Fred1new
- 06 Jan 2009 19:21
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
- 22 Aug 2010 07:42
- 3417 of 6906
fred et al - most of what i wrote is merely regurgitated from much earlier posts ..... as for the "agenda" it depends on whether israels' interpretation of such being preconditions is correct .... the only agenda should be a broadbrush comment that the purpose is how to achieve a workable peace
fahel
- 22 Aug 2010 10:59
- 3418 of 6906
Shoe Bombers, crotch bombers, 9/11 and Israel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqFKhGHpvnQ
Haystack
- 22 Aug 2010 12:08
- 3419 of 6906
There is no point to these talks. Mahmoud Abbas has no support from the Palestinian people. He can't agree to anthing as there are too many other groups not invited to the talks. He has increasingly been behaving as a US puppet. Anyway, no deal is possible without Hams. It is all a waste of time and intended to boost Obama's and Netanyahu's popularity.
fahel
- 22 Aug 2010 12:08
- 3420 of 6906
cynic
- 22 Aug 2010 14:43
- 3421 of 6906
as was pointed out to you Hayseed, as you admit to being blinded by prejudice, your comments have little or no value ..... you (wouldn't want to) remember that the talks in northern ireland also initially lacked one key party or another, but eventually all fell into line, and the peace now existing there, while being far from perfect, is pretty much universal .... assuredly the ordinary people want to live in peace, and it is a certainty that that applies similarly in israel and gaza ..... it's only the rabid dogs on both sides who wish to see the ferment and bloodshed continue
Haystack
- 22 Aug 2010 14:59
- 3422 of 6906
The talks in NI are very different from these talks. In fact I can see no similarities at all. Certainly Hamas do not want to see the conflict contine. They want their land back and that is the only solution.
And don't forget that the problems in NI have no been solved. They have just temporarily become less dangerous, but that will increase over the next few years.
cynic
- 22 Aug 2010 15:34
- 3423 of 6906
as has been said by others .... your blind prejudice precludes you from making a valid judgment .... as you say yourself, "i can see no similarities ...." - of course you can't, you're blind!
Haystack
- 22 Aug 2010 15:40
- 3424 of 6906
NI was a conflict between two groups living in the same area. Onr grouip wanted an united Ireland and the other did not. The same views still exist now and the problem is not solved.
The ME problem is one where on group has by force taken the land of the other group. All this done illegally. There is no basis that the two groups can live together in peace intil the land is given back.
In The Land of the B
- 22 Aug 2010 22:18
- 3425 of 6906
Haycrapper in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or-epXMvTM8
Bloody incompetent programmers.
Haystack
- 23 Aug 2010 00:01
- 3426 of 6906
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11030512
UN urges Israel to loosen Gaza restrictions
A UN report says the Israeli military has increasingly restricted Palestinian access to farmland in the Gaza Strip and fishing zones along its shore.
The Office for Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Gazans were never informed of the exact nature of such restrictions, and the Israeli army used live ammunition to enforce them.
The policy has led to tens of thousand of people losing their livelihoods.
Israel says the restrictions are necessary to prevent militant attacks.
The UN report found that over the past 10 years, the Israeli military had gradually unilaterally expanded restrictions on access to farmland on the Gaza side of the 1949 Green Line, and to fishing areas along the territory's coastline.
Since late 2008, Palestinians had been totally or partially prevented from accessing land located up to 1.5km (0.9 miles) from the border and the Mediterranean Sea beyond 5.5km (3 nautical miles) from Gaza's shore, the report said.
Overall, it was estimated by the UN that access to 17% of the total land mass of the Gaza Strip and 35% of its agricultural land was restricted.
Meanwhile, fishermen were totally prevented from accessing 85% of the maritime areas they were entitled to access according to the 1993 Oslo Accords.
An estimated 178,000 people - 12% of the population - were directly affected by the access regime implemented by the Israeli military, the report added.
The OCHA said this was primarily enforced by Israeli troops firing "warning shots" near people entering the restricted areas. However, since the end of the Israeli offensive of December 2008 and January 2009, troops had killed 22 civilians and injured 146 while doing so.
"Despite the potential for civilian casualties, the Israeli authorities have not informed the affected population about the precise boundaries of the restricted areas and the conditions under which access to these areas may be permitted or denied," OCHA said.
"Additional risks to the affected population stem from military activities of Palestinian armed factions in the restricted areas and their confrontations with the Israeli military."
