Evil Penevil

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In an Opinion piece, the Editorial Board of The Wall Street Journal does a good job of brushing off the Amnesty International report. Basically, the WSJ says Amnesty had to change the definition of genocie to make the accusation fit. https://www.wsj.com/opinion/amnesty-international-report-israel-genocide-hamas-gaza-811acf05?page The Propaganda War on Israel Never Stops Amnesty International lends its once-good name to the genocide lie. From the people who brought you “Israeli apartheid” comes another trendy smear: “Israeli genocide.” With a new report Wednesday night, Amnesty International assures its good standing in the anti-Israel herd. The price is to swallow an inversion of reality.

Man

Discombobulated

I'm going to be giving lumps of coal to all the bad guys who go to Pattaya.

Captain Obvious says: Because the "little people" don't agree with your take on the situation. Stockholm Syndrome has nothing to do with voting in elections. In fact, if you read the Wiki entry to which you linked, Stockholm Syndrome may not even be a real syndrome. Basically, the response by the hostages in Sweden in 1973 was very specific to the situation in the Stockholm bank and has rarely been observed elsewhere since then.

Noodles

@placnx What sources do you consider to be reliable on the Israel-Hamas conflict? What sources do you use to get your information? Please name any mainstream or alternate media; international organizations (official or NGO); think tanks; professors and other experts; government spokeman or any other source of information on the conflict you feel is reliable. Do you believe that the leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran are more truthful than Netanyahu?

The response by both the Korean Parliament and the public to the attempt to impose martial law is very encouraging. They beat back the attempt and hopefully Yoon will face impeachment. It seems the democratic spirit has established itself well in the minds of South Koreans.

Ship

IDF troops are known for unconventional fighting methods but I imagine both styles of fighting ties would be outside their experience.

South Korea president backs down from martial law order after MPs vote to block it https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cn38321180et

I don't know why it's so hard for some to grasp that Pattaya can flourish as both a family destination and an "adult oriented" Paradise. The bar and commercial sex scene is there for those who wantt it but is easily avoided by those who don't. I know numerous families with children of all ages who have had great family vacations in Pattaya and avoided the commercial sex side of the city. With a bit of research and planning, it's totally possible. My British niece, her husband and two children (boy 10, girl 7 at the time) visited me in Pattaya some years ago. On my advice. they stayed at the Centara Grand Mirage Beach Resort on Wong Amat Beach in NaKlua. The resort has its own waterpark and private stretch of beach as well as a huge Kids' Club with a ton of activities for children from 8.00 a.m. until 6 p.m. Aside from a trip to Paris Disneyland, they thought Pattaya was the best family vacation they ever had. The kids never saw anything sleazy and the little girl cried when it was time to check out of the resort because she liked it so much. The family did most of their sightseeing during the morning or early afternoon, before most of the commercial sex businesses get going. They used car service to get around and there was nothing sleazy for the kids to see. Of course they avoided WS, LK Metro and above all, Soi 6. They never ventured out with the kids after dark. My niece said they'd seen far more inappropriate behavior on trips to Spain and Greece than in Pattaya. Drunk chavs and chavettes are far worse than bar girls. There's plenty for families to do in and around Pattaya. The Russians don't seem to mind pushing kids in strollers down WS or Soi 6 and that's up to them. But for the families that want to avoid any glimpse of the sex scene, it's easily enough done.

That's a myth. Pattaya was never an R & R destination for U.S. military personnel during the Vietnam War. Bangkok was, but not Pattaya. Very, very few U.S. R & Rers ever made the trip to Pattaya becauswe it was indeed a "sleepy fishing village" at the time. It had only two hotels and a handful of bars and restaurants. Even the USAF troops stationed at U Tapao didn't visit Pattaya much. They had a shack bar areas, first Kilo Sip, then Newland, closer to the base. Charter tourist groups, mainly from Germany and Scandinavia, spurred Pattaya's development as a tourist destination in the early 1970s, with the P4P angle coming a few years later. Remember, the first go go bar in Pattaya didn't open until 1978. The R & Rntroops had an enormous effect on Bangkok's commercial sex scene, but not Pattaya's.

"Fake" is an inappropriate word in this case. It's a false accusation of genocide. Pro-Palestinians are equating a large number of civilian deaths with genocide and that's just wrong. According to the definition of genocide used by the U.N. in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the intent mof genocide is "to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group." See Article II at https://www.un.org/en/genocide-prevention/1948-convention Israel's intent is not to eliminate the Palestinian people but Hamas as a terrorist organization. A large number of civilians have died in Gaza because Hamas used them as human shields to protect its tunnel system and other military targets. The situation is akin to the civilian deaths caused by Allied aerial bombing in Germany and Japanduring WWII. An estimated 100,000 civilians were killed in the fire bombing of Tokyo, while over 100,00 civilians immediately died from the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Dresden fire bombing killed at least 25,000 civilians and the bombing of Hamburg about 43,000. Tens of thousands of other civilians died in the bombing of other cities in Japan and Germany. Why would the Israel bombing of civilians in Gaza be considered genocide when the Allied bombing of German and Japan isn't?

