JERUSALEM

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The world is a crazy place<!-/Quote-!>

26 years of military service and prolonged, intimate exposure to many of the world's cultures make me agree with statement completely, Vali.

Omigod - the anti-Semitism gambit. I shouldn't be surprised, except I guess you guys were actually starting to persuade me you had something serious to offer.

My mistake.

Here are my two cents worth, bearing in mind that I have never stood on the Golan with an Israeli commander etc. etc. and that I'm not a doctor, lawyer, lion tamer, Grand Poobah of the Water Buffaloes or whatever sort of thoroughbred you'd really rather be hearing from right now.

Not me. I'm just an ordinary schmuck. But what the hell: en garde anyway.

For someone who refers heavily to supposed personal experience in the region (I'll give you the benefit of a doubt since my scepticism seems to get your back up and I scare easily: out of courtesy I'll make Vali a doctor too, though I still have my doubts), your a priori determination to find symmetries between the two sides in this conflict leads you into some tortuous reasoning.

Your decision, in the best academic tradition, that both sides must be equally to blame, forces you to adopt a shopping-list approach in which any fault on one side must be co

If you don't mind, I'll remove those odd symbols from your post.

Please do!!! Damned if I could figure out why it did that.

Thanks.

How did u do that?

The current software of the forum doesn't allow special characters. So, when there's a character that doesn't find correspondence here, such as € (euro sign), or ‘ (the quotation mark MS Word uses), we get the those symbols.

You probably wrote your post on Word and when you typed ', Word changed it to it's own variant (‘) because of auto-correct.

If you notice the bar stating the date of each post, at the end there will be an icon resembling a pad with a pencil. If you click there, you can edit your post. Granted I'm the moderator, I can edit everyone's post, so I just exchanged the quotation marks and dashes to a acceptable sign.

Thanks. I've used that bar a few times to edit my stuff.

I did write in Word, as I knew I had a lot to say. Maybe next time I should try Wordpad or some such?

Anyway thanks again.

Yes. To use Wordpad or Notepad or to turn off Word's auto-correct will prevent those symbols.

No problem.

In Africa it is Army V's Army, country man V's country man. As it is all around the world exept for Palistine. In Palestine its occupation forces V's civilians. Civilians V's the most powerful weapons in the world. This is why it's different.
The only way a Palestinian could target a military target was by carrying the bomb to the target themselves. Firing a home made rocket into the general direction of Israel and hitting a school is not targeting. Wake up.

How did we end up with a country as hypicritical as America running the show?
Do as I say, but not as I do.
Be free but on our terms.

Why is America not stopping the murder?
America is about to go into melt down. With being able to show just how hopeless life can realy be, your rulers hope that you wont feel that life for you is hopeless.

As for the Zionists, this ethnic cleansing is being done because:
1) They realy do be

Ben-Gurion was the first PM, not Prez as I said. My bad.

I thought Almohad started with nothing, but I've got him ahead now, scoring increasingly strongly both on substance and on style.

The Israelis occuppied jordanian, egyptian and syrian land. The palestian state has never existed before now. Many countries that exist today do so on occupied land, turkey, america, arab states in north africa etc....these things happen. The weaker party just has to live with it. This is by no means right but its reality.
Nix sudan is not army versus army, there is government backed islamic militia against african civilians. It is a totally one sided genocide.
For all the bad things israel do, they do not seek genocide.
Palestine is the weaker side here, this they need to realise. Firing rockets into isreal is just defeating themselves. Any idiot knows the way to get your way in democracy is to talk the talk.
The day Hamas stop attacking Israel is the day Hamas gets past israels military. The world will support a peaceful palestine against an aggressive israel, they will not however support a terrorist state against a largely law abiding

....

well said general. All the talk in the world aint going to change a thing.

Vali- The U.N has been sending aide to Palestine. Other relief groups as well. However, Isreal has rammed and detoured aide boats into Palestine.
Besides. What if someone came to you and said "We're gonna need several acres of your land to put people on. Did I mention they're members of a religion that you don't get along with? did I also mention that you will be the treated like a bag of shit in the mean time? And don't believe you have a say in this."


