muff528

The Palestinians are home. So are the Israeli's. It's homeland for all of them. And yes, there are fanatics who wish to see Israel gone from the map. And there are fanatics who wish to drive out all of the Palestinians so they can reclaim the Biblical Kingdom of David. In my opinion, both of those views should be dealt with equally. There is a modern state of Israel and it has borders. It needs to quit building outside of those borders. As for your earlier notion that Israel needs to take more of the West Bank because the room is needed for an expanding Jewish population, well that's a fine example of bigotry (forgive me if I missed a sarcasm emoticon), but I appreciate your honesty. Actually, I agree with you ...except for the bigotry charge (is that all you got?) Like Kennedy says in his post below yours ..the Golan Heights, West Bank, and Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula were lost by right of conquest (and rightly so, IMO) to Israel by the multiple external aggressors in a war and as far as I'm concerned are now "within" the boundaries of Israel. Dan has already made the point above that Arabs living within Israel were historically afforded the rights of citizenship and access to religiously important sites ....just as I am sure that Jews living in the Arab 80% of Transjordan are allowed to live in peace and are, and have been, allowed to openly practice Judaism as they have for centuries (insert sarcasm icon here if you want). Palestinians who are looking for an autonomous state need only look to the east ...or they can remain and thrive in Israel as citizens of that state. Maybe the Palestinian people would have been better served if the surrounding countries would have not meddled in the affairs of Israel and their Arab citizens.

Congrats! Now, when someone asks how many skydives you have, you can say "thousands!" :) Best wishes for your wife's recovery!

Isn't Jordan the Palestinian state? Why don't the Palestinians just move back home? Then everyone will be happy. Oh, wait ...it ain't about making everyone happy.... it's about ridding the Middle East of the state of Israel. Ottoman Empire sided with the losing side in WW1. Ottoman Empire was partitioned as a result of losing. Turkey fought for independence and the resulting treaty guaranteed their independence and transferred "Palestine" to the British. The British endeavored to established a Jewish homeland in Palestine as early as 1917 which resulted in a tiny, sparcely-populated part of Transjorden to be allocated for that purpose. (sparcely populated by Arabs and Jews) Many other Arabs came to take advantage of growing economic prosperity. After WW2 the Brits were kicked out and the newly declared state of Israel was immediately attacked from all sides by it's neighbors. The strategically important areas of Golan Heights, the West Bank and Gaza (and Sinai) were taken as a result of a later attempt to rid the world of Israel. Sinai was given back (ill-advisedly IMO). I'm pretty sure that's historically factual but it may conflict with some revisionist accounts. As far as the "aid" flotilla goes, I believe (my opinion) that the sole purpose was to provoke Israel into some action that could be condemned by the UN "Human Rights Commission". IMO, the UN was, at the very least, sympathetic to the blockade runners and possibly, IMO, complicit in the planning and execution of the attempted breach and the resultant spewing of anti-Israeli/anti-IDF propaganda in their "report". (All my opinion) (edit for clarity)

Me too!

Beats me!

I think turtle was talking about the "murder" part. Maybe not.

Iran directly relates to the topic of this thread ("...Gaza aid flotilla"). They're the reason for the blockade in the first place. (IMO)

This is factually wrong. read on the riots during the 20's and 30's and the terrorist attacks in the 50's. if you don't know what you're talking about, you might want to stay quiet. sigh!

Not what I said...

i wasn't even alive at the time and certainly don't take nationalism as seriously as you do

i wasn't even alive at the time and certainly don't take nationalism as seriously as you do

would refuse the palestinians the same right OK, my point is that the UN, in all it's anti-semitic glory, did(does) not give a rat's ass about the Jews nor the Palestinians. They just wanted the refugee problem to go away so they could go on pretending to be some great intellectual "overseer" of the world's problems, passing resolutions and handing down decrees like the Wizard of OZ (no intended reference to the Aussies). None the "liberators" wanted the refugees to come to their country (although some of the displaced people were able to settle in various countries.) Also, there was significant persecution of the Jews, particularly in Eastern Europe, even after the war ended. The Israeli/Palestinian (or the greater Israeli/Islamic) conflict will now just play out as part of the history of the world and anyone who thinks it will (or can) be settled through mediated negotiations is just delusional. No matter how a map of the world looks after a "solution" is achieved it will certainly not be printed as the "final" edition.

Dan, Dan, Dan.... did you see the "crazyface" after my reply? (we really do need a dedicated "sarcasm face")

Of Course the attacks would stop. There were no attacks on Israel before these territories were stolen.

Great game. That is probably going to be the best SEC game this year.

... just thought I'd toss that out there.

That's a big leap to say 2 - 1 in favor. I wonder if they get dizzy spinning that fast. Wow! Doesn't matter if you're for it or against it, that whole article is a study in spin, gobbledygook and fun with numbers.

Just looking at the maps (and not paying much attention to some of the "conclusions" that are drawn in the article) it seems that Texans (at least in the cities) live in relatively diverse environments ....comparatively speaking. Probably not much different than a lot of "southern" cities. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1315078/Race-maps-America.html

Fritos taste better too... Especially when covered with a can of chili and about 1/2lbs of shredded cheddar! Damn I miss Texas! Too bad all the good jobs that I am looking for are in FL/NC/VA Don't know about NC or VA, but here in FL we do have Fritos, canned chili and bags of shredded cheddar ...just like Texas!

It's the MaD sKiLlZ OK, I think I "get" the goofy uppercase/lowercase mixture of letters. But, I thought the "correct" spelling is "sKiLZ" (with only one "L"). I'm sure the mixture of u/c and l/c is arbitrary (maybe not)! Is the number of "L"s also arbitrary!?! Please help! I'm just trying to stay "hip" but the rules have changed too many times since the 60s. Sorry for drifting off-topic ...NOT! (was my usage in that last sentence correct?)

But being green and turning green are two entirely different things.

Here's the video... http://www.snotr.com/video/434

Well ........I may as well enjoy it while I can. I don't look for too much out of them this year. Mike Pouncey is no Maurkice and Chris Rainey got himself arrested for stalking. (both former Lakeland Dreadnaughts).

.....that's all!

Twilite at Zhills .....maybe not the worst but right up there with the top 2 or 3.