South Africa is the last country to start taking a moral position on the behaviour of other nations

Responsibility Deficit Disorder is a medical condition. Symptoms include inability to be corrected when wrong, false sense of superiority, desire to share personal info no else cares about, general hubris. It's a medical issue rather than pure arrogance.

The reasons why Palestinians elected Hamas is for the same reason Israelis have Netanyahu leading a very right wing government.

There is no 'somehow' for a two state solution. If I come along and shoot your wife and children in front of you and then some foreigner says, 'make peace' you're going to tell them to take a long run off a short pier.

Events will run how they run and we all will watch the tragedy as we watch the tragedies of all wars.

Personally my view is that the creation of the Israeli state in Palestine was a disastrous mistake....something that Einstein agreed at the time when he refused its leadership.

Personally I see the most practical solution to be Egypt being given Gaza and the Palestinian people and a sh1t ton of money to rebuild it and cope with the massive issues it would have taking in a population it actually opposes politically (Hamas being pro Muslim Brotherhood who Sisi in Egypt overthrew).

However, the problem is that any Arab leadership seen to be solving a problem for Israel would be putting a target on its back and probably wouldn't last a year.

So failing that there is the option of building a city in the Sinai desert....but that's a variation on the same solution with the same problems.

However, I see old whitey in Europe being soft sold to take in a radicalised Palestinian population who will blame us as much as Israel for their woes.

Edited by Stirlingsays (17 Feb 2024 9.14am)

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

Three statements that are all true.

I would imagine that if Egypt were given Gaza the sensible thing for them to do would be to scatter the population around Egypt and populate Gaza with their own. The Egyptian population is already very antisemitic so they would fit right in that regard. However, what would concern Egypt would be the Muslim brotherhood aspect....and the fact that they would be solving Israel's problem...which as we know would mark them.

It would cost a lot of money but would be worth the investment from US/Israel's point of view. However, personally I think it would take regional agreement and indeed backing before Egypt would accept it...That's the kicker, it would be giving Egypt huge problems and they wouldn't touch it without that backing......because there is zero upside if it leads to an overthrow.

It's looking pretty rough.

Edited by Stirlingsays (17 Feb 2024 11.37am)

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

Yeah it sucks.

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

I don't do politics or religion for the most part. Terrorism is a curse that countries try to prevent. Israel's security was lax in not being able to curtail the Hamas attack. But as we all know, it is extremely difficult to counter small numbers of determined terrorists with a plan.
When it comes to the activities of a country's armed forces carpet bombing civilian areas, denying food, water and medical aid, I tend to think this would be classed of some kind of war crime.
I think approximately 28,000 civilians killed and half of all infrastructure badly damaged/destroyed in a matter of months could easily be classed as genocide.
Almost as perplexing as this situation is, is the Western Governments response. Keep sending arms to Israel, stop sending aid to Palestinians (because those truck loads of Covid tests were a game-changer).
The fierce political response the China's activities around Taiwan, and the sending of arms to Ukraine (although that seems to have stopped)is quite different to the silence here.
But the world seems just happy to watch the Palestinian people be bombed , shot and starved to death, for the actions of a few terrorists.
Surely a ceasefire is sensible, if only to keep civilians safe and make arrangements for that to continue.
This isn't warfare. This is slaughter
The shear inhumanity of it is just numbing for me.

Edited by Forest Hillbilly (17 Feb 2024 7.30pm)

I disengage, I turn the page.

Why did Hamas provoke Israel so savagely on October 7th, knowing full well what the severity of the response would be.