War is horrific, but as horrors go this is impressively efficient
But it also begs the question: why was this chilling accuracy not used against Hamas, why instead did they carpet bomb civilians?
Because Bibi wants to commit genocide/ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories, if you follow that, he's not interested in a greater Israel.
Yes, that is my suspicion
If you look at some of the stuff his cabinet have said publicly, such as the below, you can only imagine what they say/do in private.
The EU, France and UK have condemned a senior Israeli minister for suggesting it might be “justified and moral” to starve people in Gaza.
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sparked international outrage after he said on Wednesday: “No one in the world will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages.”
Separately on Wednesday, Israel’s Channel 12 broadcasted security camera footage that reportedly showed the sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza at Sde Teiman military detention camp. Last week, the detention of the soldiers accused of involvement in the alleged abuse sparked violent riots.
I said at the beginning I suspected this of Israel. It’s the only logic behind their behaviour in Gaza - a “final solution” to the Palestinian problem. Just cleanse them entirely: make Gaza uninhabitable and terrify them out of the West Bank
And if you’re an Israeli looking at October 7 I can see why you might feel that way. The Jewish state cannot tolerate the mere possibility it might happen again - it is existential. AND if you’re going to do this you have to get it done before Iran acquires nukes
So: this will end either with the elimination of any Palestinian homeland or the destruction of Israel
Israel can't defeat Hamas by invading and occupying the Palestinian Authority any more than the UK could defeat the IRA by invading and occupying the Republic of Ireland and West Belfast
Of course they can, if they press their advantages until the enemies surrender unconditionally.
Just as we pressed our advantages until the Nazis surrendered unconditionally. Just as the Americans pressed theirs until the Japanese surrendered unconditionally. Just as the Sri Lankans pressed theirs until the Tamil Tigers surrendered unconditionally.
Unconditional surrender ends wars.
Ethnic cleansing also ends historic conflicts. Cf Turkey/Greece
This is what Israel is pursuing. They just can’t say it
Indeed they can’t.
The Gaza Strip would make for some first class seaside real estate when redeveloped.
Pretty much everyone with coastline in the Middle East is now planning to copy Dubai and build hotels on the beaches.
Tourism should be a large attraction for the whole region, especially as it’s mostly off-season for European visitors, somewhere to find sun in winter.
If it dropped the violence and distaste for alcohol and women then the Middle East would be beautifully situated to make a fortune from tourism.
Sharm el-Sheikh was itself of course developed by Israel while it occupied the land, and it became a very successful tourist area which it remains to this day after Egypt accepted peace with Israel.
Egypt accepting it had lost the war ended the cycle of violence with Israel and has led to much more prosperity since, even if not great amounts of freedom. Far better than what the Palestinians have under Hamas.
Sharm-el-Sheikh is lovely, a good example of what they could all be doing. If you stop the war, you start attracting tourists.
Even the Saudis are preparing to relax rules on alcohol and women’s dress in their new resort city on the Red Sea. It’ll be a ‘closed city’ with no locals there. Just across the sea from Sharm, as it happens.
NARRATOR: Sharm-el-Sheikh is not "lovely", unless you you enjoy sterile, dessicated resort-cities inexplicably plonked in hostile desert by a windy coast
If all you want to do is lie on the beach for a week in the middle of British winter…
Remember that most Brits have to experience winter, rather than decamp to the brothels of Bangkok for months on end.
What fools they are
I can barely tolerate September in the New British Climate (TM)
I just walked out to buy some food and a wintry wind was gusting down Parkway and everyone was hunched in winter coats. "Feels like" about 9C? This is Sept 29
Barely coat weather. Very much enjoying the greens turning to golds and anticipating a lovely Autumn here. In a world in which school holidays were not an issue, I wouldn't mind missing the British January. But I don't think the Middle East would ever come top of the list, or even seem preferable to Britain, climatically.
The trick is to find a way of spending the summer in the UK, and the winter somewhere hotter, either the Middle East or Southern Hemisphere.
An old friend of mine had the best job ever, he was a professional gliding instructor who for two decades was in the UK in the summer and New Zealand in the ‘winter’. Oh, and ‘work’ in most cases meant going flying at least five days a week, and being paid to do so.
A colleague of mines son is a pilot. In the summer he flies Canadians to remote fishing and hunting lodges in a float plane, then when the weather changes he flies supplies to remote missions in the DRC, including occasional scrapes with various guerilla.
He has some amazing photos and stories.
Awesome. If I lived my life again I think that’s what I would do.
The problem is that a commercial pilot’s licence costs close to £100k, and you can’t get a student loan for it. Most pilots are financed by the bank of Mum and Dad, who often remortgage their houses to do so.
Meanwhile, the airlines complain about a pilot shortage while sponsoring no more than dozens of pilots every year.
I think Kemi is unfit to be leader having just read her comments on maternity leave/pay. It's absolutely idiotic, in a country where we have a birth rate lower than the replacement rate we need for families to have an extra child, not have fewer because they can't afford the time off.
If anything maternity pay and early years childcare funding needs to go up substantially so that parents don't feel as though they can't have 2 kids instead of 1 or decide that 2 is enough and not go for a third one etc...
I don't know if it plays well with members, perhaps it does because they're all old fuckers who "didn't have that in our day and we raised a family of 17 on a single salary" but this shows she doesn't understand the major demographic issue facing the nation and a big driver of migration in the last 10 years.
Why are you being so dramatic about it - she has one opinion that you don't agree with and she is 'unfit to be leader'? Do you expect to agree with every opinion?
It's not dramatic, it shows she's got poor judgement on one of the biggest issues of our era and for my generation and the one that follows.
It is a single issue where you have a disagreement. She has her reasons and you have yours. The silly media uproar circus whenever someone departs from the mumsnet script is what's landing us with shit politicians like Keir Starmer who've spent their entire career not going off-message and think that's all it takes to be PM.
I do not agree with Badenoch on maternity leave specifically, but there is a general point to be made that successive Governments heaping obligations like high levels of paid holiday, minimum wage/living wage, maternity/paternity leave, workplace pensions etc. etc. etc. all come with a price, which is that many companies don't make it. Chancellors just like to outbid each other in these changes because it's 'free'. Which it isn't.
Reading the actual quotes it seems to me to be rather confused what the point she is trying to make. It seems to be that businesses, especially small, should not have this burden. But she had just said a few seconds earlier that this was about how it was taking tax of some people and giving to others. And that is "excessive". Later she says the rate of maternity pay is "neither here nor there".
War is horrific, but as horrors go this is impressively efficient
But it also begs the question: why was this chilling accuracy not used against Hamas, why instead did they carpet bomb civilians?
Because Bibi wants to commit genocide/ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories, if you follow that, he's not interested in a greater Israel.
Yes, that is my suspicion
If you look at some of the stuff his cabinet have said publicly, such as the below, you can only imagine what they say/do in private.
The EU, France and UK have condemned a senior Israeli minister for suggesting it might be “justified and moral” to starve people in Gaza.
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sparked international outrage after he said on Wednesday: “No one in the world will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages.”
Separately on Wednesday, Israel’s Channel 12 broadcasted security camera footage that reportedly showed the sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza at Sde Teiman military detention camp. Last week, the detention of the soldiers accused of involvement in the alleged abuse sparked violent riots.
I said at the beginning I suspected this of Israel. It’s the only logic behind their behaviour in Gaza - a “final solution” to the Palestinian problem. Just cleanse them entirely: make Gaza uninhabitable and terrify them out of the West Bank
And if you’re an Israeli looking at October 7 I can see why you might feel that way. The Jewish state cannot tolerate the mere possibility it might happen again - it is existential. AND if you’re going to do this you have to get it done before Iran acquires nukes
So: this will end either with the elimination of any Palestinian homeland or the destruction of Israel
Israel can't defeat Hamas by invading and occupying the Palestinian Authority any more than the UK could defeat the IRA by invading and occupying the Republic of Ireland and West Belfast
Of course they can, if they press their advantages until the enemies surrender unconditionally.
Just as we pressed our advantages until the Nazis surrendered unconditionally. Just as the Americans pressed theirs until the Japanese surrendered unconditionally. Just as the Sri Lankans pressed theirs until the Tamil Tigers surrendered unconditionally.
Unconditional surrender ends wars.
Ethnic cleansing also ends historic conflicts. Cf Turkey/Greece
This is what Israel is pursuing. They just can’t say it
Indeed they can’t.
The Gaza Strip would make for some first class seaside real estate when redeveloped.
Pretty much everyone with coastline in the Middle East is now planning to copy Dubai and build hotels on the beaches.
Tourism should be a large attraction for the whole region, especially as it’s mostly off-season for European visitors, somewhere to find sun in winter.
If it dropped the violence and distaste for alcohol and women then the Middle East would be beautifully situated to make a fortune from tourism.
Sharm el-Sheikh was itself of course developed by Israel while it occupied the land, and it became a very successful tourist area which it remains to this day after Egypt accepted peace with Israel.
Egypt accepting it had lost the war ended the cycle of violence with Israel and has led to much more prosperity since, even if not great amounts of freedom. Far better than what the Palestinians have under Hamas.
Sharm-el-Sheikh is lovely, a good example of what they could all be doing. If you stop the war, you start attracting tourists.
Even the Saudis are preparing to relax rules on alcohol and women’s dress in their new resort city on the Red Sea. It’ll be a ‘closed city’ with no locals there. Just across the sea from Sharm, as it happens.
NARRATOR: Sharm-el-Sheikh is not "lovely", unless you you enjoy sterile, dessicated resort-cities inexplicably plonked in hostile desert by a windy coast
If all you want to do is lie on the beach for a week in the middle of British winter…
Remember that most Brits have to experience winter, rather than decamp to the brothels of Bangkok for months on end.
What fools they are
I can barely tolerate September in the New British Climate (TM)
I just walked out to buy some food and a wintry wind was gusting down Parkway and everyone was hunched in winter coats. "Feels like" about 9C? This is Sept 29
The cold weather is God's reminder to burn more Catholics at the stake.
My fractious mood might be related to this: yesterday I discovered that you're never too old to learn new things
I went out on the lash with some old uni friends. The evening conclued at chucking out time at the Groucho. Around 1am we came up with a new game of: "inventing hideous cocktails for the other person to drink"
From this I have learned: "never start inventing cocktails, at the Groucho, at 1am"
I am considerably surprised to learn that you had not already learnt this lesson long ago.
Preliminary results from Austria’s general election showed the far-right Freedom party (FPÖ) winning the most votes for the first time in the postwar period as it rode a tide of public anger over migration and the cost of living. It was projected to beat the co-ruling centre-right People’s party (ÖVP) by three points, surpassing expectations.
War is horrific, but as horrors go this is impressively efficient
But it also begs the question: why was this chilling accuracy not used against Hamas, why instead did they carpet bomb civilians?
Because Bibi wants to commit genocide/ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories, if you follow that, he's not interested in a greater Israel.
Yes, that is my suspicion
If you look at some of the stuff his cabinet have said publicly, such as the below, you can only imagine what they say/do in private.
The EU, France and UK have condemned a senior Israeli minister for suggesting it might be “justified and moral” to starve people in Gaza.
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sparked international outrage after he said on Wednesday: “No one in the world will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages.”
Separately on Wednesday, Israel’s Channel 12 broadcasted security camera footage that reportedly showed the sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza at Sde Teiman military detention camp. Last week, the detention of the soldiers accused of involvement in the alleged abuse sparked violent riots.
I said at the beginning I suspected this of Israel. It’s the only logic behind their behaviour in Gaza - a “final solution” to the Palestinian problem. Just cleanse them entirely: make Gaza uninhabitable and terrify them out of the West Bank
And if you’re an Israeli looking at October 7 I can see why you might feel that way. The Jewish state cannot tolerate the mere possibility it might happen again - it is existential. AND if you’re going to do this you have to get it done before Iran acquires nukes
So: this will end either with the elimination of any Palestinian homeland or the destruction of Israel
Israel can't defeat Hamas by invading and occupying the Palestinian Authority any more than the UK could defeat the IRA by invading and occupying the Republic of Ireland and West Belfast
Of course they can, if they press their advantages until the enemies surrender unconditionally.
Just as we pressed our advantages until the Nazis surrendered unconditionally. Just as the Americans pressed theirs until the Japanese surrendered unconditionally. Just as the Sri Lankans pressed theirs until the Tamil Tigers surrendered unconditionally.
Unconditional surrender ends wars.
Ethnic cleansing also ends historic conflicts. Cf Turkey/Greece
This is what Israel is pursuing. They just can’t say it
Indeed they can’t.
The Gaza Strip would make for some first class seaside real estate when redeveloped.
Pretty much everyone with coastline in the Middle East is now planning to copy Dubai and build hotels on the beaches.
Tourism should be a large attraction for the whole region, especially as it’s mostly off-season for European visitors, somewhere to find sun in winter.
If it dropped the violence and distaste for alcohol and women then the Middle East would be beautifully situated to make a fortune from tourism.
Sharm el-Sheikh was itself of course developed by Israel while it occupied the land, and it became a very successful tourist area which it remains to this day after Egypt accepted peace with Israel.
Egypt accepting it had lost the war ended the cycle of violence with Israel and has led to much more prosperity since, even if not great amounts of freedom. Far better than what the Palestinians have under Hamas.
Sharm-el-Sheikh is lovely, a good example of what they could all be doing. If you stop the war, you start attracting tourists.
Even the Saudis are preparing to relax rules on alcohol and women’s dress in their new resort city on the Red Sea. It’ll be a ‘closed city’ with no locals there. Just across the sea from Sharm, as it happens.
NARRATOR: Sharm-el-Sheikh is not "lovely", unless you you enjoy sterile, dessicated resort-cities inexplicably plonked in hostile desert by a windy coast
A reminder that the song "Why does it always rain on me" was inspired by a soggy holiday in Eilat
I was living in Cairo at the time, in a friend's apartment on Zemalak island (which was then posh, nice and leafy). I was about 23. I had an opium addiction which I would satisfy by crossing the Nile to the TV HQ, and the slums just behind, where my smiley opium dealer would sell me a thick wad of opium for 70 Egyptian pounds (much less than it sounds)
I would then pop it under my tongue and by the time I got back, crossing the Nile again, I was happily zonked and opiated and I would spend the rest of the day reading Cavafy and killing flies, on my friend's balcony
At one point I got bored of this, and went to Israel, and ran out of money in Jerusalem (long story) so I hitch-hiked to Eilat to cross the border, where I knew I had just enough cash (a tiny amount of Egyptian pounds) to get a really cheap bus back to Cairo
But at the border they told me there was an exit fee. I didn't have it. The Israeli border people said Sorry but there was nothing they could do. I was totally stuck. I had to sleep on the beach, I washed in the ocean, a nice person gave me food, and every morning and afternoon I went back to the border and the Israelis said Sorry, very nicely, again - but by the time I made my 9th visit the lovely young Israeli border woman said "We're all feeling so sorry for you, sleeping on the beach, we've all clubbed together to pay your exit fee" - and they did. And I was through, into No Man's Land
Happily I crossed to the Egyptian border post.... where I realised there was an ENTRANCE fee. Again I was stuck, In No Man's Land. But then this truly amazing Egyptian border guy said "hey, I'll pay it for you, I'll give you my address and you can pay me back when you get home to England". Imagine!
It was a lot of money for an Egyptian. Possibly half a week's pay? Dunno what border guards earned in Egypt thirty-odd years ago. Not much probs
Anyway he paid it - like a dude - and I made it to Cairo coz people gave me free chicken and eventually I got home and I DID send the Egyptian guy his money in a bloody envelope and amazingly he got it and he sent back a lovely letter with a photo of him and his family all smiling and waving at me
True story. I am almost blubbing as I tell it. Must be the hangover
I think Kemi is unfit to be leader having just read her comments on maternity leave/pay. It's absolutely idiotic, in a country where we have a birth rate lower than the replacement rate we need for families to have an extra child, not have fewer because they can't afford the time off.
If anything maternity pay and early years childcare funding needs to go up substantially so that parents don't feel as though they can't have 2 kids instead of 1 or decide that 2 is enough and not go for a third one etc...
I don't know if it plays well with members, perhaps it does because they're all old fuckers who "didn't have that in our day and we raised a family of 17 on a single salary" but this shows she doesn't understand the major demographic issue facing the nation and a big driver of migration in the last 10 years.
Why are you being so dramatic about it - she has one opinion that you don't agree with and she is 'unfit to be leader'? Do you expect to agree with every opinion?
It's not dramatic, it shows she's got poor judgement on one of the biggest issues of our era and for my generation and the one that follows.
It is a single issue where you have a disagreement. She has her reasons and you have yours. The silly media uproar circus whenever someone departs from the mumsnet script is what's landing us with shit politicians like Keir Starmer who've spent their entire career not going off-message and think that's all it takes to be PM.
I do not agree with Badenoch on maternity leave specifically, but there is a general point to be made that successive Governments heaping obligations like high levels of paid holiday, minimum wage/living wage, maternity/paternity leave, workplace pensions etc. etc. etc. all come with a price, which is that many companies don't make it. Chancellors just like to outbid each other in these changes because it's 'free'. Which it isn't.
I like Kemi, and in general I'm a small stater, both in terms of spending and regulations. But on this issue I disagree with her strongly. It's almost financially impossible at the moment to afford kids.
War is horrific, but as horrors go this is impressively efficient
But it also begs the question: why was this chilling accuracy not used against Hamas, why instead did they carpet bomb civilians?
Because Bibi wants to commit genocide/ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories, if you follow that, he's not interested in a greater Israel.
Yes, that is my suspicion
If you look at some of the stuff his cabinet have said publicly, such as the below, you can only imagine what they say/do in private.
The EU, France and UK have condemned a senior Israeli minister for suggesting it might be “justified and moral” to starve people in Gaza.
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sparked international outrage after he said on Wednesday: “No one in the world will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages.”
Separately on Wednesday, Israel’s Channel 12 broadcasted security camera footage that reportedly showed the sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza at Sde Teiman military detention camp. Last week, the detention of the soldiers accused of involvement in the alleged abuse sparked violent riots.
I said at the beginning I suspected this of Israel. It’s the only logic behind their behaviour in Gaza - a “final solution” to the Palestinian problem. Just cleanse them entirely: make Gaza uninhabitable and terrify them out of the West Bank
And if you’re an Israeli looking at October 7 I can see why you might feel that way. The Jewish state cannot tolerate the mere possibility it might happen again - it is existential. AND if you’re going to do this you have to get it done before Iran acquires nukes
So: this will end either with the elimination of any Palestinian homeland or the destruction of Israel
Israel can't defeat Hamas by invading and occupying the Palestinian Authority any more than the UK could defeat the IRA by invading and occupying the Republic of Ireland and West Belfast
Of course they can, if they press their advantages until the enemies surrender unconditionally.
Just as we pressed our advantages until the Nazis surrendered unconditionally. Just as the Americans pressed theirs until the Japanese surrendered unconditionally. Just as the Sri Lankans pressed theirs until the Tamil Tigers surrendered unconditionally.
Unconditional surrender ends wars.
Ethnic cleansing also ends historic conflicts. Cf Turkey/Greece
This is what Israel is pursuing. They just can’t say it
Indeed they can’t.
The Gaza Strip would make for some first class seaside real estate when redeveloped.
Pretty much everyone with coastline in the Middle East is now planning to copy Dubai and build hotels on the beaches.
Tourism should be a large attraction for the whole region, especially as it’s mostly off-season for European visitors, somewhere to find sun in winter.
If it dropped the violence and distaste for alcohol and women then the Middle East would be beautifully situated to make a fortune from tourism.
Sharm el-Sheikh was itself of course developed by Israel while it occupied the land, and it became a very successful tourist area which it remains to this day after Egypt accepted peace with Israel.
Egypt accepting it had lost the war ended the cycle of violence with Israel and has led to much more prosperity since, even if not great amounts of freedom. Far better than what the Palestinians have under Hamas.
Sharm-el-Sheikh is lovely, a good example of what they could all be doing. If you stop the war, you start attracting tourists.
Even the Saudis are preparing to relax rules on alcohol and women’s dress in their new resort city on the Red Sea. It’ll be a ‘closed city’ with no locals there. Just across the sea from Sharm, as it happens.
NARRATOR: Sharm-el-Sheikh is not "lovely", unless you you enjoy sterile, dessicated resort-cities inexplicably plonked in hostile desert by a windy coast
If all you want to do is lie on the beach for a week in the middle of British winter…
Remember that most Brits have to experience winter, rather than decamp to the brothels of Bangkok for months on end.
What fools they are
I can barely tolerate September in the New British Climate (TM)
I just walked out to buy some food and a wintry wind was gusting down Parkway and everyone was hunched in winter coats. "Feels like" about 9C? This is Sept 29
The cold weather is God's reminder to burn more Catholics at the stake.
My fractious mood might be related to this: yesterday I discovered that you're never too old to learn new things
I went out on the lash with some old uni friends. The evening conclued at chucking out time at the Groucho. Around 1am we came up with a new game of: "inventing hideous cocktails for the other person to drink"
From this I have learned: "never start inventing cocktails, at the Groucho, at 1am"
No need for new ones.
You need a London Fog, followed by a Fog Cutter, repeated.
Preliminary results from Austria’s general election showed the far-right Freedom party (FPÖ) winning the most votes for the first time in the postwar period as it rode a tide of public anger over migration and the cost of living. It was projected to beat the co-ruling centre-right People’s party (ÖVP) by three points, surpassing expectations.
Guardian live blog
It's a rotten time to be an incumbent government.
That's Harris' problem in a nutshell, she needs to sell change.
Starmers problem is delivering change. It's what he promised, and people are impatient.
