Israel/Gaza: Calling all UK forum members.

Easy Money wrote: There are probably more posts than that, that need to be hidden, maybe that's why this whole conversation ought to be shut down.

I think that this statement merits some explanation: perhaps you have some legitimate justification for it, but at present I just don't see it.  To begin, I haven't read anything genuinely offensive; of course, some people are more informed than others, and their opinions reflect this.  Still, I shouldn't think that warrants suppression.  Moreover, it's disturbing that you suggest that certain posts "need to be hidden."  Why interrupt the flow of discourse?  Are some of us not capable of realizing that our pleasing is not the world's purpose?  Ultimately, I recognize that this is a privately owned board, and so respect, integrity, and the like are irrelevant principles; still, such kinderspiel hardly reflects well on those who run it.


Edited by WinterLight - January 18 2009 at 21:23

Atavachron wrote: he's just doing his job Heard that somewhere before.  Standard defense for the indefensible. and with a rather level head Yes, asserting that posts "need to be hidden" and the thread should be "shut down" are surely indicative of a stoic nonchalance. if you want to keep discussing Israel/Gaza go ahead but at least stay focussed Read my posts in this thread, and then reevaluate your suggestion.

WinterLight wrote: Atavachron wrote: he's just doing his job Heard that somewhere before.  Standard defense for the indefensible. --  the "indefensible" ?  .. it's called moderation, relax and with a rather level head Yes, asserting that posts "need to be hidden" and the thread should be "shut down" are surely indicative of a stoic nonchalance. -- I don't know what that means but it sounds like gibberish .. if it were a member posting that maybe, but it's an Admin being up front about his concerns if you want to keep discussing Israel/Gaza go ahead but at least stay focussed Read my posts in this thread, and then reevaluate your suggestion. -- that's my point, why veer into these waters when you were discussing the topic at hand

^ Thank you Peter, when I lived in California I had many Iranian friends and they always referred to themselves as Persian, probably because that is what they are.

Interesting to note that peace seems to have broken out & is holding shakily in Gaza - as is usually the case with such actions, both sides claim victory:

The BBC Website today wrote: Israel called a ceasefire on Saturday, saying it had met its war aims. Hamas later declared its own truce with one of its leaders claiming a "great victory" over Israel.

Let's see if we can maintain a more stable peace in this thread shall we? If so, there's no reason for the thread to be locked.

As Easy Money's stated before, there were good reasons for certain posts to be hidden; generalised statements regarding races or ethnic groups of people should be avoided if possible - this is not easy given the subject matter, but most people have managed to do so & very few posts have actually been hidden.

omri wrote: To all my british friends here,   Personally I agree this is terrible that innocent people get killed. More than that I don't think that the act in Gaza will achieve anything in the long run.   The thing is, just few years ago your British army joined the American army to fight Iraq with no good reason at all (the claim about unconventional weapon was nonsense as we all know today but was said by UN before the action). And Iraq wasn't attacking you at all.   Now, I were against those acts in both cases.   But you, why didn't you protest at the time when your own country killed many innocent people ?   I suggest all of us to try and affect his / her own country first.   The way I see it the question here is not who's right and who's wrong. The question is why are we all so good seeing otherones problems and never see our own problems.   Let's all hope that shooting one another will stop being part of our lives.

I marched alongside 1 million other people, in London to express my disgust at the prospect of going to war in Iraq. There is a huge Antri war movement in the UK, but the media are 'encouraged' not to report their activities on prime time news. I have to conclude this, as tens of thousands of people have congregated in London to protest against many apsepcts of our foreign policy, over the last 5 years or so, and unless you drill down deep into the WWW, you'd never know about it..

The only people who supported war in Iraq were the politicians who were looking to get their hands on the oil, and all the western companies who benefitted from the lucrative re-development projects.

I am also one of those who believe, that the wests unconditional support of Israel is central to why radical Islam is at war with us.

limeyrob wrote:  Number of superclusters in the visible universe = 10 million Number of galaxy groups in the visible universe = 25 billion Number of large galaxies in the visible universe = 350 billion Number of dwarf galaxies in the visible universe = 7 trillion Number of stars in the visible universe = 30 billion trillion  (3x10²²)

Implies the insignificance of the Earth and the triviality of its problems, I assume.  That's all well and good, of course, until one realizes that Earth and its problems are rather significant and nontrivial for its inhabitants.


Edited by WinterLight - January 19 2009 at 08:29

You know what's really interesting is that you (Israeli's and Palestinians)  have a conflict that has been going on for ages.  It seems that the situation in northern Ireland had been going on for a while though not as long, but they finally reconciled for the most part.  Here's to the hope that y'all might achieve peace in 2009.  Wiping one or the other off the planet isn't an option.  And hey, we might all collectively do that to ourselves anyway.

WinterLight wrote: limeyrob wrote:  Number of superclusters in the visible universe = 10 million Number of galaxy groups in the visible universe = 25 billion Number of large galaxies in the visible universe = 350 billion Number of dwarf galaxies in the visible universe = 7 trillion Number of stars in the visible universe = 30 billion trillion  (3x10²²) Implies the insignificance of the Earth and the triviality of its problems, I assume.  That's all well and good, of course, until one realizes that Earth and its problems are rather significant and nontrivial for its inhabitants.

Slartibartfast wrote: You know what's really interesting is that you (Israeli's and Palestinians)  have a conflict that has been going on for ages.  It seems that the situation in northern Ireland had been going on for a while though not as long, but they finally reconciled for the most part.  Here's to the hope that y'all might achieve peace in 2009.  Wiping one or the other off the planet isn't an option.  And hey, we might all collectively do that to ourselves anyway.

Although the Northern Ireland Troubles that officially ended with the Belfast Agreement of 1998 ran for something like 30 years, it has a history of sectarian violence going back 400 years and the current peace, as someone said earlier, is an uneasy one. Even though there are superficial similarities, I don't think the parallels between Gaza and Northern Ireland are that close.