st albans fox

Leadership on both sides The opportunity for a lasting peace was in the early 2000’s when barak was PM. Arafat refused because it didn’t include the right to return for all Palestinians - someone will help to explain if that was across the whole region or just West Bank and Gaza. (obvs there were other bits that weren’t right for the PLO to accept but they could have negotiated from a starting point to be revisited as time went by and trust established) Since then the gazans voted hamas into power - how do you negotiate with someone who expressly wants you dead ? the Israeli govt has also become less and less of a realistic partner for peace due to a political system that delivers weak govt beholden to extreme parties on both sides If the hamas political movement were able to display a modicum of evidence that they could exert control over their fighting wing then maybe you could move forward but I don’t recall that ever being a thing. The average Palestinian and Israeli just want to live their lives in peaceful co existence. Sadly they aren’t in control. (You could argue that what’s happened here over the past decade shows that the average person has little control of what happens in a country)

Golders Green this morning - a few idiots no doubt but it only takes a few idiots to make people uneasy and scared.

I’m uncomfortable with the equivalence you are placing on the IDF and what Hamas ‘fighters’ did on Saturday. Most of what occurred on Saturday was pure terrorism on a scale which we haven’t seen perhaps since 9/11 - it needs to be called out as such and not dealt with via ‘whataboutary’

I’m reading stuff about non Israelis being abducted and taken into Gaza. That will complicate the ground response. I’d imagine that there are currently heavy negotiations behind the scenes between countries like Qatar as an intermediary and Hamas to get these people released. There will also be pressure to release women and children although I expect Hamas will point out that Israeli women serve two years in the military. hamas will also make a judgment that holding foreign nationals hostage may well mean that any ground offensive is delayed which will enable more of their people to escape via tunnels into Egypt.

I don’t believe that there is any an evidence that CC will cause more/less earthquakes. Tremors near the surface may possibly be affected by glacier melt relieving stresses.

Possibly the most informed post on the subject!

Isis have been reduced to a much smaller force through attacks by the western powers and their Islamic foes. (Shia or Sunni - someone will advise )

Reports that 260 bodies recovered from the music festival not far from the Gaza border. I think this is the largest single terror attack on a location since ISIS Sinai mosque attack in November 2017

Well look at the partition map in 1947 as a start. if there were no attacks on Israel then there is no evidence that they would have attacked Jordan or Egypt to take Gaza or the West Bank. It would have been up to Jordan and Egypt if they were prepared to give up those lands to create a Palestinian state over the past seventy years. you’d like to think that they would do this for their Arab brethren.

https://apnews.com/article/israel-soldiers-arrested-abuse-palestinians-be9a247497d7ede7d7b866f2e725fcfd https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/21/elor-azaria-israeli-soldier-jailed-18-months-killing-palestinian https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-05-12/ty-article/.premium/off-duty-israeli-soldier-arrested-on-suspicion-of-shooting-palestinian-in-the-west-bank/00000188-116a-d8d1-aff8-bd7ed3330000 Israeli soldier jailed for assaulting Palestinian activist in Hebron https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-64637908 There are other instances - the IDF is a professional army with standards and responsibilities. im sure you will find many where no charges were brought. my point is that to declare equivalence between Hamas fighters and Israeli soldiers when it comes to a lack of professionalism is not a debate I want to have with anyone.

Seriously mate - get out of here with your historical facts ! the irony being that if the Arab countries had never attacked Israel in 1948, 1967 and 1973, there could easily be a flourishing Palestine covering the entire West Bank and Gaza Strip.

I think the point is that the sooner it seems pretty much certain that we will be promoted, the sooner we can start proper negs on transfer targets

I think you’ll find it was the romans who crucified him …. he wouldn’t pick a side - he was a prophet of peace and forgiveness.

it will happen but it will happen as a consequence of Israeli soldiers fighting in Gaza trying to find hostages or Hamas fighters. it won’t be a deliberate act for the sake of it as happened yesterday. Of course you could argue that knowingly going into Gaza and fighting house to house will lead to deaths of women and children (as collateral - hate that phrase) i wonder how Hamas are going to deal with the civilian hostages they have taken back into Gaza. they surely have enough military ones to use as bargaining chips to release prisoners held in Israeli jails - they should release these civilians urgently - it’s abhorrent to have taken mothers with their children and hold them ‘as pawns’.

If it’s given as a red then var doesn’t see it as an error. Whether you’d say it’s a 100% red is an argument whats certain is the second challenge on rice is a yellow aswell and what is nketiah doing out there?

Hamas are completely invested in chaos, aggression and fighting. They have no interest in any peace. They are Iran’s mouthpiece in the southwest of Israel (Gaza) whilst hezbollah do that job to the north. (Lebanon) it seems likely that this is all to do with the potential normalisation of relations agreement between Israel and Saudi that would have seen US arms heading into Saudi ( Iran wont like that). This agreement is likely to be in tatters once the next few days are done.

👏👏👏👏 we probably would of have had two recent CL campaigns if we’d been more like that

Ricky has he toughest job in the side being asked to play out of his comfort zone and he’s been great

Scotland again huff and puff for ten minutes followed by an Ireland score !

I reckon that’s Scotland’s huff and puff for most of the first half done now

You had me until I saw the badges …..

Will cost a fortune to do that - he’s on a big earner next summer on a free so if you want to tie him down then you’re going to have to effectively pay that to him.

Game is drifting badly and we could end u0 paying for that

That’s not a lot on horses I suspect the family want to win a classic (uk, Irish or French) to dedicate to Kuhn vichai’s memory

Depends which side enzo wants to invert Ricky from