jbg

Israel is among the first countries to be offering aid to Nepal with the devastating earthquake. This demonstrates that Israel is still Hatikvah, or the Hope (link, excerpts below): Netanyahu: Israel will provide all possible help to Nepal Search and rescue team to depart shortly from Israel to region; will include doctors. It was agreed that a search and rescue team that would include doctors would depart for Nepal shortly and would land at a location near the disaster area in order to be prepared to arrive in Nepal when possible. Netanyahu sent his condolences to the people of Nepal from the people of Israel and said Israel would help in any way possible.

This blog has interesting material on Arab Israelis (link, excerpts below):

The main user of "poison pills" was Arafat, who insisted on the "right of return" after the territorial lines were agreed upon.

As a Hail Mary pass if Israel is attacked and can't defend itself against oncoming hordes. Or if itself under nuclear attack.

The historical background needs to be understood. The Jews morphed from the skin and bones of people who barely survived the Holocaust. On November 29, 1947 the U.N. voted to partition Israel, giving the Jewish state much less land than they won after the 1958 War. The Jews accepted. The Arabs promised death and war.Britain abandoned their mandate effective May 14, 1948, after allowing the Arabs to arm themselves to the teeth. The U.S. State Department, as usual, pusillanimous convinced Truman to embargo arms sales. Some inventive merchants were able to get some delivered from WW II surplus, Czechoslovakia, starved for cash by WW II sold much of the rest of them. Israel built an Army and Air Force from scratch. That day, Israel was invaded by armies from, among other countries, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. Somehow Israel managed to survive. The Arabs have more or less continually waged war since. Israel has managed not only to survive but to become a leader in hi-tech. I don't see any falsehoods there. In Israel Arabs can vote. Gay Israelis, whether Arab or Jewish have full rights. Female Israelis, whether Arab or Jewish also have full rights. Don't get me started on marriage. There are some real problems in that area. Reform Rabbis cannot perform weddings in Israel. I just got finished voting on that issue. It's a real sore spot. Even assuming that's accurate, there are some problems with your thesis. Throughout history, there have been dislocations of populations due to war, epidemics, famines, technological or transportation developments. Maybe if the white Gentile population in the Diaspora had a "live and let live" philosophy vis a vis the Jews, the Zionists may have become a footnote in history, just some group of religious or political cranks. The various iterations of Jew hatred ensured that at some point, the Jews would be "on the road" and in search of a homeland. The most logical homeland was the one in which they historically resided. It is weird that for all other peoples displacements of other peoples through war and takeover of land has been more or less acceptable. Suddenly, when the Jews are involved, the rules change. And again those rules don't apply to other peoples now on a rampage. The world is silent as Kurds and Yatzidis are executed in cold blood by ISIS, for example. But when Jews acquire land by purchase from absentee landlords they are somehow disentitled to it, and it's labeled apartheid or worse. The British Empire hardly helped. And the West armed the Arabs to the teeth and illegalized the sale of war materiel to the Jews. And again it was the decision of the West, not the Jews, to keep the pot stirring until there was a Holocaust. I've had parties pooped in worse ways. Apology not needed or wanted.

I just told you about what I know about Canada; how a writ is dropped. Does the GG drop the piece of paper on the floor of One Sussex?

I am all for cooperation. I am all against squandering my hard-earned money.

I would relish hearing why the question from you. And not in a nasty way. A friend of mine was surprised I knew how elections were called in Canada and what non-confidence meant. I explained that I am interested in politics in any venue where I can read the raw materials and understand them. My interest in Israel is for obvious reasons. And Canada since you are our closest ally. Without the peaceful relations of our countries, neither would enjoy the prosperity we do. I only wish the Arabs would learn the same lesson.

I assume they would defensively. Offensively they have no interest in incinerating Iran.

Two non-American countries I admire greatly. I consider those two countries among America's greatest and most important allies, and exceptional countries.

Has Israel used its nuclear weapon, assuming it has one?

Yesterday was the 67th anniversary of Israel's independence on the Hebrew calendar. The holiday, known as Yom Hatzma'ot, was celebrated in synagogues tonight. The ceremony was truly moving. The historical background needs to be understood. The Jews morphed from the skin and bones of people who barely survived the Holocaust. On November 29, 1947 the U.N. voted to partition Israel, giving the Jewish state much less land than they won after the 1958 War. The Jews accepted. The Arabs promised death and war. Britain abandoned their mandate effective May 14, 1948, after allowing the Arabs to arm themselves to the teeth. The U.S. State Department, as usual, pusillanimous convinced Truman to embargo arms sales. Some inventive merchants were able to get some delivered from WW II surplus, Czechoslovakia, starved for cash by WW II sold much of the rest of them. Israel built an Army and Air Force from scratch. That day, Israel was invaded by armies from, among other countries, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. Somehow Israel managed to survive. The Arabs have more or less continually waged war since. Israel has managed not only to survive but to become a leader in hi-tech. In Israel Arabs can vote. Gay Israelis, whether Arab or Jewish have full rights. Female Israelis, whether Arab or Jewish also have full rights. Below are the lyrics of the Israeli national anthem, in both English and transliterated Hebrew. The video of the Israeli anthem is also posted. Stunningly beautiful. May Israel continue to thrive, as a Jewish State. As long as the Jewish spirit is yearning deep in the heart, With eyes turned toward the East, looking toward Zion, Then our hope - the two-thousand-year-old hope - will not be lost: To be a free people in our land, The land of Zion and Jerusalem. Kol ode balevav P'nimah - Nefesh Yehudi homiyah Ulfa'atey mizrach kadimah Ayin l'tzion tzofiyah. Ode lo avdah tikvatenu Hatikvah bat shnot alpayim: L'hiyot am chofshi b'artzenu - Eretz Tzion v'Yerushalayim.

