Originally Posted by '58 Flat

Had the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem remained neutral during WWII as Turkey did, something like this probably would have happened - and a Jewish state could not have been placed in Palestine in that case because the Peace of Westphalia that ended the Thirty Years' War in 1648 established the precedent in international law, never since violated, that in no case can a neutral entity be deprived of territory in any post-war peace settlement (indeed, Denmark - neutral during WWI - actually gained northern Schleswig from Germany at Versailles).

-The creation of Israel deprived no one of anything. There was no independent counttry in Palestine before 1948. It was a British mandate beforer then, and a province of the Ottoman Empire before that.Even if the Arabs (as a whole) hadn't been so pro-Nazi and Jew-hating during WWII, the Jews (who lived there, after all) would have got a country.

Israel oil?

http://blogs.the-american-interest.c...itical-impact/

Actual production is still miniscule, but evidence is accumulating that the Promised Land, from a natural resource point of view, could be an El Dorado: inch for inch the most valuable and energy rich country anywhere in the world...

...the offshore Levantine Basin (which Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, Israel and even Gaza will all have some claim to) is believed to have 120 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and “considerable” oil. Drillers working in Israeli waters have already identified what look to be 5 billion barrels of recoverable oil in addition to over a trillion cubic feet of gas... Israel’s undersea gas reserves are currently estimated at about 16 trillion cubic feet and new fields continue to be rapidly found...

Israel may have the third largest shale oil reserves in the world: something like 250 billion barrels...

For comparison:

barrels oil/day:

https://www.cia.gov/library/publicat.../2174rank.html

or

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/en...il-consumption

(30B barrels/yr)

cubic gas/day:

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/en...c-feet-per-day

(90T ft3 /yr)

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/09/op...ders.html?_r=1

IN the past week, Islamists have destroyed and desecrated the tombs of Muslim saints in the fabled town of Timbuktu in northern Mali, recalling the Taliban’s 2001 destruction of two giant Buddhas in Bamiyan, Afghanistan...

...it was the NATO-supported collapse of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s government in Libya that had the most serious consequences for Mali. Many Malian members of the Tuareg ethnic group, who had long lived in Libya, returned home, heavily armed with weaponry from Qaddafi’s arsenals. Some joined the ranks of the secular National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, known by the French initials M.N.L.A.

In the wake of the March coup, various armed groups filled the power vacuum in the north: the M.N.L.A.; Islamists known as Ansar Dine, who are intent on applying Shariah across Mali; and fighters affiliated with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. These militants easily took over the northern half of the country, including Timbuktu, after facing little resistance from a Malian army that had almost completely evaporated.

The M.N.L.A.’s sympathizers have long thought the secularist group could be used to fight against Al Qaeda and Islamists; France, Algeria and Mauritania have therefore supported them. But the M.N.L.A. seriously miscalculated in April, when it declared the independence of Azawad, the territory it claims in northern Mali, and then received no international backing. Ansar Dine and its Al Qaeda allies soon outmaneuvered the M.N.L.A. and its backers, and Islamists now seem to be in control of most of the north and quite likely have a grip on the criminal networks that run through the region...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-0...n-fashion.html

...As Walter Russell Mead has written on his blog, countries“where vicious anti-Semitism is rife are almost always backward and poor.” They aren’t backward and poor because the Elders of Zion conspire against them. They’re backward and poor because, Mead argues, they lack the ability to “see the world clearly and discern cause and effect relations in complex social settings.”He calls anti-Semitism the “sociology of the befuddled.”

...Egyptian television is filled with such sociology...

A television show called “Il Hukm Ba’d il Muzawla,” a kind of “Candid Camera” knockoff, provides further evidence that Judeophobia in Egypt has become pathological. The show lures celebrities into an interview under the pretense that it will air on a foreign television station, and then tries to discomfit them by claiming they’re actually being interviewed for an Israeli show. Recently, the show targeted actor Ayman Kandeel... the interviewer, an Egyptian woman named Iman Mubarak, surprises Kandeel by admitting that he’s appearing on Israeli television, and not German, as he was promised... Kandeel then attacks Alaa, slapping him and shoving him, throwing chairs and cursing. He wheels on Mubarak, slaps her --knocking her against a wall -- and curses her... Kandeel is given Mubarak’s identification card, to prove that she isn’t Israeli. Finally, he says, “She’s Egyptian?”
“You hit me so hard,” Mubarak says. Kandeel: “It was just one slap.” The audience applauds. Then he makes her an offer: “After the show, come to my car with me. I’ll put some lotion on your back.”

The next guest, the actress Mayer al-Beblawi, unburdens herself of an anti-Semitic tirade before being told the show is an Israeli production. The Israelis, she begins, “are real liars. They keep whining all the time about the Holocaust, or whatever it’s called. With all the Palestinians that you have killed, you are still whining about the Holocaust and its lousy figures?” She goes on: “They are the slayers of the prophets, what else can we say about them.” The host, Mubarak, then provokes her: “You’ve got it wrong. They are the Chosen People.” Al-Beblawi responds: “The Chosen People? Allah did not curse the worm and the moth as much as he cursed the Jews.”

