Mike Long

I would refer to Israel only as a moderately secular state, not even as secular as Hungary or Poland at the moment (which are terribly unsecular compared with the rest of Europe. Even though many people are not practicing and many government intuitions and policies are more secular than they easily could be, it is still a state whose origin, being…[Read more]

I agree with much of what you have said Jake. Indeed, I volunteered in the Beirut Palestinian refugee camp and they were, absolutely, treated terribly. I disagree with your assessment that arab citizens in Israel are treated the same as other citizens. They face systemic discrimination, often severe poverty compared with other Israelis, barriers…[Read more]

Jake, couldn’t agree more that Israel, in general is a more ideal place to live in terms of freedoms and democracies, if you are a mostly white Jewish person, than neighbouring countries (if you are anything else). I certainly admire what they have accomplished all things considered. But then, Israel wasn’t colonised by western powers. A massive…[Read more]

Yes antisemitism is a massive problem, yes politically Palestine is responsible for atrocious behaviour, no, none of this justifies the mountain of bullshit that comes out every day from Israel.

Jake you would not be washing over these decades of injustice from Istael and expect such brutal compromise from any other people in the world in any…[Read more]

Robert this is an overly simplistic description of the Israeli/Palestinian situation. The occupied territories can see year upon year of relative peace, and yet the status quo never changes. Israel, even during the best of behaviour from Palestine keeps encroaching on their meagre territory and resources and applying brutal policies. At this…[Read more]

There has to be accountability within Gaza for what Hamas does. They are elected (even if it is done, to some extent with anti-democratic measures). There are ways to resist Hamas. Survey after survey shows majority support for militant crimes against innocents and a majority support for Hamas in Gaza (over half the populace has a positive view of…[Read more]

Regardless of which side we might have some sympathies towards, it is absolutely ridiculous to excuse crimes against humanity. If you are a militant, guerrilla fighter etc. you always have the option to target combatants and military infrastructure (and should). Massacring civilians (especially those as far from combatant capabilities/age as…[Read more]

Time and time again, we think of nations as having some kind of national agency. In other words, if there is a national will, then there is a clear way forward. When you are dealing with at least one government made of coalitions of parties with various electoral strategies, party structures, donors and power structures, decisions are made on what…[Read more]

Innocents, of course, are fair game in war

So says every war lord who perpetrates pointless horrific war crimes. If terrorising civilians goes to achieve your aim, then so is justifiable China’s crimes against the Uighurs, the Myanmar campaign against the Rohingya, British soldiers randomly shooting N. Ireland Catholics who gave them a funny look…[Read more]

Autumn pretty much sums it up. Switzerland has a very high number of guns (partly due to high level of reservist soldiers). And yet with their VERY reasonable controls:

• background checks
• mandatory training
• gun safes
• potential inspections
• periodic target practice
• mental health checks
• licensing

Avoidable gun related casualties are…[Read more]

Gun control advocates are hardly freaks. To support regulating extremely dangerous weapons is not freakish. It is utterly reasonable. I have lived in numerous countries where there are controls on guns. Surprise surprise, the number of accidents, avoidable last-minute suicides and gun homicides are extremely low. Keep in mind that all other forms…[Read more]

Belle, there’s no scenario that ends up with you both kissing each other on the cheek and promising to write. You know this.

You can never trust this woman again. Now that you have seen these aspects of her nature, you could never feel warm, safe and loved in a relationship with her.

The safest route for you is to never meet or speak with her a…[Read more]

What Autumn said.