The report said a complementary method used by the Israeli military to discourage access was the systematic levelling of farm land and the destruction of other private property located in restricted areas.
This, it added, had cost Gazans $308m (197m) in the past five years and resulted in a yearly loss of approximately 75,000 tonnes of potential produce. Gaza's fishing industry was estimated to have lost $26.5m of income over the same period.
Such restrictions had also affected access to schools - seven of which are located within the restricted areas - and impeded the maintenance and upgrading of existing wastewater and electricity infrastructure, it found.
"To start addressing the dire situation of one of the most vulnerable segments of Gaza's population, the current restrictions on civilian access to Gaza's land and sea must be urgently lifted to the fullest extent possible," the OCHA urged.
Haystack
- 23 Aug 2010 02:07
- 3427 of 6906
An interesting news story below, bearing in mind the reference earlier to the NI talks and how well they have turned out. The troubles in NI are far from over. The lesson is that the real underlying problems have not been solved. Nor will talks in the ME solved their problems.
The Conservative party conference has emerged as the prize target on a hit list drawn up by Irish republican dissidents
Tory MP Patrick Mercer said he had received information that resurgent republican paramilitaries wanted to "seize the news headlines" by attacking targets on the mainland.
They are said to include the Tory conference in Birmingham in October, raising fears of a repeat of the 1984 Brighton attack that nearly killed Margaret Thatcher.
Mr Mercer, who served as a soldier in Northern Ireland, said the intelligence comes from former senior police and army intelligence officers he used to serve with.
The warning comes amid a recent upsurge of violence and bomb incidents in recent weeks, including outside police stations and against security force personnel.
Mr Mercer, former chairman of the Commons subcommittee on counter-terrorism, claimed three dissident splinter groups were involved in the alleged terror plot.
fahel
- 23 Aug 2010 15:03
- 3428 of 6906
Haystack
- 23 Aug 2010 16:44
- 3429 of 6906
Very interesting video, worth watching.
Israel are pulling down Palestinian houses, mosques, flattening farms, moving nomadic people and destroying their tents. They are doing this and saying that they have breached planning laws.This is the West Bank. Israel should not have control of planning regulations. Not only is it not Israel, it is land that Israel says is for the Palestinians. Israel is just the Occupying Force (IOF). And what do they do with the land that these houses etc were built on? They give it to Israelis to build settlements on.
This is ethnic cleansing. They have learnt a lot from the Nazis.
In The Land of the B
- 23 Aug 2010 17:10
- 3430 of 6906
Trying to provoke, huh?
Pathetic.
Do you have anything else in your life?
Don't bother to answer.
cynic
- 23 Aug 2010 17:29
- 3431 of 6906
you guys should all watch The Counterfeiters - it's in german but with english subtitles
it's seriously good and gripping on all sorts of levels, but i shan't spoil it for you
all i shall say, is that various of you may learn an awful lot about morals and the contradictory and conflicting problems that raise their heads
yuff
- 24 Aug 2010 13:01
- 3432 of 6906
Haystack - 23 Aug 2010 16:44 - 3429 of 3431
Very interesting video, worth watching.
Israel are pulling down Palestinian houses, mosques,
And our Muslim friends are rebuilding them on Ground Zero.
cynic
- 24 Aug 2010 13:25
- 3433 of 6906
i have not and have no need to watch U-tube propaganda
however, the Ground Zero argument is no counter.
it could/should be questioned from where the $70m required is coming (shame it hasn't gone to help their brothers in pakistan!) and certainly it is very insensitive and arguably intentionally provocative, notwithstanding that there can be no LEGAL objection
it is of course supremely ironic that non-islamic nations are supremely careful about not causing offense (being insensitive!) and the wrath of Allah or worse is called to rain down on those who dare or even are deemed through some warped logic to have transgressed
Haystack
- 24 Aug 2010 13:30
- 3434 of 6906
The Youtube item is worth watching. It is by a Jew, who is complaining about the way that Israel treats the Palestinians.
cynic
- 24 Aug 2010 13:31
- 3435 of 6906
of course ..... by the way, do you agree with my previous post re Ground Zero etc?