From the summary of Laura K's programme, here's the key difference between Jenrick and Kemi:
Jenrick says he'd introduce a legally binding cap on migration in the tens of thousands "or lower"
Badenoch says some people have brought views that "have no place here" - and also says some cultures are less valid than others
Both are expressing an immigration-skeptic viewpoint. But Kemi just says something fruity, cultural, and potentially annoying to the sensitive, about immigration. She says nothing about what she would do - what policies she would put in place to support her (perhaps valid) views. Jenrick - what do we need to do? Get net migration below 100,000. How would you do it? Legally-binding migration cap. Now, it may be bollocks, as bollocks as Boris' manifesto, but at least he has committed, so it will be exposed as a u-turn if abandoned. Kemi has given nothing except some punchy commentary. That's a Spectator writer, not a PM.
Or alternatively, all Jenrick is talking about is numbers....... Not bothering with the thorny but necessary subject of who is most likely to be able to integrate into UK society.
So what is Kemi saying then? Quotas from Muslim countries? Not a chance in hell. She has made absolutely no policy proposals of any kind to my knowledge.
She says its too early for policies. It is a time for getting the principles right first.
War is horrific, but as horrors go this is impressively efficient
But it also begs the question: why was this chilling accuracy not used against Hamas, why instead did they carpet bomb civilians?
Because Bibi wants to commit genocide/ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories, if you follow that, he's not interested in a greater Israel.
Yes, that is my suspicion
If you look at some of the stuff his cabinet have said publicly, such as the below, you can only imagine what they say/do in private.
The EU, France and UK have condemned a senior Israeli minister for suggesting it might be “justified and moral” to starve people in Gaza.
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sparked international outrage after he said on Wednesday: “No one in the world will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages.”
Separately on Wednesday, Israel’s Channel 12 broadcasted security camera footage that reportedly showed the sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza at Sde Teiman military detention camp. Last week, the detention of the soldiers accused of involvement in the alleged abuse sparked violent riots.
I said at the beginning I suspected this of Israel. It’s the only logic behind their behaviour in Gaza - a “final solution” to the Palestinian problem. Just cleanse them entirely: make Gaza uninhabitable and terrify them out of the West Bank
And if you’re an Israeli looking at October 7 I can see why you might feel that way. The Jewish state cannot tolerate the mere possibility it might happen again - it is existential. AND if you’re going to do this you have to get it done before Iran acquires nukes
So: this will end either with the elimination of any Palestinian homeland or the destruction of Israel
Israel can't defeat Hamas by invading and occupying the Palestinian Authority any more than the UK could defeat the IRA by invading and occupying the Republic of Ireland and West Belfast
Of course they can, if they press their advantages until the enemies surrender unconditionally.
Just as we pressed our advantages until the Nazis surrendered unconditionally. Just as the Americans pressed theirs until the Japanese surrendered unconditionally. Just as the Sri Lankans pressed theirs until the Tamil Tigers surrendered unconditionally.
Unconditional surrender ends wars.
Ethnic cleansing also ends historic conflicts. Cf Turkey/Greece
This is what Israel is pursuing. They just can’t say it
Indeed they can’t.
The Gaza Strip would make for some first class seaside real estate when redeveloped.
Pretty much everyone with coastline in the Middle East is now planning to copy Dubai and build hotels on the beaches.
Tourism should be a large attraction for the whole region, especially as it’s mostly off-season for European visitors, somewhere to find sun in winter.
If it dropped the violence and distaste for alcohol and women then the Middle East would be beautifully situated to make a fortune from tourism.
Sharm el-Sheikh was itself of course developed by Israel while it occupied the land, and it became a very successful tourist area which it remains to this day after Egypt accepted peace with Israel.
Egypt accepting it had lost the war ended the cycle of violence with Israel and has led to much more prosperity since, even if not great amounts of freedom. Far better than what the Palestinians have under Hamas.
Sharm-el-Sheikh is lovely, a good example of what they could all be doing. If you stop the war, you start attracting tourists.
Even the Saudis are preparing to relax rules on alcohol and women’s dress in their new resort city on the Red Sea. It’ll be a ‘closed city’ with no locals there. Just across the sea from Sharm, as it happens.
NARRATOR: Sharm-el-Sheikh is not "lovely", unless you you enjoy sterile, dessicated resort-cities inexplicably plonked in hostile desert by a windy coast
If all you want to do is lie on the beach for a week in the middle of British winter…
Remember that most Brits have to experience winter, rather than decamp to the brothels of Bangkok for months on end.
What fools they are
I can barely tolerate September in the New British Climate (TM)
I just walked out to buy some food and a wintry wind was gusting down Parkway and everyone was hunched in winter coats. "Feels like" about 9C? This is Sept 29
Barely coat weather. Very much enjoying the greens turning to golds and anticipating a lovely Autumn here. In a world in which school holidays were not an issue, I wouldn't mind missing the British January. But I don't think the Middle East would ever come top of the list, or even seem preferable to Britain, climatically.
The trick is to find a way of spending the summer in the UK, and the winter somewhere hotter, either the Middle East or Southern Hemisphere.
An old friend of mine had the best job ever, he was a professional gliding instructor who for two decades was in the UK in the summer and New Zealand in the ‘winter’. Oh, and ‘work’ in most cases meant going flying at least five days a week, and being paid to do so.
A colleague of mines son is a pilot. In the summer he flies Canadians to remote fishing and hunting lodges in a float plane, then when the weather changes he flies supplies to remote missions in the DRC, including occasional scrapes with various guerilla.
He has some amazing photos and stories.
Awesome. If I lived my life again I think that’s what I would do.
The problem is that a commercial pilot’s licence costs close to £100k, and you can’t get a student loan for it. Most pilots are financed by the bank of Mum and Dad, who often remortgage their houses to do so.
Meanwhile, the airlines complain about a pilot shortage while sponsoring no more than dozens of pilots every year.
What is it about MPs and driving offences? I do 25k miles a year, have a "generous" approach speed limits, have been known to hit go on the next podcast on my phone whilst driving - and currently have a clean licence. What on earth do all these types do to win bans by totting up?
I did that one for all the candidates the other day; you need to follow my comments .
He was being disingenuous, and failing to take personal responsibility for himself. He is pretending "I was not making a phone call" means "I was not using my phone". It's the kind of circumlocution used by Mr Poophole.
He was using his phone in his hand for satellite navigation whilst driving. In law that meets the definition of "using a phone". Since it was one of a series of offences that took him over the top, he got himself banned.
I think Kemi is unfit to be leader having just read her comments on maternity leave/pay. It's absolutely idiotic, in a country where we have a birth rate lower than the replacement rate we need for families to have an extra child, not have fewer because they can't afford the time off.
If anything maternity pay and early years childcare funding needs to go up substantially so that parents don't feel as though they can't have 2 kids instead of 1 or decide that 2 is enough and not go for a third one etc...
I don't know if it plays well with members, perhaps it does because they're all old fuckers who "didn't have that in our day and we raised a family of 17 on a single salary" but this shows she doesn't understand the major demographic issue facing the nation and a big driver of migration in the last 10 years.
Why are you being so dramatic about it - she has one opinion that you don't agree with and she is 'unfit to be leader'? Do you expect to agree with every opinion?
It's not dramatic, it shows she's got poor judgement on one of the biggest issues of our era and for my generation and the one that follows.
It is a single issue where you have a disagreement. She has her reasons and you have yours. The silly media uproar circus whenever someone departs from the mumsnet script is what's landing us with shit politicians like Keir Starmer who've spent their entire career not going off-message and think that's all it takes to be PM.
I do not agree with Badenoch on maternity leave specifically, but there is a general point to be made that successive Governments heaping obligations like high levels of paid holiday, minimum wage/living wage, maternity/paternity leave, workplace pensions etc. etc. etc. all come with a price, which is that many companies don't make it. Chancellors just like to outbid each other in these changes because it's 'free'. Which it isn't.
I like Kemi, and in general I'm a small stater, both in terms of spending and regulations. But on this issue I disagree with her strongly. It's almost financially impossible at the moment to afford kids.
I like the idea of a small state too, but it is not easy to find agreement between small state enthusiasts as to where to find that £100-200 billion a year cuts in state managed expenditure which would make a little dent in the budget. Maternity pay and WFA are two good examples, and the money saved would be peanuts.
War is horrific, but as horrors go this is impressively efficient
But it also begs the question: why was this chilling accuracy not used against Hamas, why instead did they carpet bomb civilians?
Because Bibi wants to commit genocide/ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories, if you follow that, he's not interested in a greater Israel.
Yes, that is my suspicion
If you look at some of the stuff his cabinet have said publicly, such as the below, you can only imagine what they say/do in private.
The EU, France and UK have condemned a senior Israeli minister for suggesting it might be “justified and moral” to starve people in Gaza.
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sparked international outrage after he said on Wednesday: “No one in the world will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages.”
Separately on Wednesday, Israel’s Channel 12 broadcasted security camera footage that reportedly showed the sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza at Sde Teiman military detention camp. Last week, the detention of the soldiers accused of involvement in the alleged abuse sparked violent riots.
I said at the beginning I suspected this of Israel. It’s the only logic behind their behaviour in Gaza - a “final solution” to the Palestinian problem. Just cleanse them entirely: make Gaza uninhabitable and terrify them out of the West Bank
And if you’re an Israeli looking at October 7 I can see why you might feel that way. The Jewish state cannot tolerate the mere possibility it might happen again - it is existential. AND if you’re going to do this you have to get it done before Iran acquires nukes
So: this will end either with the elimination of any Palestinian homeland or the destruction of Israel
Israel can't defeat Hamas by invading and occupying the Palestinian Authority any more than the UK could defeat the IRA by invading and occupying the Republic of Ireland and West Belfast
Of course they can, if they press their advantages until the enemies surrender unconditionally.
Just as we pressed our advantages until the Nazis surrendered unconditionally. Just as the Americans pressed theirs until the Japanese surrendered unconditionally. Just as the Sri Lankans pressed theirs until the Tamil Tigers surrendered unconditionally.
Unconditional surrender ends wars.
Ethnic cleansing also ends historic conflicts. Cf Turkey/Greece
This is what Israel is pursuing. They just can’t say it
Indeed they can’t.
The Gaza Strip would make for some first class seaside real estate when redeveloped.
Pretty much everyone with coastline in the Middle East is now planning to copy Dubai and build hotels on the beaches.
Tourism should be a large attraction for the whole region, especially as it’s mostly off-season for European visitors, somewhere to find sun in winter.
If it dropped the violence and distaste for alcohol and women then the Middle East would be beautifully situated to make a fortune from tourism.
Sharm el-Sheikh was itself of course developed by Israel while it occupied the land, and it became a very successful tourist area which it remains to this day after Egypt accepted peace with Israel.
Egypt accepting it had lost the war ended the cycle of violence with Israel and has led to much more prosperity since, even if not great amounts of freedom. Far better than what the Palestinians have under Hamas.
Sharm-el-Sheikh is lovely, a good example of what they could all be doing. If you stop the war, you start attracting tourists.
Even the Saudis are preparing to relax rules on alcohol and women’s dress in their new resort city on the Red Sea. It’ll be a ‘closed city’ with no locals there. Just across the sea from Sharm, as it happens.
NARRATOR: Sharm-el-Sheikh is not "lovely", unless you you enjoy sterile, dessicated resort-cities inexplicably plonked in hostile desert by a windy coast
If all you want to do is lie on the beach for a week in the middle of British winter…
Remember that most Brits have to experience winter, rather than decamp to the brothels of Bangkok for months on end.
What fools they are
I can barely tolerate September in the New British Climate (TM)
I just walked out to buy some food and a wintry wind was gusting down Parkway and everyone was hunched in winter coats. "Feels like" about 9C? This is Sept 29
Barely coat weather. Very much enjoying the greens turning to golds and anticipating a lovely Autumn here. In a world in which school holidays were not an issue, I wouldn't mind missing the British January. But I don't think the Middle East would ever come top of the list, or even seem preferable to Britain, climatically.
The trick is to find a way of spending the summer in the UK, and the winter somewhere hotter, either the Middle East or Southern Hemisphere.
An old friend of mine had the best job ever, he was a professional gliding instructor who for two decades was in the UK in the summer and New Zealand in the ‘winter’. Oh, and ‘work’ in most cases meant going flying at least five days a week, and being paid to do so.
A colleague of mines son is a pilot. In the summer he flies Canadians to remote fishing and hunting lodges in a float plane, then when the weather changes he flies supplies to remote missions in the DRC, including occasional scrapes with various guerilla.
He has some amazing photos and stories.
Awesome. If I lived my life again I think that’s what I would do.
The problem is that a commercial pilot’s licence costs close to £100k, and you can’t get a student loan for it. Most pilots are financed by the bank of Mum and Dad, who often remortgage their houses to do so.
Meanwhile, the airlines complain about a pilot shortage while sponsoring no more than dozens of pilots every year.
I have an acquaintance who is senior there who pointed one of his children onto that route.
Surely the easiest way is to fly Poseidons out of Lossie and jump to civvie after a few years? Plenty of former Nimrod pilots doing that.
Yes, for many years the King (or Queen) paid for the training of a lot of commercial pilots, that doesn’t happen so much any more as the military no longer recruits in the numbers that they once did.
Very few Americans realize that, if Trump is NOT elected, this will be the last election. Far from being a threat to democracy, he is the only way to save it!
The irony is that Musk himself was an illegal immigrant to the US, in the sense that he arrived on a student visa he then broke the terms of.
War is horrific, but as horrors go this is impressively efficient
But it also begs the question: why was this chilling accuracy not used against Hamas, why instead did they carpet bomb civilians?
Because Bibi wants to commit genocide/ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories, if you follow that, he's not interested in a greater Israel.
Yes, that is my suspicion
If you look at some of the stuff his cabinet have said publicly, such as the below, you can only imagine what they say/do in private.
The EU, France and UK have condemned a senior Israeli minister for suggesting it might be “justified and moral” to starve people in Gaza.
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sparked international outrage after he said on Wednesday: “No one in the world will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages.”
Separately on Wednesday, Israel’s Channel 12 broadcasted security camera footage that reportedly showed the sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza at Sde Teiman military detention camp. Last week, the detention of the soldiers accused of involvement in the alleged abuse sparked violent riots.
I said at the beginning I suspected this of Israel. It’s the only logic behind their behaviour in Gaza - a “final solution” to the Palestinian problem. Just cleanse them entirely: make Gaza uninhabitable and terrify them out of the West Bank
And if you’re an Israeli looking at October 7 I can see why you might feel that way. The Jewish state cannot tolerate the mere possibility it might happen again - it is existential. AND if you’re going to do this you have to get it done before Iran acquires nukes
So: this will end either with the elimination of any Palestinian homeland or the destruction of Israel
Israel can't defeat Hamas by invading and occupying the Palestinian Authority any more than the UK could defeat the IRA by invading and occupying the Republic of Ireland and West Belfast
Of course they can, if they press their advantages until the enemies surrender unconditionally.
Just as we pressed our advantages until the Nazis surrendered unconditionally. Just as the Americans pressed theirs until the Japanese surrendered unconditionally. Just as the Sri Lankans pressed theirs until the Tamil Tigers surrendered unconditionally.
Unconditional surrender ends wars.
Ethnic cleansing also ends historic conflicts. Cf Turkey/Greece
This is what Israel is pursuing. They just can’t say it
Indeed they can’t.
The Gaza Strip would make for some first class seaside real estate when redeveloped.
Pretty much everyone with coastline in the Middle East is now planning to copy Dubai and build hotels on the beaches.
Tourism should be a large attraction for the whole region, especially as it’s mostly off-season for European visitors, somewhere to find sun in winter.
If it dropped the violence and distaste for alcohol and women then the Middle East would be beautifully situated to make a fortune from tourism.
Sharm el-Sheikh was itself of course developed by Israel while it occupied the land, and it became a very successful tourist area which it remains to this day after Egypt accepted peace with Israel.
Egypt accepting it had lost the war ended the cycle of violence with Israel and has led to much more prosperity since, even if not great amounts of freedom. Far better than what the Palestinians have under Hamas.
Sharm-el-Sheikh is lovely, a good example of what they could all be doing. If you stop the war, you start attracting tourists.
Even the Saudis are preparing to relax rules on alcohol and women’s dress in their new resort city on the Red Sea. It’ll be a ‘closed city’ with no locals there. Just across the sea from Sharm, as it happens.
NARRATOR: Sharm-el-Sheikh is not "lovely", unless you you enjoy sterile, dessicated resort-cities inexplicably plonked in hostile desert by a windy coast
If all you want to do is lie on the beach for a week in the middle of British winter…
Remember that most Brits have to experience winter, rather than decamp to the brothels of Bangkok for months on end.
What fools they are
I can barely tolerate September in the New British Climate (TM)
I just walked out to buy some food and a wintry wind was gusting down Parkway and everyone was hunched in winter coats. "Feels like" about 9C? This is Sept 29
The cold weather is God's reminder to burn more Catholics at the stake.
My fractious mood might be related to this: yesterday I discovered that you're never too old to learn new things
I went out on the lash with some old uni friends. The evening conclued at chucking out time at the Groucho. Around 1am we came up with a new game of: "inventing hideous cocktails for the other person to drink"
From this I have learned: "never start inventing cocktails, at the Groucho, at 1am"
The annoying thing is you're indoors and you think oh it looks nice outside and you go out and you find, fuck it is cold, I need to put on my The North Face arctic gear.
I'm sure in the past it only got "proper cold" in late October. That was always the time I would fish out winter coats. Scarves and hats. It was OK then. Late October. Halloween coming. Fireworks and sparklers. Apple bobbing. Misty Bloomsbury mornings, like echoes of the Holborn marshes beneath
Not fucking September, thanksvmuch
Nah, late September has always been a bit chilly, if we're lucky we'll get an Indian summer for a week in October before it starts the slide into winter.
I did that one for all the candidates the other day; you need to follow my comments .
He was being disingenuous, and failing to take personal responsibility for himself. He is pretending "I was not making a phone call" means "I was not using my phone". It's the kind of circumlocution used by Mr Poophole.
He was using his phone in his hand for satellite navigation whilst driving. In law that meets the definition of "using a phone". Since it was one of a series of offences that took him over the top, he got himself banned.
War is horrific, but as horrors go this is impressively efficient
But it also begs the question: why was this chilling accuracy not used against Hamas, why instead did they carpet bomb civilians?
Because Bibi wants to commit genocide/ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories, if you follow that, he's not interested in a greater Israel.
Yes, that is my suspicion
If you look at some of the stuff his cabinet have said publicly, such as the below, you can only imagine what they say/do in private.
The EU, France and UK have condemned a senior Israeli minister for suggesting it might be “justified and moral” to starve people in Gaza.
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sparked international outrage after he said on Wednesday: “No one in the world will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages.”
Separately on Wednesday, Israel’s Channel 12 broadcasted security camera footage that reportedly showed the sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza at Sde Teiman military detention camp. Last week, the detention of the soldiers accused of involvement in the alleged abuse sparked violent riots.
I said at the beginning I suspected this of Israel. It’s the only logic behind their behaviour in Gaza - a “final solution” to the Palestinian problem. Just cleanse them entirely: make Gaza uninhabitable and terrify them out of the West Bank
And if you’re an Israeli looking at October 7 I can see why you might feel that way. The Jewish state cannot tolerate the mere possibility it might happen again - it is existential. AND if you’re going to do this you have to get it done before Iran acquires nukes
So: this will end either with the elimination of any Palestinian homeland or the destruction of Israel
Israel can't defeat Hamas by invading and occupying the Palestinian Authority any more than the UK could defeat the IRA by invading and occupying the Republic of Ireland and West Belfast
Of course they can, if they press their advantages until the enemies surrender unconditionally.
Just as we pressed our advantages until the Nazis surrendered unconditionally. Just as the Americans pressed theirs until the Japanese surrendered unconditionally. Just as the Sri Lankans pressed theirs until the Tamil Tigers surrendered unconditionally.
Unconditional surrender ends wars.
Ethnic cleansing also ends historic conflicts. Cf Turkey/Greece
This is what Israel is pursuing. They just can’t say it
Indeed they can’t.
The Gaza Strip would make for some first class seaside real estate when redeveloped.
Pretty much everyone with coastline in the Middle East is now planning to copy Dubai and build hotels on the beaches.
Tourism should be a large attraction for the whole region, especially as it’s mostly off-season for European visitors, somewhere to find sun in winter.
If it dropped the violence and distaste for alcohol and women then the Middle East would be beautifully situated to make a fortune from tourism.
Sharm el-Sheikh was itself of course developed by Israel while it occupied the land, and it became a very successful tourist area which it remains to this day after Egypt accepted peace with Israel.
Egypt accepting it had lost the war ended the cycle of violence with Israel and has led to much more prosperity since, even if not great amounts of freedom. Far better than what the Palestinians have under Hamas.
Sharm-el-Sheikh is lovely, a good example of what they could all be doing. If you stop the war, you start attracting tourists.
Even the Saudis are preparing to relax rules on alcohol and women’s dress in their new resort city on the Red Sea. It’ll be a ‘closed city’ with no locals there. Just across the sea from Sharm, as it happens.
NARRATOR: Sharm-el-Sheikh is not "lovely", unless you you enjoy sterile, dessicated resort-cities inexplicably plonked in hostile desert by a windy coast
If all you want to do is lie on the beach for a week in the middle of British winter…
Remember that most Brits have to experience winter, rather than decamp to the brothels of Bangkok for months on end.
What fools they are
I can barely tolerate September in the New British Climate (TM)
I just walked out to buy some food and a wintry wind was gusting down Parkway and everyone was hunched in winter coats. "Feels like" about 9C? This is Sept 29
The cold weather is God's reminder to burn more Catholics at the stake.
My fractious mood might be related to this: yesterday I discovered that you're never too old to learn new things
I went out on the lash with some old uni friends. The evening conclued at chucking out time at the Groucho. Around 1am we came up with a new game of: "inventing hideous cocktails for the other person to drink"
From this I have learned: "never start inventing cocktails, at the Groucho, at 1am"
The annoying thing is you're indoors and you think oh it looks nice outside and you go out and you find, fuck it is cold, I need to put on my The North Face arctic gear.
