LongTimeLurker

You assured myself and others in posts on here who queried what was going on that an MoU was in place and appeared to imply that the Stirling Uni scenario would apply if there was subsequent pyramid entry, so I fully understand why Iain Muirhead is upset.

So what? Are you even bothering to read the posts on this subject to try to understand what the issue is? All three Forfar clubs have their own ground and none have used being part of a supposed shared player pathway under another club's branding as a deceitful way into the other club's stadium before turning around and saying they now want to do their own thing as a rival club but with a groundshare at Newtown Park that Bo'ness United doesn't want to happen.

Maybe things are changing in the United States:

1. ...because Saudi Arabia (Sunni) vs Iran (Shia) is now the main dividing line in the Middle east and the former and its allies view Israel as useful in a geostrategic sense for now in pragmatic terms even if they would still prefer in ideological terms that it had never emerged. 2. If Gaza were to be governed by a more moderate two-state solution supporting group as was envisaged in the Oslo Accords process there is no longer an issue with missles potentially causing major damage to the core area of the Israeli state and no longer a need/excuse for a blockade of the Gaza Strip. Hamas still ultimately want it all in a one state of the Islamic variety sort of way so their victory in the 2006 Palestinian elections put a spanner in the works to put it mildly. Likud still want it all in the context of something close to an Apartheid scenario and have no interest in a Palestinian state emerging, so are probably privately more than happy that Hamas launched all those missiles right on cue for Netanyahu's forthcoming election campaign as long as it doesn't overwhelm the Iron Dome system (jury still out on that one). The extremist postures of Hamas and Likud feed off each other.

...have a sneaking suspicion that 3500+ missles fired at Israeli cities is not the most effective way to do that. People understand the cynical game that Likud are playing right now to keep Netanyahu in power but what's less well known is that there was supposed to be a Palestinian Authority election this year: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Palestinian_legislative_election Hamas won the last one fifteen years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Palestinian_legislative_election but Fatah effectively subsequently staged a coup to keep control of the West Bank. It's not just Netanyahu that doesn't believe in a two-state solution along Oslo Accords lines and is happy to have a crisis right now that drives the domestic electorate away from notions of compromise making it impossible to proceed with one. Think this youtube clip (by an Azeri) sums up what's happening right now in a reasonably balanced way (even if I don't agree with it verbatim) at a depth that you are unlikely to obtain from any mainstream cable news outlet nowadays: Way ahead? Both electorates need to stop voting in their extremists and vote instead for parties that are serious about a peaceful two-state solution.

None of these other scenarios involve an unwanted groundshare after the second club has finagled their way in with promises to be part of a player pathway.

https://www.shetlandmuseumandarchives.org.uk/blog/james-hunter-thomson

Just as a fact check more than anything else firing 3500+ missiles indiscriminately at the major popular centres of a military power that is highly likely to respond with immediate disproportionate retaliatory military action that will severely impact your own population isn't the same thing as "any violent resistance to illegal occupation".

...and on and on with the responses that insinuate I have some sort of sympathy with Netanyahu. In reality stating that both sides need to stop voting for extremists clearly implies that I view Netanyahu as a dangerous extremist that belongs nowhere near governance and that the Israeli electorate repeatedly voting him into power is a huge part of the problem. What I have written implies that nothing good can happean until they cease and desist on that. As for the stuff about not voting in Hamas judge for yourselves how accurate the above is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Palestinian_legislative_election

Normal Finkelstein is always worth a listen. His parents were Holocaust survivors from Poland and he's never afraid to get stuck into Israel. Has been banned from entering there since 2004 and has been on the receiving end of relentless criticism from the pro-Israel lobby that do so much to influence the foreign policy of the United States in a negative way. He's quite upbeat about Biden and co not giving Netanyahu the sort of blank cheque they would have received previously and that recent attempts to go after Israel under international law are also having an impact.

