A Poker Players' Solution To The Middle East Conflict ?

[Chris Alger]

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"Israel has previously conducted negotiations with both the PA and Syria where giving up land for peace was on the table."

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This is true only to an extent. It depends on what you mean by "giving up land." Israel has never recognized a Palestinian right to statehood or a pragmatic need for a Palestinian state. By "state" I mean the meaningful, sovereign sense this term commonly implies. I'm referring to the conditions set by the Israeli cabinet to any Palestinian state envisioned by the roadmap, which in turn incorporate the limitations previously demanded by Israel. Israel, as of this date, does not intend to allow the Palestinians meangingful independence. As long as this situation exists, the prospects for peace in the region are nil.

[Cyrus]

Ralph Peters, writing for the Armed Forces Journal, a Gannett publication, recommends the following frontiers for the greater Middle East. Peters is reknown for his fiction and non-fiction writing, usually involving historical motifs and a lot of "straight, patriotic talk".



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WHO WINS, WHO LOSES

Winners — Afghanistan, Arab Shia State, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Free Baluchistan [new], Free Kurdistan [new], Iran, Islamic Sacred State [new], Jordan, Lebanon, Yemen.

Losers — Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Kuwait, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, West Bank.

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[Exsubmariner]

Cyrus,
If it hasn't been mentioned, and I read most of the thread, not all of it.... I disagree that the profit equals peace.

In your analogy of a poker game, you have to consider all the other stake holders. Consider this particular poker game to be on the WPT. Imagine Mike Sexton is GWB and Vince Van Patton, lets put him in a dress, is Condi Rice. Behind them stand the American economy and all of it's stake holders, including you and I.

I submit that if the poker game continues, there is continued opportunity for the WPT (US) to step in and manipulate the poker industry (middle east peace). Why control it? Because it allows you to squeeze out competing poker shows (Iran) and profit from the whole mess.

Others have already suggested that increased influence in the region, in the form of commerce (i.e. trading for oil), is the true goal of the US's involvement with the conflict. I see nothing wrong with this.

I want to point out that there are too many parties, other than the ones directly involved that have a stake in this poker broadcast. Their motivations and the ways they influence the game from the outside must be taken into account.

[Mason Malmuth]

This thread is now locked and Cyrus is on Vaction. Statements like:

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Is a democracy. (Many people would present objections and qualifiers to that statement on the basis of the status of Palestinians in the Israeli democracy but, for our purposes, we can at the very minimum agree that Israel is a democracy no less, at the basic level, than the Athenian democracy WAS with its helots. Which, in turn, should not be taken to mean that the Palestinians are literally slaves.

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are clearly designed to foment hate.

Mason