Will this increase or decrease the likelihood of terrorist actions in America, Europe and the rest of the world?

If you were a member of a family murdered in this conflict, would you be seeking revenge?

Should Tzipi Livni and Ehud Olmert, be tried for war crimes if or when this conflict comes to an end?

What will the price of oil be in 4 weeks time?

cynic [Send an email to cynic] [View cynic's profile] - 19 Jul 2010 20:24 - 3177 of 3215

Hijab = Headscarf

Nikab = Face veil

Great Britain and we have to put up with this !.....next thing will be offices where the full kit is permitted...crazy....should be banned.....Airfix have said that a model is in the pipeline...true !...should sell in numbers with what we have here...

thanks azhar; i am more than happy to stand corrected - us jews don't wear those things, so don't come across them in our daily lives! .... i initially thought it was a chelab, or is that everything in one?

RF - should we employ a moslem whose preference was to wear a nikab, i would have no problem at all - why would i so long as it does not impinge on her work and capabilities? ..... ditto dreadlocks and similar "eccentricities"

.

We should be tolerant up to a certain point but this is getting out of hand, rasta haircuts and dreadlocks are another problem, .....the French handle these things well, we should take notice.

not sure that the french are that good actually ..... anyway, i certainly have a problem banning dress preference where it does not remotely impinge on decency or activity - bad phrase, but meaning court appeaarnce or i/d proof and similar are different

would you ban topless bathing?
i would doubt it, yet surely that is more likely to offend in everyday life

or what about breast feeding in public?

dangerous ground

"Haystack - 19 Jul 2010 22:30 - 3213 of 3220
There is no professional register. Psychotherapists are members of one of a large number of associations, which act as their examination body and supervise their activities. There are several people on this BB who do know that I am a psychotherapist. I am also a hypnotherapist and a counsellor, but that is pretty much the same for all psychotherapists. I am qualified, but I don't practice at all. "


Hysterical !

Not on the list !

Crossed off were you !

Did you give your "patients" a copy and paste job from "Psychotherapy for Dummies" ?

Look where he downloaded it from :)

http://www.usniff.com/top/psychotherapy+for+dummies

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-10688920

In Israel uncertainty has excluded more than a quarter of million people, who think they are Jewish, from full membership.

These are Jews from the former Soviet Union who flooded to Israel in the last century.

They arrived thinking they were Jews but found, when they came to get married, or buried in consecrated Jewish soil, that senior rabbis in Israel said they were not.

"We have a problem with about 400,000 people who came to Israel who, according to Jewish law, are not Jewish."

zzzzzzzzzzzz......................................

Miraculous economic recovery in Gaza.
http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/archives/001127.html

5,000 fed on 2 fish and 5 loaves and all left sated?

And cooked without gas

rather a long article i'm afraid, but quite interesting i thought ...... is it passably accurate? .... well it reads that way, which is more than one can say for some of the inflammatory rhetoric posted here

=======

Hamas thrives in Gaza's besieged economy

Mai Yaghi, 6:04, Sunday 25 July 2010

The tranquil lawns of the seaside Garden Resort are a high-end oasis in the impoverished Gaza Strip -- and a new source of income for the Hamas-linked charity that owns it.

The beach club, one of several commercial ventures recently launched by groups and individuals linked to Hamas, illustrates the Islamist movement's growing dominance of an economy crippled by a four-year-old Israeli blockade.

The 1.25 million dollar (one million euro) resort is owned and operated by the Islamic Foundation, a charity established by Hamas's spiritual founder, Ahmed Yassin, that has long provided aid to poor families and orphans.

Some 2,000 people have visited each weekend since the foundation established the club and an adjacent fish farm earlier this year, with most paying the eight dollars per family admission fee and many dining at its restaurant.

"These projects provide a service to citizens in order to relieve the burdens of the (Israeli) occupation and the devastating war," said foundation chairman Abdelrahim Shihab.

"The project encourages economic growth ... But our priority is the citizen and not the investment."

Israeli and Egyptian border closures imposed after the capture of an Israeli soldier in June 2006 and tightened when Hamas seized power a year later have devastated Gaza's private sector, sending unemployment above 40 percent.

But the sanctions have had little visible impact on Hamas, which taxes and regulates a thriving trade carried out through hundreds of smuggler tunnels beneath the Egyptian border that supply most of Gaza's daily needs.

Hamas regularly pays the salaries of over 20,000 civil servants and security forces, and at the start of the year the Hamas-run government approved a 540-million-dollar (377-million-euro) budget, with nearly 90 percent of revenue coming from undisclosed foreign aid.

Iran and several international Islamic charities provide aid to the group -- which is pledged to Israel's destruction and listed as a terrorist organisation by the West -- through mostly secret channels.

"The economy in the Gaza Strip has thrived in the face of the Israeli siege," Hamas economy minister Ziad al-Zaza told AFP. "But the government is determined to invest firstly for the benefit of the citizen."

He attributes Hamas members' growing role in the economy to the ouster of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority led by the rival Fatah movement, which sidelined Hamas until the Islamists drove it out in June 2007.

"The sons of Hamas were prevented in the past from working and participating, but today there are opportunities for them," he said.

"They can start to have a clear presence because of their expertise."

The Islamic Foundation has launched eight projects in all, including bakeries, farms, a supermarket and a restaurant, and had a nine million dollar budget in 2009, according to Shihab.

"Fifty percent of the revenues of these projects go to establishing new projects to serve the people," he said. "Any for-profit project must advance the goals of the association and its expansion and continuation."

Just down the beach another Hamas-linked charity, whose headquarters were destroyed by an Israeli air strike during the 2008-2009 Gaza war, has established the Freedom Resort, which includes a new 250,000 dollar wedding hall, according to its director, Saber Abu Kirsh.

