The only thing that actually matters is that Israel has de facto control over the US government and because of that is able to act the way it does. Once Israel loses unconditional western support the problem would solve itself.
Ok, so on that point, we are in total agreement.
Ranting that "Greater Israel" exists, extends from the Nile to the Euphrates, and is the goal of the Israeli government and people destroys this political debate. The second someone starts saying "those sneaky Jews are getting ready to annex Egypt and Iraq!" and starts trotting out tired and thoroughly debunked propaganda lines, the argument is over, and the cry of "anti-semitism" wins the day.
Focus on what's really happening.
I think one of the best images is the mass of Orthodox settlers tramping through the al-Aqsa mosque. Who can support that? I bet 99% of Americans don't even know it it happens.
Focus on the Democrat obsession with privilege and people of color. There's hay to make there.
Focusing on thoroughly debunked and moronic claims like the Nile-Euphrates state of Israel is just a distraction and an inanity.
That kind of argument can go both ways.
If Israel is seeking to control from the Nile to the Euphrates, why did it pull out of the Sinai in 1979? Why did Israel pull out of Lebanon in 2000? Why did Israel pull out of Gaza in the 1950s, destroy settlements and pull out again the 1980s and in 2005, etc.?
There are obviously many factors, but the prime one is lack of popular support from Israeli citizens to continue occupations.
Given the weight of the historical evidence, Israel has, on multiple occasions, ceded land for peace. It worked with Egypt and has held for more than 45 years.
I have never been able to understand why, when Israel's abuses in the West Bank are so flagrant and when troops of settlers are allowed to run amok on the Temple Mount, why do nutter conspiracy theorists start frothing at the mouth about Israeli plans to annex Cairo and Iraq.
It's crazy. It distracts from the real issues. I'm half inclined to label the worst of the conspiracy theorists as Zionist shills distracting from everything that actually matters.
Greater Israel isn't a random conspiracy theory that someone pulled out of their ass.
Read what I've said, consistently, since my first post.
Israel nationalists having expansionistic goals (specifically, southern Syria, Trans-Jordan, Sinai, etc.) is not a conspiracy theory.
I've also out that these are minority viewpoints and a very large chunk of Israeli society would even withdraw entirely from the West Bank.
"Greater Israel" meaning the Nile to the Euphrates, willfully ignorant and foolish conspiracy theory.
Bwahaha yes, that's right, despite having been in conflict with Palestinians in around 3,000 sq miles of land for 70 years with no resolution in sight and thousands of dead Israelis in just the last year, Israel wants to annex 100,000s of square miles and 10s of million more Muslims. Then, they will genocide them, and the rest of the world will just sit there.
Bat. Shit. Crazy.
But they've already moved beyond the Golan heights. And they've occupied large parts of Lebanon in the past and then were subsequently kicked out.
Quoted from my OP: "Syria (Mt Hermon / Druze areas), and maybe even Lebanon"
You phrase that like they did it voluntarily and weren't forced to do so.
Yes, the Egypt–Israel peace treaty of 1979.
So calling it 'batshit crazy hyperbole' is a bit... hyperbolic don't you think?
No, saying that Israel wants to annex everything from the Nile to the Euphrates is stupider than batshit crazy. Anyone who thinks that Israel wants to control Cairo, Aleppo, Damascus, Amman, Najaf, and Karbala and the 10s of millions of Arab Muslims in those regions is willfully ignorant.
That's a complete reading comprehension fail.
Your first sentence about the West Bank is a non sequitur and irrelevant.
Regime change in Syria was obviously at least a temporarily good thing for Israel. The Assad family had been fighting Israel for more than 50 years. In the power vacuum, Israel could wipe out the vast majority of Syrian military hardware. Did I really need to spell that out for you?
Third, another reading fail. Not even a reading comprehension fail, just a reading fail.
It's the curse of most conspiracy theories that even while believing in a seed of truth—Israeli nationalist expansionist goals—the conspiracy theorist has to take things to such a batshit insane level (e.g., Israel wants to annex all land between the Nile and the Euphrates) that everyone else just gets sick of hearing about it and walks away.
By making shit up and spouting falsehoods that are easily debunked, you make anyone who is anti-Zionist and anti-Israel look like a loon.
Batshit crazy hyperbole doesn't help you make your point.
Are there segments of the Israeli government and citizenry that would like to annex some additional lands in Egypt (Sinai), Jordan, Syria (Mt Hermon / Druze areas), and maybe even Lebanon? Yes.
Beyond the Sinai? Beyond the Golan? Beyond the immediate trans-Jordan? No.
Even the most rabid and insane Jewish nationalist knows that occupying vast swathes of territory where Jews would be outnumbered 1000:1 is a fools errand.
Israeli public opinion polling has shown, for years, that somewhere around 40-50%+ of the population supports pulling out of the West Bank even.
Israeli already gave up the Sinai once and it worked--they've had peace with Egypt for more than 40 years.
