It is completely impossible to fix anything, when you do not understand what it is that is broke.
People, many of them on this board (though not limited to this board), have managed to fill their heads with some exceedingly bad data. I do not know who keeps making this stuff up, and I guess that I do not really care all that much.
While I do my best to avoid the use of technical jargon, it is an unavoidably necessity in order to continue this discussion.
GIGO (Garbage In . . . Garbage Out): This highly technical term, is used most extensively by computer programmers. Though it is also popular with intelligence analysts. It is used to described how it is possible for a program to produce erroneous results. Computers, and people, both rely on acquired data to form conclusions. So that when the results are erroneous, it can only be because the input data was wrong in the first place.
An excellent example:
Quote:
Originally Posted by chambers92
Unfortunately, the Israeli government doesn't care that 64% of it's citizens favor talks with Hamas and want peace.
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Either this was completely made up, or your information is more than twenty years old. Either way, what possible reason would the government have to care about it? Israel is a Republic, with a Parliamentary style government. It takes less than fifteen minutes for a vote of ‘no confidence’ to implode the government. Any government in Israel that does not listen, does not govern.
Complete with BC’s reply:
Quote:
Originally Posted by BillCosby
Yep............. A fact you don't hear about & overlooked by their gov just like the will of the ppl is overlooked here..........  |
You do not “hear about it” anymore, because those polls are something like twenty years old now (see above). Then there is the most obviously erroneous assumption of the concept of the “majority of one” that is being applied here. Governments do listen. But in any Republic the majority rules. The single biggest reason why politicians from other parts of the country are not interested in listening to your opinions, is that you cannot vote for them. Their job is to represent those people who did vote for them!
Another example of the kind of bad data that is out there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The_Heretic
There's no way one side will win a military or paramilitary fight with the other. The Israeli public has the right idea. Decalre a ceasefire, get out of the occupied lands and let things cool off for the next couple decades.
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By definition: This is what war is. It just keeps going on until someone wins. It only ends when one side is no longer able to continue fighting.
As for the rest: It has been tried. Was working rather well too, until Arafat returned from exile. Then it went all to hell again. Right now, there is just way too much blood under the bridge for that now, I am afraid!!!
And yet again . . .
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jonesy
Israel and Palestine should stop being so self-centered. There's a whole world of people here. Their conflict is about the only thing left preventing world peace - other than the Israel-allied U.S. Iraq thing (the African genocides don't count, as we all know they are contained and short-term). Why don't these two help each other instead of killing each other?
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World peace? A truly wonderful pipe dream, but completely unattainable as anything other than a pipe dream.
Within the Israeli Parliament, for the last two weeks now. The Likud party, lead by Binyamin Netanyahu, has been busy collecting the necessary support for a vote of “no confidence”! From what I am hearing, as of Friday they have the votes now. Or maybe I should say that, they had enough votes before this current operation within Gaza started. How many votes they still have, is unknown at this time.
What this means.
A vote of “no confidence”would collapse the current government in Israel. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert would become unemployed, along with his entire cabinet. Which would almost certainly trigger an election for a new Prime Minister. Which today would almost certainly be Netanyahu.
The real polls in Israel.
For a number of months now, polls in Israel have established that the Likud party has gained some serious support among the Israeli people. When asked: Who would you vote for, if there were to be an election held today? (Depending on which specific poll you use) The Likud party would pickup between eighty to ninety-five percent of the Parliament. Even assuming that pollsters in Israel are not any better at taking accurate polls, than American pollsters are. This would make Mr. Netanyahu the next Prime Minister of Israel, with a majority government.
What this means.
Well to begin with. A majority government means that there would not be any need for any coalition government. Likud would have an unopposed mandate to operate as they see fit. This is because the Israeli people just want an end. Talks, and negotiations so far, have completely failed. The longer the Israeli government has negotiated, the worse things have gotten. It has become obvious to the average Israeli, that negotiations have failed, and that any continued talks are simply a waist of time.
The Israeli people are demanding an end! Right now, they do not care how it ends, just as long as it does end. Assuming that the current operation in Gaza does not save the Olmert government from the pending vote of no confidence. Within a month Mr. Netanyahu will be doing things his way. While I admit that I do not even pretend to know what maybe in Mr. Netanyahu’s mind, I believe that I could make some very accurate guesses.