General News Thread

[danny.]

7 minutes ago, bovril said:

Good luck untangling all that in the case of Israel 

What's the issue? Israel is the country, there are Israeli jews, Israeli Muslims, Israeli Christians etc.

[bovril]

Just now, danny. said:

What's the issue? Israel is the country, there are Israeli jews, Israeli Muslims, Israeli Christians etc.

Jews are considered both an ethnic and religious group. Israel is an explicitly Jewish state. It's very different from e.g. Poland and Catholicism, or Iran and Shia Islam. I'm not saying that all Jews have to support Israel or that they are responsible for what Israel does but obviously it's a very specific situation and people who claim otherwise I think are either naive or being disingenuous. 

[st albans fox]

6 minutes ago, bovril said:

Jews are considered both an ethnic and religious group. Israel is an explicitly Jewish state. It's very different from e.g. Poland and Catholicism, or Iran and Shia Islam. I'm not saying that all Jews have to support Israel or that they are responsible for what Israel does but obviously it's a very specific situation and people who claim otherwise I think are either naive or being disingenuous. 

Iran is by its very definition ‘the Islamic state of Iran’.

Likewise Pakistan 

 

The issue is that there won’t be more than one Jewish state in the world cos there are only 15m Jews.  The 2 billion Muslims will mean that there are numerous Islamic states 

 

 

[st albans fox]

2 hours ago, leicsmac said:

And don't forget the slick PR teams to ensure that a lot of people don't even believe some of those abuses have even occurred. Terrible things are no less terrible simply because a plurality of people happened to vote for government that does them. 

 

IMO the only reason the UN is flawed in terms of its structure is because it lacks the enforcing teeth to be able to deal with the bigger national players. 

Can’t see the security council veto changing any time soon- and if you want the UN to have enforcement teeth then this is even less likely!  

[bovril]

2 minutes ago, st albans fox said:

 

The issue is that there won’t be more than one Jewish state in the world cos there are only 15m Jews.  The 2 billion Muslims will mean that there are numerous Islamic states 

 

 

Well exactly. My point is that the relationship between Jews and Israel is different than probably between any other ethnic or religious group and a country. so it's inevitable if rather unfortunate that there is going to be more conflating going on. 

[danny.]

32 minutes ago, bovril said:

Jews are considered both an ethnic and religious group. Israel is an explicitly Jewish state. It's very different from e.g. Poland and Catholicism, or Iran and Shia Islam. I'm not saying that all Jews have to support Israel or that they are responsible for what Israel does but obviously it's a very specific situation and people who claim otherwise I think are either naive or being disingenuous. 

Sure, but ethnic groups are not countries. The country of Israel contains many different religious groups and ethnic groups who are all Israeli citizens.

[Trav Le Bleu]

46 minutes ago, Raj said:

Dear god....fffs........

Which one?

 

Krishna or "he who shall not be named" (Stone him!)

[Trav Le Bleu]

12 minutes ago, danny. said:

Sure, but ethnic groups are not countries. The country of Israel contains many different religious groups and ethnic groups who are all Israeli citizens.

It would probably be helpful to refer to followers of Judaism as Jews, and those of decent from Jacob as Hebrews/Israelis/Israelites.

 

Jews are not necessarily Jews by birth or nationality, and not all Israelis follow Judaism.

 

No one refers to white Europeans as Christians as a primary identifier. Why do it for the people who live in Israel?

 

NB: there are over 400 mosques in Israel and Muslims make up 18% of the population.

Edited 9 October 2025 by Trav Le Bleu

[st albans fox]

6 minutes ago, danny. said:

Sure, but ethnic groups are not countries. The country of Israel contains many different religious groups and ethnic groups who are all Israeli citizens.

mp’s, judges, military as per all western liberal democracies. 
 

whilst people on here are educated and understand that, there is a lot of ignorance in the wider world. The apartheid label applied to the country by many groups is relevant in the occupied West Bank but people believe it’s the entire Israeli country.

[st albans fox]

2 minutes ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

It would probably be helpful to refer to followers of Judaism as Jews, and those of decent from Jacob as Hebrews/Israelis/Israelites.

 

Jews are not necessarily Jews by birth or nationality, and not all Israelis follow Judaism.

 

No one refers to white Europeans as Christians as a primary identifier. Why do it for the people who live in Israel?

 

citizens of Israel are Israelis ????

 

not all Israelis follow Judaism because 20% of them are Muslim (plus a few percent others ) 

 

I don’t get the analogy with white Europeans and Christianity. 

[Trav Le Bleu]

1 minute ago, st albans fox said:

 

citizens of Israel are Israelis ????

 

not all Israelis follow Judaism because 20% of them are Muslim (plus a few percent others ) 

 

I don’t get the analogy with white Europeans and Christianity. 

Erm ...

 

Said exactly this?

[Tommy G]

Come on lads, best effort here to get this topic locked. 

[bovril]

12 minutes ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

 

No one refers to white Europeans as Christians as a primary identifier. Why do it for the people who live in Israel?