What comes clear is that the lefties don't care much about what makes Canada and U.S. great countries. It is the women's', and other peoples' freedom from subjugation. It is about individual and not "group" rights. Canada is not Afghanistan. If the groups want that amount of control over their women, let them impose it in Afghanistan or whatever sh**hole they come from.

Israel is determined not to become the lamb. We learned that in the last Israeli election.

No. I was pointing out that submersion and emergence of dry land can occur without man's help.

I do appreciate your posts and I should have expressed that earlier. I went to a Congressman's speech in a parlor setting Monday night. He told the story of a zoo where a lamb was resting comfortably next to the lion. After expressing how touching that was, as prophesied in the Bible (somewhere) he said "very simple, we put a new lamb in there every day." I appreciate that you think more of the U.S. and Israel than the "ruthless" countries. The balance that must be struck is not to be the "lamb of the day" in the lion's cage.

I cannot believe that alarmist propaganda could persuade such an apparently intelligent poster as yourself.

Good to see you back, TB, though I don't know to which Bismarck quote you refer.

That latter statement is one I disagree with. Israel has not declared Iran to be a cancer that must be eradicated. Israel has not declared Iran's destruction to be "non-negotiable." When a country speaks it should be taken at its word.

Playing is one thing. Reality is another. The Jews are down to a fraction of their former numbers as a result of the Holocaust and low birth rates. The Jews don't need you to feel sorry for them.

Read above. None of the other slaughters were aimed at the total elimination of a group of people.

The right to self-defense does not equal the right to incinerate.

Was Beringia's submersion the result of man-made climate change? (note, Beringia is the technical name for the "land bridge" that once connected eastern Siberia with Alaska. It was quite wide for a bridge; more like a normal land mass area, all now under the waves and ice of the Bering Sea). If you look at those ancient civilizations, with the exception of Persia which was and is a bit higher in elevation and wetter, they were clustered around river valleys. Outside of the river valleys there does not seem to have been much activity. I wish those entities well. Israel has four methods that have helped it cope and build a civil society in an arid land with far less wasted (link to article, excerpts below): 1. Israeli cities recycle three-quarters of their water. Israeli farms don’t just use less water than their American counterparts, much of their water is reused. Three-quarters of the water that runs through sinks, showers, washing machines and even toilets in Israeli cities is recycled, treated and sent to crops across the country through specially marked purple tubes. (snip) 2. Israel gets much of its water from the Mediterranean Sea. Israelis now have a much bigger water source than Lake Kinneret: the Mediterranean Sea. Four plants on Israel’s coast draw water from the sea, take out the salt, purify the water and send it to the country’s pipes — a process called desalination. The biggest of the four plants, opened in 2013, can provide nearly 7 million gallons of potable water to Israelis every hour. When a fifth opens as soon as this year near the Israeli port city of Ashdod, 75 percent of Israel’s municipal and industrial water will be desalinated, making Israelis far less reliant on the country’s fickle rainfall. (snip) 3. Israelis irrigate through pinpricks in hoses, not by flooding. No innovation has been more important for Israel’s desert farms than drip irrigation. Most of the world’s farmers water their crops by flooding their fields with sprinklers or hoses, often wasting water as they go. With drip irrigation, a process pioneered in Israel 50 years ago, water seeps directly into the ground through tiny pinpricks in hoses, avoiding water loss through evaporation. (snip) 4. Israel’s government owns all of the country’s water. Israel treats water as a scarce national resource. The government controls the country’s entire water supply, charging citizens, factories and farmers for water use. Residents pay about one cent per gallon, while farmers pay about a quarter of that. (snip)

I dont think anyone needs some long winded nonsensical endless ream of formulae to figure out that ice, such as in glaciers, melts only when the temperature rises above freezing. A lot of people get their water from glacial fed rivers. As they melt faster than they can be restocked due to those warmer temps., you get flooding followed by drought. Take a look at Pakistan for instance. Climate has always changed. With little or no help from humans we've had Ice Ages and interglacial periods. Some of the intermediate transitions have been quite sudden. We had the Younger Dryas period, a rapid and destructive cooling period. There was the Medieval Optimum, that greenlighted settlement in Greenland; quite short lived. Thus, there is nothing we can do that would shut down these transitions. As far as the example you gave of Pakistan the world has always had climate disasters. The stories of Gilgamesh and Noah's Ark memorialize one of those (likely the same event). Where the alarmists have a point is that it may be more difficult to shift population centers such as Toronto or New York City north or south to accommodate climate shifts. But nothing in Kyoto or Copenhagen addresses this. What these treaties do accomplish is to provide for a massive wealth redistribution. Since no leader in their right mind is going to shut down industry, the fallback is to pay credits, that in theory wind up going to countries "impacted" by climate change. Those are generally Fourth World countries. Where the leaders spend or secrete the moneys is anyone's guess.

I don't know if its trolling or not, but it certainly seems to make most people just ignore the entire thread. I think everyone knows where I stand on these issues, but I think these formulas belong on a technical forum. I do not consider myself to be stupid but I don't pretend to have the expertise to evaluate the formulas or effectively critique them. Nor do most users of this forum on either side of the climate change issue. I will be posting on the "change" issues in response to the next two posts. Suffice it to say that it is important to determine whether CO2 is a non-factor, minor factor or major factor in driving climate change, and how much of that C02 is produced by changeable human activity. As I said I will post more on the issue. But I agree with you that a "doomsday" response to a speculative concern is likely not in order. And one does need to be mindful of the role played by the redistributive agenda of the people pushing "action." More on that below.