I'm sure in the past it only got "proper cold" in late October. That was always the time I would fish out winter coats. Scarves and hats. It was OK then. Late October. Halloween coming. Fireworks and sparklers. Apple bobbing. Misty Bloomsbury mornings, like echoes of the Holborn marshes beneath
Not fucking September, thanksvmuch
Nah, late September has always been a bit chilly, if we're lucky we'll get an Indian summer for a week in October before it starts the slide into winter.
Meteorologically. maybe; psychologically, no
Big thick coats begin a few days before Halloween, that's the RULE
9C in September (albeit late) *feels like* we are being ROBBED of one of our few pleasantly mild months
I think Kemi is unfit to be leader having just read her comments on maternity leave/pay. It's absolutely idiotic, in a country where we have a birth rate lower than the replacement rate we need for families to have an extra child, not have fewer because they can't afford the time off.
If anything maternity pay and early years childcare funding needs to go up substantially so that parents don't feel as though they can't have 2 kids instead of 1 or decide that 2 is enough and not go for a third one etc...
I don't know if it plays well with members, perhaps it does because they're all old fuckers who "didn't have that in our day and we raised a family of 17 on a single salary" but this shows she doesn't understand the major demographic issue facing the nation and a big driver of migration in the last 10 years.
Why are you being so dramatic about it - she has one opinion that you don't agree with and she is 'unfit to be leader'? Do you expect to agree with every opinion?
It's not dramatic, it shows she's got poor judgement on one of the biggest issues of our era and for my generation and the one that follows.
It is a single issue where you have a disagreement. She has her reasons and you have yours. The silly media uproar circus whenever someone departs from the mumsnet script is what's landing us with shit politicians like Keir Starmer who've spent their entire career not going off-message and think that's all it takes to be PM.
I do not agree with Badenoch on maternity leave specifically, but there is a general point to be made that successive Governments heaping obligations like high levels of paid holiday, minimum wage/living wage, maternity/paternity leave, workplace pensions etc. etc. etc. all come with a price, which is that many companies don't make it. Chancellors just like to outbid each other in these changes because it's 'free'. Which it isn't.
I like Kemi, and in general I'm a small stater, both in terms of spending and regulations. But on this issue I disagree with her strongly. It's almost financially impossible at the moment to afford kids.
I like the idea of a small state too, but it is not easy to find agreement between small state enthusiasts as to where to find that £100-200 billion a year cuts in state managed expenditure which would make a little dent in the budget. Maternity pay and WFA are two good examples, and the money saved would be peanuts.
If you want to get people to support a smaller state, first you need to raise taxes to make them pay in full for the current size of the state.
War is horrific, but as horrors go this is impressively efficient
But it also begs the question: why was this chilling accuracy not used against Hamas, why instead did they carpet bomb civilians?
Because Bibi wants to commit genocide/ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories, if you follow that, he's not interested in a greater Israel.
Yes, that is my suspicion
If you look at some of the stuff his cabinet have said publicly, such as the below, you can only imagine what they say/do in private.
The EU, France and UK have condemned a senior Israeli minister for suggesting it might be “justified and moral” to starve people in Gaza.
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sparked international outrage after he said on Wednesday: “No one in the world will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages.”
Separately on Wednesday, Israel’s Channel 12 broadcasted security camera footage that reportedly showed the sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza at Sde Teiman military detention camp. Last week, the detention of the soldiers accused of involvement in the alleged abuse sparked violent riots.
I said at the beginning I suspected this of Israel. It’s the only logic behind their behaviour in Gaza - a “final solution” to the Palestinian problem. Just cleanse them entirely: make Gaza uninhabitable and terrify them out of the West Bank
And if you’re an Israeli looking at October 7 I can see why you might feel that way. The Jewish state cannot tolerate the mere possibility it might happen again - it is existential. AND if you’re going to do this you have to get it done before Iran acquires nukes
So: this will end either with the elimination of any Palestinian homeland or the destruction of Israel
Israel can't defeat Hamas by invading and occupying the Palestinian Authority any more than the UK could defeat the IRA by invading and occupying the Republic of Ireland and West Belfast
Of course they can, if they press their advantages until the enemies surrender unconditionally.
Just as we pressed our advantages until the Nazis surrendered unconditionally. Just as the Americans pressed theirs until the Japanese surrendered unconditionally. Just as the Sri Lankans pressed theirs until the Tamil Tigers surrendered unconditionally.
Unconditional surrender ends wars.
Ethnic cleansing also ends historic conflicts. Cf Turkey/Greece
This is what Israel is pursuing. They just can’t say it
Indeed they can’t.
The Gaza Strip would make for some first class seaside real estate when redeveloped.
Pretty much everyone with coastline in the Middle East is now planning to copy Dubai and build hotels on the beaches.
Tourism should be a large attraction for the whole region, especially as it’s mostly off-season for European visitors, somewhere to find sun in winter.
If it dropped the violence and distaste for alcohol and women then the Middle East would be beautifully situated to make a fortune from tourism.
Sharm el-Sheikh was itself of course developed by Israel while it occupied the land, and it became a very successful tourist area which it remains to this day after Egypt accepted peace with Israel.
Egypt accepting it had lost the war ended the cycle of violence with Israel and has led to much more prosperity since, even if not great amounts of freedom. Far better than what the Palestinians have under Hamas.
Sharm-el-Sheikh is lovely, a good example of what they could all be doing. If you stop the war, you start attracting tourists.
Even the Saudis are preparing to relax rules on alcohol and women’s dress in their new resort city on the Red Sea. It’ll be a ‘closed city’ with no locals there. Just across the sea from Sharm, as it happens.
NARRATOR: Sharm-el-Sheikh is not "lovely", unless you you enjoy sterile, dessicated resort-cities inexplicably plonked in hostile desert by a windy coast
If all you want to do is lie on the beach for a week in the middle of British winter…
Remember that most Brits have to experience winter, rather than decamp to the brothels of Bangkok for months on end.
What fools they are
I can barely tolerate September in the New British Climate (TM)
I just walked out to buy some food and a wintry wind was gusting down Parkway and everyone was hunched in winter coats. "Feels like" about 9C? This is Sept 29
The cold weather is God's reminder to burn more Catholics at the stake.
My fractious mood might be related to this: yesterday I discovered that you're never too old to learn new things
I went out on the lash with some old uni friends. The evening conclued at chucking out time at the Groucho. Around 1am we came up with a new game of: "inventing hideous cocktails for the other person to drink"
From this I have learned: "never start inventing cocktails, at the Groucho, at 1am"
The annoying thing is you're indoors and you think oh it looks nice outside and you go out and you find, fuck it is cold, I need to put on my The North Face arctic gear.
I'm sure in the past it only got "proper cold" in late October. That was always the time I would fish out winter coats. Scarves and hats. It was OK then. Late October. Halloween coming. Fireworks and sparklers. Apple bobbing. Misty Bloomsbury mornings, like echoes of the Holborn marshes beneath
Not fucking September, thanksvmuch
Nah, late September has always been a bit chilly, if we're lucky we'll get an Indian summer for a week in October before it starts the slide into winter.
Meteorologically. maybe; psychologically, no
Big thick coats begin a few days before Halloween, that's the RULE
9C in September (albeit late) *feels like* we are being ROBBED of one of our few pleasantly mild months
Turns out she's not called Kemi at all, she is using a first name different from her assigned name.
Her full name is Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke Badenoch.
Er........ how would this in any way qualify as woke? I don't think you understand the meaning of that admittedly debatable term.
To be honest I would have thought that insisting people refer to her by her full first name would be the more 'woke' thing to do rather than a shortened and for westerners more convenient, name. Still I haven't seen such things become a lighting rod yet in the culture wars.
Very few Americans realize that, if Trump is NOT elected, this will be the last election. Far from being a threat to democracy, he is the only way to save it!
The irony is that Musk himself was an illegal immigrant to the US, in the sense that he arrived on a student visa he then broke the terms of.
"It is worth knowing ... that the first major action of Hitler's SS was the forced deportation of migrants. About 17,000 people were deported, which generated the social instability that the Nazi government the used as justification for further oppression. Trump and Vance plan to deport about a thousand times as many people."
War is horrific, but as horrors go this is impressively efficient
But it also begs the question: why was this chilling accuracy not used against Hamas, why instead did they carpet bomb civilians?
Because Bibi wants to commit genocide/ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories, if you follow that, he's not interested in a greater Israel.
Yes, that is my suspicion
If you look at some of the stuff his cabinet have said publicly, such as the below, you can only imagine what they say/do in private.
The EU, France and UK have condemned a senior Israeli minister for suggesting it might be “justified and moral” to starve people in Gaza.
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sparked international outrage after he said on Wednesday: “No one in the world will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages.”
Separately on Wednesday, Israel’s Channel 12 broadcasted security camera footage that reportedly showed the sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza at Sde Teiman military detention camp. Last week, the detention of the soldiers accused of involvement in the alleged abuse sparked violent riots.
I said at the beginning I suspected this of Israel. It’s the only logic behind their behaviour in Gaza - a “final solution” to the Palestinian problem. Just cleanse them entirely: make Gaza uninhabitable and terrify them out of the West Bank
And if you’re an Israeli looking at October 7 I can see why you might feel that way. The Jewish state cannot tolerate the mere possibility it might happen again - it is existential. AND if you’re going to do this you have to get it done before Iran acquires nukes
So: this will end either with the elimination of any Palestinian homeland or the destruction of Israel
Israel can't defeat Hamas by invading and occupying the Palestinian Authority any more than the UK could defeat the IRA by invading and occupying the Republic of Ireland and West Belfast
Of course they can, if they press their advantages until the enemies surrender unconditionally.
Just as we pressed our advantages until the Nazis surrendered unconditionally. Just as the Americans pressed theirs until the Japanese surrendered unconditionally. Just as the Sri Lankans pressed theirs until the Tamil Tigers surrendered unconditionally.
Unconditional surrender ends wars.
Ethnic cleansing also ends historic conflicts. Cf Turkey/Greece
This is what Israel is pursuing. They just can’t say it
Indeed they can’t.
The Gaza Strip would make for some first class seaside real estate when redeveloped.
Pretty much everyone with coastline in the Middle East is now planning to copy Dubai and build hotels on the beaches.
Tourism should be a large attraction for the whole region, especially as it’s mostly off-season for European visitors, somewhere to find sun in winter.
If it dropped the violence and distaste for alcohol and women then the Middle East would be beautifully situated to make a fortune from tourism.
Sharm el-Sheikh was itself of course developed by Israel while it occupied the land, and it became a very successful tourist area which it remains to this day after Egypt accepted peace with Israel.
Egypt accepting it had lost the war ended the cycle of violence with Israel and has led to much more prosperity since, even if not great amounts of freedom. Far better than what the Palestinians have under Hamas.
Sharm-el-Sheikh is lovely, a good example of what they could all be doing. If you stop the war, you start attracting tourists.
Even the Saudis are preparing to relax rules on alcohol and women’s dress in their new resort city on the Red Sea. It’ll be a ‘closed city’ with no locals there. Just across the sea from Sharm, as it happens.
NARRATOR: Sharm-el-Sheikh is not "lovely", unless you you enjoy sterile, dessicated resort-cities inexplicably plonked in hostile desert by a windy coast
If all you want to do is lie on the beach for a week in the middle of British winter…
Remember that most Brits have to experience winter, rather than decamp to the brothels of Bangkok for months on end.
What fools they are
I can barely tolerate September in the New British Climate (TM)
I just walked out to buy some food and a wintry wind was gusting down Parkway and everyone was hunched in winter coats. "Feels like" about 9C? This is Sept 29
The cold weather is God's reminder to burn more Catholics at the stake.
My fractious mood might be related to this: yesterday I discovered that you're never too old to learn new things
I went out on the lash with some old uni friends. The evening conclued at chucking out time at the Groucho. Around 1am we came up with a new game of: "inventing hideous cocktails for the other person to drink"
From this I have learned: "never start inventing cocktails, at the Groucho, at 1am"
The annoying thing is you're indoors and you think oh it looks nice outside and you go out and you find, fuck it is cold, I need to put on my The North Face arctic gear.
I'm sure in the past it only got "proper cold" in late October. That was always the time I would fish out winter coats. Scarves and hats. It was OK then. Late October. Halloween coming. Fireworks and sparklers. Apple bobbing. Misty Bloomsbury mornings, like echoes of the Holborn marshes beneath
Not fucking September, thanksvmuch
Nah, late September has always been a bit chilly, if we're lucky we'll get an Indian summer for a week in October before it starts the slide into winter.
Meteorologically. maybe; psychologically, no
Big thick coats begin a few days before Halloween, that's the RULE
9C in September (albeit late) *feels like* we are being ROBBED of one of our few pleasantly mild months
It's comments like this that remind me that how different the concrete hotbox of London is compared to the rest of the country. None of those deep, frosty mornings or the howling winds off the North Sea.
The comfortable temperature difference between Leon and a Geordie must be, what, 20 degrees?
War is horrific, but as horrors go this is impressively efficient
But it also begs the question: why was this chilling accuracy not used against Hamas, why instead did they carpet bomb civilians?
Because Bibi wants to commit genocide/ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories, if you follow that, he's not interested in a greater Israel.
Yes, that is my suspicion
If you look at some of the stuff his cabinet have said publicly, such as the below, you can only imagine what they say/do in private.
The EU, France and UK have condemned a senior Israeli minister for suggesting it might be “justified and moral” to starve people in Gaza.
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sparked international outrage after he said on Wednesday: “No one in the world will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages.”
Separately on Wednesday, Israel’s Channel 12 broadcasted security camera footage that reportedly showed the sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza at Sde Teiman military detention camp. Last week, the detention of the soldiers accused of involvement in the alleged abuse sparked violent riots.
I said at the beginning I suspected this of Israel. It’s the only logic behind their behaviour in Gaza - a “final solution” to the Palestinian problem. Just cleanse them entirely: make Gaza uninhabitable and terrify them out of the West Bank
And if you’re an Israeli looking at October 7 I can see why you might feel that way. The Jewish state cannot tolerate the mere possibility it might happen again - it is existential. AND if you’re going to do this you have to get it done before Iran acquires nukes
So: this will end either with the elimination of any Palestinian homeland or the destruction of Israel
Israel can't defeat Hamas by invading and occupying the Palestinian Authority any more than the UK could defeat the IRA by invading and occupying the Republic of Ireland and West Belfast
Of course they can, if they press their advantages until the enemies surrender unconditionally.
Just as we pressed our advantages until the Nazis surrendered unconditionally. Just as the Americans pressed theirs until the Japanese surrendered unconditionally. Just as the Sri Lankans pressed theirs until the Tamil Tigers surrendered unconditionally.
Unconditional surrender ends wars.
Ethnic cleansing also ends historic conflicts. Cf Turkey/Greece
This is what Israel is pursuing. They just can’t say it
Indeed they can’t.
The Gaza Strip would make for some first class seaside real estate when redeveloped.
Pretty much everyone with coastline in the Middle East is now planning to copy Dubai and build hotels on the beaches.
Tourism should be a large attraction for the whole region, especially as it’s mostly off-season for European visitors, somewhere to find sun in winter.
If it dropped the violence and distaste for alcohol and women then the Middle East would be beautifully situated to make a fortune from tourism.
Sharm el-Sheikh was itself of course developed by Israel while it occupied the land, and it became a very successful tourist area which it remains to this day after Egypt accepted peace with Israel.
Egypt accepting it had lost the war ended the cycle of violence with Israel and has led to much more prosperity since, even if not great amounts of freedom. Far better than what the Palestinians have under Hamas.
Sharm-el-Sheikh is lovely, a good example of what they could all be doing. If you stop the war, you start attracting tourists.
Even the Saudis are preparing to relax rules on alcohol and women’s dress in their new resort city on the Red Sea. It’ll be a ‘closed city’ with no locals there. Just across the sea from Sharm, as it happens.
NARRATOR: Sharm-el-Sheikh is not "lovely", unless you you enjoy sterile, dessicated resort-cities inexplicably plonked in hostile desert by a windy coast
If all you want to do is lie on the beach for a week in the middle of British winter…
Remember that most Brits have to experience winter, rather than decamp to the brothels of Bangkok for months on end.
What fools they are
I can barely tolerate September in the New British Climate (TM)
I just walked out to buy some food and a wintry wind was gusting down Parkway and everyone was hunched in winter coats. "Feels like" about 9C? This is Sept 29
The cold weather is God's reminder to burn more Catholics at the stake.
My fractious mood might be related to this: yesterday I discovered that you're never too old to learn new things
I went out on the lash with some old uni friends. The evening conclued at chucking out time at the Groucho. Around 1am we came up with a new game of: "inventing hideous cocktails for the other person to drink"
From this I have learned: "never start inventing cocktails, at the Groucho, at 1am"
The annoying thing is you're indoors and you think oh it looks nice outside and you go out and you find, fuck it is cold, I need to put on my The North Face arctic gear.
I'm sure in the past it only got "proper cold" in late October. That was always the time I would fish out winter coats. Scarves and hats. It was OK then. Late October. Halloween coming. Fireworks and sparklers. Apple bobbing. Misty Bloomsbury mornings, like echoes of the Holborn marshes beneath
Not fucking September, thanksvmuch
Nah, late September has always been a bit chilly, if we're lucky we'll get an Indian summer for a week in October before it starts the slide into winter.
Meteorologically. maybe; psychologically, no
Big thick coats begin a few days before Halloween, that's the RULE
9C in September (albeit late) *feels like* we are being ROBBED of one of our few pleasantly mild months
9C? Big thick coat?
We have already established that I am a gaylording ponceyboots when it comes to cold weather
However, I suspect I might be the only PB-er that has literally and deliberately jumped in the Antarctic Ocean, the coldest water on earth: it is -1.8C
Dangerously cold, can kill you in seconds, I will never do it again
War is horrific, but as horrors go this is impressively efficient
But it also begs the question: why was this chilling accuracy not used against Hamas, why instead did they carpet bomb civilians?
Because Bibi wants to commit genocide/ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories, if you follow that, he's not interested in a greater Israel.
Yes, that is my suspicion
If you look at some of the stuff his cabinet have said publicly, such as the below, you can only imagine what they say/do in private.
The EU, France and UK have condemned a senior Israeli minister for suggesting it might be “justified and moral” to starve people in Gaza.
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sparked international outrage after he said on Wednesday: “No one in the world will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages.”
Separately on Wednesday, Israel’s Channel 12 broadcasted security camera footage that reportedly showed the sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza at Sde Teiman military detention camp. Last week, the detention of the soldiers accused of involvement in the alleged abuse sparked violent riots.
I said at the beginning I suspected this of Israel. It’s the only logic behind their behaviour in Gaza - a “final solution” to the Palestinian problem. Just cleanse them entirely: make Gaza uninhabitable and terrify them out of the West Bank
And if you’re an Israeli looking at October 7 I can see why you might feel that way. The Jewish state cannot tolerate the mere possibility it might happen again - it is existential. AND if you’re going to do this you have to get it done before Iran acquires nukes
So: this will end either with the elimination of any Palestinian homeland or the destruction of Israel
Israel can't defeat Hamas by invading and occupying the Palestinian Authority any more than the UK could defeat the IRA by invading and occupying the Republic of Ireland and West Belfast
Of course they can, if they press their advantages until the enemies surrender unconditionally.
Just as we pressed our advantages until the Nazis surrendered unconditionally. Just as the Americans pressed theirs until the Japanese surrendered unconditionally. Just as the Sri Lankans pressed theirs until the Tamil Tigers surrendered unconditionally.
Unconditional surrender ends wars.
Ethnic cleansing also ends historic conflicts. Cf Turkey/Greece
This is what Israel is pursuing. They just can’t say it
Indeed they can’t.
The Gaza Strip would make for some first class seaside real estate when redeveloped.
Pretty much everyone with coastline in the Middle East is now planning to copy Dubai and build hotels on the beaches.
Tourism should be a large attraction for the whole region, especially as it’s mostly off-season for European visitors, somewhere to find sun in winter.
If it dropped the violence and distaste for alcohol and women then the Middle East would be beautifully situated to make a fortune from tourism.
Sharm el-Sheikh was itself of course developed by Israel while it occupied the land, and it became a very successful tourist area which it remains to this day after Egypt accepted peace with Israel.
Egypt accepting it had lost the war ended the cycle of violence with Israel and has led to much more prosperity since, even if not great amounts of freedom. Far better than what the Palestinians have under Hamas.
Sharm-el-Sheikh is lovely, a good example of what they could all be doing. If you stop the war, you start attracting tourists.
Even the Saudis are preparing to relax rules on alcohol and women’s dress in their new resort city on the Red Sea. It’ll be a ‘closed city’ with no locals there. Just across the sea from Sharm, as it happens.
NARRATOR: Sharm-el-Sheikh is not "lovely", unless you you enjoy sterile, dessicated resort-cities inexplicably plonked in hostile desert by a windy coast
If all you want to do is lie on the beach for a week in the middle of British winter…
Remember that most Brits have to experience winter, rather than decamp to the brothels of Bangkok for months on end.
What fools they are
I can barely tolerate September in the New British Climate (TM)
I just walked out to buy some food and a wintry wind was gusting down Parkway and everyone was hunched in winter coats. "Feels like" about 9C? This is Sept 29
The cold weather is God's reminder to burn more Catholics at the stake.
My fractious mood might be related to this: yesterday I discovered that you're never too old to learn new things
I went out on the lash with some old uni friends. The evening conclued at chucking out time at the Groucho. Around 1am we came up with a new game of: "inventing hideous cocktails for the other person to drink"
From this I have learned: "never start inventing cocktails, at the Groucho, at 1am"
The annoying thing is you're indoors and you think oh it looks nice outside and you go out and you find, fuck it is cold, I need to put on my The North Face arctic gear.