That's correct. As Chief Prosecutor for the ICC, Karim Khan can request a warrant, but only the ICC panel of judges has the power to issue it. Khan was in a bit of a bind when it came to the Oct 7 attacks. He was forced to request warrants for the leaders of Hamas as well as Israel, It would be blatantly antisemitic to go after Netanyahu for responding to the Oct. 7 attacks but ignore the Hamas leaders who ordered the terrorist murders of Israelis and non-Israelis. However, an ICC warrant on a living Hamas leader would put Israel's opponents in a very sticky situation. South Africa, the State of Palestine and some other Muslim and non-Muslim nations which had ratified the Rome Statute would be bound to arrest the Hamas leaders as well as Netanyahu and Gallant. Obviously those countries weren't going to do that, which would make the ICC warrants an absurd exercise. How can the State of Palestine or South Africa demand other countries arrest Netanyahu while harboring Hamas leaders with warrants? There are plenty of Hamas leaders still living who were complicit in the Oct. 7 attacks but it is highly doubtful Khan will request warrants for them. Ironically, South Africa had been trying for seven years to withdraw from the Rome Statute. In 2015, South Africa refused to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on an ICC warrant during his visit to the country. Al-Bashir had been accused by the ICC of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur. In 2023, South Africa renewed its intention of withdrawing from the ICC because of the arrest warrant on Russia's Putin. Putin was at that time scheduled to visit South Africa for a BRICs summit in August. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/south-africa-try-withdraw-icc-again-ramaphosa-2023-04-25/ https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34509342

The video below gives an excellent explanation of how the Nazis "sold" the Holocaust to the German people. The situation is eeriely similar to the concerted campaign to destroy Israel that Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, various Muslim countries and support groups all over the world are carrying out today, especially through the U.N. and its agencies. I can see from some of the posts on AN that the new wave of antisemitism has won over converts. History is indeed repeating itself.

Israel is the homeland of and haven for the world's Jews. It's the only country with a Jewish majority population. It's the best guarantee Jews have for survival should antisemitism ever lead to another attempt at the Final Solution. Today 7.2 million Israeli Jews stand against 450 million Arabs and 1.8 billion Muslims to defend their homeland, a battle that's been going on for 76 years. I've read plenty of odd stuff on AN, but the "statements on Israel" to which @save the frogsrefers have to be among the weirdest. The article to which he links (https://medium.com/the-judean-peoples-front/is-everything-about-israel-fake-51bf250b9dc9) is a REFUTATION of the "fake nation" claims. The author of the linked article does an excellent job, so no need for me to comment futher on it. I'll just say that if anyone thinks Israel is fake, try attacking its citizens. You'll get a very real response.

The story comes from an article in Hebrew on ynet (https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/ry9hbuyxkg) . It states , "A 22-year-old man who was released from reserve service and was traveling in the town of Pai in the north of the country, said he encountered a group of tourists from Germany - who attacked him with severe violence." The Hebrew version also says the young man didn't file a police report because he thought filing a report could interfere with the rest of his trip. He and some other Israelis went looking for the Germans, but couldn't find them. The story is based entirely on the ex-reservist's statement to an Israeli press agency. It's impossible to give the Germans' side of the story because they aren't known. I imagine if this story is picked up by the Thai press, it could provoke a police reaction and some attempt to find out more about the Germans.

xxxxxxx You are tired of reading about antisemitism. Can you imagine how tired Jews are of enduring antisemitism for the past 2,000 years? In the U.S., hatred of Jews is expressed more openly and blatantly than I've ever seen before. From pre-schoolers through the elderly, Jews are harassed and attacked on a daily basis for no other reason than they are Jewish. Antisemitism now goes way beyond posts on social media. The video is from May, but it shows how such attacks go down. A group of Hasidic children in traditional garb are playing on the sidewalk in a Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn. A man who had been riding past on a bike suddenly stops and attacks two boys, age 11 and 13. He kicks and stomps one who he pushed to the ground. The man was never caught. https://x.com/Williamsburg365/status/1790609797454221603 SaveTwitter.Net__DNoqzFUxnKuMPki_(912p).mp4 If Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran stop their terrorist attacks and recognize Israel's right to exist as a home land to the world's Jews, the ME would stop immediately.

Nail

The explanation I heard was that Thai Airways, unlike most long-haul operators, did not hedge against rising fuel prices. A surge in fuel prices in 2008 would have caused major losses on the nonstop New York-Bangkok route, so it was canceled on short notice after three years of operation. I was pissed as all hell because flights stopped on July 1 and I had a ticket booked and paid for departure in the first week of August. I was on one of the first nonstop flights out of JFK for Bangkok in May of 2005. I recall special meals were served to commemorate the start of service. The flying time was supposed to be 17 hours but we made it to Don Mueang in 16 hours. I took the JFK-DMK nonstop roundtrip about 10 times between 2005 and 2008 and it almost always landed ahead of schedule in Bangkok due to tail winds, while head winds meant the return flight was usually 17 hours or more. For me, it was absolutely the best way to get to Thailand from New York. I was really sorry when that service was canceled. It will indeed be interesting to see if Thai resumes nonstops to New York or Los Angeles. I doubt very much a U.S. carrier will initiate nonstop service because of the high cost of ultra long haul flights and limited profit potential.

Landscape

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