st albans fox

The nuclear weapons are not for Gaza or the West Bank - that would be like us nuking wales. No one considers nuking an area next to you. Isreal does actually face an enemy that does want to wipe them out - their nuclear weapons are their last resort protection. Just as ukraine found out, giving up your nukes in the expectation that someone else will come to your aid isn’t a good move. the nuclear weapons are their deterrent for countries like Iran. I know that you’ve argued that Israel’s military superiority is unmatched but that is only due to the support of the USA - and no govt anywhere should ever believe that anything is for ever. If Iran told Hezbollah to attack then they would - they aren’t scared of Isreal’s military. You saw on Saturday that sheer numbers of rockets will overcome iron dome. if Hamas was left to accumulate weapons then it’s pretty clear that a Co ordinated massive attack from Gaza and s Lebanon could be hugely damaging to Israel. they’ve managed to get hold of many thousands of rockets with a blockade in place. It’s the job of govt to protect its population from harm. i agree that Israel’s has over the past decade become ever more bogged down in factional political infighting that has stalled completely any idea of peace talks. Whether Hamas could ever have been considered to be a partner for peace is likely fanciful anyway. many thousands are dying and we must hope that our leaders ensure that this is not in vain but actually leads to peace.

Of course They’re desperate to find any angle to get whoever they can released from captivity. Anyone who has studied Israeli politics over the past few decades will know how deep a nerve hostage taking pricks. They swapped more than a thousand prisoners for one soldier a decade ago after he’d been held for five years. There are young children and their mothers being held in Gaza and Israel have pretty much no bargaining chips - they’ve tried to swap prisoners and been met with a lack of positive response. They don’t want the hostages (especially the civilians) to become a long drawn out situation. That will likely prevent them going in on the ground and they don’t want Hamas to become certain that holding the hostages will keep the ground forces away. For now they can take their time on the basis of making preparations but that cannot continue. so they’re using whatever they have to try and accelerate dialogue on this. If it becomes clear to them that Hamas are not going to deal then they’ll have to go in. In the meantime I assume they’re expecting that over the next few days, images of increasingly hungry and thirsty gazans will force the allies and friends of Hamas to demand that they deal on the hostages to get the water back on. (And power for hospitals which may get done sooner). The utilities are all that Israel have to try and get more than a hundred civilians released before they go in on the ground and these people will likely die as a consequence. Hamas fighters know they’ll die so have nothing to lose by killing them.

To be fair, we can’t know context. They could have lost close family members and feel vengeful as a consequence. I doubt it but it’s not impossible of course just as in all societies, there are people that you and I would not have any empathy with

I’d be careful taking much from Twitter it generally attracts the worst kind of people to contribute ‘anonymously’

I’m pretty sure that the denial of water is Israel’s desperate attempt to get some hostages released the power is slightly more understandable on the basis that Hamas fighters will need power to assemble home made arms -( yeah I know it’s pretty loose ) and a lack of power may well mean an inability to communicate for Hamas with their operatives im not sure how long they can continue with the water denial and they will need to work out a way of getting fuel to hospital generators via the UN within the next 48 hours max

I don’t think a change in the Israeli govt is far away - within a year I’d expect no idea what can be done if Hamas are sidelined - as said above, the PA just being installed may well not be trusted by Gazans

As events over the past decades around the world have shown, planning for the peace is actually more important than the war. The war, however is more straightforward so that peace plan is the can kicked down the road …

As expected, Israel will use the denial of water and fuel to Gaza to bargain against the release of the hostages I can’t see that is a sustainable approach - I can’t see that Hamas will care if the population starve because they’ll say it’s not their fault. in addition I believe that approx 30 are held by Islamic jihad - no idea who can speak to them and they most definitely don’t care about starvation of the population it does illustrate that perhaps Israel will not enter Gaza until the fate of the hostages is settled.

If you’ve watched this over the past decades the; you’ll know that the death toll generally ends with at least ten times the number of Israelis dead on the Palestinian side. The events of Saturday were so unprecedented that hopefully that won’t be the case on this occasion. but if Hamas’ tunnel labyrinth is as massive as Israel thinks then this will be a protracted land invasion rather than a few days.