I wish he still did more of it, instead of treating it as secondary to being a wierd furry/yaoi vtuber.
Hmm.. Could’ve got without knowing that. He has a Farms thread and everything..
Renting also can make sense for people who are not going to stay in place for long.
I've seen different analyses, and it of courses hinges on whether property values are going up, down, or staying the same, but the usual numbers I've seen are that ownership makes sense if you will be there for 3+ years.
Renting often makes sense for professional athletes. They can be traded any time. Their career can end any time. They spend much of their time in other cities. Many don’t spend more than a year at a time in one place.
Living above your means, or burning that much money in rent, period, is moronic.
I bet he's good at the Cardassian neck trick.
Very good point about leftists 100 years ago.
It’s pretty ironic. For much of my early life I was a hardcore libertarian. While my family has been religious, I’ve never been religious, and deism is not an important part—not any part—of my life.
Today, I firmly believe that we need something like a Catholic church to help maintain order and cultural stability.
Human-centric leftism decays into nihilism and self-destruction.
It's been a long time since I've watched The Orville and I don't think I ever saw the third season. My memory of the Bortus/Klyden thing is that their government basically mandated male-male relationships (reproduction was never explained that I recall).
One of them, Klyden, was born a biological female, but as a child was forced to undergo sex mutilation to appear male.
You can read it as a pro-trans "identity" plotline, but the more blunt and direct interpretation is a detrans, forced child sex changes are bad plot.
RIP Norm Macdonald.
I've thought about this as well.
The UCC was formed in 1957 with the merger of the Congregationalist churches (Puritans, largely Calvinists) and the Evangelical and Reformed churches (German and Swiss Calvinists).
The best way I know to think of it, given my understanding, is that the UCC is the logical end of late-stage protestantism.
In China, Mao talked about the "continuous revolution." Similarly, in some strands of protestantism there has been an almost continual revolution, or evolution, towards human-centric doctrine, and therefore, away from God and traditional Christianity.
In American, the early puritans were strict and devout, and they were fiercely independent. They were opposed to the Anglican church, the Catholic church, all these top-heavy churches that strictly controlled their orders. The congregationalist churches were more loosely linked and more independent. During the revolution, the congregationalists were strongly anti-monarch. A big theme was pushing back against authority, studying the Bible on your own, following Christ in your own actions. Typical protestant stuff really, but...
If you take this level of independence, along with shifting moral values, the values of the Enlightenment, and (my personal favorite) a rather Hegelian thesis-antithesis comparison to other churches, you end up with unitarianism. When the more conservative Awakenings were happening, the descent into nothingness accelerated as a way of differentiating themselves from conservatives (the ignorant loathsome people). You end up with church members who push back on authority, no matter the source. You end up with churches that become the polar opposite of what they were.
In many ways, the evolution of puritan to UCC, particularly in the northeastern United States, is a precursor to the woke age we are in today. When a strong moral base is gone, social contagion and human depravity rushes in.
Add in Timothee Chalamet and Rachel Zeigler and you’d have Hollywood’s dream cast.
Blegh.
It was a brilliant casting job. To roughly paraphrase Red Letter Media, it was an amazing collection of hot-as-shit 20-somethings with soulless, dead eyes.
It works!
If you were a male of a certain again in the 1990s, just saying “Wild Things” was enough. Denise Richards. I bet she’s dumb as a rock, but man was she hot.
Not even close to Apple and Siri’s most egregious action. Years ago, if you said “Hey Siri, Tar…” it would say “Heels!”
Some UNC basketball fan slipped that one in there.
"WERE YOU RUSHING OR WERE YOU DRAGGING"
Oh, wrong movie with Miles Teller.
Still reading, but dude spells Erin GJONI as "Gonji" the entire time.
It's as if France tried to rename the Channel the Sea of France. It's a bit sad.
The French ALREADY don't called it the "English Channel" or anything with Britain or English in it. They call it La Manche.
Some of these people really make me think that Atheists got into the church.
Always has been. Perhaps the first generation of church fathers were pure in their beliefs and teaching, but where there is authority, power, and influence, you will find corruption and those in it purely for the secular perks.
My grandfather (and his father!) were Methodist pastors. One of them was a bishop even.
Today, my local Methodist church has a “Queerly Beloved” flag and sign out all year long, along with BLM flags, and whatever the local secular leftist cause of the day is.
So that’s why I’m not a Methodist any more.
I read the heck out of out of Xanth in middle school.
I read the first one again recently and it was bad. Like, really bad. Way pervier than I remembered too. I started the second one to see if it got better and I couldn’t finish it. I tink they must particularly appeal to teenage boys!
Plus Piers Anthony has total TDS.
Got it. The Israeli flag, adopted more than a century ago, references the Oded Yonon plan from 1982. It also doesn’t say what you claim.
Typical for conspiracy theories you quickly fallback to nonsensical personal attacks.