Stephen Charles

Stephencharles77@yahoo.com

The 13th of May  2018, represented a symbolic day slated for the commemoration of the world communications day. Pope Francis, as a customary way of marking the day, gave his message which was released on the 24th of January in memory of St. Francis de Sales, the patron saint of journalists.

The theme of the message being; “The truth will set you free”, the catholic pope seized the medium to advance the drive for a 'Journalism of Peace' rather than that which is based on witch-hunts and falsehood. He pointed out that humans are made in the likeness of God and are able to express all that is true, good and beautiful, but when they yield to pride and selfishness, the mode of using their ability to communicate becomes distorted.

Francis testified to the fast-changing nature of the current world of communication and digital systems and pointed out that fake news is on the spread. 

He explained “that fake news has to do with false information based on non-existent or distorted data meant to deceive and manipulate the reader” usually for the advancement of specific political or economic goals. 

He traced the origin of false news to the origin of man -the time of Adam and Eve and pointed out that no one can feel exempted from the duty of countering these falsehoods.

Explaining how to identify false news, Pope Francis noted that they go viral, spreading so fast that they are difficult to stop and that they appeal to the insatiable greed so easily aroused in humans. He agreed that an impeccable argument can indeed rest on undeniable facts but noted that “if it is used to hurt another or discredit that person in the eyes of others, however correct it may appear, it is not truthful”.

Francis pointed out that truthful statements can be recognized from their fruits as to “whether they promote quarrels, foment division, encourage resignation; or on the other hand, they promote informed and mature reflection leading to constructive dialogue and fruitful result.

He finally went ahead to fuel the drive for the promotion of peace via the news of truth and charges both journalists and the general public to promote a journalism of peace, noting that “the best antidotes to false news are not strategies but the people”.

Israeli police will recommend that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu be indicted in two corruption investigations, according to reports from local media.

Police officials were set to release their findings at 8:45 p.m. local time Tuesday (1:45 p.m. EST), but the Haaretz newspaper reported that they will recommend that prosecutors pursue the charges.

In the so-called “Case 1000,” Bibi is suspected of accepting gifts from billionaire benefactors — including cigars and champagne from the Israeli-born Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan — in return for advancing their interests.

Meanwhile, “Case 2000” involves a suspected illegal deal between Netanyahu and Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper publisher Arnon Mozes that would have provided him with positive coverage in exchange for hurting rival daily Israel Hayom.

Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing, claiming on several occasions that “there will be nothing —because there is nothing,” the Haaretz newspaper reported.

Following the police announcement, Netanyahu is scheduled to make a live statement from his residence, the Times of Israel reported.

Liberia's new President George Weah delivered his first State of Nation address earlier today in the presence of his countrymen. He began the speech by thanking god for his support and stressed on the historic election, its significance in Liberia's history and the peaceful transition of government.


He stated that the Liberian Constitution will be his guiding light for the duration of his leadership and governance and requests the public to be aware and more familiar with its principles. He also quoted from Articles 4-10 of the constitution.


"Total revenues collected in calendar year 2017 amounted to 489.1 million US Dollars, which is a 13 percent decline over revenue collected in 2016, which was 565.1 million... it is possible to inform you that the state of the economy that my administration has inherited, leaves a lot to be desired. This is plain for all to see, for we are all affected by it. Our economy is broken, our government is broke, our currency is in free-fall, inflation is rising, unemployment is at an unprecedented high, and our foreign reserves are at an all-time low," he stated.


He stressed that the executive must work with the legislature (the people) to help sort out the challenges that now plague Liberia. "We shall focus on reviews and revision of our education system, improve health and sanitation, promote and strengthen gender equality, and provide for youth re-orientation and empowerment through training of all kinds, the creation of jobs, and the expansion of sports," the President reiterated, presenting a larger picture of the problems that need solving. The President also mapped out other areas that needed help - economy, security and justice and transparent governance.