I'm sure in the past it only got "proper cold" in late October. That was always the time I would fish out winter coats. Scarves and hats. It was OK then. Late October. Halloween coming. Fireworks and sparklers. Apple bobbing. Misty Bloomsbury mornings, like echoes of the Holborn marshes beneath
Not fucking September, thanksvmuch
Nah, late September has always been a bit chilly, if we're lucky we'll get an Indian summer for a week in October before it starts the slide into winter.
Meteorologically. maybe; psychologically, no
Big thick coats begin a few days before Halloween, that's the RULE
9C in September (albeit late) *feels like* we are being ROBBED of one of our few pleasantly mild months
9C? Big thick coat?
We have already established that I am a gaylording ponceyboots when it comes to cold weather
However, I suspect I might be the only PB-er that has literally and deliberately jumped in the Antarctic Ocean, the coldest water on earth: it is -1.8C
Dangerously cold, can kill you in seconds, I will never do it again
TBF, if it had killed you you would never have done it again anyway.
From the summary of Laura K's programme, here's the key difference between Jenrick and Kemi:
Jenrick says he'd introduce a legally binding cap on migration in the tens of thousands "or lower"
Badenoch says some people have brought views that "have no place here" - and also says some cultures are less valid than others
Both are expressing an immigration-skeptic viewpoint. But Kemi just says something fruity, cultural, and potentially annoying to the sensitive, about immigration. She says nothing about what she would do - what policies she would put in place to support her (perhaps valid) views. Jenrick - what do we need to do? Get net migration below 100,000. How would you do it? Legally-binding migration cap. Now, it may be bollocks, as bollocks as Boris' manifesto, but at least he has committed, so it will be exposed as a u-turn if abandoned. Kemi has given nothing except some punchy commentary. That's a Spectator writer, not a PM.
Or alternatively, all Jenrick is talking about is numbers....... Not bothering with the thorny but necessary subject of who is most likely to be able to integrate into UK society.
So what is Kemi saying then? Quotas from Muslim countries? Not a chance in hell. She has made absolutely no policy proposals of any kind to my knowledge.
She says its too early for policies. It is a time for getting the principles right first.
I'm all in favour of discussions about where it went wrong etc., I don't subscribe to Cleverly's wish to sweep it all under the carpet, but Kemi was a Government Minister for years. She must have developed SOME idea of an actual THING she wants to do in that time.
Turns out she's not called Kemi at all, she is using a first name different from her assigned name.
Her full name is Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke Badenoch.
Olu Olu for short?
Why didn't she just shorten it to "Enoch"?
Then when she really nails something - eg when she correctly says "September can be surprisingly cold" - then we can all go round saying "Enoch was right" and it will be funny
War is horrific, but as horrors go this is impressively efficient
But it also begs the question: why was this chilling accuracy not used against Hamas, why instead did they carpet bomb civilians?
Because Bibi wants to commit genocide/ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories, if you follow that, he's not interested in a greater Israel.
Yes, that is my suspicion
If you look at some of the stuff his cabinet have said publicly, such as the below, you can only imagine what they say/do in private.
The EU, France and UK have condemned a senior Israeli minister for suggesting it might be “justified and moral” to starve people in Gaza.
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sparked international outrage after he said on Wednesday: “No one in the world will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages.”
Separately on Wednesday, Israel’s Channel 12 broadcasted security camera footage that reportedly showed the sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza at Sde Teiman military detention camp. Last week, the detention of the soldiers accused of involvement in the alleged abuse sparked violent riots.
I said at the beginning I suspected this of Israel. It’s the only logic behind their behaviour in Gaza - a “final solution” to the Palestinian problem. Just cleanse them entirely: make Gaza uninhabitable and terrify them out of the West Bank
And if you’re an Israeli looking at October 7 I can see why you might feel that way. The Jewish state cannot tolerate the mere possibility it might happen again - it is existential. AND if you’re going to do this you have to get it done before Iran acquires nukes
So: this will end either with the elimination of any Palestinian homeland or the destruction of Israel
Israel can't defeat Hamas by invading and occupying the Palestinian Authority any more than the UK could defeat the IRA by invading and occupying the Republic of Ireland and West Belfast
Of course they can, if they press their advantages until the enemies surrender unconditionally.
Just as we pressed our advantages until the Nazis surrendered unconditionally. Just as the Americans pressed theirs until the Japanese surrendered unconditionally. Just as the Sri Lankans pressed theirs until the Tamil Tigers surrendered unconditionally.
Unconditional surrender ends wars.
Ethnic cleansing also ends historic conflicts. Cf Turkey/Greece
This is what Israel is pursuing. They just can’t say it
Indeed they can’t.
The Gaza Strip would make for some first class seaside real estate when redeveloped.
Pretty much everyone with coastline in the Middle East is now planning to copy Dubai and build hotels on the beaches.
Tourism should be a large attraction for the whole region, especially as it’s mostly off-season for European visitors, somewhere to find sun in winter.
If it dropped the violence and distaste for alcohol and women then the Middle East would be beautifully situated to make a fortune from tourism.
Sharm el-Sheikh was itself of course developed by Israel while it occupied the land, and it became a very successful tourist area which it remains to this day after Egypt accepted peace with Israel.
Egypt accepting it had lost the war ended the cycle of violence with Israel and has led to much more prosperity since, even if not great amounts of freedom. Far better than what the Palestinians have under Hamas.
Sharm-el-Sheikh is lovely, a good example of what they could all be doing. If you stop the war, you start attracting tourists.
Even the Saudis are preparing to relax rules on alcohol and women’s dress in their new resort city on the Red Sea. It’ll be a ‘closed city’ with no locals there. Just across the sea from Sharm, as it happens.
NARRATOR: Sharm-el-Sheikh is not "lovely", unless you you enjoy sterile, dessicated resort-cities inexplicably plonked in hostile desert by a windy coast
If all you want to do is lie on the beach for a week in the middle of British winter…
Remember that most Brits have to experience winter, rather than decamp to the brothels of Bangkok for months on end.
What fools they are
I can barely tolerate September in the New British Climate (TM)
I just walked out to buy some food and a wintry wind was gusting down Parkway and everyone was hunched in winter coats. "Feels like" about 9C? This is Sept 29
The cold weather is God's reminder to burn more Catholics at the stake.
My fractious mood might be related to this: yesterday I discovered that you're never too old to learn new things
I went out on the lash with some old uni friends. The evening conclued at chucking out time at the Groucho. Around 1am we came up with a new game of: "inventing hideous cocktails for the other person to drink"
From this I have learned: "never start inventing cocktails, at the Groucho, at 1am"
The annoying thing is you're indoors and you think oh it looks nice outside and you go out and you find, fuck it is cold, I need to put on my The North Face arctic gear.
I'm sure in the past it only got "proper cold" in late October. That was always the time I would fish out winter coats. Scarves and hats. It was OK then. Late October. Halloween coming. Fireworks and sparklers. Apple bobbing. Misty Bloomsbury mornings, like echoes of the Holborn marshes beneath
Not fucking September, thanksvmuch
Nah, late September has always been a bit chilly, if we're lucky we'll get an Indian summer for a week in October before it starts the slide into winter.
Meteorologically. maybe; psychologically, no
Big thick coats begin a few days before Halloween, that's the RULE
9C in September (albeit late) *feels like* we are being ROBBED of one of our few pleasantly mild months
9C? Big thick coat?
Here it’s 28C, rising towards 30, sunny and humid. But looks like any Virginia flooding will be minor, thankfully. And, yes, a lot of houses have full Halloween decking out already, and it’s not even October yet.
Many homes in Richmond now have their Harris-Walz posters, but once you get out of town, Trump-Vance are winning the yard sign battle.
Turns out she's not called Kemi at all, she is using a first name different from her assigned name.
Her full name is Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke Badenoch.
Olu Olu for short?
Why didn't she just shorten it to "Enoch"?
Then when she really nails something - eg when she correctly says "September can be surprisingly cold" - then we can all go round saying "Enoch was right" and it will be funny
She would also have dropped the Bad parts, which might have come in handy.
Remember that recent Starmer word cloud? One word was vastly bigger than all the others
LIAR
Starmer is kinda screwed, if this is the one word that sticks to him forever, and identifies him by itself. And so far it appears that it will
He lies very easily. He didn't *have* to come out of a meeting with Biden and declare how sharp and switched on the man was. He could have just shut his trap about that and just said what they spoke about.
War is horrific, but as horrors go this is impressively efficient
But it also begs the question: why was this chilling accuracy not used against Hamas, why instead did they carpet bomb civilians?
Because Bibi wants to commit genocide/ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories, if you follow that, he's not interested in a greater Israel.
Yes, that is my suspicion
If you look at some of the stuff his cabinet have said publicly, such as the below, you can only imagine what they say/do in private.
The EU, France and UK have condemned a senior Israeli minister for suggesting it might be “justified and moral” to starve people in Gaza.
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sparked international outrage after he said on Wednesday: “No one in the world will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages.”
Separately on Wednesday, Israel’s Channel 12 broadcasted security camera footage that reportedly showed the sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza at Sde Teiman military detention camp. Last week, the detention of the soldiers accused of involvement in the alleged abuse sparked violent riots.
I said at the beginning I suspected this of Israel. It’s the only logic behind their behaviour in Gaza - a “final solution” to the Palestinian problem. Just cleanse them entirely: make Gaza uninhabitable and terrify them out of the West Bank
And if you’re an Israeli looking at October 7 I can see why you might feel that way. The Jewish state cannot tolerate the mere possibility it might happen again - it is existential. AND if you’re going to do this you have to get it done before Iran acquires nukes
So: this will end either with the elimination of any Palestinian homeland or the destruction of Israel
Israel can't defeat Hamas by invading and occupying the Palestinian Authority any more than the UK could defeat the IRA by invading and occupying the Republic of Ireland and West Belfast
Of course they can, if they press their advantages until the enemies surrender unconditionally.
Just as we pressed our advantages until the Nazis surrendered unconditionally. Just as the Americans pressed theirs until the Japanese surrendered unconditionally. Just as the Sri Lankans pressed theirs until the Tamil Tigers surrendered unconditionally.
Unconditional surrender ends wars.
Ethnic cleansing also ends historic conflicts. Cf Turkey/Greece
This is what Israel is pursuing. They just can’t say it
Indeed they can’t.
The Gaza Strip would make for some first class seaside real estate when redeveloped.
Pretty much everyone with coastline in the Middle East is now planning to copy Dubai and build hotels on the beaches.
Tourism should be a large attraction for the whole region, especially as it’s mostly off-season for European visitors, somewhere to find sun in winter.
If it dropped the violence and distaste for alcohol and women then the Middle East would be beautifully situated to make a fortune from tourism.
Sharm el-Sheikh was itself of course developed by Israel while it occupied the land, and it became a very successful tourist area which it remains to this day after Egypt accepted peace with Israel.
Egypt accepting it had lost the war ended the cycle of violence with Israel and has led to much more prosperity since, even if not great amounts of freedom. Far better than what the Palestinians have under Hamas.
Sharm-el-Sheikh is lovely, a good example of what they could all be doing. If you stop the war, you start attracting tourists.
Even the Saudis are preparing to relax rules on alcohol and women’s dress in their new resort city on the Red Sea. It’ll be a ‘closed city’ with no locals there. Just across the sea from Sharm, as it happens.
NARRATOR: Sharm-el-Sheikh is not "lovely", unless you you enjoy sterile, dessicated resort-cities inexplicably plonked in hostile desert by a windy coast
If all you want to do is lie on the beach for a week in the middle of British winter…
Remember that most Brits have to experience winter, rather than decamp to the brothels of Bangkok for months on end.
What fools they are
I can barely tolerate September in the New British Climate (TM)
I just walked out to buy some food and a wintry wind was gusting down Parkway and everyone was hunched in winter coats. "Feels like" about 9C? This is Sept 29
The cold weather is God's reminder to burn more Catholics at the stake.
My fractious mood might be related to this: yesterday I discovered that you're never too old to learn new things
I went out on the lash with some old uni friends. The evening conclued at chucking out time at the Groucho. Around 1am we came up with a new game of: "inventing hideous cocktails for the other person to drink"
From this I have learned: "never start inventing cocktails, at the Groucho, at 1am"
The annoying thing is you're indoors and you think oh it looks nice outside and you go out and you find, fuck it is cold, I need to put on my The North Face arctic gear.
I'm sure in the past it only got "proper cold" in late October. That was always the time I would fish out winter coats. Scarves and hats. It was OK then. Late October. Halloween coming. Fireworks and sparklers. Apple bobbing. Misty Bloomsbury mornings, like echoes of the Holborn marshes beneath
Not fucking September, thanksvmuch
Nah, late September has always been a bit chilly, if we're lucky we'll get an Indian summer for a week in October before it starts the slide into winter.
Meteorologically. maybe; psychologically, no
Big thick coats begin a few days before Halloween, that's the RULE
9C in September (albeit late) *feels like* we are being ROBBED of one of our few pleasantly mild months
9C? Big thick coat?
We have already established that I am a gaylording ponceyboots when it comes to cold weather
However, I suspect I might be the only PB-er that has literally and deliberately jumped in the Antarctic Ocean, the coldest water on earth: it is -1.8C
Dangerously cold, can kill you in seconds, I will never do it again
TBF, if it had killed you you would never have done it again anyway.
The weird thing is you get an intense high afterwards - a massive endorphine and adrenaline buzz plus a sense of triumph - which lasts for a couple of hours
But it's still not worth it. When you hit the water it is so hideously cold your body and brain spaz into instant panic - you thrash around hysterically - it is serioiusly dangerous. They have scuba divers all around you to immediately push you back out of the water. Otherwise most would die
She should concentrate on a prominent role in Jenrick’s front bench, although since she is known to be quite lazy, it’s not obvious what that role might be.
She should concentrate on a prominent role in Jenrick’s front bench, although since she is known to be quite lazy, it’s not obvious what that role might be.
Make her Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
Catching up with the Saturday Rawnsley. This seems about right (though TBF he's mainly repeating what I said the other day ):
Cabinet members with initiatives they’re itching to take are chafing against the restraints imposed by Rachel Reeves’ powerful bailiwick because it is blocking any announcements with a cost implication before the budget at the end of October.
There’s plenty to commend about the candour of the chancellor and the prime minister when they ask for patience because a better Britain won’t be built in a day. But after committing too many avoidable own goals, the government could now do with some quick wins. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/sep/28/keir-starmer-no-10-ministers
Thanks. I have jusr read Rawnsley; worthwhile as always. But there is a cognitive dissonance. He writes all sorts of inside stuff about elite names and jobs all being wrong, unsorted, betrayed and all that. However we have elected 400+ Labour MPs (not SPADs, not senior civil servants) to be both the government and the parliamentary majority.
We asked them, IIRC, to be competent and for ministers to start running their departments with 100% competence, not to make unforced errors, to be honest and honourable and in return they promised low but real expectations and we (with good reason) believed them.
It is this low bar which has already been bigly betrayed, nothing to do with the inside jobs of people we didn't elect and don't appoint.
Starmer also appears to have failed to convince the US to allow the deployment of long-range missiles into Ukraine, so you can chalk that up as another failure.
Turns out she's not called Kemi at all, she is using a first name different from her assigned name.
Her full name is Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke Badenoch.
Olu Olu for short?
Why didn't she just shorten it to "Enoch"?
Then when she really nails something - eg when she correctly says "September can be surprisingly cold" - then we can all go round saying "Enoch was right" and it will be funny
She would also have dropped the Bad parts, which might have come in handy.
Badenoch isn’t ever her name, it’s her husband’s name!
She should concentrate on a prominent role in Jenrick’s front bench, although since she is known to be quite lazy, it’s not obvious what that role might be.
She'll get one anyway. It shouldn't be COTE though - that would be a toxic combination.
Remember that recent Starmer word cloud? One word was vastly bigger than all the others
LIAR
Starmer is kinda screwed, if this is the one word that sticks to him forever, and identifies him by itself. And so far it appears that it will
He lies very easily. He didn't *have* to come out of a meeting with Biden and declare how sharp and switched on the man was. He could have just shut his trap about that and just said what they spoke about.
Yep
I guess it shouldn't be a surprise - he is a lawyer - but he lies with astonishing ease and glibness. I think he is actually worse than Boris. When Boris lies - which he does, a lot - you occasionally catch a glimpse of guilt, a hint of a blush, the fugitive signs of a conscience
Starmer lies relentlessly, coldly, and automatically. Quite sociopathic. The voters have correctly rumbled him
She should concentrate on a prominent role in Jenrick’s front bench, although since she is known to be quite lazy, it’s not obvious what that role might be.
Make her Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
War is horrific, but as horrors go this is impressively efficient
But it also begs the question: why was this chilling accuracy not used against Hamas, why instead did they carpet bomb civilians?
Because Bibi wants to commit genocide/ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories, if you follow that, he's not interested in a greater Israel.
Yes, that is my suspicion
If you look at some of the stuff his cabinet have said publicly, such as the below, you can only imagine what they say/do in private.
The EU, France and UK have condemned a senior Israeli minister for suggesting it might be “justified and moral” to starve people in Gaza.
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sparked international outrage after he said on Wednesday: “No one in the world will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages.”
Separately on Wednesday, Israel’s Channel 12 broadcasted security camera footage that reportedly showed the sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza at Sde Teiman military detention camp. Last week, the detention of the soldiers accused of involvement in the alleged abuse sparked violent riots.
I said at the beginning I suspected this of Israel. It’s the only logic behind their behaviour in Gaza - a “final solution” to the Palestinian problem. Just cleanse them entirely: make Gaza uninhabitable and terrify them out of the West Bank
And if you’re an Israeli looking at October 7 I can see why you might feel that way. The Jewish state cannot tolerate the mere possibility it might happen again - it is existential. AND if you’re going to do this you have to get it done before Iran acquires nukes
So: this will end either with the elimination of any Palestinian homeland or the destruction of Israel
Israel can't defeat Hamas by invading and occupying the Palestinian Authority any more than the UK could defeat the IRA by invading and occupying the Republic of Ireland and West Belfast
They won’t occupy. They will just make Gaza an unliveable wasteland
It already was anyway largely, the West Bank however was perfectly liveable in
I don’t think the Israelis care any more. After October 7 they want to expel all Palestinians because they see them as an existential threat to Jews (and the October 7 attackers made it very clear they wanted to kill every Jew they encountered)
The logic is pretty brutal if you’re an Israeli. Israel can only continue if “Palestine” is extinguished. Hence Gaza. At the same time Israel is now securing its northern border with Lebanon and maybe even taking out the Iranian leadership: might as well get it all done in one go
This all makes perfect sense IF your overwhelming concern is the survival of Israel as a Jewish ethno-state. It is also horrendously cruel
It is also disastrous, if they kill lots of Palestinians, many of them innocent of any terrorist links and add lots of innocent Lebanese to the death toll too they will be creating generations of pro Hamas and pro Hezbollah terrorists who weren't there before.
We also need to remember 30% of the population of Lebanon are Christian and 6% of Palestinians are Christian too, they should be naturally pro Israel but won't be if all their churches are bombed and their families driven from their homes
Cut the crap, as long as Hamas and Hezbollah exist there will always be more people joining Hamas and Hezbollah.
As long as they exist, those regions will be blockaded and impoverished and as long as people are impoverished the only way out of poverty or to have any hope is to unfortunately join with Hamas and Hezbollah respectively.
The only way to end the cycle of violence is to metaphorically stuff people's faces with gold, the Marshall Plan works, but the prerequisite of that even being an option is to end the threat from Hamas and Hezbollah.
Not reduce it, not a temporary ceasefire, but to end the threat by destroying those organisations completely.
If that is done the cycle of violence can end, but if there's a ceasefire then it is inevitable that the fighting will resume as without a lasting peace, without development, without opportunities people will see no alternative but to continue the violence.
That isn't going to come from Bibi and/or Smotrich. Bibi is interested in starting in power and avoiding corruption charges: endless war suits him. Smotrich wants genocide, to clear out the non-Jewish populations and create a greater Israel.
Luckily Bibi is not a dictator and Israel is a democracy.
When the threat from the Palestinians is minimised then Israel has been willing to vote for the likes of Begin who negotiated peace with Egypt, or Peres who tried negotiating with the Palestinians, or Barak who was willing to create a Palestinian state as agreed with Clinton in Camp David but unfortunately Arafat walked away from it as he didn't actually want peace.
One of my biggest criticisms of Bibi is I agree he wants endless war and he's been far, far too soft on Hamas which allowed the attacks last year to happen.
Israel needs to defeat Hamas/Hezbollah, not have a ceasefire, then negotiate a peace agreement. Bibi doesn't want that, but most Israelis do, and Israel is a democracy.
From the summary of Laura K's programme, here's the key difference between Jenrick and Kemi:
Jenrick says he'd introduce a legally binding cap on migration in the tens of thousands "or lower"
Badenoch says some people have brought views that "have no place here" - and also says some cultures are less valid than others
Both are expressing an immigration-skeptic viewpoint. But Kemi just says something fruity, cultural, and potentially annoying to the sensitive, about immigration. She says nothing about what she would do - what policies she would put in place to support her (perhaps valid) views. Jenrick - what do we need to do? Get net migration below 100,000. How would you do it? Legally-binding migration cap. Now, it may be bollocks, as bollocks as Boris' manifesto, but at least he has committed, so it will be exposed as a u-turn if abandoned. Kemi has given nothing except some punchy commentary. That's a Spectator writer, not a PM.
Or alternatively, all Jenrick is talking about is numbers....... Not bothering with the thorny but necessary subject of who is most likely to be able to integrate into UK society.
So what is Kemi saying then? Quotas from Muslim countries? Not a chance in hell. She has made absolutely no policy proposals of any kind to my knowledge.
She says its too early for policies. It is a time for getting the principles right first.
I'm all in favour of discussions about where it went wrong etc., I don't subscribe to Cleverly's wish to sweep it all under the carpet, but Kemi was a Government Minister for years. She must have developed SOME idea of an actual THING she wants to do in that time.
