phuketrichard wrote: ↑Fri Sep 06, 2024 8:06 am how can they issue , unless they are a country?



As of June 2024, the State of Palestine is recognized as a sovereign state by 145 of the 193 member states of the United Nations, or just over 75% of all UN members. It has been a non-member observer state of the United Nations General Assembly since November 2012.

The numbers break down to 48 democratic and stable countries, and 145 corrupt or totalitarian or kleptocratic or banana republics... and Spain.

Palestine isn't a state, and though most people (and me) would like a two-state soloution the arabs don't - unless Israel is destroyed first.

The recognition of the State of Palestine by some countries is a move to move forward the negotiations - that is how it is explained by the few democratic low-corruption states such as Spain, which 'partly' recognises Palestine statehood.

You can make up your own passport and pretend you rule a country too.

Random Dude wrote: ↑Fri Sep 06, 2024 8:45 pm

John Bingham wrote: ↑Fri Sep 06, 2024 8:19 pm They don't really have any allies, they burned their bridges with all surrounding Arab states long ago.

There are some amazing plantations interspersed with the mostly arid land in Israel. Hopefully these can survive and expand.

I don't follow the situation closely so really don't know much about it, but aren't there groups like Hezbollah still supporting Palestine, probably as Iran's proxies? If they (Palestine - or whatever we're calling it for now) were wiped off the face of the earth it's hard to imagine the rest of the Arab world saying fair enough, the Jews won, it's over.

As for the plantations in Israel, I thought the whole region was going through tough times because of increasing desertification, heat waves, etc. That's probably only going to get worse. Unless someone drops a few nukes and turns it all to glass, my money would be on climate issues sorting out that mess.

This current mess is the work of Iran. They couldn't accept that Saudi Arabia and Israel were about to sign a peace deal and bring some peace to the Middle East. The Houthis' in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon are both Iran backed religious lunatics. Nobody is backing Hamas apart from Qatar and Iran. Bahrain, The UAE, Kuwait etc are all keeping well out of it. Egypt is upset because it has lost control of the smuggling routes into Gaza which brings in a lot of money and control. Qatar is the home of all the Hamas leadership because they are cowards and are happy to see civilians die whilst they live in million dollar villas in Doha. There won't be a peace deal because Hamas wants Israel to agree to not killing the people who planned October 7th. Israel will never agree to that. They are dead men walking.

Part of the reason that Israel reacts so strongly to the killing of its citizens is based on how many Jews were killed in WW2 and how few Germans were held responsible. 10 German leaders were executed as they oversaw millions of Jewish deaths. Therefore, if you kill an Israeli expect them to kill 100 of you. The recent strikes in Lebanon are a good example of this.


https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/09/1141302

xandreu wrote: ↑Sat Sep 07, 2024 12:04 am I sometimes wonder if, in the middle of a long war / conflict, somebody, somewhere, high up in the ranks, sits back in their chair and mutters to themselves "What the fuck are we doing..?" but by that time, due to a combination of being in it so deep, plus not wanting to be 'that guy', they just shrug their shoulders and carry on...

That's probably why a career in the military was never for me.

The only group of people who the Shia and Sunni Muslims hate more than they hate each other is the Jews. Without Israel they would be more focused on killing each other. Hating Israel is literally the only thing that they can agree on. That and marrying your cousin.

phuketrichard wrote: ↑Sat Sep 07, 2024 7:35 am

US officials say they are increasingly skeptical that Hamas and the group’s leader, Yahya Sinwar, may actually want an agreement. They have accused the group of making the negotiations more difficult following the recent execution of six hostages in Gaza.

And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has poured cold water on US hopefulness, though Biden officials have largely refrained from criticizing him. The prime minister said bluntly this week that a deal is not close and is arguing for a permanent Israeli presence in southwestern Gaza, despite international calls, including from the US, for Israel to eventually fully withdraw.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/06/poli ... index.html

we all agree on one thing
chances of a peaceful settlement are nil
UNTIL
god sends down a massive wave an wipes out the whole region.

I promote your idea.