Weah then proceeded to detail his immediate agenda, which is looking at laws that are serious impediments to the country's growth - limitation of citizenship to black people only, restriction of land ownership to citizens and dual citizenship.


"....As freed slaves, (the founders) were fleeing from the oppressive yoke of slavery imposed upon them by white slave owners. They therefore wanted Liberia to be “…a refuge and a haven for freed men of color”, and so they restricted citizenship only to black people. Here in the 21st century, I am of the view that these threats no longer exist, and that these conditions have changed. In these circumstances, it is my view that keeping such a clause in our constitution is unnecessary, racist, and inappropriate for the place that Liberia occupies today in the comity of nations. It also contradicts the very definition of Liberia, which is derived from the Latin word “liber,” Meaning “Liberty.”" he said about citizenship, also adding "I believe that most Liberians who are also citizens of another country probably acquired the additional nationality as a means to escape from the terrible atrocities, which characterized our civil conflict, and for economic survival in their new countries of residence. And if conditions now exist in Liberia that make them want to return home and contribute their quota to the development of our common patrimony, then I do not think that it is fair to treat them as non-citizens in the land of their birth," about dual citizenship.


The President also promised to slash his salary and benefits by 25% and give the proceeds to the Consolidated Fund for allocation and appropriation. As a closing comment, he said, "Let us all exert our best effort to ensure that, in the cause of the people, the struggle must end!"




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Afghans observed a day of mourning for 103 people killed by an ambulance packed with explosives when attackers struck again, this time targeting a military base in the capital Kabul.


The attacks underline the difficulties the Trump administration faces as it reiterates Washington's security commitment in Afghanistan. 
In just one month, militants have targeted the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, the offices of British aid agency Save the Children in Jalalabad, and a Shia cultural center in Kabul. 
A year ago President Donald Trump spoke with US troops in Afghanistan -- hours after his inauguration. "I'm with you all the way ... we're going to do it together," he told them. It was a sentiment he repeated in condemning Saturday's attack. Gen. Joseph Votel -- who leads US Central Command and was in Kabul when the bombing occurred -- insisted "it does not impact our commitment to Afghanistan" and that victory is "absolutely" possible. 


But in the past year, the Taliban has become stronger in many Afghan provinces. It now controls or contests control of at least 40% of the country, according to an official US assessment. The US relationship with Pakistan, seen by most as an essential player in Afghanistan, has deteriorated sharply. The central government in Kabul is weak and divided. It's embroiled in a struggle with a powerful provincial governor, Atta Muhammad Noor, who was fired but has refused to step down. Corruption remains endemic, especially within the national police.




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An Asia-Pacific trade pact that US President Donald Trump ditched last year is expected to be signed in March. Eleven countries will meet in Chile in March to ink the agreement, which is known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and is championed by Japan. One of the world's largest trade agreements, it was boosted on Tuesday when Canada said it would join.


The country had refused to sign an earlier version over concerns about environmental and labour protections. The new TPP also includes Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. China is not included in the pact, which was conceived in part as a way to counter the country's surging power in Asia.


Japanese Economy Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said the agreement will be an "engine to overcome protectionism" emerging in parts of the world. He added Japan would explain the importance of the deal to Washington in hopes of persuading the US to join.




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Philanthropist Melinda Gates will visit Kenya to launch an initiative that promotes use of new technologies such as artificial intelligence to reduce poverty. In recent years, researchers have been harnessing AI's data-mining ability to help solve problems that could not be solved before. The new initiative is called Pathways for Prosperity: A new Commission on Technology and Inclusive Development.


“The commission aims to spark new thinking on how developing countries can best harness new technologies - including robotics, Artificial Intelligence, 3D printing, nanotechnology and blockchain - for inclusive growth and effective government,” said a statement shared with the media.