fahel
- 24 Aug 2010 21:08
- 3436 of 6906
Israel, Let MeCount The Ways By Mark Glenn1-10-6 Today, while driving through town, I wound up behind a minivan that had a big sticker on the back. The sticker had an Israeli flag in the middle of it, and under it the quotation from the book of Genesis that reads "I will bless those who bless thee."I would like to take this time to list my own reasons for thanking and blessing Israel, our lone ally in the Middle East, for everything she has done for us, since I am quite sure most Americans are unaware of just what kind of friend she has been to us.For extorting from me and my fellow Americans $16,000,000,000 (billion) a year for the last 4 decades, we bless thee.For taking our most sophisticated weapons technology and stealing it for yourself without paying the American patent holders, we bless thee.For taking that high-tech military technology and selling it to our enemies, such as the Russians and Chinese, thus further endangering us, we bless thee.For using that weaponry in a sustained attack against a United States ship, the USS Liberty, in an attempt to sink her, thus preventing US servicemen from revealing to the rest of the world information concerning the war crimes they witnessed you commit against Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai Desert during the Six Day War, we bless thee.For killing 35 and wounding 170 American sailors aboard the USS Liberty, we bless thee.For bribing the United States government into covering it up, preventing any justice from being done for the benefit of the families of the lost sailors - as well as the American People, we bless thee.For sending your agents into Egypt and blowing up American buildings for the purpose of blaming the Arabs in an event known as the Lavon Affair, we bless thee.For sending your agents into Libya during the Reagan administration, and broadcasting radio messages in Arabic that were designed to sound like "terrorist cell planning" so that the US would initiate military strikes against Khadafi, we bless thee.For withholding information from us concerning the planned attacks against the US Marine barracks in Lebanon, attacks you knew about through your moles in the Islamic world and about which you deliberately refused to warn us in order to further your interests against the Arabs, we bless thee.For employing Jonathon Pollard, an American serviceman paid to spy for Israel in order to steal even more of our National Security secrets for your parasitic purposes, we bless thee.For blackmailing President Clinton through one of your intelligence agents, Monica Lewinsky, in order to prevent a coherent peace program from being pushed forward between yourself and the Palestinian people that you have brutalized and murdered for the last 50 years, we bless thee.For breaking every agreement you have made with your Arab neighbors, stealing their land, displacing, murdering, and treating them like the animals you see them as, we bless thee.For using your agents within the first Bush administration to involve us in the first Gulf War, causing the deaths of American men and women, and exposing our servicemen to whatever bioweapons were/are responsible that has led to Gulf War Syndrome, we bless thee.For your role in the September 11 attacks in this country, and for blackmailing and bribing the US government into deporting back to Israel the 100 or more intelligence agents that were arrested after the attacks, we bless thee.For supressing the information from the American people of your involvement in the September 11 attacks and sending us in the wrong direction in search of answers, we bless thee.For using one of your agents in the US Army Weapons Lab, Lt Colonel Philip Zack to steal anthrax and distribute it into our mail system, terrorizing US citizens and killing several in order to blame the Arabs, we bless thee.For using your agents in the US Government, namely, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Abrams, and the rest into initiating this war in the Middle East so that you could bring to heel all the enemies you have made during the last 50 years, we bless thee.For using your agents in the media to lie to us on a minute by minute basis about the war, how "just" this cause is, and what the real reasons behind it are, we bless thee.For using your agents in the Christian Evangelical community, such as Falwell, Graham, Swaggert, and the rest who praise you as God's chosen people and further keep Americans in the dark about who you really are, what you have done, and what you are truly about, we bless thee.For bringing idiots like Limbaugh, Liddy, Hannity, Beck, and Savage to the forefront as paid liars that will support you and further lead Americans astray, we bless thee.For making America your attack dog, and for sending her sons and daughters to fight and die in all your future wars, we bless thee.For using your influence in the media to hide the real statistics about the war, the dead and wounded on both sides, we bless thee.For using us in such a way that not only further inflames the Arab world against us, but as well has succeeded in our alienating ourselves against those nations with whom we have been friendly for over a century, we bless thee.And finally, for using your influence in our media and academia to flood our minds with pornography and lies, as well as inculcating in us a hatred for our history, religion, and culture, for dividing our nation between races and sexes, and for releasing into our society all of your plagues and filth that have left us a rotted out corpse of a once great nation, oh Israel, our friend,we bless thee.Note:For further information regarding the above cited events, read either books written by ex- Israeli Intelligence agent Victor Ostrovsky entitled "By Way of Deception" and "The Other Side of Deception".Mark Glenn is an American and former high school teacher turned writer / commentator. mrkglenn@yahoo.com