...the next guest, Mahmoud Abd al-Ghaffar, did, screaming at Mubarak, “You are a Jew!” and then pulling Alaa by the hair. Mubarak shouts:“Mahmoud, this is a ‘Candid Camera’ show. We are all Egyptians. Long live Egypt!” Al Ghaffar says, “You brought me someone who looks like a Jew,” and then hugs Alaa. He turns to Mubarak: “If you weren’t a girl, the moment you told me you were Jewish ... I hate the Jews to death.”

Originally Posted by JDG 66

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-0...n-fashion.html

...As Walter Russell Mead has written on his blog, countries“where vicious anti-Semitism is rife are almost always backward and poor.” They aren’t backward and poor because the Elders of Zion conspire against them. They’re backward and poor because, Mead argues, they lack the ability to “see the world clearly and discern cause and effect relations in complex social settings.”He calls anti-Semitism the “sociology of the befuddled.”

Only problem with that quote is that in the early 1930s, Germany was considered one of the most richest and most civilized countries. Yet anti-Semitism took hold with a vengeance.

Originally Posted by The Wonkette

Only problem with that quote is that in the early 1930s, Germany was considered one of the most richest and most civilized countries. Yet anti-Semitism took hold with a vengeance.

-Not in the early 1930s, it wasn't. Even before that, it depended on what part of Germany you're talking about. His point might be overblown, but there's somethig to it. I think it has to do with relative poverty:

Originally Posted by JDG 66;372819[COLOR=#ff0000

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion...67yKCycahDkKiN[/COLOR]

What is your attitude toward people who excel you in the creation of wealth or in other accomplishments? Do you aspire to their excellence or do you seethe at it? Do you admire and celebrate exceptional achievement or do you impugn it and seek to tear it down?

...Elementally, there are two different personality types here. Where you come down reveals a lot not just about your politics - though political views flow from it - but about the orientation of your soul...

That definitely covers Germany, the entire Arab-Islamic world, and certain other groups.

Discover magazine, September 2012. Islam's High-Tech Backlash by Nina Burleigh. "The Internet is poised to drop-kick Arab society back centuries in terms of women's rights and free speech." Article describes how Islamic fundamentalists have been organizing online, eclipsing similar efforts by other groups.

What about our weapons of mass destruction? It's time we awaken to our terrorism in the Middle East.

This is why they hate us.

Life for Pakistanis in US Drone War Detailed in New Report A new report featuring testimony from civilians, who’ve been victims of the US drone war in Pakistan, thoroughly examines what it is like for Pakistanis to live under drones. The International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic of Stanford Law School and the Global Justice Clinic at the New York University School of Law spent nine months conducting research and spoke with individuals, like Waziris, who agreed to be interviewed for the report and traveled long distances to share firsthand accounts, despite significant risks. The report, “Living Under Drones,” directly challenges the “dominant narrative” that United States drones in Pakistan are a “surgically precise and effective tool that makes the US safer by enabling ‘targeted killings’ of terrorists, with minimal downsides or collateral impacts.” It calls this “narrative” false and flatly states that, although civilian casualties are “rarely acknowledged by the US government, there is significant evidence that US drone strikes have injured and killed civilians.” It suggests publicly available evidence that strikes make the US safer is “ambiguous at best” and considers the legality of the strikes to be “doubtful.” And, in some instances, it is impossible to “separate individuals into different graves.” So, as one relative of a victim told researchers, a funeral was held for everybody in one location after the March 17 drone strike because no bodies could be identified.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24823846

Saudi Arabia has invested in Pakistani nuclear weapons projects, and believes it could obtain atomic bombs at will, a variety of sources have told BBC Newsnight.


While the kingdom's quest has often been set in the context of countering Iran's atomic programme, it is now possible that the Saudis might be able to deploy such devices more quickly than the Islamic republic.

Earlier this year, a senior Nato decision maker told me that he had seen intelligence reporting that nuclear weapons made in Pakistan on behalf of Saudi Arabia are now sitting ready for delivery.


Last month Amos Yadlin, a former head of Israeli military intelligence, told a conference in Sweden that if Iran got the bomb, "the Saudis will not wait one month. They already paid for the bomb, they will go to Pakistan and bring what they need to bring."

Since 2009, when King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia warned visiting US special envoy to the Middle East Dennis Ross that if Iran crossed the threshold, "we will get nuclear weapons", the kingdom has sent the Americans numerous signals of its intentions.

The military clique that now rules Egypt now claims that the winners of the first free election in years in Egypt are a "terrorist group".

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's military-backed interim government has declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group, a dramatic escalation that gives authorities more power in cracking down on them.

Hossam Eissa, the Minister of Higher Education, read out the Cabinet statement after long meeting on Wednesday.

Eissa said: "The Cabinet has declared the Muslim Brotherhood group and its organization as a terrorist organization."

Eissa added that the implications of the declaration punish those who belong to the group, financing it and those promoting the group's activities.

The Brotherhood is the group that ousted President Mohammed Morsi belongs to and which has waged near-daily protests since a July 3 popularly backed military coup toppled his government.

Authorities blamed the Brotherhood for militant attacks now striking Egypt, a claim the Brotherhood repeatedly has denied.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/1...n_4501367.html