Melinda will hold a discussion with the commission's two other co-chairs - Sri Mulyani Indrawati who is Indonesia's finance minister and Strive Masiyiwa, a Zimbabwean billionaire philanthropist and founder of Econet. The new commission will find what technology can do for jobs and economic opportunities in developing countries.



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The United States has its first government shutdown in nearly five years after senators failed to reach a deal to keep the lights on.

An effort by Republicans to keep the government open for one month was rejected in a vote on Friday night after they failed to address Democratic concerns about young undocumented immigrants known as Dreamers. Republicans needed 60 votes to advance the bill but the legislation only received the support of 50 senators.

The deadline came and went without a deal, causing funding for the federal government to lapse. Federal agencies will now be unable to continue operating and hundreds of thousands of “non-essential” federal employees will be put on temporary unpaid leave.

Democrats earlier blamed Republican divisions for the failure of the vote. Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, said lawmakers from his rival party were not on the same page as president Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, Trump blamed Democrats for the shutdown: "Not looking good for our great Military or Safety & Security on the very dangerous Southern Border. Dems want a Shutdown in order to help diminish the great success of the Tax Cuts, and what they are doing for our booming economy."

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US govt shutdown will affect 🇺🇸 economy

The federal employees in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches are potentially eligible for unpaid leave, leaving some “essential” workers still in the system. Social security checks, for example, are expected to remain unaffected.

The estimated two weeks shutdown in 2013, however, leave a modest mark on the U.S. economy, with GDP down slightly during that quarter as a result of unpaid workers spending less.

Also, some $4 billion in tax refunds were delayed as a result of furloughed workers in the Internal Revenue Service, with the Office of Management and Budget saying the shutdown cost taxpayers some $2 billion in lost productivity. National parks alone lost some $500 million in revenue, as they, too, shut their gates during the 16-day shutdown.

The shutdown also impacted drug companies with the Food and Drug Administration delaying approval of medical devices and drugs. Investors also lost out on their regular doses of economic data which are often used to buy stocks or price goods.

In the shutdown, federal agencies did not report the jobs numbers or consumer price index, among other data sets. Notably, following the 2013 shutdown, the government passed a bill to retroactively pay its workers for the time lost.

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Zimbabwe president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, has explained his journey through landmine areas when he fled the country following his sacking by Robert Mugabe in 2017.

The state-run Zimbabwe Herald reported that Mnangagwa recounted previously unknown details of his “great escape” from Zimbabwe, during an official visit to Angola.

Mnangagwa, 75, fled to Mozambique after he was sacked as vice president by Mugabe, leaving the country within four hours of his ouster, fearful of a threat to his life.

“I didn’t think it was pleasurable to wait to be eliminated. I left within four hours of being fired for the Mozambican border”.

He said that he walked for long hours and claimed there were attempts at the border to shoot him, but the attack was foiled by his son.

“He (one of his twin sons) is an officer and was able to grab the weapon and I was not shot,” Mnangagwa said.

The report said once in Mozambique, he flew from Beira to South Africa.

Mnangagwa also spoke of the attempt to poison him at an event of the ruling ZANU-PF party in 2017 and said he was airlifted to South Africa for treatment.

He had accused then first lady, Grace Mugabe of having given him poisoned ice cream at a party.

“I am happy that last week, I was declared poison free. It is now undetectable,’’ he was quoted as saying.

Source: dailypost.ng

The White House says these two are in lock step, but are they?  (REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)

President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae In had a phone call where they discussed recent talks between the two Koreas, but a major discrepancy exists between the US and South Korea's account of the call.

The White House reported a pretty standard conversation, while South Korea reported that Trump firmly denied reports that he's considering a "bloody nose" strike on North Korea.

The "bloody nose" strategy calls for the US to carry out a limited strike on North Korea to punish it for its illegal missile program, but it would put millions of South Korean lives at risk.

President Donald Trump spoke with his South Korean counterpart, Moon Jae In, on Wednesday to discuss the recent progress and looming threats of the North Korean nuclear crisis, but each country gave a varying account.