She probably has, but right at the start of a Labour government lasting at least 5 years it's probably wise to wait & have some inkling about where she will have to start from when she gets a go.
Very few Americans realize that, if Trump is NOT elected, this will be the last election. Far from being a threat to democracy, he is the only way to save it!
The irony is that Musk himself was an illegal immigrant to the US, in the sense that he arrived on a student visa he then broke the terms of.
If that is the case, where ought they to send him back to?
War is horrific, but as horrors go this is impressively efficient
But it also begs the question: why was this chilling accuracy not used against Hamas, why instead did they carpet bomb civilians?
Because Bibi wants to commit genocide/ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories, if you follow that, he's not interested in a greater Israel.
Yes, that is my suspicion
If you look at some of the stuff his cabinet have said publicly, such as the below, you can only imagine what they say/do in private.
The EU, France and UK have condemned a senior Israeli minister for suggesting it might be “justified and moral” to starve people in Gaza.
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sparked international outrage after he said on Wednesday: “No one in the world will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages.”
Separately on Wednesday, Israel’s Channel 12 broadcasted security camera footage that reportedly showed the sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza at Sde Teiman military detention camp. Last week, the detention of the soldiers accused of involvement in the alleged abuse sparked violent riots.
I said at the beginning I suspected this of Israel. It’s the only logic behind their behaviour in Gaza - a “final solution” to the Palestinian problem. Just cleanse them entirely: make Gaza uninhabitable and terrify them out of the West Bank
And if you’re an Israeli looking at October 7 I can see why you might feel that way. The Jewish state cannot tolerate the mere possibility it might happen again - it is existential. AND if you’re going to do this you have to get it done before Iran acquires nukes
So: this will end either with the elimination of any Palestinian homeland or the destruction of Israel
Israel can't defeat Hamas by invading and occupying the Palestinian Authority any more than the UK could defeat the IRA by invading and occupying the Republic of Ireland and West Belfast
They won’t occupy. They will just make Gaza an unliveable wasteland
It already was anyway largely, the West Bank however was perfectly liveable in
I don’t think the Israelis care any more. After October 7 they want to expel all Palestinians because they see them as an existential threat to Jews (and the October 7 attackers made it very clear they wanted to kill every Jew they encountered)
The logic is pretty brutal if you’re an Israeli. Israel can only continue if “Palestine” is extinguished. Hence Gaza. At the same time Israel is now securing its northern border with Lebanon and maybe even taking out the Iranian leadership: might as well get it all done in one go
This all makes perfect sense IF your overwhelming concern is the survival of Israel as a Jewish ethno-state. It is also horrendously cruel
It is also disastrous, if they kill lots of Palestinians, many of them innocent of any terrorist links and add lots of innocent Lebanese to the death toll too they will be creating generations of pro Hamas and pro Hezbollah terrorists who weren't there before.
We also need to remember 30% of the population of Lebanon are Christian and 6% of Palestinians are Christian too, they should be naturally pro Israel but won't be if all their churches are bombed and their families driven from their homes
Cut the crap, as long as Hamas and Hezbollah exist there will always be more people joining Hamas and Hezbollah.
As long as they exist, those regions will be blockaded and impoverished and as long as people are impoverished the only way out of poverty or to have any hope is to unfortunately join with Hamas and Hezbollah respectively.
The only way to end the cycle of violence is to metaphorically stuff people's faces with gold, the Marshall Plan works, but the prerequisite of that even being an option is to end the threat from Hamas and Hezbollah.
Not reduce it, not a temporary ceasefire, but to end the threat by destroying those organisations completely.
If that is done the cycle of violence can end, but if there's a ceasefire then it is inevitable that the fighting will resume as without a lasting peace, without development, without opportunities people will see no alternative but to continue the violence.
That isn't going to come from Bibi and/or Smotrich. Bibi is interested in starting in power and avoiding corruption charges: endless war suits him. Smotrich wants genocide, to clear out the non-Jewish populations and create a greater Israel.
Luckily Bibi is not a dictator and Israel is a democracy.
When the threat from the Palestinians is minimised then Israel has been willing to vote for the likes of Begin who negotiated peace with Egypt, or Peres who tried negotiating with the Palestinians, or Barak who was willing to create a Palestinian state as agreed with Clinton in Camp David but unfortunately Arafat walked away from it as he didn't actually want peace.
One of my biggest criticisms of Bibi is I agree he wants endless war and he's been far, far too soft on Hamas which allowed the attacks last year to happen.
Israel needs to defeat Hamas/Hezbollah, not have a ceasefire, then negotiate a peace agreement. Bibi doesn't want that, but most Israelis do, and Israel is a democracy.
Not a word about his assisting in the theft of West Bank land by illegal settlers? Not one?
And Britain never defetaed the Nationalist terrorists in Northern Ireland. We realised it was impossible and had a negotiated settlement. Which whilst far from perfect is sure as hell a lot better than seeing civilians murdered week in week out on the streets of British cities. Israel will never 'defeat' Hamas/Hezbollah unfortunately. All they will do is cause more death and misery and perpetuate the current hatreds in the Middle East.
Very few Americans realize that, if Trump is NOT elected, this will be the last election. Far from being a threat to democracy, he is the only way to save it!
The irony is that Musk himself was an illegal immigrant to the US, in the sense that he arrived on a student visa he then broke the terms of.
If that is the case, where ought they to send him back to?
War is horrific, but as horrors go this is impressively efficient
But it also begs the question: why was this chilling accuracy not used against Hamas, why instead did they carpet bomb civilians?
Because Bibi wants to commit genocide/ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories, if you follow that, he's not interested in a greater Israel.
Yes, that is my suspicion
If you look at some of the stuff his cabinet have said publicly, such as the below, you can only imagine what they say/do in private.
The EU, France and UK have condemned a senior Israeli minister for suggesting it might be “justified and moral” to starve people in Gaza.
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sparked international outrage after he said on Wednesday: “No one in the world will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages.”
Separately on Wednesday, Israel’s Channel 12 broadcasted security camera footage that reportedly showed the sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza at Sde Teiman military detention camp. Last week, the detention of the soldiers accused of involvement in the alleged abuse sparked violent riots.
I said at the beginning I suspected this of Israel. It’s the only logic behind their behaviour in Gaza - a “final solution” to the Palestinian problem. Just cleanse them entirely: make Gaza uninhabitable and terrify them out of the West Bank
And if you’re an Israeli looking at October 7 I can see why you might feel that way. The Jewish state cannot tolerate the mere possibility it might happen again - it is existential. AND if you’re going to do this you have to get it done before Iran acquires nukes
So: this will end either with the elimination of any Palestinian homeland or the destruction of Israel
Israel can't defeat Hamas by invading and occupying the Palestinian Authority any more than the UK could defeat the IRA by invading and occupying the Republic of Ireland and West Belfast
They won’t occupy. They will just make Gaza an unliveable wasteland
It already was anyway largely, the West Bank however was perfectly liveable in
I don’t think the Israelis care any more. After October 7 they want to expel all Palestinians because they see them as an existential threat to Jews (and the October 7 attackers made it very clear they wanted to kill every Jew they encountered)
The logic is pretty brutal if you’re an Israeli. Israel can only continue if “Palestine” is extinguished. Hence Gaza. At the same time Israel is now securing its northern border with Lebanon and maybe even taking out the Iranian leadership: might as well get it all done in one go
This all makes perfect sense IF your overwhelming concern is the survival of Israel as a Jewish ethno-state. It is also horrendously cruel
It is also disastrous, if they kill lots of Palestinians, many of them innocent of any terrorist links and add lots of innocent Lebanese to the death toll too they will be creating generations of pro Hamas and pro Hezbollah terrorists who weren't there before.
We also need to remember 30% of the population of Lebanon are Christian and 6% of Palestinians are Christian too, they should be naturally pro Israel but won't be if all their churches are bombed and their families driven from their homes
Cut the crap, as long as Hamas and Hezbollah exist there will always be more people joining Hamas and Hezbollah.
As long as they exist, those regions will be blockaded and impoverished and as long as people are impoverished the only way out of poverty or to have any hope is to unfortunately join with Hamas and Hezbollah respectively.
The only way to end the cycle of violence is to metaphorically stuff people's faces with gold, the Marshall Plan works, but the prerequisite of that even being an option is to end the threat from Hamas and Hezbollah.
Not reduce it, not a temporary ceasefire, but to end the threat by destroying those organisations completely.
If that is done the cycle of violence can end, but if there's a ceasefire then it is inevitable that the fighting will resume as without a lasting peace, without development, without opportunities people will see no alternative but to continue the violence.
That isn't going to come from Bibi and/or Smotrich. Bibi is interested in starting in power and avoiding corruption charges: endless war suits him. Smotrich wants genocide, to clear out the non-Jewish populations and create a greater Israel.
Luckily Bibi is not a dictator and Israel is a democracy.
When the threat from the Palestinians is minimised then Israel has been willing to vote for the likes of Begin who negotiated peace with Egypt, or Peres who tried negotiating with the Palestinians, or Barak who was willing to create a Palestinian state as agreed with Clinton in Camp David but unfortunately Arafat walked away from it as he didn't actually want peace.
One of my biggest criticisms of Bibi is I agree he wants endless war and he's been far, far too soft on Hamas which allowed the attacks last year to happen.
Israel needs to defeat Hamas/Hezbollah, not have a ceasefire, then negotiate a peace agreement. Bibi doesn't want that, but most Israelis do, and Israel is a democracy.
Not a word about his assisting in the theft of West Bank land by illegal settlers? Not one?
And Britain never defetaed the Nationalist terrorists in Northern Ireland. We realised it was impossible and had a negotiated settlement. Which whilst far from perfect is sure as hell a lot better than seeing civilians murdered week in week out on the streets of British cities. Israel will never 'defeat' Hamas/Hezbollah unfortunately. All they will do is cause more death and misery and perpetuate the current hatreds in the Middle East.
The Middle East is not the UK. Sinn Fein could be negotiated with, Hamas and Hezbollah can not.
Why can Israel not 'defeat' Hamas/Hezbollah, yet they could defeat Egypt and Sri Lanka could defeat the Tamil Tigers?
She should concentrate on a prominent role in Jenrick’s front bench, although since she is known to be quite lazy, it’s not obvious what that role might be.
She's pretty much guaranteed that anyway, by the power of arithmetic.
Start with 121 MPs. Take away the newbies, the bed blockers, the whips, the deputy speakers and the obviously unsuitable... there aren't that many left.
Very few Americans realize that, if Trump is NOT elected, this will be the last election. Far from being a threat to democracy, he is the only way to save it!
The irony is that Musk himself was an illegal immigrant to the US, in the sense that he arrived on a student visa he then broke the terms of.
If that is the case, where ought they to send him back to?
Very few Americans realize that, if Trump is NOT elected, this will be the last election. Far from being a threat to democracy, he is the only way to save it!
The irony is that Musk himself was an illegal immigrant to the US, in the sense that he arrived on a student visa he then broke the terms of.
If that is the case, where ought they to send him back to?
Very few Americans realize that, if Trump is NOT elected, this will be the last election. Far from being a threat to democracy, he is the only way to save it!
The irony is that Musk himself was an illegal immigrant to the US, in the sense that he arrived on a student visa he then broke the terms of.
If that is the case, where ought they to send him back to?
The ad says the watches haven’t been designed yet. So why the rush to sell them in the final weeks of a campaign that—if Trump loses—will strip him of the power to grant political favors?
War is horrific, but as horrors go this is impressively efficient
But it also begs the question: why was this chilling accuracy not used against Hamas, why instead did they carpet bomb civilians?
Because Bibi wants to commit genocide/ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories, if you follow that, he's not interested in a greater Israel.
Yes, that is my suspicion
If you look at some of the stuff his cabinet have said publicly, such as the below, you can only imagine what they say/do in private.
The EU, France and UK have condemned a senior Israeli minister for suggesting it might be “justified and moral” to starve people in Gaza.
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sparked international outrage after he said on Wednesday: “No one in the world will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages.”
Separately on Wednesday, Israel’s Channel 12 broadcasted security camera footage that reportedly showed the sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza at Sde Teiman military detention camp. Last week, the detention of the soldiers accused of involvement in the alleged abuse sparked violent riots.
I said at the beginning I suspected this of Israel. It’s the only logic behind their behaviour in Gaza - a “final solution” to the Palestinian problem. Just cleanse them entirely: make Gaza uninhabitable and terrify them out of the West Bank
And if you’re an Israeli looking at October 7 I can see why you might feel that way. The Jewish state cannot tolerate the mere possibility it might happen again - it is existential. AND if you’re going to do this you have to get it done before Iran acquires nukes
So: this will end either with the elimination of any Palestinian homeland or the destruction of Israel
Israel can't defeat Hamas by invading and occupying the Palestinian Authority any more than the UK could defeat the IRA by invading and occupying the Republic of Ireland and West Belfast
They won’t occupy. They will just make Gaza an unliveable wasteland
It already was anyway largely, the West Bank however was perfectly liveable in
I don’t think the Israelis care any more. After October 7 they want to expel all Palestinians because they see them as an existential threat to Jews (and the October 7 attackers made it very clear they wanted to kill every Jew they encountered)
The logic is pretty brutal if you’re an Israeli. Israel can only continue if “Palestine” is extinguished. Hence Gaza. At the same time Israel is now securing its northern border with Lebanon and maybe even taking out the Iranian leadership: might as well get it all done in one go
This all makes perfect sense IF your overwhelming concern is the survival of Israel as a Jewish ethno-state. It is also horrendously cruel
It is also disastrous, if they kill lots of Palestinians, many of them innocent of any terrorist links and add lots of innocent Lebanese to the death toll too they will be creating generations of pro Hamas and pro Hezbollah terrorists who weren't there before.
We also need to remember 30% of the population of Lebanon are Christian and 6% of Palestinians are Christian too, they should be naturally pro Israel but won't be if all their churches are bombed and their families driven from their homes
Cut the crap, as long as Hamas and Hezbollah exist there will always be more people joining Hamas and Hezbollah.
As long as they exist, those regions will be blockaded and impoverished and as long as people are impoverished the only way out of poverty or to have any hope is to unfortunately join with Hamas and Hezbollah respectively.
The only way to end the cycle of violence is to metaphorically stuff people's faces with gold, the Marshall Plan works, but the prerequisite of that even being an option is to end the threat from Hamas and Hezbollah.
Not reduce it, not a temporary ceasefire, but to end the threat by destroying those organisations completely.
If that is done the cycle of violence can end, but if there's a ceasefire then it is inevitable that the fighting will resume as without a lasting peace, without development, without opportunities people will see no alternative but to continue the violence.
That isn't going to come from Bibi and/or Smotrich. Bibi is interested in starting in power and avoiding corruption charges: endless war suits him. Smotrich wants genocide, to clear out the non-Jewish populations and create a greater Israel.
Luckily Bibi is not a dictator and Israel is a democracy.
When the threat from the Palestinians is minimised then Israel has been willing to vote for the likes of Begin who negotiated peace with Egypt, or Peres who tried negotiating with the Palestinians, or Barak who was willing to create a Palestinian state as agreed with Clinton in Camp David but unfortunately Arafat walked away from it as he didn't actually want peace.
One of my biggest criticisms of Bibi is I agree he wants endless war and he's been far, far too soft on Hamas which allowed the attacks last year to happen.
Israel needs to defeat Hamas/Hezbollah, not have a ceasefire, then negotiate a peace agreement. Bibi doesn't want that, but most Israelis do, and Israel is a democracy.
Not a word about his assisting in the theft of West Bank land by illegal settlers? Not one?
And Britain never defetaed the Nationalist terrorists in Northern Ireland. We realised it was impossible and had a negotiated settlement. Which whilst far from perfect is sure as hell a lot better than seeing civilians murdered week in week out on the streets of British cities. Israel will never 'defeat' Hamas/Hezbollah unfortunately. All they will do is cause more death and misery and perpetuate the current hatreds in the Middle East.
The Middle East is not the UK. Sinn Fein could be negotiated with, Hamas and Hezbollah can not.
Why can Israel not 'defeat' Hamas/Hezbollah, yet they could defeat Egypt and Sri Lanka could defeat the Tamil Tigers?
They 'defeated' Egypt through means of a conventional war. And even then they didn't stop the armed conflict as such. That was done via a peace treaty on equal terms, not through defeat on the battlefield. In case you missed the Camp David Agreement.
War is horrific, but as horrors go this is impressively efficient
But it also begs the question: why was this chilling accuracy not used against Hamas, why instead did they carpet bomb civilians?
Because Bibi wants to commit genocide/ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories, if you follow that, he's not interested in a greater Israel.
Yes, that is my suspicion
If you look at some of the stuff his cabinet have said publicly, such as the below, you can only imagine what they say/do in private.
The EU, France and UK have condemned a senior Israeli minister for suggesting it might be “justified and moral” to starve people in Gaza.
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sparked international outrage after he said on Wednesday: “No one in the world will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages.”
Separately on Wednesday, Israel’s Channel 12 broadcasted security camera footage that reportedly showed the sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza at Sde Teiman military detention camp. Last week, the detention of the soldiers accused of involvement in the alleged abuse sparked violent riots.
I said at the beginning I suspected this of Israel. It’s the only logic behind their behaviour in Gaza - a “final solution” to the Palestinian problem. Just cleanse them entirely: make Gaza uninhabitable and terrify them out of the West Bank
And if you’re an Israeli looking at October 7 I can see why you might feel that way. The Jewish state cannot tolerate the mere possibility it might happen again - it is existential. AND if you’re going to do this you have to get it done before Iran acquires nukes
So: this will end either with the elimination of any Palestinian homeland or the destruction of Israel
Israel can't defeat Hamas by invading and occupying the Palestinian Authority any more than the UK could defeat the IRA by invading and occupying the Republic of Ireland and West Belfast
They won’t occupy. They will just make Gaza an unliveable wasteland
It already was anyway largely, the West Bank however was perfectly liveable in
I don’t think the Israelis care any more. After October 7 they want to expel all Palestinians because they see them as an existential threat to Jews (and the October 7 attackers made it very clear they wanted to kill every Jew they encountered)
The logic is pretty brutal if you’re an Israeli. Israel can only continue if “Palestine” is extinguished. Hence Gaza. At the same time Israel is now securing its northern border with Lebanon and maybe even taking out the Iranian leadership: might as well get it all done in one go
This all makes perfect sense IF your overwhelming concern is the survival of Israel as a Jewish ethno-state. It is also horrendously cruel
It is also disastrous, if they kill lots of Palestinians, many of them innocent of any terrorist links and add lots of innocent Lebanese to the death toll too they will be creating generations of pro Hamas and pro Hezbollah terrorists who weren't there before.
We also need to remember 30% of the population of Lebanon are Christian and 6% of Palestinians are Christian too, they should be naturally pro Israel but won't be if all their churches are bombed and their families driven from their homes
Cut the crap, as long as Hamas and Hezbollah exist there will always be more people joining Hamas and Hezbollah.
As long as they exist, those regions will be blockaded and impoverished and as long as people are impoverished the only way out of poverty or to have any hope is to unfortunately join with Hamas and Hezbollah respectively.
The only way to end the cycle of violence is to metaphorically stuff people's faces with gold, the Marshall Plan works, but the prerequisite of that even being an option is to end the threat from Hamas and Hezbollah.
Not reduce it, not a temporary ceasefire, but to end the threat by destroying those organisations completely.
If that is done the cycle of violence can end, but if there's a ceasefire then it is inevitable that the fighting will resume as without a lasting peace, without development, without opportunities people will see no alternative but to continue the violence.
That isn't going to come from Bibi and/or Smotrich. Bibi is interested in starting in power and avoiding corruption charges: endless war suits him. Smotrich wants genocide, to clear out the non-Jewish populations and create a greater Israel.
Luckily Bibi is not a dictator and Israel is a democracy.
When the threat from the Palestinians is minimised then Israel has been willing to vote for the likes of Begin who negotiated peace with Egypt, or Peres who tried negotiating with the Palestinians, or Barak who was willing to create a Palestinian state as agreed with Clinton in Camp David but unfortunately Arafat walked away from it as he didn't actually want peace.
One of my biggest criticisms of Bibi is I agree he wants endless war and he's been far, far too soft on Hamas which allowed the attacks last year to happen.
Israel needs to defeat Hamas/Hezbollah, not have a ceasefire, then negotiate a peace agreement. Bibi doesn't want that, but most Israelis do, and Israel is a democracy.
Not a word about his assisting in the theft of West Bank land by illegal settlers? Not one?
And Britain never defetaed the Nationalist terrorists in Northern Ireland. We realised it was impossible and had a negotiated settlement. Which whilst far from perfect is sure as hell a lot better than seeing civilians murdered week in week out on the streets of British cities. Israel will never 'defeat' Hamas/Hezbollah unfortunately. All they will do is cause more death and misery and perpetuate the current hatreds in the Middle East.
The Middle East is not the UK. Sinn Fein could be negotiated with, Hamas and Hezbollah can not.
Why can Israel not 'defeat' Hamas/Hezbollah, yet they could defeat Egypt and Sri Lanka could defeat the Tamil Tigers?
They 'defeated' Egypt through means of a conventional war. And even then they didn't stop the armed conflict as such. That was done via a peace treaty on equal terms, not through defeat on the battlefield. In case you missed the Camp David Agreement.
The Camp David Agreement followed a comprehensive military victory, yes.
A military victory should not be the end of the matter, after defeating the enemy and they accept defeat then a peace agreement can be made with those who will recognise the facts and recognise their right to exist - which unfortunately does not extend to Hamas and Hezbollah.
Sinn Fein could be negotiated with, they wanted facts changing in Ireland, but they never denied England's right to exist. Hamas and Hezbollah are not remotely in the same ballpark.
War is horrific, but as horrors go this is impressively efficient
But it also begs the question: why was this chilling accuracy not used against Hamas, why instead did they carpet bomb civilians?
Because Bibi wants to commit genocide/ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories, if you follow that, he's not interested in a greater Israel.