Interesting thing is I also met Israelis in Canada who left because they wanted no part of the ongoing cycle of violence either and wanted to move to a better environment where none of that was happening. Nothing good will happen until both sides stop voting in extremists that see the use of force as part of the solution. One set of extremist nutters feed off the other set of extremist nutters in this sort of scenario and an eye for an eye until everyone is blind... ...but you go on thinking that violence from your good guy side is morally justified and is going to lead to anything other than a complete bloodbath over the long term in an Israel-Palestine context. It's easy to be bloodthirsty with other people's lives from a distance when you have no direct involvement.

^^^beneath contempt

Rational thing to do is to emigrate and get your family into a better environment. I met plenty of people from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank who were able to do just that while working in Canada. Like Jake Burns and SLF they didn't waste their lives.

https://collections.falkirk.gov.uk/objects/15201/boness-f-c-with-king-cup Bo'ness FC in 1893

135 years at Newtown Park when you factor in Bo'ness FC who played in the same colours and were one of the two clubs that became United. Can vividly remember hearing as a kid all about how my great-grandfather and his family were around helping to build the ground from the very beginning as they lived in the Newtown miners rows, how out of that grew a club that he was able to watch play at Ibrox against Rangers in a first division game along with my grandfather and how later on he was in the meetings when the BUs were formed in 1945. The idea Linthlithgow Thistle should now have an equal claim on the ground even after misrepresenting their intentions like they did would be completely laughable, if it wasn't actually happening.

Looks that way on paper but when only 180 minutes are involved rather than a full 30+ game season you can easily have that one game where something unusually good or lucky happens and park the bus after that.

...or maybe you should grow up and drop all the Citizen Smith and Freedom for Tooting stuff.

I would have though that after a few wars in MENA people in possession of a reasonable IQ would start to notice how the simplistic one side good other side bad paradigm unravels pretty quickly and would stop applying it. For example, many of the defenders of Misrata in Libya portrayed by the western media as the heroic good guys when still on the receiving end of a severe power imbalance eventually turned out to be a bunch of vile racist thugs where neighbouring Tawergha was concerned once the boot was on the other foot, or how an awful lot of the Syrian protestors from 2011-12 eventually turned out to have an extreme fundamentalist Sunni agenda rather than the secular democratic one that the western media had projected onto them to fit the role of the perceived good guy camp.

A complete misrepresentation of what I have posted. I think both sides need to stop firing missiles etc at each other, both sides need to stop voting extremists into power and both sides need to start seriously negotiating a lasting peaceful two state solution on close to 1967 borders as per UN resolutions. It takes two to tango on all of that.

Again you have clearly not understood what the main issue is.

You clearly don't even understand what happened if you think that's the main issue.

The most likely suspects on promotion in WoS terms were always going to be licensed in time for next season. Auchinleck Talbot, Darvel, Clydebank and Cumnock (yes I know stealing trampolines is more their thing than promotion) already confirmed with Irvine Meadow likely to follow. More relegation slots should already have been opened up at the last Lowland League AGM in other words. It's no sure thing that they'll do the decent thing about the pro/rel bottleneck because most current LL members know their days are numbered in tier 5 terms. They could have added two newly licensed WoS clubs for next season by application rather than the Old Firm colts but chose not to.

...you know you are onto a winner when you start an argument with that as your opening gambit. The irony of what is happening right now is that when the Israelis were occupying the Gaza Strip back in the 1980s they actually actively fostered groups like Hamas to undermine Fatah and the PLO. The chickens have come home to roost on that one in a big way. https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123275572295011847 Agree on the international intervention bit and a change in attitude in Washington is the key. Unfortunately that does not look at all likely.

whatever

What a bizarre question. Can only assume he's desperate to find some way to portray me as pro-Israeli even after writing about how rewarding the original Zionist land grab with a two-state solution is ideologically unpalatable but pragmatically necessary. There won't be peace until both sides stop using violence and keep their extremists marginalised rather than voted into power. It inherently takes two to tango on that.