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icouldtelltheworld

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Everything posted by icouldtelltheworld

  1. I don't deny that there's a certain 'popularity' to the Israel/Palestine issue that other causes don't receive, but from my own first hand experience of attending other demonstrations, I know that many of those involved in the planning/organisation of protests with regards Yemen and the Kurds are also active in Palestine solidarity campaigns. Unfortunately, the 'meme quality' of the issue will only be exacerbated due to its adoption by actors across both sides of the culture war. However, there are other factors at play. Everyone knows that we turn a blind eye to the actions of the Saudis as it suits the interests of the British state. That a highly autocratic regime perpertrates devastation is of no surprise to anyone, but as Israel insists it is a Liberal democracy (and is treated as such by its Western allies), then it is always going to come under closer scrutiny. If Israel wants to be in the club then it can have no complaints about being judged in accordance with the rules of the game. Beyond that though, Israel/Palestine has a much longer pedigree as a prominent issue with British politics. I'm in my early 30s and can remember it being frequently on the news from my childhood onwards, but it has obviously been a source of debate and tension for many decades before that. Then you have the settler-colonial aspects. None of the other conflicts you have mentioned have the removal of native people from their lands in order that they can be settled by (often) people European countries/the USA. It makes the issue somewhat of an outlier amongst modern conflicts (I know that you have lamented the influence of the settler movement on Israeli politics so I am not meaning to attack you personally here or insinuate anything about your own beliefs). And I don't deny also that for many people, the conflict does provide a useful cover for antisemitism. However, there a range of factors which combine to shed more light on Israel/Palestine within the Western conscious than issues in Yemen, Kurdistan and other such similar places
  2. There have been several demonstrations in Birmingham over the past few years protesting against Britain's role in the Yemeni civil war, and also several in support of various Kurdish causes. It's weird how some people of a more pro-Israeli persuasion seem to overlook this and try to act as though those on pro-Palestinian marches ignore/aren't bothered by other similar injustices elsewhere. It's an entirely false representation and about as helpful to the overall debate as circular arguments about the rights and wrongs surrounding the establishment of Israel in the 1940s. Of course, the core difference between Israel/Palestine and the ongoing situations in Yemen or Northern Syria is that Israel paints itself as a Liberal democracy. As such, it can expect to be held to a much higher standard by the international community (particularly those in Western Liberal democracies) when it commits mass atrocities
  3. Such a low quality game, incredible how United have managed to spend this much money to assemble such a poor team
  4. I've got one on my cock. When I tell people about this, they often tell me that my claim is poppycock, but those people presumably are just anti-British Marxist Islamist terrorists
  5. You have repeated the claim about the elimination of Jews featuring in Iran's constitution on several occasions, but I haven't been able to find any evidence of that whatsoever. Not saying that you're lying, but just wondering if you could provide evidence of this? For various reasons, I have an interest in Iranian history and it is not a claim I have ever heard anywhere else, nor have I read it anywhere when I've scanned the constitution. Khomeini has certainly made genocidal claims regarding Jews in the ME, but that's very different to the elimination of Jews being written into the country's constitution
  6. This really doesn't work as a comparison, seeing as a majority of the Catholic population don't really recognise the legitimacy of the Northern Irish state and would favour unification with the Republic. Where it might work as a comparison is that the Good Friday Agreement gave the Catholic/Irish Nationalist/Republican population the same citizenship rights as the Protestants and enshrined power sharing constitutionally. However, the likelihood of any such agreement being agreed by the Israelis that makes similar concessions seems somewhat unlikely...
  7. Incredibly offensive comment, I've been smoking crack all morning and I can still see how adding JG would improve us
  8. Think they retired his shirt because he could've gone to Man U for free and esrnt a lot more money for himself, but chose Dortmund which got them £25m and got the club out of a pretty dire financial hole. I mean, it's still laughable, but it provides some context
  9. You don't understand football if you didn't appreciate what Westwood did
  10. Moazzem Begg, one of the British Muslims that was held in Guantanamo went to the King David school
  11. It's an advert for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs
  12. Didn't realise Andy Street had joined the Blues coaching team
  13. I feel like the BBC's reporting on Israel/Palestine improved after the 2014 Gaza war (Operation Protective Edge), largely IMO due to on the ground reporting on social media which had not really existed before. Seem to remember a few examples of pretty egregious pro-Israel bias in their early reporting of that conflict, which was subsequently criticised. Things do seem more balanced now on the whole, whether my hypothesis holds any merit is debatable, but that's the way it has seemed to me
  14. The rule change I wanted to post, but couldn't remember when this thread was started has just popped into my head (slow work day), and it doesn't look as though anyone else has suggested it so I'll revive the thread. A penalty kick should be just that - one direct shot on goal from the penalty spot. If the keeper saves it, the ball is automatically out of play and the game restarts with a goal kick. The odds are already massively stacked against the keeper and IMO its unfair that a keeper can save a penalty and then concede if the ball rebounds to an attacking player
  15. I'd imagine there is, I remember seeing that statistic about the proportion of the baby boomer generation who own more than one home, was something ridiculous like 25% of them. This is partly the issue though, we sold off our social housing and now rely heavily on those people who own several homes to provide housing through the private rental market. The more that housing supply is constricted, the more that housing wealth is concentrated in the hands of a small number of the population. Hence why we need to build more housing units to address the affordability issue. Restricted supply = house price inflation
  16. Under every single government since the late 1970s we have built significantly fewer houses than have been needed to keep up with demand. We need to build a lot more houses to even begin to make a dent in the current need for affordable housing units
  17. Hard disagree, it's much, much worse, and that is entirely because of the ownership. The complete death knell of any illusion of fair competition in the sport, and a key reason why I'm fast losing any interest in football as a whole
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