inspectorfrost

Putting the rivalry aside my Pompey supporting friends thought he was a bizarre signing for us. He's doing his best but he's constantly playing at a level that is above him. For every decent save he makes there's 2 of 3 howlers/shots that he really should be doing better with.

The double standards after the condemnation of Russia-Ukraine a year or two back aren't hard to find The attempted cancelling of Russia/#standwithUkraine was never about humanity, it was about money and power ie. the usual. We currently have over 800 serving officials openly stating their own governments positions on Israel-Gaza war could amount to complicity in "grave violations of international law". https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68177357

Yes But are you referring to Hamas, who carried out the attack? Or the vast majority of the 20-25000 Palestinian civilians that Israel have indiscriminately bombed and killed since, that had nothing to do with the attack or Hamas? As for Arab nations potentially 'boycotting', the idea would be so the event(s) descend into farce.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68006126 More coming out. . . I've not read the ins and outs of the Gary Lineker story regarding the tweet calling for Israel to be banned from international football/events etc. but think we're heading for incidents in events like the Olympics with Arab nations in particular refusing to compete against them etc.

To address the story in the above link itself, it was widely reported including in the I newspaper. https://www.state.gov/rejection-of-irresponsible-statements-on-resettlement-of-palestinians-outside-of-gaza/ "Irresponsible statements" is one way of putting it, seem to remember there an ICC arrest warrant issued for Putin earlier this year for doing similar in Ukraine

I don't think a lot of people realise that the Israelis were aware of how dangerous Netanyahu's regime is long before October last year. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-67859177 Hopefully this Egyptian plan to resolve the conflict gains some traction, but it'd need a complete change of leadership on both sides for a start to achieve any lasting peace.

500 Palestinians have died this year alone in attacks like the below, which is approaching half of the number of Israelis that died on 7/10. The Palestinians were never going to do nothing whilst the west turns a blind eye. Hamas's attack wasn't the start of anything. https://news.sky.com/story/settlers-armed-with-long-rifles-guns-knives-and-machetes-came-west-bank-palestinian-family-driven-from-their-home-13038093 I wouldn't be surprised if the Russians had a hand in organising Hamas's attack, given it's sophistication/scale and the timing. The western governments try to cancel Russia over the Ukraine invasion, (just under 10000 civilians have died in 18 months), then a conflict escalates where a western ally invades/indiscriminately bombs Gaza (just over 21500 civilians have died in less than 3 months, the vast majority women and children). Very good article by Frank Gardner summing things up https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-67845056

Think the IOC have acknowledged that banning the Russian/Belarussian athletes based on their nationality would violate the Olympic charter. If they banned every country who'd invaded a different country where the indiscriminate killing of civilians followed the 'individual neutral athletes' would have the largest contingent of athletes by a distance When the invasion started tens of thousands of Russians openly protested against the war knowing full well they'd likely be thrown into jail by the end of that day. It was the biggest rebellion against the Russian authorities for a long time. Sadly Zelensky never used it to his advantage. It was only 20 years ago when a lot of our population supported invading Iraq because they believed Saddam Hussein could deploy WMDs in 45 minutes. Less "nutcase population" and more "Different governments, but the lies stay the same."

You've written the above after having previously written comments like "Hamas started all this" when they didn't exist until decades after Israel were occupying Palestinian land, and then you've started talking about other people being naive, very impressionable and keen to read any old horseshit. Go back through the thread and you'll find that none of my last sentence is my opinion. Knowing the historical context is vital, and there are a lot of people on this thread have read about the cycle of violence in Israel-Palestine for decades (that's not arrogance). Alicia Kearns/Ben Wallace's comments today are significant, they know full well Israel are committing war crimes in Palestine but the words used are being massaged. I believe I read recently that 80% of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been displaced, Hamas' (the ones responsible) membership is 20000-25000. The two links below show why you need to be wary reading coverage about any conflict. See how the narrative has shifted over the 8 years.

And it's the barbaric attacks by Hamas a while ago that got all the news coverage where you'd struggle to find much on the (government supported) Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians that took place beforehand. Practically every non-UK born person I've met would you tell the idea the BBC etc. is 'independent from government' is absurd. The news coverage is based on political/financial interest, not on the premise of the value of human life. News is merely an artificial construction designed to represent reality. As soon as you start getting the 'good guy, bad guy' narrative it's an indicator it's being controlled, the world is never that simple. I've seen numerous stories like the below happening in Ukraine where words like "atrocity" and "crimes against humanity" were used. The difference in reporting is subtle but effective. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-67736723 The problem Israel has is that the world is way too multi-cultural now and communications are far too effective so more of their army's actions are being called out. There are people in senior political positions in this country whose own family are directly witnessing what the IDF are doing. There's a report that Israel's finance minister recently claimed that there are 2 million Nazis in the West Bank. History would suggest that's a rather chilling and disturbing statement. Hamas may be barbaric/vile scum etc. etc. but you may want to look behind you. . .

You're being gaslighted. For political/economic reasons they're just reporting the same story to you over and over again with different details to sell the idea the Israelis are still the only victims in this conflict and that Israel are doing anything other than 'indiscriminately bombing' (as Biden's just called it)/starving out countless civilians who had nothing to do with Hamas's attacks whatsoever. You won't get anywhere near the personalisation of the Palestinian victims or some of their horrific deaths, even with the death toll now 17-18 times of the Israeli one. As for the families of the current Hamas extremists It's highly likely they were killed in bombings/violence.starvation but that would have been 15-20 years ago when the current Hamas extremists were kids, hence why they are so radicalised now and Hamas over time have only got stronger.

A rare example of the BBC reporting the other side, shame about the "since 7th October" narrative https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-67617920

Mainly motoring ones -Putting zebra crossings within 20 yards of roundabouts so the roundabout gridlocks everytime someone crosses the road -People in traffic jams that leave a 200 yard gap between them and the car in front. Just takes a few people to do this and it makes the jam ten times worse. There's a sensible gap, then there's stupidity. -'Bike friendly' road layout changes that benefit no-one. Special mention to whoever designed the traffic light junction approach near Cambridge railway station where they put the cycle lane in between the inside and middle lanes. At peak times you effectively have to mow an entire peloton of cyclists down to turn left at the junction. They couldn't have designed it to be more downright dangerous if they tried. -The current roadworks at the M25/A3 junction. After a 1-2 mile tailback, they only split the lanes/filter the traffic for each direction in the final 100 yards -Binmen who can't be arsed to close the bin lids in pouring rain after emptying our bins. Then soaking myself when tipping all the rainwater out. -Having to ask twice to cancel parts of my Sky package, after the human assistant I eventually get through to gives me an automated message of how wonderful each thing is I want to cancel after I ask the first time

I'll always remember that gridwalk classic from 15-20 years ago "Kimi, did you see Michael Schumacher pick up his lifetime achievement award? "No, I was having a shit"

Haaland would have been garbage for Man City if they'd signed him and played him at LB the entire time. He had limited opportunities under 2 of the worst managers the premier league has ever seen. No target man would flourish in a team who either passed the ball 5 yards sideways/backwards or gave the ball away. It's less him being a poor player and more him wondering what the hell he came in to at that time, HCDAJFU in the Championship, but very much doubt he'll be back.

Hamas didn't exist until 20 years after Israel first started occupying the West Bank/Gaza in the 1960s. It's entire extremist existence was born out of decades of frustration/anger from Israeli occupation. Jewish settler violence/land grabs against Palestinians have been going on for decades, with government/army support. It was actually increasing before Hamas launched their recent attack. Ever wondered why the Hamas attack was so systematic and brutal, when they knew full well what Israel's response would be? The fact that Hamas are utterly barbaric doesn't even scratch the surface. The whole point was to provoke this reaction from Israel

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/sharpened-censure-us-calls-suspected-israeli-settler-attack-terrorism-2023-08-06/

Bear in mind you're talking about a military force that tried to claim 3 days ago "there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza".

Starmer just has an upcoming election coming up which he's never had a better chance of winning. There's no doubt Hamas' attack took place and god knows how many Israelis died but if you follow up on some of the claims the BBC had in size 72 letters on their website the current articles now don't exactly give a ringing endorsement to their truth. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=Israeli+babies+beheaded#ip=1 Let's take another war, if you google 'BBC azov battalion' the first two video links you get (or I got) are a 2022 report about Putin's untruths about Nazis in Ukraine, and the second is a 2014 report investigating the growing threat of neo-Nazis in Ukraine and their links with the Ukrainian government. Google it. Who knows what the truths of wars are? The one thing you can guarantee is that all news coverage of it will be riddled with political interference based on economic interest. News is not reality, it's an artificial construction designed to represent the truth. What's reported in our media is no different.

A good spot, reporting double standards like this have increased a fair bit in recent years. We've currently got government ministers trying to order BBC journalists what terminology to use when constructing their news articles on this war. As a friend of mine from Lithuania commented when asked why people in Russia believe Putin's propaganda on the news - "the same reason people over here believe the BBC"

This reaction is exactly what Hamas want The Israelis are currently proposing measures that will specifically harm the civilian population of Gaza, on top of the air strikes they are carrying out against Hamas. Israel invaded Gaza in 2014 to stop rocket attacks and remove Hamas' ability to infiltrate Israel. . . . Approx 1600 Palestinian civilians died as a result. Hamas are now evidently far stronger, with significantly more capability and support, with Israeli civilian anger at their own government/military at an all time high. Starting to work out why there's so much opposition to Israel's handling of this conflict?

You also have the EU currently pointing out Israel blockading food/water/electricity is a clear breach of international law. As Humza Yousef has suggested, why should his in-laws have to potentially starve to death due to the actions of the murderous regime controlling Gaza? They might be the only democracy in the middle east but the world is a very diverse place. Not everyone in the world wants to be like the west, and in a lot of cases prefer autocratic regimes. (Given we've had Liz Truss and Boris Johnson as prime ministers in recent years they probably have a point)

You'd be surprised who are capable of breaking into people’s homes and butchering people including kids https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67054702 War is the dirtiest of dirty businesses, half the battle is in the media but ultimately 'good guys' and 'bad guys' only exist in Hollywood movies. The tragedy is that all civilan suffering and loss of civilian life, both Palestinian and Israeli is equally tragic. Both sides' rulers have a long history of atrocities against the other side. The current Scottish First Minister (whose in-laws are currently stuck in Gaza) summed it up very well yesterday https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-67057367

The UN called out why that's highly unlikely months ago https://press.un.org/en/2023/sgsm21847.doc.htm They're two murderous regimes going at it and it's sadly the civilians that will suffer on both sides. If Israel obliterated Gaza completely it'll just create a humanitarian catastrophe and radicalise thousands more. They launched a ground invasion of Gaza 9 years ago and here we are. The key bit is the sheer scale and sophistication of Hamas's attack, and where they are getting the resources from.

It's the scale and sophistication of Hamas' attack that got me. They can't have it done it without significantly more resources than they'v had previously. The million dollar question is why. (Glad you got out ok BTW)