No Stupid Questions

Hmm... For a more realistic answer not necessarily. This isn't the first time they invaded Lebanon. I'm admittedly not aware of why they left the first time, but from what I know at least in the short term they're mostly content with the territory they currently control. Of course "currently control" including Gaza, the West Bank and the Golan heights; ethnically cleansing those was always the plan. Also when Egypt inevitably collapses as a state I could see them trying to go for Sinai.

Completely occupying Palestinian land has been the plan for over half a century.

With this terrorist attack, Israel is trying to wrap it up.

They could have completed their colonization under the guise of righteous vengeance, but:

That now has very little chance of succeeding because of three important factors 1) it's taking much too long 2)they're indisputably committing witnessed, recorded and shared war crimes and 3) the goodwill they've accumulated for 70 years as a stabilizing ally is wearing off pretty quickly.

There's more support for Palestine now than there has been with these same Israeli attacks occurring for the past 70 years.

Palestine is officially recognized by 145 countries or so at this point.

So, likely scenario is there's going to be a ceasefire eventually and a similar paltry amount of land will be given to a nascent "official" Palestinian authority under the practical authority of Israel, which is not ideal, but it might actually result in the beginning of a two-state solution that's been suggested since Israel became a country.

In practical terms, Palestine getting a "country", not much will change between Israel and Palestine because the establishment of Palestine doesn't affect the fundamental religious conflict between the two.

That's where it looks like it's headed.

I hope I'm wrong and something better happens.

For decades, Israel and the US (and European countries) have pursued a policy to destabilize middle eastern regimes.

People don't realize this, but there was a wave of Arab nationalism that was killed by sponsoring Islamic extremists. Had that not happened, the middle east would be much more secular today than it is.

Israel attacking and destabilizing Lebanon and Syria and the US maintaining a dictator in Egypt are part of this strategy.

In turn, this leads to hate towards the West and Israel by the Muslims affected.

It won't stop as long as American voters care much more about gas prices than about human rights. American politicians are willing to sponsor genocide to have some control on oil prices in order to win elections.

Well, yeah. That's the idea. Why would they go this far and not go all the way? They know damn good and well that as long as they keep things just barely on the end where genocide isn't stated as a goal, and they maintain a position of alliance with most of the west, nobody is going to actually stop them.

Hell, without starting a world war, I'm not even sure they can be stopped.

On the world stage? There aren't enough nations with power that actually care about Palestine. Yeah, leaders will make noise and pretend to care, but Palestine offers nothing to the major powers worth intervening for.

Sounds sociopathic, right? That's the leaders of most of the world. People drawn to power rarely have the ethical rigor to wield said power. Those that do, still have to deal with oligopoly, hidden fascists, and the reality that no nation can really take action without upsetting the whole damn thing.

There’s no reason for them to stop. No one standing against them. If I was them, I would do the same.