Yes, that is my suspicion
If you look at some of the stuff his cabinet have said publicly, such as the below, you can only imagine what they say/do in private.
The EU, France and UK have condemned a senior Israeli minister for suggesting it might be “justified and moral” to starve people in Gaza.
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sparked international outrage after he said on Wednesday: “No one in the world will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages.”
Separately on Wednesday, Israel’s Channel 12 broadcasted security camera footage that reportedly showed the sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza at Sde Teiman military detention camp. Last week, the detention of the soldiers accused of involvement in the alleged abuse sparked violent riots.
I said at the beginning I suspected this of Israel. It’s the only logic behind their behaviour in Gaza - a “final solution” to the Palestinian problem. Just cleanse them entirely: make Gaza uninhabitable and terrify them out of the West Bank
And if you’re an Israeli looking at October 7 I can see why you might feel that way. The Jewish state cannot tolerate the mere possibility it might happen again - it is existential. AND if you’re going to do this you have to get it done before Iran acquires nukes
So: this will end either with the elimination of any Palestinian homeland or the destruction of Israel
Israel can't defeat Hamas by invading and occupying the Palestinian Authority any more than the UK could defeat the IRA by invading and occupying the Republic of Ireland and West Belfast
They won’t occupy. They will just make Gaza an unliveable wasteland
It already was anyway largely, the West Bank however was perfectly liveable in
I don’t think the Israelis care any more. After October 7 they want to expel all Palestinians because they see them as an existential threat to Jews (and the October 7 attackers made it very clear they wanted to kill every Jew they encountered)
The logic is pretty brutal if you’re an Israeli. Israel can only continue if “Palestine” is extinguished. Hence Gaza. At the same time Israel is now securing its northern border with Lebanon and maybe even taking out the Iranian leadership: might as well get it all done in one go
This all makes perfect sense IF your overwhelming concern is the survival of Israel as a Jewish ethno-state. It is also horrendously cruel
It is also disastrous, if they kill lots of Palestinians, many of them innocent of any terrorist links and add lots of innocent Lebanese to the death toll too they will be creating generations of pro Hamas and pro Hezbollah terrorists who weren't there before.
We also need to remember 30% of the population of Lebanon are Christian and 6% of Palestinians are Christian too, they should be naturally pro Israel but won't be if all their churches are bombed and their families driven from their homes
Cut the crap, as long as Hamas and Hezbollah exist there will always be more people joining Hamas and Hezbollah.
As long as they exist, those regions will be blockaded and impoverished and as long as people are impoverished the only way out of poverty or to have any hope is to unfortunately join with Hamas and Hezbollah respectively.
The only way to end the cycle of violence is to metaphorically stuff people's faces with gold, the Marshall Plan works, but the prerequisite of that even being an option is to end the threat from Hamas and Hezbollah.
Not reduce it, not a temporary ceasefire, but to end the threat by destroying those organisations completely.
If that is done the cycle of violence can end, but if there's a ceasefire then it is inevitable that the fighting will resume as without a lasting peace, without development, without opportunities people will see no alternative but to continue the violence.
That isn't going to come from Bibi and/or Smotrich. Bibi is interested in starting in power and avoiding corruption charges: endless war suits him. Smotrich wants genocide, to clear out the non-Jewish populations and create a greater Israel.
Luckily Bibi is not a dictator and Israel is a democracy.
When the threat from the Palestinians is minimised then Israel has been willing to vote for the likes of Begin who negotiated peace with Egypt, or Peres who tried negotiating with the Palestinians, or Barak who was willing to create a Palestinian state as agreed with Clinton in Camp David but unfortunately Arafat walked away from it as he didn't actually want peace.
One of my biggest criticisms of Bibi is I agree he wants endless war and he's been far, far too soft on Hamas which allowed the attacks last year to happen.
Israel needs to defeat Hamas/Hezbollah, not have a ceasefire, then negotiate a peace agreement. Bibi doesn't want that, but most Israelis do, and Israel is a democracy.
Not a word about his assisting in the theft of West Bank land by illegal settlers? Not one?
And Britain never defetaed the Nationalist terrorists in Northern Ireland. We realised it was impossible and had a negotiated settlement. Which whilst far from perfect is sure as hell a lot better than seeing civilians murdered week in week out on the streets of British cities. Israel will never 'defeat' Hamas/Hezbollah unfortunately. All they will do is cause more death and misery and perpetuate the current hatreds in the Middle East.
Agree. However at the start of a real negotiation those who can take a wide and broad 'objective view from nowhere in particular' - something PB posters are good at - need to be able to give an outline idea of what a settlement which was reasonable and good for good people on all sides and in all relevant places, would look like, and if such a thing can be imagined.
Apart from a two state solution (which both sides appear to reject outright) I can't think of any. Whereas with the island of Ireland I can think of a few possibles.
War is horrific, but as horrors go this is impressively efficient
But it also begs the question: why was this chilling accuracy not used against Hamas, why instead did they carpet bomb civilians?
Because Bibi wants to commit genocide/ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories, if you follow that, he's not interested in a greater Israel.
Yes, that is my suspicion
If you look at some of the stuff his cabinet have said publicly, such as the below, you can only imagine what they say/do in private.
The EU, France and UK have condemned a senior Israeli minister for suggesting it might be “justified and moral” to starve people in Gaza.
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sparked international outrage after he said on Wednesday: “No one in the world will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages.”
Separately on Wednesday, Israel’s Channel 12 broadcasted security camera footage that reportedly showed the sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza at Sde Teiman military detention camp. Last week, the detention of the soldiers accused of involvement in the alleged abuse sparked violent riots.
I said at the beginning I suspected this of Israel. It’s the only logic behind their behaviour in Gaza - a “final solution” to the Palestinian problem. Just cleanse them entirely: make Gaza uninhabitable and terrify them out of the West Bank
And if you’re an Israeli looking at October 7 I can see why you might feel that way. The Jewish state cannot tolerate the mere possibility it might happen again - it is existential. AND if you’re going to do this you have to get it done before Iran acquires nukes
So: this will end either with the elimination of any Palestinian homeland or the destruction of Israel
Israel can't defeat Hamas by invading and occupying the Palestinian Authority any more than the UK could defeat the IRA by invading and occupying the Republic of Ireland and West Belfast
They won’t occupy. They will just make Gaza an unliveable wasteland
It already was anyway largely, the West Bank however was perfectly liveable in
I don’t think the Israelis care any more. After October 7 they want to expel all Palestinians because they see them as an existential threat to Jews (and the October 7 attackers made it very clear they wanted to kill every Jew they encountered)
The logic is pretty brutal if you’re an Israeli. Israel can only continue if “Palestine” is extinguished. Hence Gaza. At the same time Israel is now securing its northern border with Lebanon and maybe even taking out the Iranian leadership: might as well get it all done in one go
This all makes perfect sense IF your overwhelming concern is the survival of Israel as a Jewish ethno-state. It is also horrendously cruel
It is also disastrous, if they kill lots of Palestinians, many of them innocent of any terrorist links and add lots of innocent Lebanese to the death toll too they will be creating generations of pro Hamas and pro Hezbollah terrorists who weren't there before.
We also need to remember 30% of the population of Lebanon are Christian and 6% of Palestinians are Christian too, they should be naturally pro Israel but won't be if all their churches are bombed and their families driven from their homes
Cut the crap, as long as Hamas and Hezbollah exist there will always be more people joining Hamas and Hezbollah.
As long as they exist, those regions will be blockaded and impoverished and as long as people are impoverished the only way out of poverty or to have any hope is to unfortunately join with Hamas and Hezbollah respectively.
The only way to end the cycle of violence is to metaphorically stuff people's faces with gold, the Marshall Plan works, but the prerequisite of that even being an option is to end the threat from Hamas and Hezbollah.
Not reduce it, not a temporary ceasefire, but to end the threat by destroying those organisations completely.
If that is done the cycle of violence can end, but if there's a ceasefire then it is inevitable that the fighting will resume as without a lasting peace, without development, without opportunities people will see no alternative but to continue the violence.
That isn't going to come from Bibi and/or Smotrich. Bibi is interested in starting in power and avoiding corruption charges: endless war suits him. Smotrich wants genocide, to clear out the non-Jewish populations and create a greater Israel.
Luckily Bibi is not a dictator and Israel is a democracy.
When the threat from the Palestinians is minimised then Israel has been willing to vote for the likes of Begin who negotiated peace with Egypt, or Peres who tried negotiating with the Palestinians, or Barak who was willing to create a Palestinian state as agreed with Clinton in Camp David but unfortunately Arafat walked away from it as he didn't actually want peace.
One of my biggest criticisms of Bibi is I agree he wants endless war and he's been far, far too soft on Hamas which allowed the attacks last year to happen.
Israel needs to defeat Hamas/Hezbollah, not have a ceasefire, then negotiate a peace agreement. Bibi doesn't want that, but most Israelis do, and Israel is a democracy.
Not a word about his assisting in the theft of West Bank land by illegal settlers? Not one?
And Britain never defetaed the Nationalist terrorists in Northern Ireland. We realised it was impossible and had a negotiated settlement. Which whilst far from perfect is sure as hell a lot better than seeing civilians murdered week in week out on the streets of British cities. Israel will never 'defeat' Hamas/Hezbollah unfortunately. All they will do is cause more death and misery and perpetuate the current hatreds in the Middle East.
Not a valid comparison
For a true comparison imagine there is a pretty mighty armed group in Ireland constantly trying to break into Great Britain, and always lobbing shells and rockets at Liverpool. Then imagine that one day they do manage to land in Lancashire - about 2000 of them - and they proceed to slaughter huge numbers of Britons - 10,000 of us (that is the equivalent of Oct 7 in population) and imagine this 10,000 consists of British men and women and children, penisioners and kids alike, shot and tortured and massacred in a two day frenzy of bloodlust, just for being British, and then imagine that the Irish kidnap hundreds of other Brits - young and old - and take them back to Dublin to be tortured, raped, brutalised, and paraded on TV to taunt us
And then imagine that this same Irish army promises to do the same again and again, killing as many British people as possible, whenever they get the chance, and they do not seek peace - they only want Britain eradicated and as many Brits dead as possible. Also imagine these Irish fighters are pretty much fascists who throw gays off buildings
How would Britain respond? Would we seek "peace"? There is likely no peace to be had. I suspect we would eventually react like Israel is reacting, now
War is horrific, but as horrors go this is impressively efficient
But it also begs the question: why was this chilling accuracy not used against Hamas, why instead did they carpet bomb civilians?
Because Bibi wants to commit genocide/ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories, if you follow that, he's not interested in a greater Israel.
Yes, that is my suspicion
If you look at some of the stuff his cabinet have said publicly, such as the below, you can only imagine what they say/do in private.
The EU, France and UK have condemned a senior Israeli minister for suggesting it might be “justified and moral” to starve people in Gaza.
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sparked international outrage after he said on Wednesday: “No one in the world will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages.”
Separately on Wednesday, Israel’s Channel 12 broadcasted security camera footage that reportedly showed the sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza at Sde Teiman military detention camp. Last week, the detention of the soldiers accused of involvement in the alleged abuse sparked violent riots.
I said at the beginning I suspected this of Israel. It’s the only logic behind their behaviour in Gaza - a “final solution” to the Palestinian problem. Just cleanse them entirely: make Gaza uninhabitable and terrify them out of the West Bank
And if you’re an Israeli looking at October 7 I can see why you might feel that way. The Jewish state cannot tolerate the mere possibility it might happen again - it is existential. AND if you’re going to do this you have to get it done before Iran acquires nukes
So: this will end either with the elimination of any Palestinian homeland or the destruction of Israel
Israel can't defeat Hamas by invading and occupying the Palestinian Authority any more than the UK could defeat the IRA by invading and occupying the Republic of Ireland and West Belfast
Of course they can, if they press their advantages until the enemies surrender unconditionally.
Just as we pressed our advantages until the Nazis surrendered unconditionally. Just as the Americans pressed theirs until the Japanese surrendered unconditionally. Just as the Sri Lankans pressed theirs until the Tamil Tigers surrendered unconditionally.
Unconditional surrender ends wars.
Ethnic cleansing also ends historic conflicts. Cf Turkey/Greece
This is what Israel is pursuing. They just can’t say it
Indeed they can’t.
The Gaza Strip would make for some first class seaside real estate when redeveloped.
Pretty much everyone with coastline in the Middle East is now planning to copy Dubai and build hotels on the beaches.
Tourism should be a large attraction for the whole region, especially as it’s mostly off-season for European visitors, somewhere to find sun in winter.
If it dropped the violence and distaste for alcohol and women then the Middle East would be beautifully situated to make a fortune from tourism.
Sharm el-Sheikh was itself of course developed by Israel while it occupied the land, and it became a very successful tourist area which it remains to this day after Egypt accepted peace with Israel.
Egypt accepting it had lost the war ended the cycle of violence with Israel and has led to much more prosperity since, even if not great amounts of freedom. Far better than what the Palestinians have under Hamas.
Sharm-el-Sheikh is lovely, a good example of what they could all be doing. If you stop the war, you start attracting tourists.
Even the Saudis are preparing to relax rules on alcohol and women’s dress in their new resort city on the Red Sea. It’ll be a ‘closed city’ with no locals there. Just across the sea from Sharm, as it happens.
NARRATOR: Sharm-el-Sheikh is not "lovely", unless you you enjoy sterile, dessicated resort-cities inexplicably plonked in hostile desert by a windy coast
If all you want to do is lie on the beach for a week in the middle of British winter…
Remember that most Brits have to experience winter, rather than decamp to the brothels of Bangkok for months on end.
What fools they are
I can barely tolerate September in the New British Climate (TM)
I just walked out to buy some food and a wintry wind was gusting down Parkway and everyone was hunched in winter coats. "Feels like" about 9C? This is Sept 29
The cold weather is God's reminder to burn more Catholics at the stake.
My fractious mood might be related to this: yesterday I discovered that you're never too old to learn new things
I went out on the lash with some old uni friends. The evening conclued at chucking out time at the Groucho. Around 1am we came up with a new game of: "inventing hideous cocktails for the other person to drink"
From this I have learned: "never start inventing cocktails, at the Groucho, at 1am"
The annoying thing is you're indoors and you think oh it looks nice outside and you go out and you find, fuck it is cold, I need to put on my The North Face arctic gear.
I'm sure in the past it only got "proper cold" in late October. That was always the time I would fish out winter coats. Scarves and hats. It was OK then. Late October. Halloween coming. Fireworks and sparklers. Apple bobbing. Misty Bloomsbury mornings, like echoes of the Holborn marshes beneath
Not fucking September, thanksvmuch
Nah, late September has always been a bit chilly, if we're lucky we'll get an Indian summer for a week in October before it starts the slide into winter.
Meteorologically. maybe; psychologically, no
Big thick coats begin a few days before Halloween, that's the RULE
9C in September (albeit late) *feels like* we are being ROBBED of one of our few pleasantly mild months
It's comments like this that remind me that how different the concrete hotbox of London is compared to the rest of the country. None of those deep, frosty mornings or the howling winds off the North Sea.
The comfortable temperature difference between Leon and a Geordie must be, what, 20 degrees?
Just been down to the south coast of England. Had to call the operator of our rented accommodation in to give us a single blanket to replace the thick winter duvet on our bed, after a sweltering first night.
She should concentrate on a prominent role in Jenrick’s front bench, although since she is known to be quite lazy, it’s not obvious what that role might be.
She's pretty much guaranteed that anyway, by the power of arithmetic.
Start with 121 MPs. Take away the newbies, the bed blockers, the whips, the deputy speakers and the obviously unsuitable... there aren't that many left.
ETA: Oh and select committee members and chairs.
Hang on a second. If they're considering fecking Jenrick for the leadership, could you please clarify who would be so absolutely batshit and/or corrupt as to be 'obviously unsuitable' to serve in the shadow cabinet?
War is horrific, but as horrors go this is impressively efficient
But it also begs the question: why was this chilling accuracy not used against Hamas, why instead did they carpet bomb civilians?
Because Bibi wants to commit genocide/ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories, if you follow that, he's not interested in a greater Israel.
Yes, that is my suspicion
If you look at some of the stuff his cabinet have said publicly, such as the below, you can only imagine what they say/do in private.
The EU, France and UK have condemned a senior Israeli minister for suggesting it might be “justified and moral” to starve people in Gaza.
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sparked international outrage after he said on Wednesday: “No one in the world will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages.”
Separately on Wednesday, Israel’s Channel 12 broadcasted security camera footage that reportedly showed the sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza at Sde Teiman military detention camp. Last week, the detention of the soldiers accused of involvement in the alleged abuse sparked violent riots.
I said at the beginning I suspected this of Israel. It’s the only logic behind their behaviour in Gaza - a “final solution” to the Palestinian problem. Just cleanse them entirely: make Gaza uninhabitable and terrify them out of the West Bank
And if you’re an Israeli looking at October 7 I can see why you might feel that way. The Jewish state cannot tolerate the mere possibility it might happen again - it is existential. AND if you’re going to do this you have to get it done before Iran acquires nukes
So: this will end either with the elimination of any Palestinian homeland or the destruction of Israel
Israel can't defeat Hamas by invading and occupying the Palestinian Authority any more than the UK could defeat the IRA by invading and occupying the Republic of Ireland and West Belfast
They won’t occupy. They will just make Gaza an unliveable wasteland
It already was anyway largely, the West Bank however was perfectly liveable in
I don’t think the Israelis care any more. After October 7 they want to expel all Palestinians because they see them as an existential threat to Jews (and the October 7 attackers made it very clear they wanted to kill every Jew they encountered)
The logic is pretty brutal if you’re an Israeli. Israel can only continue if “Palestine” is extinguished. Hence Gaza. At the same time Israel is now securing its northern border with Lebanon and maybe even taking out the Iranian leadership: might as well get it all done in one go
This all makes perfect sense IF your overwhelming concern is the survival of Israel as a Jewish ethno-state. It is also horrendously cruel
It is also disastrous, if they kill lots of Palestinians, many of them innocent of any terrorist links and add lots of innocent Lebanese to the death toll too they will be creating generations of pro Hamas and pro Hezbollah terrorists who weren't there before.
We also need to remember 30% of the population of Lebanon are Christian and 6% of Palestinians are Christian too, they should be naturally pro Israel but won't be if all their churches are bombed and their families driven from their homes
Cut the crap, as long as Hamas and Hezbollah exist there will always be more people joining Hamas and Hezbollah.
As long as they exist, those regions will be blockaded and impoverished and as long as people are impoverished the only way out of poverty or to have any hope is to unfortunately join with Hamas and Hezbollah respectively.
The only way to end the cycle of violence is to metaphorically stuff people's faces with gold, the Marshall Plan works, but the prerequisite of that even being an option is to end the threat from Hamas and Hezbollah.
Not reduce it, not a temporary ceasefire, but to end the threat by destroying those organisations completely.
If that is done the cycle of violence can end, but if there's a ceasefire then it is inevitable that the fighting will resume as without a lasting peace, without development, without opportunities people will see no alternative but to continue the violence.
That isn't going to come from Bibi and/or Smotrich. Bibi is interested in starting in power and avoiding corruption charges: endless war suits him. Smotrich wants genocide, to clear out the non-Jewish populations and create a greater Israel.
Luckily Bibi is not a dictator and Israel is a democracy.
When the threat from the Palestinians is minimised then Israel has been willing to vote for the likes of Begin who negotiated peace with Egypt, or Peres who tried negotiating with the Palestinians, or Barak who was willing to create a Palestinian state as agreed with Clinton in Camp David but unfortunately Arafat walked away from it as he didn't actually want peace.
One of my biggest criticisms of Bibi is I agree he wants endless war and he's been far, far too soft on Hamas which allowed the attacks last year to happen.
Israel needs to defeat Hamas/Hezbollah, not have a ceasefire, then negotiate a peace agreement. Bibi doesn't want that, but most Israelis do, and Israel is a democracy.
Not a word about his assisting in the theft of West Bank land by illegal settlers? Not one?
And Britain never defetaed the Nationalist terrorists in Northern Ireland. We realised it was impossible and had a negotiated settlement. Which whilst far from perfect is sure as hell a lot better than seeing civilians murdered week in week out on the streets of British cities. Israel will never 'defeat' Hamas/Hezbollah unfortunately. All they will do is cause more death and misery and perpetuate the current hatreds in the Middle East.
Not a valid comparison
For a true comparison imagine there is a pretty mighty armed group in Ireland constantly trying to break into Great Britain, and always lobbing shells and rockets at Liverpool. Then imagine that one day they do manage to land in Lancashire - about 2000 of them - and they proceed to slaughter huge numbers of Britons - 10,000 of us (that is the equivalent of Oct 7 in population) and imagine this 10,000 consists of British men and women and children, penisioners and kids alike, shot and tortured and massacred in a two day frenzy of bloodlust, just for being British, and then imagine that the Irish kidnap hundreds of other Brits - young and old - and take them back to Dublin to be tortured, raped, brutalised, and paraded on TV to taunt us
And then imagine that this same Irish army promises to do the same again and again, killing as many British people as possible, whenever they get the chance, and they do not seek peace - they only want Britain eradicated and as many Brits dead as possible. Also imagine these Irish fighters are pretty much fascists who throw gays off buildings
How would Britain respond? Would we seek "peace"? There is likely no peace to be had. I suspect we would eventually react like Israel is reacting, now
Also imagine that those Irish fighters deny England's right to exist, insist on all English people being driven off the land "from the Channel to the Atlantic" and are willing to blow themselves up so long as they take out some English people as they believe if they die in such a conflict they'll be greeted with 42 virgins in the afterlife.
War is horrific, but as horrors go this is impressively efficient
But it also begs the question: why was this chilling accuracy not used against Hamas, why instead did they carpet bomb civilians?
Because Bibi wants to commit genocide/ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories, if you follow that, he's not interested in a greater Israel.