According to the White House, Moon briefed Trump on the outcome of the inter-Korean talks that took place on Tuesday for the first time in two years.

Moon reportedly thanked Trump for his "influential leadership in making the talks possible" and both leaders expressed support for Trump's "maximum pressure" campaign against North Korea, which has seen heightened military threats and a chain of nuclear threats flying both ways across the Pacific.

Trump expressed interest in holding talks with North Korea "under the right circumstances," according to the White House's account of the call, and said that Vice President Mike Pence will head to South Korea's 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

But South Korea's account of the call included a firm denial of a news story that has caused North Korea experts to recoil in horror, namely that Trump is considering a "bloody nose" strike against Kim Jong Un'sregime, according to Anna Fitfield, the Washington Post's Tokyo Bureau Chief.

The presence of the denial in the South Korean readout of the call, and its absence in the US readout, points to the massively lopsided danger of the "bloody nose" strategy.

null  (Associated Press)

To enact the strategy, the US would respond to some North Korean provocation with a limited strike. If the attack goes according to plan, the US could deny North Korea the ability to research and develop its missile or nuclear programs by destroying elements of it with a kinetic strike.

A stricken North Korea, if it chose not to retaliate, would also lose enormous international and domestic standing, and set the precedent for the US to repeat the strike any time it feels the country has stepped out of line.

But if Kim does decide to retaliate, it's almost certain the brunt of the attack would fall on South Korean civilians. North Korea has a massive array of artillery pieces pointed at Seoul, South Korea's capital of with a population of 25 million.

Under Trump, the US has repeatedly flexed its military capability and willingness to use force against North Korea as part of the maximum pressure doctrine.

The latest discrepancy between the readouts of Trump and Moon's call may reveal that South Korea is pushing back on the pressure, which sometimes entails loose talk of putting South Korean lives at risk.

Source: pulseng.com

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US Sectary of State Rex Tillerson found himself obliged to defend President Donald Trump’s fitness for office Friday after a bombshell new book called into doubt his mental health.

In an extraordinary portion of a television interview on foreign policy challenges, Tillerson was asked about claims that Trump has a short attention span, regularly repeats himself and refuses to read briefing notes.

“I’ve never questioned his mental fitness. I’ve had no reason to question his mental fitness,” said Tillerson, whose office was last year forced to deny reports that he had referred to Trump as a “moron” after a national security meeting.

And, even in defending Trump, the former ExxonMobil chief executive admitted he has had to learn how to relay information to a president with a very different decision-making style.

“I have to learn how he takes information in, processes it and makes decisions,” Tillerson told CNN. “I’m here to serve his presidency. So I’ve had to spend a lot of time understanding how to best communicate with him.”

But Tillerson emphasised the right decisions had been made and that the United States is in a stronger place internationally thanks to Trump’s policies.

“He is not a typical president of the past, I think that’s well recognised — that’s also why the American people chose him,” he said, insisting that he does not expect to be asked to resign in the coming year.

Tillerson was forced to mount his defence as Washington devoured a new supposed tell-all — Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” — rushed into bookstores after the White House failed to suppress it.

The book quickly sold out in shops in the US capital, with some people even lining up at midnight to get their hands on it and others circulating pirated copies. Trump has decried the instant best-seller as “phony” and “full of lies.”

Journalist Wolff, no stranger to controversy, quotes several key Trump aides expressing doubt about Trump’s ability to lead the world’s largest economy and military hegemony.

“Let me put a marker in the sand here. One hundred percent of the people around him” question Trump’s fitness for office, Wolff told NBC’s “Today” show.

“They all say he is like a child. And what they mean by that is he has a need for immediate gratification. It’s all about him.”

The 71-year-old Republican president, approaching the first anniversary of his inauguration, has responded to the book with fury.