Hamas is also widely believed to be behind a new shopping mall that opened this week in Gaza City with a ceremony attended by several Hamas ministers and professors at the Hamas-linked Islamic University.

The mall's manager, Siraj Abu Selim, denied Hamas was involved in the three million dollar (2.3 million euro) project, but refused to give the names of any of the mall's owners or chief investors.

Zaza said the government had encouraged the establishment of several commercial projects but had not provided any funding for them.

It plays a more direct role in other projects, however, including the Bisan City tourist village on the northern edge of the territory.

The sprawling facility, which includes gardens, playgrounds, football fields, a petting zoo and restaurants, attracts some 6,000 people every weekend, many of whom are brought in on government-subsidised buses.

And despite the fact that almost all building materials have to be smuggled into the territory, the park includes a new wedding hall and work is under way on what managers say will be an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

The 1.5 million dollar project, built on government land under the supervision of Hamas interior minister Fathi Hammad, charges 75 cents for adult admission, with children entering for free.

The 270 dunam (67 acre, 27 hectare) park abuts an 84 dunam cattle and chicken farm as well as food processing facilities, also operated by the interior ministry.

Some visitors on a recent weekend were surprised by the charges.

"The ticket price is fine for me, but it would be a lot for some people," said Umm Jalal al-Ayubi, who came with her three children. "It's a government-owned place. It should be free."

The high-end beach resorts have also proven popular, but many wonder how Hamas-linked groups can build new facilities when thousands of homes severely damaged or destroyed during the war remain in ruins.

Abu Kamal, a 53-year-old man whose home was destroyed during the Israeli assault launched in December 2008 in a bid to halt Palestinian rocket attacks, grumbled at the eight dollar admission fee at the Garden Resort.

"The priority should be to rebuild Gaza and build new homes for those of us who had ours destroyed by the occupation during the war," he said.

I don't know if it is true or not. The odd think is that every reference to the 'Garden Resort' begins exactly the same way "The tranquil lawns of the seaside Garden Resort". This pretty much means that the story comes from just one source. I can't see anything essentially wrong in there being a resort in Gaza. There are better off areas as in all countries and the difference between rich and poor is also huge in many countries. The resort may be somewhat less fany than being reported. You would expect some investment in infrastructure and attempts at rebuilding the economy. Gaza is still a holiday destination. There are luxury hotels in Gaza city along the sea front.

I notice that the story is being reported together with a story mentioned in an ealier posts here, about a shopping mall. I have seen a video of the 'mall'. It is just a two story building with a handful of shop units on each floor connected by one staircase. Not exactly a luxury shopping mall as reported by some.

i posted it for interest and with minimal comment .... as i said, i thought it interesting without being preposterously inflammatory ..... people can take it as they like and believe which bits if any that they like - or even ignore it entirely

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuCzHQB1sks

http://www.thedailybanter.com/tdb/2009/07/israeli-soldiers-admit-war-crimes.html

WATCH THE CHANNEL 4 VIDEO

Israeli Soldiers Admit War Crimes by Ben Cohen

A stunning report from Channel 4 on Israeli soldiers confessing to using civilians as human shields, and firing phosphorous into houses during the Gaza invasion earlier this year:

Testimonies of Israeli soldiers admitting war crimes.

http://www.shovrimshtika.org/testimonies_group_e.asp

Breaking the Silence is an organization of veteran Israeli soldiers that collects testimonies of soldiers who served in the Occupied Territories during the Second Intifadah. Soldiers who serve in the Territories are witness to, and participate in military actions which change them immensely. Cases of abuse towards Palestinians, looting, and destruction of property have been the norm for years, but are still excused as military necessities, or explained as extreme and unique cases. Our testimonies portray a different and grim picture of questionable orders in many areas regardind Palestinian civilians. These demonstrate the depth of corruption which is spreading in the Israeli military. While this reality which is known to Israeli soldiers and commanders exists in Israel's back yard, Israeli society continues to turn a blind eye, and to deny that which happens in its name. Discharged soldiers who return to civilian life discover the gap between the reality which they encountered in the Territories , and the silence which they encounter at home. In order to become a civilian again, soldiers are forced to ignore their past experiences. Breaking the Silence voices the experiences of those soldiers, in order to force Israeli society to address the reality which it created

27 July 2010
BBC Last updated at 14:40

David Cameron describes blockaded Gaza as a 'prison'

UK Prime Minister David Cameron has condemned the blockade of the Gaza Strip, describing the territory as a "prison camp".

He also criticised Israel for launching an attack on a convoy transporting Turkish activists and aid to Gaza. Nine Turkish citizens died in the raid.

He was speaking to an audience of businessmen during a visit to Ankara.

The Israeli embassy in London said Gazans were prisoners of Palestinian militant Islamist group Hamas.

Israel and Egypt enforce a blockade on Gaza which restricts goods and people from coming in or out freely.

"Gaza cannot and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp," Mr Cameron said.

"People in Gaza are living under constant attacks and pressure in an open-air prison," he said.

In May, Israeli commandoes stormed the Mavi Marmara and in fighting that followed, nine Turkish activists were killed and four soldiers wounded.

Mr Cameron called the Israeli raid an act of "piracy".

"Israel must apologise as soon as possible, pay compensation and lift the blockade," he said.

The British government's policy has been to call for an end to the blockade, but never before has a British prime minister been so blunt, says the BBC's Jonny Dymond in Ankara.

Haystack-propaganda to suit the personal agenda of the politicians.

that as may be, but it is certainly very refreshing to hear from the PM of a moderately important and unaligned country, some outspoken and unequivocal heavy criticism of some of israel's actions .... i think i am also right in saying that hamas were also given pretty short shrift