Yes, that is my suspicion
If you look at some of the stuff his cabinet have said publicly, such as the below, you can only imagine what they say/do in private.
The EU, France and UK have condemned a senior Israeli minister for suggesting it might be “justified and moral” to starve people in Gaza.
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sparked international outrage after he said on Wednesday: “No one in the world will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages.”
Separately on Wednesday, Israel’s Channel 12 broadcasted security camera footage that reportedly showed the sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza at Sde Teiman military detention camp. Last week, the detention of the soldiers accused of involvement in the alleged abuse sparked violent riots.
I said at the beginning I suspected this of Israel. It’s the only logic behind their behaviour in Gaza - a “final solution” to the Palestinian problem. Just cleanse them entirely: make Gaza uninhabitable and terrify them out of the West Bank
And if you’re an Israeli looking at October 7 I can see why you might feel that way. The Jewish state cannot tolerate the mere possibility it might happen again - it is existential. AND if you’re going to do this you have to get it done before Iran acquires nukes
So: this will end either with the elimination of any Palestinian homeland or the destruction of Israel
Israel can't defeat Hamas by invading and occupying the Palestinian Authority any more than the UK could defeat the IRA by invading and occupying the Republic of Ireland and West Belfast
They won’t occupy. They will just make Gaza an unliveable wasteland
It already was anyway largely, the West Bank however was perfectly liveable in
I don’t think the Israelis care any more. After October 7 they want to expel all Palestinians because they see them as an existential threat to Jews (and the October 7 attackers made it very clear they wanted to kill every Jew they encountered)
The logic is pretty brutal if you’re an Israeli. Israel can only continue if “Palestine” is extinguished. Hence Gaza. At the same time Israel is now securing its northern border with Lebanon and maybe even taking out the Iranian leadership: might as well get it all done in one go
This all makes perfect sense IF your overwhelming concern is the survival of Israel as a Jewish ethno-state. It is also horrendously cruel
It is also disastrous, if they kill lots of Palestinians, many of them innocent of any terrorist links and add lots of innocent Lebanese to the death toll too they will be creating generations of pro Hamas and pro Hezbollah terrorists who weren't there before.
We also need to remember 30% of the population of Lebanon are Christian and 6% of Palestinians are Christian too, they should be naturally pro Israel but won't be if all their churches are bombed and their families driven from their homes
Cut the crap, as long as Hamas and Hezbollah exist there will always be more people joining Hamas and Hezbollah.
As long as they exist, those regions will be blockaded and impoverished and as long as people are impoverished the only way out of poverty or to have any hope is to unfortunately join with Hamas and Hezbollah respectively.
The only way to end the cycle of violence is to metaphorically stuff people's faces with gold, the Marshall Plan works, but the prerequisite of that even being an option is to end the threat from Hamas and Hezbollah.
Not reduce it, not a temporary ceasefire, but to end the threat by destroying those organisations completely.
If that is done the cycle of violence can end, but if there's a ceasefire then it is inevitable that the fighting will resume as without a lasting peace, without development, without opportunities people will see no alternative but to continue the violence.
That isn't going to come from Bibi and/or Smotrich. Bibi is interested in starting in power and avoiding corruption charges: endless war suits him. Smotrich wants genocide, to clear out the non-Jewish populations and create a greater Israel.
Luckily Bibi is not a dictator and Israel is a democracy.
When the threat from the Palestinians is minimised then Israel has been willing to vote for the likes of Begin who negotiated peace with Egypt, or Peres who tried negotiating with the Palestinians, or Barak who was willing to create a Palestinian state as agreed with Clinton in Camp David but unfortunately Arafat walked away from it as he didn't actually want peace.
One of my biggest criticisms of Bibi is I agree he wants endless war and he's been far, far too soft on Hamas which allowed the attacks last year to happen.
Israel needs to defeat Hamas/Hezbollah, not have a ceasefire, then negotiate a peace agreement. Bibi doesn't want that, but most Israelis do, and Israel is a democracy.
Not a word about his assisting in the theft of West Bank land by illegal settlers? Not one?
And Britain never defetaed the Nationalist terrorists in Northern Ireland. We realised it was impossible and had a negotiated settlement. Which whilst far from perfect is sure as hell a lot better than seeing civilians murdered week in week out on the streets of British cities. Israel will never 'defeat' Hamas/Hezbollah unfortunately. All they will do is cause more death and misery and perpetuate the current hatreds in the Middle East.
Not a valid comparison
For a true comparison imagine there is a pretty mighty armed group in Ireland constantly trying to break into Great Britain, and always lobbing shells and rockets at Liverpool. Then imagine that one day they do manage to land in Lancashire - about 2000 of them - and they proceed to slaughter huge numbers of Britons - 10,000 of us (that is the equivalent of Oct 7 in population) and imagine this 10,000 consists of British men and women and children, penisioners and kids alike, shot and tortured and massacred in a two day frenzy of bloodlust, just for being British, and then imagine that the Irish kidnap hundreds of other Brits - young and old - and take them back to Dublin to be tortured, raped, brutalised, and paraded on TV to taunt us
And then imagine that this same Irish army promises to do the same again and again, killing as many British people as possible, whenever they get the chance, and they do not seek peace - they only want Britain eradicated and as many Brits dead as possible. Also imagine these Irish fighters are pretty much fascists who throw gays off buildings
How would Britain respond? Would we seek "peace"? There is likely no peace to be had. I suspect we would eventually react like Israel is reacting, now
Not false at all. A valid comparison.
And if you think that Israel's current actions will actually end the conflict then you are as deluded as Bart.
She should concentrate on a prominent role in Jenrick’s front bench, although since she is known to be quite lazy, it’s not obvious what that role might be.
She's pretty much guaranteed that anyway, by the power of arithmetic.
Start with 121 MPs. Take away the newbies, the bed blockers, the whips, the deputy speakers and the obviously unsuitable... there aren't that many left.
ETA: Oh and select committee members and chairs.
Hang on a second. If they're considering fecking Jenrick for the leadership, could you please clarify who would be so absolutely batshit and/or corrupt as to be 'obviously unsuitable' to serve in the shadow cabinet?
Off the top of my head, Suella Braverman and Andrew Rosindell.
(If Jenrick gets the gig and fails, there's still the option for the Conservatives to go even further into the Twilight Zone.)
She should concentrate on a prominent role in Jenrick’s front bench, although since she is known to be quite lazy, it’s not obvious what that role might be.
She's pretty much guaranteed that anyway, by the power of arithmetic.
Start with 121 MPs. Take away the newbies, the bed blockers, the whips, the deputy speakers and the obviously unsuitable... there aren't that many left.
ETA: Oh and select committee members and chairs.
Hang on a second. If they're considering fecking Jenrick for the leadership, could you please clarify who would be so absolutely batshit and/or corrupt as to be 'obviously unsuitable' to serve in the shadow cabinet?
Off the top of my head, Suella Braverman and Andrew Rosindell.
(If Jenrick gets the gig and fails, there's still the option for the Conservatives to go even further into the Twilight Zone.)
OK, I will allow you those, and that is almost 2% of the PCP.
War is horrific, but as horrors go this is impressively efficient
But it also begs the question: why was this chilling accuracy not used against Hamas, why instead did they carpet bomb civilians?
Because Bibi wants to commit genocide/ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories, if you follow that, he's not interested in a greater Israel.
Yes, that is my suspicion
If you look at some of the stuff his cabinet have said publicly, such as the below, you can only imagine what they say/do in private.
The EU, France and UK have condemned a senior Israeli minister for suggesting it might be “justified and moral” to starve people in Gaza.
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sparked international outrage after he said on Wednesday: “No one in the world will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages.”
Separately on Wednesday, Israel’s Channel 12 broadcasted security camera footage that reportedly showed the sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza at Sde Teiman military detention camp. Last week, the detention of the soldiers accused of involvement in the alleged abuse sparked violent riots.
I said at the beginning I suspected this of Israel. It’s the only logic behind their behaviour in Gaza - a “final solution” to the Palestinian problem. Just cleanse them entirely: make Gaza uninhabitable and terrify them out of the West Bank
And if you’re an Israeli looking at October 7 I can see why you might feel that way. The Jewish state cannot tolerate the mere possibility it might happen again - it is existential. AND if you’re going to do this you have to get it done before Iran acquires nukes
So: this will end either with the elimination of any Palestinian homeland or the destruction of Israel
Israel can't defeat Hamas by invading and occupying the Palestinian Authority any more than the UK could defeat the IRA by invading and occupying the Republic of Ireland and West Belfast
They won’t occupy. They will just make Gaza an unliveable wasteland
It already was anyway largely, the West Bank however was perfectly liveable in
I don’t think the Israelis care any more. After October 7 they want to expel all Palestinians because they see them as an existential threat to Jews (and the October 7 attackers made it very clear they wanted to kill every Jew they encountered)
The logic is pretty brutal if you’re an Israeli. Israel can only continue if “Palestine” is extinguished. Hence Gaza. At the same time Israel is now securing its northern border with Lebanon and maybe even taking out the Iranian leadership: might as well get it all done in one go
This all makes perfect sense IF your overwhelming concern is the survival of Israel as a Jewish ethno-state. It is also horrendously cruel
It is also disastrous, if they kill lots of Palestinians, many of them innocent of any terrorist links and add lots of innocent Lebanese to the death toll too they will be creating generations of pro Hamas and pro Hezbollah terrorists who weren't there before.
We also need to remember 30% of the population of Lebanon are Christian and 6% of Palestinians are Christian too, they should be naturally pro Israel but won't be if all their churches are bombed and their families driven from their homes
Cut the crap, as long as Hamas and Hezbollah exist there will always be more people joining Hamas and Hezbollah.
As long as they exist, those regions will be blockaded and impoverished and as long as people are impoverished the only way out of poverty or to have any hope is to unfortunately join with Hamas and Hezbollah respectively.
The only way to end the cycle of violence is to metaphorically stuff people's faces with gold, the Marshall Plan works, but the prerequisite of that even being an option is to end the threat from Hamas and Hezbollah.
Not reduce it, not a temporary ceasefire, but to end the threat by destroying those organisations completely.
If that is done the cycle of violence can end, but if there's a ceasefire then it is inevitable that the fighting will resume as without a lasting peace, without development, without opportunities people will see no alternative but to continue the violence.
That isn't going to come from Bibi and/or Smotrich. Bibi is interested in starting in power and avoiding corruption charges: endless war suits him. Smotrich wants genocide, to clear out the non-Jewish populations and create a greater Israel.
Luckily Bibi is not a dictator and Israel is a democracy.
When the threat from the Palestinians is minimised then Israel has been willing to vote for the likes of Begin who negotiated peace with Egypt, or Peres who tried negotiating with the Palestinians, or Barak who was willing to create a Palestinian state as agreed with Clinton in Camp David but unfortunately Arafat walked away from it as he didn't actually want peace.
One of my biggest criticisms of Bibi is I agree he wants endless war and he's been far, far too soft on Hamas which allowed the attacks last year to happen.
Israel needs to defeat Hamas/Hezbollah, not have a ceasefire, then negotiate a peace agreement. Bibi doesn't want that, but most Israelis do, and Israel is a democracy.
Not a word about his assisting in the theft of West Bank land by illegal settlers? Not one?
And Britain never defetaed the Nationalist terrorists in Northern Ireland. We realised it was impossible and had a negotiated settlement. Which whilst far from perfect is sure as hell a lot better than seeing civilians murdered week in week out on the streets of British cities. Israel will never 'defeat' Hamas/Hezbollah unfortunately. All they will do is cause more death and misery and perpetuate the current hatreds in the Middle East.
Not a valid comparison
For a true comparison imagine there is a pretty mighty armed group in Ireland constantly trying to break into Great Britain, and always lobbing shells and rockets at Liverpool. Then imagine that one day they do manage to land in Lancashire - about 2000 of them - and they proceed to slaughter huge numbers of Britons - 10,000 of us (that is the equivalent of Oct 7 in population) and imagine this 10,000 consists of British men and women and children, penisioners and kids alike, shot and tortured and massacred in a two day frenzy of bloodlust, just for being British, and then imagine that the Irish kidnap hundreds of other Brits - young and old - and take them back to Dublin to be tortured, raped, brutalised, and paraded on TV to taunt us
And then imagine that this same Irish army promises to do the same again and again, killing as many British people as possible, whenever they get the chance, and they do not seek peace - they only want Britain eradicated and as many Brits dead as possible. Also imagine these Irish fighters are pretty much fascists who throw gays off buildings
How would Britain respond? Would we seek "peace"? There is likely no peace to be had. I suspect we would eventually react like Israel is reacting, now
Not false at all. A valid comparison.
And if you think that Israel's current actions will actually end the conflict then you are as deluded as Bart.
If you think a "ceasefire" will end the conflict any more than any previous ceasefire with Hamas or Hezbollah then you are the delusional one.
But you don't want the conflict to end, you just want the current conflict to simmer down for a while.
You're no better than the Saturday morning trolls who say that Ukraine should just accept peace with Russia so that Ukrainians don't die in the [current] conflict.
War is horrific, but as horrors go this is impressively efficient
But it also begs the question: why was this chilling accuracy not used against Hamas, why instead did they carpet bomb civilians?
Because Bibi wants to commit genocide/ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories, if you follow that, he's not interested in a greater Israel.
Yes, that is my suspicion
If you look at some of the stuff his cabinet have said publicly, such as the below, you can only imagine what they say/do in private.
The EU, France and UK have condemned a senior Israeli minister for suggesting it might be “justified and moral” to starve people in Gaza.
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sparked international outrage after he said on Wednesday: “No one in the world will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages.”
Separately on Wednesday, Israel’s Channel 12 broadcasted security camera footage that reportedly showed the sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza at Sde Teiman military detention camp. Last week, the detention of the soldiers accused of involvement in the alleged abuse sparked violent riots.
I said at the beginning I suspected this of Israel. It’s the only logic behind their behaviour in Gaza - a “final solution” to the Palestinian problem. Just cleanse them entirely: make Gaza uninhabitable and terrify them out of the West Bank
And if you’re an Israeli looking at October 7 I can see why you might feel that way. The Jewish state cannot tolerate the mere possibility it might happen again - it is existential. AND if you’re going to do this you have to get it done before Iran acquires nukes
So: this will end either with the elimination of any Palestinian homeland or the destruction of Israel
Israel can't defeat Hamas by invading and occupying the Palestinian Authority any more than the UK could defeat the IRA by invading and occupying the Republic of Ireland and West Belfast
They won’t occupy. They will just make Gaza an unliveable wasteland
It already was anyway largely, the West Bank however was perfectly liveable in
I don’t think the Israelis care any more. After October 7 they want to expel all Palestinians because they see them as an existential threat to Jews (and the October 7 attackers made it very clear they wanted to kill every Jew they encountered)
The logic is pretty brutal if you’re an Israeli. Israel can only continue if “Palestine” is extinguished. Hence Gaza. At the same time Israel is now securing its northern border with Lebanon and maybe even taking out the Iranian leadership: might as well get it all done in one go
This all makes perfect sense IF your overwhelming concern is the survival of Israel as a Jewish ethno-state. It is also horrendously cruel
It is also disastrous, if they kill lots of Palestinians, many of them innocent of any terrorist links and add lots of innocent Lebanese to the death toll too they will be creating generations of pro Hamas and pro Hezbollah terrorists who weren't there before.
We also need to remember 30% of the population of Lebanon are Christian and 6% of Palestinians are Christian too, they should be naturally pro Israel but won't be if all their churches are bombed and their families driven from their homes
Cut the crap, as long as Hamas and Hezbollah exist there will always be more people joining Hamas and Hezbollah.
As long as they exist, those regions will be blockaded and impoverished and as long as people are impoverished the only way out of poverty or to have any hope is to unfortunately join with Hamas and Hezbollah respectively.
The only way to end the cycle of violence is to metaphorically stuff people's faces with gold, the Marshall Plan works, but the prerequisite of that even being an option is to end the threat from Hamas and Hezbollah.
Not reduce it, not a temporary ceasefire, but to end the threat by destroying those organisations completely.
If that is done the cycle of violence can end, but if there's a ceasefire then it is inevitable that the fighting will resume as without a lasting peace, without development, without opportunities people will see no alternative but to continue the violence.
That isn't going to come from Bibi and/or Smotrich. Bibi is interested in starting in power and avoiding corruption charges: endless war suits him. Smotrich wants genocide, to clear out the non-Jewish populations and create a greater Israel.
Luckily Bibi is not a dictator and Israel is a democracy.
When the threat from the Palestinians is minimised then Israel has been willing to vote for the likes of Begin who negotiated peace with Egypt, or Peres who tried negotiating with the Palestinians, or Barak who was willing to create a Palestinian state as agreed with Clinton in Camp David but unfortunately Arafat walked away from it as he didn't actually want peace.
One of my biggest criticisms of Bibi is I agree he wants endless war and he's been far, far too soft on Hamas which allowed the attacks last year to happen.
Israel needs to defeat Hamas/Hezbollah, not have a ceasefire, then negotiate a peace agreement. Bibi doesn't want that, but most Israelis do, and Israel is a democracy.
Not a word about his assisting in the theft of West Bank land by illegal settlers? Not one?
And Britain never defetaed the Nationalist terrorists in Northern Ireland. We realised it was impossible and had a negotiated settlement. Which whilst far from perfect is sure as hell a lot better than seeing civilians murdered week in week out on the streets of British cities. Israel will never 'defeat' Hamas/Hezbollah unfortunately. All they will do is cause more death and misery and perpetuate the current hatreds in the Middle East.
Not a valid comparison
For a true comparison imagine there is a pretty mighty armed group in Ireland constantly trying to break into Great Britain, and always lobbing shells and rockets at Liverpool. Then imagine that one day they do manage to land in Lancashire - about 2000 of them - and they proceed to slaughter huge numbers of Britons - 10,000 of us (that is the equivalent of Oct 7 in population) and imagine this 10,000 consists of British men and women and children, penisioners and kids alike, shot and tortured and massacred in a two day frenzy of bloodlust, just for being British, and then imagine that the Irish kidnap hundreds of other Brits - young and old - and take them back to Dublin to be tortured, raped, brutalised, and paraded on TV to taunt us
And then imagine that this same Irish army promises to do the same again and again, killing as many British people as possible, whenever they get the chance, and they do not seek peace - they only want Britain eradicated and as many Brits dead as possible. Also imagine these Irish fighters are pretty much fascists who throw gays off buildings
How would Britain respond? Would we seek "peace"? There is likely no peace to be had. I suspect we would eventually react like Israel is reacting, now
Also imagine that those Irish fighters deny England's right to exist, insist on all English people being driven off the land "from the Channel to the Atlantic" and are willing to blow themselves up so long as they take out some English people as they believe if they die in such a conflict they'll be greeted with 42 virgins in the afterlife.
Indeed
I am not "defending" Israel, I believe Netanyahu is a thug and he has actual fascists in his Cabinet, and beyond. Israel must take a large part of the blame for the situation being as bad as it is now (as must the Palestinians, with their stupid leaders and horrible Islamism)
However to understand the scenario you need to enter the Israeli mindset, as I have tried to do above. When you do that their behaviour is less "monstrous". It is still cruel, even barbaric, but it is not illogical
Israel has decided that "this is it". October 7 changed everything. Israel is now existentially threatened so "Palestine" has to go
I have no idea how you reach peace from here. It is probably impossible and this appalling conflict will now be fought to the end
War is horrific, but as horrors go this is impressively efficient
But it also begs the question: why was this chilling accuracy not used against Hamas, why instead did they carpet bomb civilians?
Because Bibi wants to commit genocide/ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories, if you follow that, he's not interested in a greater Israel.
Yes, that is my suspicion
If you look at some of the stuff his cabinet have said publicly, such as the below, you can only imagine what they say/do in private.
The EU, France and UK have condemned a senior Israeli minister for suggesting it might be “justified and moral” to starve people in Gaza.
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sparked international outrage after he said on Wednesday: “No one in the world will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages.”
Separately on Wednesday, Israel’s Channel 12 broadcasted security camera footage that reportedly showed the sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza at Sde Teiman military detention camp. Last week, the detention of the soldiers accused of involvement in the alleged abuse sparked violent riots.
I said at the beginning I suspected this of Israel. It’s the only logic behind their behaviour in Gaza - a “final solution” to the Palestinian problem. Just cleanse them entirely: make Gaza uninhabitable and terrify them out of the West Bank
And if you’re an Israeli looking at October 7 I can see why you might feel that way. The Jewish state cannot tolerate the mere possibility it might happen again - it is existential. AND if you’re going to do this you have to get it done before Iran acquires nukes
So: this will end either with the elimination of any Palestinian homeland or the destruction of Israel
Israel can't defeat Hamas by invading and occupying the Palestinian Authority any more than the UK could defeat the IRA by invading and occupying the Republic of Ireland and West Belfast
They won’t occupy. They will just make Gaza an unliveable wasteland
It already was anyway largely, the West Bank however was perfectly liveable in
I don’t think the Israelis care any more. After October 7 they want to expel all Palestinians because they see them as an existential threat to Jews (and the October 7 attackers made it very clear they wanted to kill every Jew they encountered)
The logic is pretty brutal if you’re an Israeli. Israel can only continue if “Palestine” is extinguished. Hence Gaza. At the same time Israel is now securing its northern border with Lebanon and maybe even taking out the Iranian leadership: might as well get it all done in one go
This all makes perfect sense IF your overwhelming concern is the survival of Israel as a Jewish ethno-state. It is also horrendously cruel
It is also disastrous, if they kill lots of Palestinians, many of them innocent of any terrorist links and add lots of innocent Lebanese to the death toll too they will be creating generations of pro Hamas and pro Hezbollah terrorists who weren't there before.
We also need to remember 30% of the population of Lebanon are Christian and 6% of Palestinians are Christian too, they should be naturally pro Israel but won't be if all their churches are bombed and their families driven from their homes
Cut the crap, as long as Hamas and Hezbollah exist there will always be more people joining Hamas and Hezbollah.
