> they're saying in fewer words "watch what leaders say, not what they do"

Didn't you reverse it? Didn't you mean to say what they do not what they say?

Iran conducted a terrorist network against Israel for decades. It's behind Lebanon, Syria etc. They also called for death to Israel and countless other examples. It's pretty clear what they want to do.

Would they use nuclear weapons against Israel?

No idea. Don't want to know. Just like I'm glad I don't know what Saddam or Assad would have done with their nuclear weapons (had Israel not bombed them away).

> even now when iran has responded to israel's attacks, you still seem to care more about iran's threats than iran's missiles.

Right now Iran doesn't have nuclear weapons. They were able to kill quite a few Israelis (thankfully not as much because the strikes took down a lot of their launchers/missile caches). I'm concerned about what they say because I know where they are headed if they do somehow gain the weapons to kill everyone.

When someone says they want to kill you and your family: believe them.

> on your very long aside, you are mislabelling the positive sum behaviour as zero-sum.

Nope. Death to Israel is very much zero-sum.

The reason for your confusion is that Iran didn't attack Israel directly and mostly through proxy. That doesn't mean they aren't trying to destroy Israel, they are just cautious about it. Their goal is still the same.

> you might see the point in putting at least equal blame between israel and hamas

Nope. Israel tried to have peace with the Palestinians. Hamas blew up that peace by blowing up busses and coffee shops in the middle of Tel Aviv until that collapsed. They are a zero-sum player who won't settle for peace.

Israel built defense systems and shelters for its people. It ignored Hamas built rockets launched constantly at its cities and tried to "let them be". But they miscalculated. They saw Israeli tolerance as a weakness and assumed Israel doesn't have the stomach for a painful war. They are 100% at fault here and brought about the whole thing.

The fact that this is Hamas's fault doesn't absolve Israel of the brutality of this war and some of the awful things it did. It's just context.

> israel is in a mutually beneficial escalation and continuation of violence with hamas.

It's pretty bad that you lump all of Israel together but make the distinction for Hamas. Hamas made a choice to open a can of worms when Israel had one of the worst governments in its history.

> an extreme right wing populace in israel is a win both for hamas and for israel. neither care about the palestinians, nor the israelis.

I mostly agree, but it will be far worse for the Palestinians. Israel will survive regardless of the outcome. Palestinians don't have that privilege. As such Hamas is far worse, it is a suicide cult.