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,

As Hays and I are gradually educating you subliminally, your opinions have been improving.

I don't think many of my postings are often rants, but often like yours, they are intended to provoke. (Personal view.)

Sometimes, the responses to "provocation" are with thought and on other occasions are the typical knee jerk, or herd like reactions prevalent on many threads.

Also, the questions I have asked, are an attempt to clarify my own thoughts and positions on certain matters, as much as to change other posters positions.

As far as the ME is concerned, I attempted to highlight a situation where there was the ongoing abuse of power and use "unfair" powerful, propaganda machine in association with what I think, corrupt Jewish American State Lobbying.

The response by many, when this thread was initiated, could be seen as orchestrated.

I think Israel is stoking up future problems for itself and is not being pragmatic.

=============

Noticed at the weekend that Israel has agreed to go ahead with more settlements:

BBC updates:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12725487


13 March 2011 Last updated at 10:11

Israel approves new Jewish settler homes in West Bank
Israel has approved the construction of hundreds of homes for Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank.

=================================
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I suppose it was a good time for the Israeli government to bury the news.

Fred - libya and the palestinians have nothing whatsoever to do with one another .... in honesty, much as i have always found (and so posted) israel's treatment of gaza and the palestinians despicable, it really is little more than a fly's buzzing relative to the current m/e upheaval .... try answering the question i asked

As far as the world economy is concerned the effects should be positive as Japan rebuilds. Some sectors and stocks will suffer, others gain.
Construction will be sharply up in the medium term; short term effects include uranium stocks down, solar stocks up, oil prices will dip.
Markets will not go into melt down, there will be plenty of short and long term opportunities and bounces for the more sophisticated trader and investor.

Cynic,

Stop shouting at me. It frightens me.
================

If you refer to question is contained in Post 4552, the answer is I dont know.

There are too many ifs.

However, at the moment I think that if a no flight zone is quickly enforced, then there is a chance that the rebels may be able to hold some of the major ports and obtain arms and supplies to continue the insurgence.

Also, if that happens, then the rebels may get support from Tunisia and Egypt and of course surreptitiously from the West.

This may induce and early coup and replacement of the Gaddafi hierarchy.

Interesting to see the Rebels commander was a minister justice minister and the military leader is also military trained.

If Gaddafi does get control of the ports then it will be a slow protracted murderous pathway to his removal.

The support will come from Tunisia and Egypt.

The population of Lybya is about 6.5million and that is a small population to patrol a county of its area size.

My bet would be that Gaddafi will be disposed of within 3-6 months.
One problem is that many of the governing cliques of the Arab States in the surrounds, are fearful of any instability and subsequently being removed. They may think that it is reasonable for themselves, to hinder any movements which may lead to democracies.


===============================
Libya is a force of a gnats bite, but Israel is not much bigger, with a population of 7.5million with not much more than half the population having allegiance to its government. As an economical entity it is really of little import.

Again, the surrounding states do not have much love for the State of Israel and would do little to enabling its continuity.

The saving grace for Israel at the moment is that those states do not wish for instability.
=========================

Approximate Populations of Libya 6,5million
Israel 7.5million
Tunisa 10.5Million
Egypt 82million
Wales 3million
But Wales often fights successfully above its weight.


The ramifications of actions in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain and Libya extend to Israel.

The Israeli government acknowledge this.

DYOH.

Fred - stop trying to insert israel/gaza into the libyan equation; a total red herring ..... to get back on track ....

on balance, i suspect a no-fly zone will be approved and given that it has clear AL support, there will at least be an attempt to enforce it ..... G will hope to have (re)secured most of his objectives by the time that comes into being.

i certainly have fears with the bahraini situation, as i'm not sure where that will lead ..... bahrain in itself is something of nothing, except that it abutts saudi and includes a us naval base and influence over persian gulf traffic ..... so what, one might say, but saudi is not nearly as solid as most like to imagine, and that is the real concern

CYNIC,

Bit like a tsunami.

Not sure where it began and less certain where it will get to or when it will end.

But I didn't realise that Israel had moved out of the area.

(Edited, so that I can at least understand myself.)

You wish

well now you know :-) ..... furthermore, neither gaza nor israel have oil!