I'd be kinda pissed too.

Since when is it reasonable to take the position that the weak must cease resistance while the strong have carte blanche to continue what they're doing? Why is the resistance of the weak made out to be the main obstacle to a just solution?

Have you even remotely considered that perhaps the stronger side should stop its attacks if peace is to have a chance? What prevents this idea from entering your head? Have you ever considered that the occupier should perhaps give up its occupation if it expects those fighting against occupation to lay down their arms?

Why do we never hear these thought from you, Vali? Why do we instead hear you lecturing the weak that "these things happen" and they "have to live with it"? Why do you expect and demand that the Palestinians should do what no oppressed people in history has ever done? What kind of warped sensibility solemnly declares that resistance to repression is a bigger problem

I for one do not judge people my religion colour nationlaity etc. Only by their actions. I am a minority in my own country, but I am free to do as I wish within the law. Same as everybody else.
You are naive to think 'aid' goes to those in need. First in line are the power player in hamas etc..Its the same all over the world. Aid just keeps bad cycles going round. Targeted development in peaceful countries gets results. Not misplaced sympathy. The day the palestians start building their own future is the day they will get a future. Supporting Hamas just keeps them where they are.

I smell Marxist Dogma at work. Yep. Ok back to arguing.

A beautiful moment on BBC today. The Israel rep to the UN or some such is being interviewed and is insisting that Hamas rockets must stop before a ceasefire can take place, yada yada yada. The interviewer jumps in: "but this would be inconvenient for you, wouldn't it? Because if Hamas stopped firing rockets, you'd have to stop your attacks?"

Priceless. I actually yelled out "Alright!" It's so great to see Israeli diplomats, who usually get such an easy ride in the media, actually facing a real, tough question. It reminded me of Soviet parliamentarians squirming uncomfortably as they were asked pointed questions by Russian journalists emboldened by the spread of 'glasnost' in the Soviet Union.

Of course the moment won't last, and once Israel decides it's wasted enough civilians and allows a ceasefire everything will go back to the status quo ante, media-wise at least. But it's nice to see Is

Always ready with a name, JB. You know, if you ran up a flag that said "OUT OF IDEAS" it would actually be more subtle.

AL...please. To win a fight you only fight against those you can beat. The Palestinians can not defeat israel militarily. The way for palestinians to be free is to stop fighting. Israel does not occupy palestine because palestine does not exist! It has never existed. It is a region not a country. Gaza and the west bank are former areas of jordan and egypt.
The palestians have a chance now for their own country. Stop attacking israel and israel will be made to tow the line.
People have to live with it because they die if they do not. The strong have always taken from the weak. Its reality al not right or wrong just reality. I live on a planet where the strong rule over the weak. Eurpoean settlers defeated the native americans to form america. The turkish defeated the byzantians to form turkey. The arabs defeated the africans to form the north african countries. Russia, australia, china, all the south american countries...need I go on? The strong r

I have an idea. Pave Gaza over. It would make a nice parking lot. Problem solved.

But it would mean less Neo-Marxist posers arguing passionately over a region they could not walk the streets in alone without being a target for kidnapping or execution.


I am going to watch Jihad Mickey again.....

That always makes me laugh.

News flash for Vali: Israel has blockaded humanitarian supplies from Gaza for 18 months. They only lifted the blockade (partially) a day before their attacks.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you'd blame Hamas and the Palestinians for this too.

But dammit, I keep hoping. I'm pullin' for ya, buddy, I really am... we'll de-program you yet. Put on another pot of coffee, doctor.

Incidentally, the Geneva Convention defines such a blockade as an act of war. So this great 'truce' and 'ceasefire' that everyone says was broken by Hamas was in fact a situation where one side pursued aggression while the other side was expected to keep its hands in its pockets.

Hey Vali, that's just the kind of thing you think we all need more of in this world, isn't it? I guess that it must have been a good time for you while it lasted!

And so Channel JB is formally off the air. He was just calling them in at the end there anyway.