic posts in Syria."
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I thought this was a blog about us presidents, no one comes here to read your thoughts on the mess in syria.
Well, first and foremost, this isn't a request line. I started this blog to write about whatever I want to write about and I've been doing that for 15+ years. It's not changing anytime soon. I don't care what you came here to read. It's not for you. If anybody finds anything interesting, it's an added bonus.
The collapse of a regime that has existed longer than I've been alive and has had an iron grip on one of the oldest continuous civilizations in the world is historic. And it's interesting to me, and I'll write about whatever interests me whenever I am interested by it. These moments should be fascinating to anybody who has an interest in history. You never know where the story is going to go from here, and that alone is interesting, as well. Just because it isn't "your" history doesn't mean it isn't historic.
When Bashar al-Assad succeeded his father in 2000, there was actually a significant amount of optimism around him. He was a London-educated ophthalmologist who was never intended to be Syria's leader but was thrust into the role after the death of his brother in a car accident. It was thought that he might be a reformer who would lead differently than the tyrannical rule of his father. There was hope that some real changes might take place in parts of the Arab world in 1999 and 2000 when King Hussein of Jordan, King Hassan II of Morocco, and Hafez al-Assad of Syria -- longtime rulers in their respective countries -- all died and were replaced by sons in their mid-30s (King Abdullah II in Jordan, King Mohammed VI in Morocco, and Bashar in Syria). Jordan and Morocco weren't in the same situation as Syria, especially considering the decades of close connections King Hussein and King Hassan II had with the United States, but there was still genuine hope about Bashar al-Assad in 2000.
Twenty-four years later, we know the path of history that Assad took, but these moments are hugely important -- not just for Syrians or Arabs or the Middle East in general, but for the entire world. What happens in Syria matters here. Don't forget that there are American soldiers on the ground in Syria. I'm from Sacramento and live in Los Angeles -- those two cities are almost twice as far apart as Damascus is from Jerusalem. Damascus is closer to Beirut than Sacramento is to San Francisco. Russia, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Israel -- these countries are all intricately connected with Syria in various ways and have been for decades. If you aren't interested in what's going on in Syria today, that's your prerogative. If you don't think what's going on in Syria today makes a difference here, you are disturbingly ignorant.
Turns out I can draw more than just nazis, haha))
(In case you're confused, it's Bashar al-Assad and Julani.)
I grow roses in my Savage garden.
The most beautiful ones.
But I'm afraid of their thorns - they can hurt me.
So I break off their thorns.
Power to the people, always ✊🏻