As long as they exist, those regions will be blockaded and impoverished and as long as people are impoverished the only way out of poverty or to have any hope is to unfortunately join with Hamas and Hezbollah respectively.
The only way to end the cycle of violence is to metaphorically stuff people's faces with gold, the Marshall Plan works, but the prerequisite of that even being an option is to end the threat from Hamas and Hezbollah.
Not reduce it, not a temporary ceasefire, but to end the threat by destroying those organisations completely.
If that is done the cycle of violence can end, but if there's a ceasefire then it is inevitable that the fighting will resume as without a lasting peace, without development, without opportunities people will see no alternative but to continue the violence.
That isn't going to come from Bibi and/or Smotrich. Bibi is interested in starting in power and avoiding corruption charges: endless war suits him. Smotrich wants genocide, to clear out the non-Jewish populations and create a greater Israel.
Luckily Bibi is not a dictator and Israel is a democracy.
When the threat from the Palestinians is minimised then Israel has been willing to vote for the likes of Begin who negotiated peace with Egypt, or Peres who tried negotiating with the Palestinians, or Barak who was willing to create a Palestinian state as agreed with Clinton in Camp David but unfortunately Arafat walked away from it as he didn't actually want peace.
One of my biggest criticisms of Bibi is I agree he wants endless war and he's been far, far too soft on Hamas which allowed the attacks last year to happen.
Israel needs to defeat Hamas/Hezbollah, not have a ceasefire, then negotiate a peace agreement. Bibi doesn't want that, but most Israelis do, and Israel is a democracy.
Not a word about his assisting in the theft of West Bank land by illegal settlers? Not one?
And Britain never defetaed the Nationalist terrorists in Northern Ireland. We realised it was impossible and had a negotiated settlement. Which whilst far from perfect is sure as hell a lot better than seeing civilians murdered week in week out on the streets of British cities. Israel will never 'defeat' Hamas/Hezbollah unfortunately. All they will do is cause more death and misery and perpetuate the current hatreds in the Middle East.
Not a valid comparison
For a true comparison imagine there is a pretty mighty armed group in Ireland constantly trying to break into Great Britain, and always lobbing shells and rockets at Liverpool. Then imagine that one day they do manage to land in Lancashire - about 2000 of them - and they proceed to slaughter huge numbers of Britons - 10,000 of us (that is the equivalent of Oct 7 in population) and imagine this 10,000 consists of British men and women and children, penisioners and kids alike, shot and tortured and massacred in a two day frenzy of bloodlust, just for being British, and then imagine that the Irish kidnap hundreds of other Brits - young and old - and take them back to Dublin to be tortured, raped, brutalised, and paraded on TV to taunt us
And then imagine that this same Irish army promises to do the same again and again, killing as many British people as possible, whenever they get the chance, and they do not seek peace - they only want Britain eradicated and as many Brits dead as possible. Also imagine these Irish fighters are pretty much fascists who throw gays off buildings
How would Britain respond? Would we seek "peace"? There is likely no peace to be had. I suspect we would eventually react like Israel is reacting, now
Not false at all. A valid comparison.
And if you think that Israel's current actions will actually end the conflict then you are as deluded as Bart.
I never said this will end the conflict. I said Israel has decided this is the only way to "end the conflict", quite a different thing
And everything Israel is doing lends weight to that theory. They want to render Gaza an uninhabitable wasteland, chase the Palestinians off the West Bank, secure a very tough border with Lebanon, wipe out Hezbollah, and terrorise Iran and other enemies into backing down, long term (and before Iran gets nukes)
It's quite a tall order but they are giving it a go
And now I must do my daily kettlebell exercise! Ah, the excitement
War is horrific, but as horrors go this is impressively efficient
But it also begs the question: why was this chilling accuracy not used against Hamas, why instead did they carpet bomb civilians?
Because Bibi wants to commit genocide/ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories, if you follow that, he's not interested in a greater Israel.
Yes, that is my suspicion
If you look at some of the stuff his cabinet have said publicly, such as the below, you can only imagine what they say/do in private.
The EU, France and UK have condemned a senior Israeli minister for suggesting it might be “justified and moral” to starve people in Gaza.
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sparked international outrage after he said on Wednesday: “No one in the world will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages.”
Separately on Wednesday, Israel’s Channel 12 broadcasted security camera footage that reportedly showed the sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza at Sde Teiman military detention camp. Last week, the detention of the soldiers accused of involvement in the alleged abuse sparked violent riots.
I said at the beginning I suspected this of Israel. It’s the only logic behind their behaviour in Gaza - a “final solution” to the Palestinian problem. Just cleanse them entirely: make Gaza uninhabitable and terrify them out of the West Bank
And if you’re an Israeli looking at October 7 I can see why you might feel that way. The Jewish state cannot tolerate the mere possibility it might happen again - it is existential. AND if you’re going to do this you have to get it done before Iran acquires nukes
So: this will end either with the elimination of any Palestinian homeland or the destruction of Israel
Israel can't defeat Hamas by invading and occupying the Palestinian Authority any more than the UK could defeat the IRA by invading and occupying the Republic of Ireland and West Belfast
They won’t occupy. They will just make Gaza an unliveable wasteland
It already was anyway largely, the West Bank however was perfectly liveable in
I don’t think the Israelis care any more. After October 7 they want to expel all Palestinians because they see them as an existential threat to Jews (and the October 7 attackers made it very clear they wanted to kill every Jew they encountered)
The logic is pretty brutal if you’re an Israeli. Israel can only continue if “Palestine” is extinguished. Hence Gaza. At the same time Israel is now securing its northern border with Lebanon and maybe even taking out the Iranian leadership: might as well get it all done in one go
This all makes perfect sense IF your overwhelming concern is the survival of Israel as a Jewish ethno-state. It is also horrendously cruel
It is also disastrous, if they kill lots of Palestinians, many of them innocent of any terrorist links and add lots of innocent Lebanese to the death toll too they will be creating generations of pro Hamas and pro Hezbollah terrorists who weren't there before.
We also need to remember 30% of the population of Lebanon are Christian and 6% of Palestinians are Christian too, they should be naturally pro Israel but won't be if all their churches are bombed and their families driven from their homes
Cut the crap, as long as Hamas and Hezbollah exist there will always be more people joining Hamas and Hezbollah.
As long as they exist, those regions will be blockaded and impoverished and as long as people are impoverished the only way out of poverty or to have any hope is to unfortunately join with Hamas and Hezbollah respectively.
The only way to end the cycle of violence is to metaphorically stuff people's faces with gold, the Marshall Plan works, but the prerequisite of that even being an option is to end the threat from Hamas and Hezbollah.
Not reduce it, not a temporary ceasefire, but to end the threat by destroying those organisations completely.
If that is done the cycle of violence can end, but if there's a ceasefire then it is inevitable that the fighting will resume as without a lasting peace, without development, without opportunities people will see no alternative but to continue the violence.
That isn't going to come from Bibi and/or Smotrich. Bibi is interested in starting in power and avoiding corruption charges: endless war suits him. Smotrich wants genocide, to clear out the non-Jewish populations and create a greater Israel.
Luckily Bibi is not a dictator and Israel is a democracy.
When the threat from the Palestinians is minimised then Israel has been willing to vote for the likes of Begin who negotiated peace with Egypt, or Peres who tried negotiating with the Palestinians, or Barak who was willing to create a Palestinian state as agreed with Clinton in Camp David but unfortunately Arafat walked away from it as he didn't actually want peace.
One of my biggest criticisms of Bibi is I agree he wants endless war and he's been far, far too soft on Hamas which allowed the attacks last year to happen.
Israel needs to defeat Hamas/Hezbollah, not have a ceasefire, then negotiate a peace agreement. Bibi doesn't want that, but most Israelis do, and Israel is a democracy.
Not a word about his assisting in the theft of West Bank land by illegal settlers? Not one?
And Britain never defetaed the Nationalist terrorists in Northern Ireland. We realised it was impossible and had a negotiated settlement. Which whilst far from perfect is sure as hell a lot better than seeing civilians murdered week in week out on the streets of British cities. Israel will never 'defeat' Hamas/Hezbollah unfortunately. All they will do is cause more death and misery and perpetuate the current hatreds in the Middle East.
Not a valid comparison
For a true comparison imagine there is a pretty mighty armed group in Ireland constantly trying to break into Great Britain, and always lobbing shells and rockets at Liverpool. Then imagine that one day they do manage to land in Lancashire - about 2000 of them - and they proceed to slaughter huge numbers of Britons - 10,000 of us (that is the equivalent of Oct 7 in population) and imagine this 10,000 consists of British men and women and children, penisioners and kids alike, shot and tortured and massacred in a two day frenzy of bloodlust, just for being British, and then imagine that the Irish kidnap hundreds of other Brits - young and old - and take them back to Dublin to be tortured, raped, brutalised, and paraded on TV to taunt us
And then imagine that this same Irish army promises to do the same again and again, killing as many British people as possible, whenever they get the chance, and they do not seek peace - they only want Britain eradicated and as many Brits dead as possible. Also imagine these Irish fighters are pretty much fascists who throw gays off buildings
How would Britain respond? Would we seek "peace"? There is likely no peace to be had. I suspect we would eventually react like Israel is reacting, now
Also imagine that those Irish fighters deny England's right to exist, insist on all English people being driven off the land "from the Channel to the Atlantic" and are willing to blow themselves up so long as they take out some English people as they believe if they die in such a conflict they'll be greeted with 42 virgins in the afterlife.
Indeed
I am not "defending" Israel, I believe Netanyahu is a thug and he has actual fascists in his Cabinet, and beyond. Israel must take a large part of the blame for the situation being as bad as it is now (as must the Palestinians, with their stupid leaders and horrible Islamism)
However to understand the scenario you need to enter the Israeli mindset, as I have tried to do above. When you do that their behaviour is less "monstrous". It is still cruel, even barbaric, but it is not illogical
Israel has decided that "this is it". October 7 changed everything. Israel is now existentially threatened so "Palestine" has to go
I have no idea how you reach peace from here. It is probably impossible and this appalling conflict will now be fought to the end
Most reasonable way to get peace from here is that Hamas get defeated and there's regime change in Iran and Lebanon.
Most other proposals don't get peace, they get a ceasefire and we'll be back to an active conflict as a matter of when, not if. The ceasefire advocates don't seem to give a damn about that though, so long as they get their current sugar high.
My suspicion is there are a great number in the states surrounding Israel who are probably not too unhappy with the latest sequence of events. Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis are all destabilising influences within states and weakening these and other pro-Iran elements probably helps the actual Governments of Lebanon for example and the Republic of Yemen.
I suspect Saudi Arabia will be quite happy too as will Abbas and Fatah who may be able to regain power in Gaza.
Comments
Has she clarified what the hell she means?
Perhaps you had forgotten it?
Preliminary results from Austria’s general election showed the far-right Freedom party (FPÖ) winning the most votes for the first time in the postwar period as it rode a tide of public anger over migration and the cost of living. It was projected to beat the co-ruling centre-right People’s party (ÖVP) by three points, surpassing expectations.
Guardian live blog
I was living in Cairo at the time, in a friend's apartment on Zemalak island (which was then posh, nice and leafy). I was about 23. I had an opium addiction which I would satisfy by crossing the Nile to the TV HQ, and the slums just behind, where my smiley opium dealer would sell me a thick wad of opium for 70 Egyptian pounds (much less than it sounds)
I would then pop it under my tongue and by the time I got back, crossing the Nile again, I was happily zonked and opiated and I would spend the rest of the day reading Cavafy and killing flies, on my friend's balcony
At one point I got bored of this, and went to Israel, and ran out of money in Jerusalem (long story) so I hitch-hiked to Eilat to cross the border, where I knew I had just enough cash (a tiny amount of Egyptian pounds) to get a really cheap bus back to Cairo
But at the border they told me there was an exit fee. I didn't have it. The Israeli border people said Sorry but there was nothing they could do. I was totally stuck. I had to sleep on the beach, I washed in the ocean, a nice person gave me food, and every morning and afternoon I went back to the border and the Israelis said Sorry, very nicely, again - but by the time I made my 9th visit the lovely young Israeli border woman said "We're all feeling so sorry for you, sleeping on the beach, we've all clubbed together to pay your exit fee" - and they did. And I was through, into No Man's Land
Happily I crossed to the Egyptian border post.... where I realised there was an ENTRANCE fee. Again I was stuck, In No Man's Land. But then this truly amazing Egyptian border guy said "hey, I'll pay it for you, I'll give you my address and you can pay me back when you get home to England". Imagine!
It was a lot of money for an Egyptian. Possibly half a week's pay? Dunno what border guards earned in Egypt thirty-odd years ago. Not much probs
Anyway he paid it - like a dude - and I made it to Cairo coz people gave me free chicken and eventually I got home and I DID send the Egyptian guy his money in a bloody envelope and amazingly he got it and he sent back a lovely letter with a photo of him and his family all smiling and waving at me
True story. I am almost blubbing as I tell it. Must be the hangover
You need a London Fog, followed by a Fog Cutter, repeated.
That will sort even you out
That's Harris' problem in a nutshell, she needs to sell change.
Starmers problem is delivering change. It's what he promised, and people are impatient.
Then much the way they have been under ETH who must be staring at a P45
https://www.key.aero/article/bas-pilot-cadet-scheme-opening-new-applications
A lot cheaper than the extra insurance, which will be 2-3x higher after a totting-up ban. The guy's in London, too.
https://x.com/saulstaniforth/status/1840054065692053958
Big thick coats begin a few days before Halloween, that's the RULE
9C in September (albeit late) *feels like* we are being ROBBED of one of our few pleasantly mild months
LIAR
Starmer is kinda screwed, if this is the one word that sticks to him forever, and identifies him by itself. And so far it appears that it will
To be honest I would have thought that insisting people refer to her by her full first name would be the more 'woke' thing to do rather than a shortened and for westerners more convenient, name. Still I haven't seen such things become a lighting rod yet in the culture wars.
"It is worth knowing ... that the first major action of Hitler's SS was the forced deportation of migrants. About 17,000 people were deported, which generated the social instability that the Nazi government the used as justification for further oppression. Trump and Vance plan to deport about a thousand times as many people."
https://snyder.substack.com/p/trumps-hitlerian-month?r=1emko&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true
The comfortable temperature difference between Leon and a Geordie must be, what, 20 degrees?
We have already established that I am a gaylording ponceyboots when it comes to cold weather
However, I suspect I might be the only PB-er that has literally and deliberately jumped in the Antarctic Ocean, the coldest water on earth: it is -1.8C
Dangerously cold, can kill you in seconds, I will never do it again
Then when she really nails something - eg when she correctly says "September can be surprisingly cold" - then we can all go round saying "Enoch was right" and it will be funny
Many homes in Richmond now have their Harris-Walz posters, but once you get out of town, Trump-Vance are winning the yard sign battle.
But it's still not worth it. When you hit the water it is so hideously cold your body and brain spaz into instant panic - you thrash around hysterically - it is serioiusly dangerous. They have scuba divers all around you to immediately push you back out of the water. Otherwise most would die
She should concentrate on a prominent role in Jenrick’s front bench, although since she is known to be quite lazy, it’s not obvious what that role might be.
We asked them, IIRC, to be competent and for ministers to start running their departments with 100% competence, not to make unforced errors, to be honest and honourable and in return they promised low but real expectations and we (with good reason) believed them.
It is this low bar which has already been bigly betrayed, nothing to do with the inside jobs of people we didn't elect and don't appoint.
I guess it shouldn't be a surprise - he is a lawyer - but he lies with astonishing ease and glibness. I think he is actually worse than Boris. When Boris lies - which he does, a lot - you occasionally catch a glimpse of guilt, a hint of a blush, the fugitive signs of a conscience
Starmer lies relentlessly, coldly, and automatically. Quite sociopathic. The voters have correctly rumbled him
Name all the Labour Prime Ministers with the first name James.
A very British day. If I turn on Radio 4 I could almost be in - I don’t know - Liverpool.
https://x.com/wturvill/status/1840331898012189012/photo/1
It’s Birmingham this week.
I had that ancient word filed away with, well, "Filofax"
When the threat from the Palestinians is minimised then Israel has been willing to vote for the likes of Begin who negotiated peace with Egypt, or Peres who tried negotiating with the Palestinians, or Barak who was willing to create a Palestinian state as agreed with Clinton in Camp David but unfortunately Arafat walked away from it as he didn't actually want peace.
One of my biggest criticisms of Bibi is I agree he wants endless war and he's been far, far too soft on Hamas which allowed the attacks last year to happen.
Israel needs to defeat Hamas/Hezbollah, not have a ceasefire, then negotiate a peace agreement. Bibi doesn't want that, but most Israelis do, and Israel is a democracy.
And Britain never defetaed the Nationalist terrorists in Northern Ireland. We realised it was impossible and had a negotiated settlement. Which whilst far from perfect is sure as hell a lot better than seeing civilians murdered week in week out on the streets of British cities. Israel will never 'defeat' Hamas/Hezbollah unfortunately. All they will do is cause more death and misery and perpetuate the current hatreds in the Middle East.
Why can Israel not 'defeat' Hamas/Hezbollah, yet they could defeat Egypt and Sri Lanka could defeat the Tamil Tigers?
Start with 121 MPs. Take away the newbies, the bed blockers, the whips, the deputy speakers and the obviously unsuitable... there aren't that many left.
ETA: Oh and select committee members and chairs.
James Ramsay Macdonald, James Callaghan and James Gordon Brown.
The ad says the watches haven’t been designed yet. So why the rush to sell them in the final weeks of a campaign that—if Trump loses—will strip him of the power to grant political favors?
It does reek of Money Laundering. Especially as they can be bought with untraceable crypto.
https://x.com/SethAbramson/status/1840270645143236712
2 out of 3 ain't bad as the late Mr Loaf said but James Callaghan was not one of them.
A military victory should not be the end of the matter, after defeating the enemy and they accept defeat then a peace agreement can be made with those who will recognise the facts and recognise their right to exist - which unfortunately does not extend to Hamas and Hezbollah.
Sinn Fein could be negotiated with, they wanted facts changing in Ireland, but they never denied England's right to exist. Hamas and Hezbollah are not remotely in the same ballpark.
Apart from a two state solution (which both sides appear to reject outright) I can't think of any. Whereas with the island of Ireland I can think of a few possibles.
Always amuses me (Leonard) James Callaghan doesn't count.
For a true comparison imagine there is a pretty mighty armed group in Ireland constantly trying to break into Great Britain, and always lobbing shells and rockets at Liverpool. Then imagine that one day they do manage to land in Lancashire - about 2000 of them - and they proceed to slaughter huge numbers of Britons - 10,000 of us (that is the equivalent of Oct 7 in population) and imagine this 10,000 consists of British men and women and children, penisioners and kids alike, shot and tortured and massacred in a two day frenzy of bloodlust, just for being British, and then imagine that the Irish kidnap hundreds of other Brits - young and old - and take them back to Dublin to be tortured, raped, brutalised, and paraded on TV to taunt us
And then imagine that this same Irish army promises to do the same again and again, killing as many British people as possible, whenever they get the chance, and they do not seek peace - they only want Britain eradicated and as many Brits dead as possible. Also imagine these Irish fighters are pretty much fascists who throw gays off buildings
How would Britain respond? Would we seek "peace"? There is likely no peace to be had. I suspect we would eventually react like Israel is reacting, now
ELIZABETH
TRUSS
So the one guy we know as James was the middle name, and the two we don’t know as James were actually Christened with that name.
Hard not to laugh, MU 12th in the league.
And if you think that Israel's current actions will actually end the conflict then you are as deluded as Bart.
(If Jenrick gets the gig and fails, there's still the option for the Conservatives to go even further into the Twilight Zone.)
But you don't want the conflict to end, you just want the current conflict to simmer down for a while.
You're no better than the Saturday morning trolls who say that Ukraine should just accept peace with Russia so that Ukrainians don't die in the [current] conflict.
I am not "defending" Israel, I believe Netanyahu is a thug and he has actual fascists in his Cabinet, and beyond. Israel must take a large part of the blame for the situation being as bad as it is now (as must the Palestinians, with their stupid leaders and horrible Islamism)
However to understand the scenario you need to enter the Israeli mindset, as I have tried to do above. When you do that their behaviour is less "monstrous". It is still cruel, even barbaric, but it is not illogical
Israel has decided that "this is it". October 7 changed everything. Israel is now existentially threatened so "Palestine" has to go
I have no idea how you reach peace from here. It is probably impossible and this appalling conflict will now be fought to the end
But we as a country don't actively support Hamas, Hizbollah or Iran. We do support Israel.
And therefore IMV we should expect better of them.
But I'm also unsure what that 'better' should be, beyond stopping the settlement expansions.
Currently 16 to win, and 6.6 for winner w/o Man City. Not bad value imo.
And everything Israel is doing lends weight to that theory. They want to render Gaza an uninhabitable wasteland, chase the Palestinians off the West Bank, secure a very tough border with Lebanon, wipe out Hezbollah, and terrorise Iran and other enemies into backing down, long term (and before Iran gets nukes)
It's quite a tall order but they are giving it a go
And now I must do my daily kettlebell exercise! Ah, the excitement
Most other proposals don't get peace, they get a ceasefire and we'll be back to an active conflict as a matter of when, not if. The ceasefire advocates don't seem to give a damn about that though, so long as they get their current sugar high.
IM Fans please explain why your women was as awful as the current PM
Nice unifying guy but I can't recall a single thing he's said or done.
I can for Badenoch, Tugendhat and Jenrick.
My suspicion is there are a great number in the states surrounding Israel who are probably not too unhappy with the latest sequence of events. Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis are all destabilising influences within states and weakening these and other pro-Iran elements probably helps the actual Governments of Lebanon for example and the Republic of Yemen.
I suspect Saudi Arabia will be quite happy too as will Abbas and Fatah who may be able to regain power in Gaza.