“I authorized Zero access to White House (actually turned him down many times) for author of phoney book! I never spoke to him for book. Full of lies, misrepresentations and sources that don’t exist,” Trump tweeted Thursday.

But Wolff countered: “I absolutely spoke to the president. Whether he realised it was an interview or not, I don’t know, but it certainly was not off the record.”

The book includes extensive quotes from Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, and its publication sparked a very public break between the former allies.

Bannon is quoted accusing Trump’s eldest son Don Jr of “treasonous” contacts with a Kremlin-connected lawyer, and saying the president’s daughter Ivanka, who imagines running for president one day, is “dumb as a brick.”

But it is Trump himself who is cast in the most unfavorable light.

Late Friday Trump fired another bitter tweet, calling Wolff “a total loser who made up stories in order to sell this really boring and untruthful book.”

“He used Sloppy Steve Bannon, who cried when he got fired and begged for his job. Now Sloppy Steve has been dumped like a dog by almost everyone. Too bad!”

The book claims that for Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, the president was an “idiot.” For chief economic advisor Gary Cohn, he was “dumb as shit.” And for National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, he was a “dope.”

Source: reuter

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Kevin Flint

former Trade consultant at International Relations

131w ago

In the exceedingly unlikely event of war between the US and China or Russia, the world would fall mostly into 4 camps.

Allied with the United States. 
This group would represent the overwhelming majority of the world's economic, military, political, social, and industrial power. It would include NATO, most or all of the EU, Japan, Australia, South Korea, as well as dozens of countries from Latin America, Africa, and Asia. These nations would contribute some significant degree of military, economic and diplomatic support.

Friendly to the United States 
Most nations that don't fall directly into the "allies" camp are still economically dependent on the US and/or the other nations in that camp. Therefore they would back up embargoes, provide some degree of material support in order to stay on the good side of the allied nations, and likely move closer to the Allied camp as the conflict continued.

We'll mostly not take sides, even if we sort of do 
There are a few nations like India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, or Myanmar that could find themselves in a difficult spot. Due to popular internal sentiment or proximity to China/Russia they might not find it wise to take sides. That doesn't mean they won't help the allies at all, it will just be done covertly. Jordan in the first Gulf War is a perfect example of this sort of country. They smiled at Iraq and pledged friendship to pacify their population, while backroom dealing with the US.

We've got your back! 
China and Russia really have almost no allies in this category. What they do have are broken and ineffectual (Syria, Belarus.) Basically, no nation of significant consequence could be expected to aid either nation if they inexplicably went to war with the United States.

Matthew Beasley

works at Fanfiction.net

129w ago

In the insanely improbable event of any such war (and neither Russia, nor China, nor the United States are crazy), China's allies are pretty small and limited, namely North Korea. Who, aside from the mass of bodies they can provide in uniform, bring very little of any real value to the table. (As compared to America, who has a considerable number of regional and international allies, all of whom bring plenty to the table)

As for Russia, again I don't think they actually have any real allies that I am aware of.

Source: quota.com

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Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he "completely agrees" with President Donald Trump's critique of the U.N. agency aiding Palestinian refugees.

Netanyahu at his Sunday weekly Cabinet meeting also reiterated support for Trump's threat to cut aid to Palestinians.

The development comes after Israeli media indicated that despite public declarations, Israel is concerned about the ramifications of such a move.

Netanyahu says the organization "perpetuates the Palestinian refugee problem" and the "right of return narrative, in order to eliminate the state of Israel."

The U.S. is the largest donor to UNRWA, the U.N. agency that assists Palestinian refugees. Ending the American aid could precipitate a humanitarian crisis, particularly in the impoverished Gaza Strip, where the majority of residents are eligible for UNRWA's support. Israel could find itself footing the bill.




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President Trump has recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital. But a third of Jerusalem's residents are not Israeli citizens at all. They're Palestinians who hold Israeli residency papers. Israel has revoked those papers from thousands of Palestinian residents, rights groups say. Jerusalem's mayor, however, would not acknowledge it.