Gaza has offshore oil and gas reserves

The British Gas Group drilled two wells in 2000: Gaza Marine-1 and Gaza Marine-2. Reserves are estimated by British Gas to be of the order of 1.4 trillion cubic feet, valued at approximately 4 billion dollars. These are the figures made public by British Gas. The size of Palestine's gas reserves could be much larger. Tel Aviv blocked Gaza earning money from the wells. They said that only goods could be paid to Gaza.

how exciting even if no oil!
indeed, if these wells were drilled in 2000 and nothing much done about it, clearly just exploratory rather than anything proven - bad bullshit makes plenty of methane however

Plenty has been done about it. Gaza was going to have a gas deal with Egypt, but Israel blocked it. As it is offshore Israel prevents Gaza from exploiting it and Israel maintains control over the deposits.

"Who Owns the Gas Fields

The issue of sovereignty over Gaza's gas fields is crucial. From a legal standpoint, the gas reserves belong to Palestine.

The death of Yasser Arafat, the election of the Hamas government and the ruin of the Palestinian Authority have enabled Israel to establish de facto control over Gaza's offshore gas reserves.

British Gas (BG Group) has been dealing with the Tel Aviv government. In turn, the Hamas government has been bypassed in regards to exploration and development rights over the gas fields."

yeah yeah yeah .... thus spoke the the unbiased Broadcaster of Truth ... you talk such a load of bollocks ..... palestine isn't even a recognised nation so how can it "own" anything? .... rabid dogs are certainly best avoided, except you're more like a clockwork jabberwocky

"yeah yeah yeah .... thus spoke the the unbiased Broadcaster of Truth ... you talk such a load of bollocks ..... palestine isn't even a recognised nation so how can it "own" anything? .... rabid dogs are certainly best avoided, except you're more like a clockwork jabberwocky "

Words of wisdom :)

As I anticipated, the US has finished bang in the middle of yesterday's range, unperturbed by the Japanese tragedy.

Tuesday 15/03/11
Expect massive falls this morning on all Indices FTSE predicted down 125 points

European Public Perceptions of the Israel Palestine Conflict
Population effectively sampled: All adults aged 18+
Sampling Method: ICM interviewed a random sample of 7,045 European adults aged 18 years+ from its demographically online panel in six European countries: Great Britain (2,031), France (1,004), Germany (1,002), Italy (1,004), Netherlands (1,002), Spain (1,002).

http://www.icmresearch.co.uk/pdfs/2011_march_memo_israelpalestine_poll.pdf

34 per cent of the people polled believe Israel is not a democracy, while less than half, or 45 per cent, believe it is. In Italy and Spain, 41 per cent believe Israel is not a democracy.

53 per cent of Europeans view the siege of the Gaza Strip as illegal, 60 per cent said the 2008-09 ground invasion of the territory was illegal; while 64 per cent said Israels attack on the Freedom Flotilla in May 2010 was illegal.

49 per cent of respondents recognised Israel as the occupying power; 22 per cent said they did not know if it was. When the University of Glasgow conducted its study in Britain in 2001 it found that 71 per cent did not know that it was the Israelis who were occupying the territories.

50 per cent of respondents disagreed with the view that criticism of Israel makes a person anti-Semitic, only 12 per cent said criticising Israel does make a person anti-Semitic.

How long has it taken you to dredge up that pile of irrelevant rubbish?
You really are a sad piece of work, parrot.

PS Apparently they say there are some effective treatments for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder these days. Check it out, parrot.

Just to clarify what a democracy was. I looked up the definition.


Democracy

1) A State or community in which the power of government resides in or is exercised by the people..

2) Government by the people; a form of government in which the power resides in the people and is exercised by them either directly or by means of elected representatives; a form of society which favours equal rights, the ignoring of hereditary class distinctions, and tolerance of minority views..

3) That class of people which has no hereditary or special rank or privilege; the common people.



---------------


I can see why many had doubts about the Israeli government.

But the same doubts may be held about other countries' democracy, including Britain's.

It is a survey just published from a respected polling agency. It shows the changing attitude to Israel and how they are losing support.

surely the only true democracy was in ancient athens where the enfranchised(!!) met in the agora and a vote by count of hands was conducted