I’d like to have seen the bbc news anchor ask him if he differentiates when he’s not working for the bbc. John has used ‘terrorist’ when tweeting in the past about France and the London Bridge attack (probably more). I think he should have emphasised that whilst he believes that Hamas are terrorists, on a professional level when working for the bbc, he would not use that description for the reason stated.

possible that someone has made a judgement - the biggest error they’ll ever make in their life. it may well have been arrogance to assume that Hamas couldn’t get men into Israel so whatever was planned would be dealt with by iron dome, I cant see that the upper echelons of Israeli govt would have made this call though. Not without having made some preparations to be able to counter quickly. If it was simply wanting an excuse to remove Hamas, allowing thousands of Hamas terrorists free reign across swathes of southern Israel would not be that. it’s more likely cock up rather than conspiracy

Looks like he must have done that himself rather than leaving it to his publicists - duh!

I really don’t think it’s as crude as an eye for an eye - I would think that it’s more a case when the military say that hitting that Hamas target is likely to lead to civilian deaths the response from above is a shrug of the shoulders. that’s not to excuse it but it’s also not the same as straight revenge.

I just saw an interview with a Jewish lady from the U.K. who had lost some family members on Saturday she said that this was the fifth consecutive generation of her family to have had family members murdered going back through her great grandparents (I assume starting with Russian pogroms) this provides a little perspective but it’s pretty horrifying it should be noted that if the Palestinian/israeli problem isn’t solved then this will soon be occurring in Gaza and the West Bank, given the high birth rate and generally younger parenthood ages

Egypt warned Israel days before Hamas struck, US committee chairman says https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-67082047 I know some have said that netenyahu will find a way to survive all of this but I just don’t see it. Whatever happens over the next month - even if Hamas was destroyed with minimal further Gaza civilian and Israeli military deaths, he presided over 2000 terrorists, hell bent on murder, infiltrating the border from gaza - the vast majority not via tunnels or in any other clever fashion but through gaps in the fence made by diggers. It’s just crazy.

i guess so - but i'd argue if the water being off for a day or two leads to the release of those hostages then some will justify it. hopefully you get to read this before its all deleted!

I predict that water will be restored when women, children and foreign hostages are released. hopefully won't take too long as qatar are on it. keeping the power on at hospitals is going to be tricky to sort.

Who is buying Man Utd ? is it qatar ? people will argue that Saudi own Newcastle and Abu Dhabi Man City so who cares ?? hamas leadership live in qatar with full support of qatar govt - let’s hope that we don’t find out that the events of the weekend occurred with full prior knowledge of qatar leaders. I doubt that is true but given the way the PL have scored an OG with Saudi/Newcastle it would surprise you !

I thought it was going ok no one completely lost their sh1t and I think lots of people know more now than they did last Friday (inc me) - surely that’s a good thing ??

Charging cars are obvs a bigger risk but the likelihood of an ev vehicle battery spontaneously combusting is way higher than a petrol/diesel car catching fire sitting idle. And putting an ev battery fire out is apparently a much larger task

I can be certain that there were not 40 decapitated babies I can also be certain that there were 40 babies/ young children who were murdered in cold blood face to face.

Isreal will argue that they aren’t targeting civilians in Gaza but civilian deaths are unavoidable when Hamas fighters and infrastructure and weaponry is embedded in amongst the general population. (Deliberately as you say) Russia has seemed to be targeting civilians during the war so far. But Ukraine is way less densely populated than Gaza. Hamas terrorists deliberately targeted civilians and murdered as many as they could (who weren’t taken hostage) please can we avoid straight equivalence because it’s not correct if anyone is of that mindset then I’d ask if they vocally or physically opposed the war in Iraq or Afghanistan at the time because both led to massive civilian casualties.

Beds fire dept say started in a diesel car. i think there is still a big issue re ev batteries and possible fires

Yep If you can show that it’s used solely for entertaining clients via a list of who is attending every game then I think you’d get away with those employed by the company not having to pay tax on the benefit of their attendance on their P11D. But there would need to be at least half of the box not employed by the business for the taxman to agree. I imagine most companies who pay for their box take the risk and don’t declare who is attending. If they receive an inspection then they’ll have to deal with the consequences. there is no ability to write off client entertaining against tax - it’s just a business cost and it needs to be justifiable if challenged

Electric vehicles I hope the fire at Luton airport isn’t ev responsible if it is then I reckon 2035 is potentially going back even further unless the industry can design a battery casing that is fireproof and sealed