"I'm not aware of anybody that his residency was provoked [sic]," Mayor Nir Barkat said in an interview with NPR's Morning Edition about the revocations. "I think, factually, this is probably not true."


But according to an August report by Human Rights Watch, Israel has revoked the residency status of at least 14,595 Palestinians in East Jerusalem since Israel captured the territory from Jordan in 1967. The group cited data that lawyers and rights groups collected from Israel's Interior Ministry through freedom of information requests and court cases.




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Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Friday that rare talks planned for next week between North and South Korea are a sign that the U.S.-led campaign to isolate the North is working. “It’s an indication the pressure campaign is causing the leadership, the regime in North Korea to begin to think about, ‘This can’t go on forever,’” he said in an interview with the Associated Press.


While the upcoming Winter Olympics are the only definite item on the agenda of the inter-Korean talks — the first such meeting in two years — Tillerson said North Korea might raise other matters, including its nuclear weapons. The secretary of state added that the meeting, which starts Tuesday at the border between the two countries — who have officially remained at war since 1953 — could become a platform for the North to indicate interest in talks with the U.S.


The talks could be a “vehicle through which they would like to tell us that they would like to have some discussions,” Tillerson said. “It could be meaningful, it could be important. It could be a meeting about the Olympics and nothing else happens.”




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Saudi authorities made a fresh round of arrests of royal-family members as a group of princes staged a protest at the royal palace over the non-payment of their electricity and water bills, Okaz newspaper reported.


The royal guard arrested 11 princes objecting to a decree that ordered the state to stop paying their utilities after they refused to leave the palace in the capital, Riyadh, the Jeddah-based newspaper reported Saturday, citing people it didn’t identify. The government’s Center for International Communication will seek more information from relevant authorities, it said in response to a request for a comment about the detentions.


In November, authorities swept up dozens of Saudi Arabia’s richest and most influential people, including princes and government ministers, and detained them at the Ritz Carlton in Riyadh. The arrests were ordered by a newly established anti-corruption committee, headed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.




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Ron Tal

Israeli, Canadian, Software Engineer

109w ago

First of all, the Arabs rejected the partition plan outright.

Second, they have failed to establish a functioning set of economic and civil institutions that could manage a state, as the Jews did, during the British mandate (their institutions existed in name only, and whatever semblance of function was essentially a dictatorship ran by the Husseini family).

Third, the Arab league organized an invasion that promised to drive the Jews into the sea after which the local inhabitants will take the homes, farmland and women for themselves.

The resulting conflict resulted in the complete decimation of whatever social cohesion and whatever hope of civic leadership to try and establish a modern state.

The Egyptian and Jordanian occupation did nothing to encourage anything in the sort of local governance instead using it either as a way to increase their own power and prestige, and as a launch pad of attacks against the civilian population of the nascent and volnurable Jewish state.

Jake Tee

Real estate manager

46w ago

After WW1 the British planned a Palestinian mandate, which included all of the land which is currently Jordan, Israel, West Bank and Gaza. Churchill thought like a westerner. “Jews and Arabs both live in the region, let's give each of them a state. Arabs get 80% Jews get 20% everyone will be thrilled.

So….. that didn't happen.

The Hashemite kingdom gladly took independence from Britain and formed Jordan. Instead of all the Arabs going there however, they turned their focus to the Jews and demanded that they be refused a state. The Arabs who lived in the remaining territory stayed there, confident that if they stood their ground the Jews would be prevented from ever forming their state, and eventually it would be annexed by either Jordan, Egypt, or some and some.

Pressure on the British from their Arab allies mounted, and they sought a way to escape from their commitment to the Jews. They restricted all Jewish immigration and kept a solid military force to keep the peace.

The Jews had just been through the holocaust and were growing impatient, especially with millions of homeless, stateless survivors stranded in Europe.

