Israel/Gaza conflict

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Originally Posted by Loki

Perhaps because this is the only issue the British left cares about? Meanwhile, a nasty rebel group just took over a city of 400,000 in the DRC (the brave Congolese army didn't even bother to put up a fight, despite having an advantage in manpower and military hardware), and I'm willing to bet that more than 100 people will be killed. Yet no one cares...

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No arguments there. I thought it was interesting anyway, though. The latest I heard from the Congo was that the UN forces, having declined to engage the rebels moving to take the city, managed to get themselves surrounded in an airport.

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Originally Posted by Hazir

In our news both get ample attention. But I think it's time to address this constant whining we get when Israeli actions are addressed in the media. I think it takes a huge dose of dishonesty to treat the news about Israel and Palestine as about the same as a bunch if criminals in Congo; last time I checked the DRC did not get support and aid from the USA to pursue policies that by and large are prolonging the conflict and make a solution harder to achieve.

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Not to mention it's closer to home, and not just geographically.

Also you can hardly be surprised there's more reporting on bombings in the gaza strip, since the death toll is what, 140 vs 5? And for what it's worth, about half of the report was on living in Israel under the threat of rockets, so it's not like it's ignored.

One under-discussed implication of this conflict (and its ending) is that Erdogan has shot himself in both kneecaps by maintaining his rabid attacks against Israel. Erdogan thought that he could make friends in the Middle East by sticking it to Israel, but as a result, he got outmaneuvered by Morsi. Now if someone wants a deal in the Middle East, they fly to Cairo not Ankara. Within a few years, Erdogan managed to go from a policy of no regional enemies, to one of no regional friends and no relevance.

Well, he's still managed to make Turkey popular, but for all the wrong reasons.

Maybe popular on the "street", but also resented in most of the capitals (including the semi-democratic ones). And push comes to shove, he's still a Turk.

He doesn't seem to realize that his position in the Arab world was based on his ability to put pressure on the US and Israel, not because of Turkey's public positions or military strength. Now that is far less the case than it was before.

Yeah, well now that Egypt is back in its leadership role in the Arab world again, his dreams of a muslim sphere are dead in the water. But by flapping his mouth in a way a person without any refinement would do he still gets the hands together in the street in Arab. But as you pointed out; nobody in a position of power cares too much any longer about what he has to say about the Middle East. And in the case of Morsi, not caring is something that comes without any costs at all.

I'm hoping he has Turkey invade Syria. It will help the Syrian civilians while making his own position in Turkey untenable. :noob: