inspectorfrost

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)

Bit of a mixed bag I thought, he did make some good saves but a couple of dodgy moments. He was close to gifting Stoke an open goal early on with the sweeper keeper attempt. Aribo did a lot better than I expected when he came on

Only Saints could sign a prolific 6ft 7ins sriker and not use him as a target man. Really pleased he's doing well, his goals record speaks for itself. I hope he comes back but can't see it.

Problem is if Man City beat Huddersfield and Brighton they'll be in the position where they'll be the first ever PL team to go past the 100 point mark if they beat us. They'll definitely be up for that. It's why I'm supporting Huddersfield currently, what they do now is irrelevant to us as it's a straight fight between us and Swansea

I do agree although the Islamic community already do a lot to try and counter extremism. I was in Oxford city centre the other week and slap bang in the middle of the high street was a big 'Muslims against extremism' stand. The problem they have is that the 0.1% of extremists get 99.9% of the media coverage, and 99.9% of their efforts to stampt it out get 0.1% of the media coverage. One issue that Islam does have is that it's historically been far more strictly enforced than say Christianity. This means that Christianity has over centuries 'moved with the times' to a greater extent since the time of when the holy book was written. The Koran was written many hundreds of years ago but it's taken a lot more literally by more followers of the religion. I would say that with Islam there has been a 'lack of modernisation' over a long period. With extremism it tends to originate in small cells as generally in life it is the manipulators/Koresh like figures that rise to the top and control all those beneath. When it comes to guarding against radical and regressive teachings I do think there needs to be more external independent monitoring of mosques/safeguarding in general but for anyone who has extremist views it'll be the systems that they are very clever at getting around. As for Koresh there are videos on youtube you can watch of the victims talking to the camera in the years up to the fire. It's fairly chilling to watch all the kids/young adults talk about how they are so happy being there, they can leave whenever they like and how 'David provides everything'. For the trained eye it's very much like they are saying it, not because they actually think it but because they almost been 'programmed' to say it. Koresh has got so much into their subconcious that you look at their eyes and there is nothing there. Their natural personalities have almost been drained away, other than the odd brief flash of vulnerability.

I can't see an exisiting thread on this but the poor lad has finally died. I feel incredibly sorry for the parents when they've had to watch their little boy's body slowly destroy itself for the last year or so. That alone is beyond horrific for any parent to go through. I do think this case sums up everything that's wrong with society when a bunch of publicity-seeking pro-life extremists hijack the grief of a terminally ill toddler's parents and use it to create a media circus. I was intrigued when the father made the statement about wanting to build bridges with the hospital the other day, as I wonder if someone had got through to them that they were being manipulated and used. It is now that they will realise that none of 'Alfie's Army' give a **** about them as grieving parents, or give a **** about any of the other severely sick children at that hospital, some of whom will probably be in similar situations. Their case was a particularly distressing one and it would have been difficult to accept the reality for anyone. They did what they thought best and were consequently sucked in, fed the false hope of a 'miracle', and the propaganda of the hospital trying to murder their son all under the guise of "never giving up". All by scum who think nothing of financially crippling them for life in legal fees, just to generate publicity for their own crusade. Groups like 'Alfie's Army' are dangerous. People who genuinely cared for that little boy do not intimidate the people doing their best for him, or try and storm hospitals. They cared about one thing, and that was publicity. As for the parents I hope they will now get the chance to grieve with privacy and dignity, and hope they get the opportunity of raising a healthy baby in the future.

Suspect Kim's knackered NK's already fragile economy and they've run out of money, hence the transformation. Use the Winter Olympics as a catalyst and open up dialogue to get some cash in

https://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/04/us/growing-up-under-koresh-cult-children-tell-of-abuses.html There was a fascinating program on C5 last night where they interviewed survivors of the Waco Siege in 1993. They interviewed both ex-ATF personnel and Branch Davidian cult members, and it analysed the buildup to the fire in the years beforehand. I'd encourage anyone to watch it and take specific note of the sheer extent of David Koresh's ability to manipulate, brainwash and directly control so many people just to feed his own messiah complex. He recruited people worldwide in a time long before social media existed, and a third of the cult members who died in the fire were British and there were also members from Australia. This was a man with the ability to persuade parents to willingly hand over their young children for him for rape/sexual abuse (I think one quote was "who wouldn't want them to have sex with Jesus Christ?", and almost all of his followers stayed in the building to be burned alive in the inferno as part of Koresh's apocalyptic vision. The raid was a botch because the authories didn't realise Koresh was already in control of it. It was a very good example of how much power and control just one depraved psychopath had over the minds of so many people. Most of the Waco survivors to this day still believe Koresh is the son of god. Koresh still controls their minds 25 years after his death. The 'religion' is different but the methodology is exactly the same. Manipulate and subtly brainwash suggestible people over time, break them down psychologically, gain control of their minds through fear and indoctrinate them into an endless pattern of circular thinking. Easier said than done but one can then convince the most abhorrent things are rational in a certain context. The modern day middle eastern David Koresh's now have twitter/facebook to spread their poison in the background of the middle eastern conflicts. The social media giants lost control and are only again starting to get a foothold. All religion is down to individual interpretation, and when someone with the depraved power of Koresh twists it for his own ends and controls so many through his own interpretation, is that the fault of the 'religion'? You can certainly argue 'the Muslims' or 'Islam' needs to sort out extremism but we're talking about 1.8 billion people worldwide. All with their own interpretations of a book written 1400 years or so ago when the world the world was a very different place. If Koresh was a Muslim today could he eventually convince a group of peaceful Muslims to drive 18 wheelers into a crowd of innocent men women and children? Without a shadow of a doubt.

The media coverage/political perception of issues like Crimea over here is about as unbiased as Russia Today's media coverage. Crimea is fiercely pro-Russian (Ethnic Russians outnumber ethnic Ukranians by more than 4 to 1) and has had a degree of self governance before Ukraine was even an independent country. We report it one way, the Russians report the opposite and the truth is somewhere in the middle. It all stems from ex-Soviet countries' internal infighting over being pro-west/pro-russian and Putin moves the chess pieces accordingly. Ultimately Putin has way too much power in the world than the west can handle. We can do absolutely sod all about it other than continually ensure everything is the Russians' fault to control public opinion, and the Russians couldn't care less (See where accusing foreign dictators of having chemical weapons has got us before). It is sad that it all leads people to have such a negative perception of Russians as a whole (all 145 million of them).