I see your point but Israel was founded as a homeland for Jewish people. Not really comparable to European countries. You can't really disentangle the country from the religion.

 

But yeah don't want to get the thread closed again...

[WigstonWanderer]

So the thread’s open again?

 

As someone who loathes Trump and all he stands for, should we nevertheless give him some credit for a peace deal in Gaza if it proves to be of substance? Big if obviously.

[st albans fox]

5 hours ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

Erm ...

 

Said exactly this?

Apologies 

shouldn’t have been question marks 

 

it was a statement 

Yes, citizens of Israel are Israelis.  Only 77% of which are Jews. 

 

All Jews (by birth) consider themselves descendants of Jacob (and therefore Abraham). There aren’t many Jews who aren’t Jewish by birth - it’s not a religion that seeks converts although obviously it happens (nearly always ref marriage). I’d make a guess that less than 10% of Jews are converts. Could even be 5%. 

[Jattdogg]

20 minutes ago, WigstonWanderer said:

So the thread’s open again?

 

As someone who loathes Trump and all he stands for, should we nevertheless give him some credit for a peace deal in Gaza if it proves to be of substance? Big if obviously.

No. He could have stopped this earlier if he wanted however was ok with letting many die. Not to mention what he is doing in his own country.

 

Guys a cvnt.

[Free Falling Foxes]

We have the highest TB Rate in the country.

 

Unfortunately, not surprising and, as you read the article, pretty annoying......

 

.........The body also said 82% of TB cases in 2024 were found in people born outside the UK, who often migrated to the country with the latent disease, which then became active.

In Leicester, there is a free test available for anyone, with or without symptoms, who has entered the UK within the past five years, has lived for at least six months in a country with high TB rates such as India or sub-Saharan Africa, and is aged between 16 and 35.

 

A free test that, clearly, too many do not take.

Edited 9 October 2025 by Free Falling Foxes

[Trav Le Bleu]

29 minutes ago, st albans fox said:

Apologies 

shouldn’t have been question marks 

 

it was a statement 

Yes, citizens of Israel are Israelis.  Only 77% of which are Jews. 

 

All Jews (by birth) consider themselves descendants of Jacob (and therefore Abraham). There aren’t many Jews who aren’t Jewish by birth - it’s not a religion that seeks converts although obviously it happens (nearly always ref marriage). I’d make a guess that less than 10% of Jews are converts. Could even be 5%. 

And as I'm sure you'll know, Arabic nations consider themselves descendants of Abraham (Ibrahim), but via Ishmael rather than Isaac and therefore Jacob.

 

So essentially they're brethren.

 

Having said that the whole thing is that Isaac and Ishmael weren't the best of brothers to each other - so... But come on guys... What's that... Nearly 4000 year, I mean, Je... Oh yeah... Better not.

 

It's complicated. I'm glad Donald's around to sort it all out.

[Trav Le Bleu]

29 minutes ago, Free Falling Foxes said:

We have the highest TB Rate in the country.

 

Unfortunately, not surprising and, as you read the article, pretty annoying......

 

.........The body also said 82% of TB cases in 2024 were found in people born outside the UK, who often migrated to the country with the latent disease, which then became active.

In Leicester, there is a free test available for anyone, with or without symptoms, who has entered the UK within the past five years, has lived for at least six months in a country with high TB rates such as India or sub-Saharan Africa, and is aged between 16 and 35.

 

A free test that, clearly, too many do not take.

Don't want people coming over here for free medical care!

[st albans fox]

6 minutes ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

And as I'm sure you'll know, Arabic nations consider themselves descendants of Abraham (Ibrahim), but via Ishmael rather than Isaac and therefore Jacob.

 

So essentially they're brethren.

 

Having said that the whole thing is that Isaac and Ishmael weren't the best of brothers to each other - so... But come on guys... What's that... Nearly 4000 year, I mean, Je... Oh yeah... Better not.

 

It's complicated. I'm glad Donald's around to sort it all out.

That’s the sad thing 

Jews and Muslims are indeed brethren. ( of course Ishmael and Isaac not from the same mother).  The bible says that ‘god’ tells Ishmael’s mother (Hagar) that he will make a great nation of her son’s offspring.  

[Free Falling Foxes]

6 minutes ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

Don't want people coming over here for free medical care!

Alas, because of the apathy, the consequential medical care is anything but free to the taxpayer and adds, unnecessarily,  to the NHS burden.

Also, the longer lasting affects of TB on the life of individuals, both immigrants and indigenous folk alike, can affect your whole life.

 

It is, quite simply, avoidable.

[Raj]

Hello!!👋👋👋

[davieG]

1 minute ago, Raj said:

Hello!!👋👋👋

Is it me you're looking for?

[Raj]

16 minutes ago, davieG said:

Is it me you're looking for?

Are you THE MODERATOR!!!?

 

😁

[davieG]

6 minutes ago, Raj said:

Are you THE MODERATOR!!!?

 

😁