They started putting pressure on the British, carrying out attacks on British soldiers and infrastructure in Palestine and England.

Gradually the Jews wore away the will and patience of the British and they decided the whole palestine issue was far more trouble than it was worth - and they left. Yay!

Now the issue was turned over to the UN for a vote, and the result was the partition plan. One state for the Jews, and one more for the Arabs. In order to accept, each side had to recognize the others legitimacy.

Here’s what the two states would have looked like:

Jews said “Yes!”

Arabs said “No way, war will solve this pesky Jew problem!”

So the combined armies of Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan all launched an all out war on the newborn state with the expressed intent of murdering ever last Jew they find, but they got their faces kicked in instead.

The new Israeli state fought hard and against all odds beat back the Arab coalition, and even gained territory.

At the end of the war the borders looked like this:

The UN had expected the Arabs to accept at least what they had been given, and in the event of a war they predicted that the Jews would lose. Neither of those things happened and the situation on the ground was one that no one had anticipated or prepared for. We now have a Jewish state (they accepted the original plan and were officially recognized) and stateless Arabs just sitting there, still refusing to recognize Israel and therefore not being recognized themselves.

Just like in 1947, when the Arabs launched a war against the Jews to eradicate them from the land, since then they have been carrying out whatever attacks they can. Shootings, stabbings, suicide bombs, plane hijackings, kidnappings, decapitations, lynchings, and most notably - rock throwing.

That’s the deal, and that has been the deal ever since. The Arabs have turned down every offer of statehood, because each of them included recognition of Israel. They want a state without having to recognize Israel.

Actually, their chances of ever getting a state dramatically decreased in 1967 when Jordan, Egypt and Syria tried again (idiots) to wipe Israel off the map.

Unlike the war of independence which was basically a stop of the Arab advance, the 1967 war was a complete and total obliteration of the Arab forces. All the territory which had been set aside for the Palestinians was now under Israeli control. Israel even captured some territory belonging to Syria and Egypt.

It looked like this:

Now the Palestinian state was really far off. Unlike pre-1967 when the Arabs would have been able simply to appoint a representative and formally accept Israel and they would have their state, now with Israel having won the territory, they would need to negotiate a deal with Israel in order for them to allow them to build their state.

Some Israeli’s saw the victory of 1967 as permanent, and started building towns and cities in the territories. These are what are commonly know as “Settlements”.

The settlements are the simply the latest development in the conflict. To some they are a reflection of the lack of faith in the Palestinians desire for a peaceful state. For others they are simply territory won in a war, and they now belong solely and unapologetically to Israel. Some Israelis however, are against settling and building in those territories, and believe regardless of right or wrong - it makes peace less likely.

The public Arab position since 1967 has been that the settlements are the reason there is no peace. One does have to wonder how anyone can take this seriously if the aggression against the Jews has been constant - before and after the war of ’67 or any settlements ever existed.

Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz

I have lived in Israel since 1991 and write about the politics.

39w ago

It was. The Palestinians turned it down. They have been offered a state in this land 5 times and have turned it down each time. This begs the question, if they don’t want a state, what do they really want?

Source: quota.com

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Gaming addiction is to be listed as a mental health condition for the first time by the World Health Organisation. Its 11th International Classification of Diseases (ICD) will include the condition "gaming disorder". The draft document describes it as a pattern of persistent or recurrent gaming behaviour so severe that it takes "precedence over other life interests".


Some countries had already identified it as a major public health issue. Many, including the UK, have private addiction clinics to "treat" the condition. The last version of the ICD was completed in 1992, with the new guide due to be published in 2018.


The guide contains codes for diseases, signs and symptoms and is used by doctors and researchers to track and diagnose disease. It will suggest that abnormal gaming behaviour should be in evidence over a period of at least 12 months "for a diagnosis to be assigned" but added that period might be shortened "if symptoms are severe".



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