badgerx16

Are you an above average or below average Saintsweb poster ?

If you watched the Rory Stewart video posted above then this is the interview on CNN he refererred to; https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2023/10/08/gps-1008-mustafa-barghouti-on-israels-war-on-hamas.cnn

Find a 'smarter' way to target Hamas such that they can more easily demonstrate that they are taking seriously the limitation of collateral damage ? They have some of the most advanced weapons systems in the World, and in theory they have one of the most sophisticated intelligence agencies. Going in like a bull in a china shop and stating their intention to turn the Strip into a wasteland of rubble looks like they are throwing their weight around because, in truth, they are embarrassed by the failure of said intelligence service to detect the upcoming attacks, and of the control systems along the border to prevent them. Alternatively, find a way for Mossad or somebody related to get at the Hamas leadrership in the Arabian Gulf - cut the head off the snake. ( I'm sure that somewhere out on the Web there will be conspiracy theories being proposed that Netanyahu knew the attacks were coming and, in fact, let them go ahead because he could then claim justification to unleash the full power at his disposal to acheive something he has long espoused ).

What about supporting a country whose air force has reportedly killed 450 children in air raids, ( and counting ), in the last 3 days ? Not all inhabitants of Gaza support Hamas, yet all suffer the Israeli attacks. Responding to terrorism with terrorism will not solve the problem.

Seeing the Aussies on the wrong end of a couple of dodgy TV reviews at the cricket World Cup.

Ask Cruella, who says it is OK to fly Israeli flags but may be criminal incitement to show a Palestinian one.

OK; when Israel bombs a maternity ward it is unfortunate collateral damage ?

When Hamas kills a baby it is terrorism, when Russia bombs a nursery that is terrorism, when Israel bombs a maternity ward that is self defence. Have I got that right ?

UN schools and medical facilities in Gaza being bombed by the Israeli air force, despite all having known geo-located positions.

It is a standard that most major news media outlets try to follow, so that they are seen as being impartial. People being interviewed by them can use the term "terrorist", but journalists will usually try to avoid it - preferring such terms as "militants" or "fighters".

No Government since WW1 has had a majority share of the vote. Most Governments have been based around a 40% vote share. Vote share in no way equates to proportion of seats in the HoC.

Essentially correct; the Privy Council would advise the King as to who might be best able to form a functioning Government, ie if there is a pre-election agreement between 2 parties.. If this is not clear the incumbent PM can be asked to try to form a new minority Government, as happened with Ted Heath in 1974; he could not as the Ulster Unionist MPs refused to work with him, so Harold Wilson formed a Labour minority Government.

The Oslo accords were supposed to be a framework for a two state treaty, but Netanyahu later admitted that he had no intention to follow the spirit of the agreement and would try to bend it to suit his agenda as far as he could. Many advances in relations between Israel and the Palestinians were made, but they have not achieved their original aims.

According to IMDB it is Fenella Woolgar..

Why is that ? Not in any way excusing Hamas, but maybe the people evicted from their ancestral lands feel slightly aggreieved.

They have effectively closed that border as they fear that an influx of refugees might bring with it militants who could join the Islamist reactionaries already operating in Sinai. People trying to flee the Israeli blitz on Gaza have nowhere to go.

One side believes they are God's chosen people, with absolute right to the land they live on; the other thinks that violent martyrdom is a guarantee of Paradise, and taking as many unbelievers as possible with them is their duty. Yet strangely, their religions are based on the same traditions and heritage, with the same prophets and historical leaders.

A group of Muslims in Blackburn were seen hanging an effigy of a Jewish man.

Headed

Hamas are Iranian backed terrorists and should be eradicated, there is no argument about that. They do not speak for the entirity of the Palestinian people, or even for a majority of them. However, to ignore the circumstances that feed the anger and frustration of the Palestinian people, and leads so many of them to feel that a violent response to their oppression is necessary, is a narrow minded position. Between the start of 1947 and the end of 1948, over 1 million Palestinian people, from a population of just under 1.5 million, were displaced by the influx of Jewish immigrants / refugees. This was the genesis of the current situation, and whilst Israel continues to ignore the UN and keeps building settlements where they are not supposed to, continues to deny basic rights of access to services for people being coralled into camps having been shunted off their own land, continues to use overwhelming air power and armoured force to destroy civilian homes and infrastructure, they will continue to be perceived as occupiers and will not have a peaceful solution to the problem. As we found out in Ireland, only dialogue and understanding has a chnace to resolve such partisan divisions.

Saxon kings were elected in the Witan, not directly hereditary. However, I think that is enough early English history.

The Balfour Declaration was a fine aspiration, but the conundrum of how to create a new Jewish state on territory already inhabited by other people was exacerbated by the later fallout from WW2; Many hundreds of thousands of displaced people unable or unwilling to go home as the political and national boundaries were redrawn across Europe, including the survivors of the death camps and others who had seen and suffered first hand from virulent anti-Semitism throughout the continent. Wanting to escape to a new, Jewish, state where they controlled their own destiny would have been a natural desire. Unfortunately it was not "virgin" land.

There are reports claiming that Russia has been sending western weapons captured in Ukraine to Hamas, with the intention of publicising an allegation that Ukraine has been trading the weapons NATO has supplied on the black market. In this way Russia is seeking to undermine western support for Ukraine, particularly from the US, where such allegations have previously been made. Too many third parties pulling strings and playing games.

And the young displaced teenagers provide a fertile recruiting ground for the next wave of attacks on Israel. All the time the US supports Israel and Iran espouse it's destruction the cycle will continue.