Marc Lynch

So yes, it's troubling.

And as Mark said, yes, the international community speaks up, but the U.S.

shields Hamas

its own actions and Israeli actions in a way that renders all these international efforts, whether they're the International Court of Justice or the International Criminal Court or European unions, they can't do anything because we take actions to prevent the consequences.

And that has been a big part of the problem that we face.

Yes, I think it's good that you said about the history, and particularly October 7th, because horrible that that was, and obviously you expect consequences.

It is part of a much deeper, longer history.

And the same thing, as Mark said about the Lebanon thing, also it's true of Iran.

I mean, remember that the Iranians to this day tell the story of the overthrow of Prime Minister Mossadegh, the national prime minister, and the kind of saving the Shah of Iran.

And that was part of the forces behind the revolution and part of the forces of targeting America after the revolution.

And what's happening now is so much more intense than what happened then.

And to expect no blowback,

or to expect no blowback out of whether Hamas as an organization exists or not, to expect no blowback out of Palestinians, or to expect no blowback out of Lebanese.

Yes, and I think the public by and large, particularly with related to international affairs,

is really usually only invested when there is a crisis.

And so those are the moments when they formulate their opinions and they don't really follow.

What I get frustrated with is not so much policymakers, but really the level of analysis and discourse of people who write about it who should know more and should frame the questions a little better.

Yeah, and when I think about it, as I said, given the Israeli agenda, which is an expansionist agenda right now, at least for the West Bank, Gaza, southern Lebanon, and maybe beyond, and given its strategic outlook, which is escalation dominance, which really means military dominance, over half a billion people,

Number one, there is no way this can be maintained without almost unlimited American support.

Just cannot.