st albans fox

Israel is a small country As you say, if Iran launches a huge number of missiles then of those escaping Israeli air defences, a proportion would malfunction and land in the West Bank (possibly even Gaza) they could probably safely target demona as it’s in the Negev but they wouldn’t bomb a nuclear plant for obvious reasons. I just don’t see Iran doing anything stupid directly when they have created their proxies to do things for them. Hezbollah are sitting on Israel’s northern border as a deterrent to Israel attacking Iran. You could make an argument that Israel is attempting to remove that threat so they can actually take out Iran’s nuclear program. That could be where this is all heading ?? If Hezbollah aren’t going back to the litani out of choice then I guess Israel can justify forcing them back via a ground ‘invasion’. . At the very least they need to put the anti tank missiles out of range because they have no real defence against those coming across the border. Or they can just accept that the northern border region is uninhabitable whenever Hezbollah decide there’s something going on that they dislike. I’d say Hezbollah have made their own bed on this one. The Americans have been trying to get 1701 enacted for almost a year now. It simply wasn’t going to happen without force being used.

I guess so although if a govt does agree safe passage then I think that if he doesn’t break his part of the agreement in the future then he should be safe. The thought of him ‘retiring’ from the struggle even in exile would be a stretch though. that would remove his ‘safety’. Reports yesterday that there are still negs ongoing but they (Egypt and Qatar) are no longer attempting to consult sinwar because he’s not been heard from for a couple of weeks. As was mooted last October, without the hostages, the tunnel network below Gaza is going to be destroyed, either by flooding or by bunker busters. Hamas release the hostages and they effectively surrender. I think that’s one of the main reasons that biden’s three stage plan never got anywhere. Neither side had any expectation that it would get past stage 1. @mph - broadly agree with your sentiment about a proportion of those in Gaza having no alternative but to toe the party line to stay safe. There was, hover, no requirement to be seen singing and dancing in the streets last October. you could have stayed home ?? being carried along without knowing the details of what had actually been done is an excuse of sorts. We need to somehow move forward two generations in an instant across a swathe of the region.

Word from Washington was that Israel offered (three weeks ago) sinwar and his family safe passage as part of a ceasefire agreement which released all the hostages immediately. I do wonder if that indicates israel thinks sinwar may be dead or used it as a way to try and flush out whether he’s still alive.

hezbollah have many tens of thousands of missiles available to launch. If they went for it (would have to be with Iran’s approval) then they would easily overwhelm Israel’s air defences. The response would not be something Iran is likely to risk. I agree with you that they wouldn’t use nuclear weapons though - it’s their ultimate deterrent given their geographical position surrounded by states and are at best indifferent at govt level. Clearly they don’t want Iran developing nuclear capability but again, I can’t see that Iran would launch anything into Israel given that Gaza and the West Bank would surely be subject to fall out. I guess on a military level, having the capability raises your profile. Israel currently knows it could strike anywhere in Iran with conventional weapons and that Iran could only do the same if it went with a very large number of launches which by their nature would likely risk Palestinian casualties in both the West Bank and Gaza due to some malfunctions. something i noticed looking through the news today regarding UNWRA and Hamas From the Palestine chronicle blog In southern Lebanon, the head of the UNRWA Teachers Union in Lebanon, Fateh al-Sharif, was killed along with his family in an Israeli raid on the al-Bass camp. from the BBC Hamas says Lebanese leader killed in air strikepublished at 07:20 British Summer Time 07:20 BST Palestinian militant group Hamas says Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin, the group's leader in Lebanon, has been killed along with some family members in an Israeli air strike in southern Lebanon.

News new member of the coalition cabinet brings with him 4 votes and and dilutes Ben gvir and smotrich’s influence in govt. they no longer have an effective veto on domestic policy and BN will be emboldened in acceding to some details in possible Gaza ceasefire negs. You’d also assume that the current situation with Hezbollah may give BN a bit of leverage with sinwar (if he can be contacted) (also makes an election ahead of the 2026 timescale less likely without enquiry influence as discussed yesterday)

I thought his attendance was pretty decent and in-line with pre covid after vichai’s death he clearly felt he needed to be at games as much as possible - vichai used to be pretty much at every game whereas top didn’t covid interrupted that and post Covid he didn't attend as much, that’s true. But even in our relegation season I was impressed with his presence at home games. And as the season came to a crescendo, members of the family were also there to offer moral support.

Having a new wife who is pregnant is not a reason to sell up! there are lots of reasons but that isn’t one of them Our owner isn’t tied to a desk at seagrave - no other club has owners who are that hands on

They misspelled it it’s ‘bored office support ‘ cos there’s nothing to do

I wouldn’t take anything from an away game at a big six club as being indicative of anything you simply don’t generally get the rub of the green at these grounds - always been the same and always will be

It was either him or ric …..

Have you been married and had any kids ?

He now has a wife who is expecting Priorities change

Tough to know but the indecision on the expansion tends to support you Just as Mandric found a gem in vichai, so will they need to do the same - the wealth of the ownership will dictate the future of clubs our size. going to need big investment to drive increased income

Hopefully not because you’d struggle to get any decent coach to take over a club for sale

I’d be wondering about the people sending me stuff like this rather than the content

I think the thought is that if calafiori walks then we shouldn’t be under as much pressure as we were thereafter and skipp doesn’t have to make that challenge ?

Way out of his depth some of the cards early in the second half were ludicrous (for both sides)

As long as Turkey stays open then we have a chance to sell Bouba 😄

Maybe but the coach has managed to screw up an amazing come back and rearguard action - I think that’s how the players will see it - they needed nobby stiles and they got Martin peters

I think the annoyance is having made it to added time at 2-2 we embarked on a strange sub where we took off a defensive midfielder and replaced him with an attacking one. you could put that one up there with Shakespeare at the emirates where he took off matty James for kelechi at 3-3. Funnily enough same outcome.

I mean it’s not like we didn’t have five of the same corner to know what was likely our set up always left a man spare at the back post - I suppose we decided it was a risk worth taking to stop them getting a free header in the six yard box - but we allowed a few of those in any case !

They scored which adds a minute cos their celebration went on for a minute we made a quick double sub after they scored - 25 seconds we made a very slow double sub just into added time which took over a minute

I think teams have worked out that winks is our metronome championship sides couldn’t afford to push onto him but PL sides can do that. He’s clearly not coping well with being pressed continually

Martinelli was down for a minute mads was down for three minutes 2 goals 3 sub breaks we wasted a couple mins 7 seemed about right to me