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# 340 – B.A.D. – Build Another Dubai by Stephen Pohlmann - Ourboox.com

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# 340 – B.A.D. – Build Another Dubai

by Stephen Pohlmann

Helping others to understand Israel - and Israelis to understand others...

Joined Sep 2016
Published Books 481

B.A.D. – Build Another Dubai

[First of all, greetings from a country gone a little crazy over this week’s Eurovision Song Contest being held here in Tel Aviv. Those of you from outside Europe (and in this case, as in most sports, Israel is in Europe) may never have heard of perhaps Europe’s most-watched programme.

Nearly 200 million will be glued to the TVs this Saturday night for the grand finale. Madonna has flown over specially to perform, although it appears there’s still a hitch in her contract (and Roger Waters and his political entourage are hoping beyond hope she does not appear).]

Back to the boring subject….

When you/we/they refer to ‘Palestinians’, are you/we/they recognising the fact that there are many Palestinian factions? The two main ones, the PA (Palestinian Authority) and Hamas (‘democratic’ rulers in Gaza) are not exactly talking to each other.

Despite the constant venomous words by Mahmoud Abbas to his people, the leader of the PA is officially ‘moderate’ and officially our partner in negotiations.

Hamas openly and continuously calls for the destruction of Israel, and gives little indication that it is interested in anything but the status quo. Yesterday’s ‘celebration’ of Naqba Day (Day of Catastrophe), with again thousands of Gaza’s demonstrating on the Israel border and many injuries (no fatalities, thank God), showed again how interested Hamas is in peace.

So let’s focus on Gaza for a couple of minutes.

An article in today’s Jerusalem Post by a Polish professor (and ex-student leader of the Solidarity Movement) revives a much-mentioned subject of investing in the area, perhaps extending its border with Egypt down to the Red Sea, thereby compensating for land given up in the West Bank, and creating a chunk of land worth calling a country. He mentioned ‘another Dubai’. I made up the B.A.D. acronym some years ago.

Well, a lot of what he writes depends on multiple decisions being made by Israel, the Palestinians and the international community which are just dreams. Apart from the naïve attitude that we ‘all think alike’ and that cultures which are centuries apart can be joined with a click of finger and thumb, he forgets that if/when we solve this problem, it’ll only be to prove that this is not the main problem.

Israel’s presence in the Middle East, in fact any non-Muslim presence, is the problem. And one of the only things protecting us from real ‘catastrophe’ is the tribal mentality of the Muslim peoples in the M. East. It’ll take generations, if ever, for them to cohabitant in peace.

5 days ago, there was a great op-ed in the J-Post, written by Amotz Asa-El. An offer that cannot be refused.

Qatar is a tiny country with big money – 2nd largest reserves of gas in the World.

We already know about the $800 million given to FIFA to win the battle to host the 2022 World Cup.

I am sure there are answers somewhere, but:

It’s a country with only 11.5M sq. kilometres area (the fantastic stadiums will be practically within walking distance of each other)
A population of 2.8 million, of which only 350,000, 11.5% are Qatari.
Not sure what the plans are for the stadiums, post-World Cup. Maybe they’re made of Lego, and the pieces will be returned to Denmark to build houses for the new immigrants.

Many workers died in the badly-managed construction of the stadiums and related buildings.
The tournament is being held later in the year because of the high Summer temps, sometimes reaching 50C. That’ll mess up the European league schedules.

Apart from sponsoring sports teams such as Barcelona and the Sky News weather reports, Qatar’s ‘best friend’ is Hamas. Big transfers of cash have been widely and openly pubicised.

Well….Amotz has the solution: Qatar builds a fantastic stadium in Gaza, where there is a 2 million population. And Qatar delegates some of the World Cup matches to the Gaza stadium.

How could Hamas refuse?? Its young male population, making up a large part of the 60% unemployed, are big soccer fans. They would whoop! with joy at the prospect. There would be immediate employment for many.

And it is certain that the stadium would be filled for post-World Cup matches.

Hamas would be shocked into doing something wonderful and positive for the population. Israel would not and could not object, making only slight gestures of border control to let the job get done.

The international community would have a feast day; illustrated daily by the media.

It’s a win-win suggestion.

How do we make this ‘viral’?

And finally, the last 3 images from Hadar Chen’s Monster Calendar –

October – The monster at Mount Tabor

November – The monster at Hula Valley Nature Reserve

December – The monster at Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights

Stephen

May 16, 2019

This free e-book was created with

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It's simple and free.

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# 340 – B.A.D. – Build Another Dubai

by Stephen Pohlmann

B.A.D. – Build Another Dubai

[First of all, greetings from a country gone a little crazy over this week’s Eurovision Song Contest being held here in Tel Aviv. Those of you from outside Europe (and in this case, as in most sports, Israel is in Europe) may never have heard of perhaps Europe’s most-watched programme.

Nearly 200 million will be glued to the TVs this Saturday night for the grand finale. Madonna has flown over specially to perform, although it appears there’s still a hitch in her contract (and Roger Waters and his political entourage are hoping beyond hope she does not appear).]

Back to the boring subject….

When you/we/they refer to ‘Palestinians’, are you/we/they recognising the fact that there are many Palestinian factions? The two main ones, the PA (Palestinian Authority) and Hamas (‘democratic’ rulers in Gaza) are not exactly talking to each other.

Despite the constant venomous words by Mahmoud Abbas to his people, the leader of the PA is officially ‘moderate’ and officially our partner in negotiations.

So let’s focus on Gaza for a couple of minutes.

Israel’s presence in the Middle East, in fact any non-Muslim presence, is the problem. And one of the only things protecting us from real ‘catastrophe’ is the tribal mentality of the Muslim peoples in the M. East. It’ll take generations, if ever, for them to cohabitant in peace.

5 days ago, there was a great op-ed in the J-Post, written by Amotz Asa-El. An offer that cannot be refused.

Qatar is a tiny country with big money – 2nd largest reserves of gas in the World.

We already know about the $800 million given to FIFA to win the battle to host the 2022 World Cup.

I am sure there are answers somewhere, but:

It’s a country with only 11.5M sq. kilometres area (the fantastic stadiums will be practically within walking distance of each other)

A population of 2.8 million, of which only 350,000, 11.5% are Qatari.

Not sure what the plans are for the stadiums, post-World Cup. Maybe they’re made of Lego, and the pieces will be returned to Denmark to build houses for the new immigrants.

Many workers died in the badly-managed construction of the stadiums and related buildings.

The tournament is being held later in the year because of the high Summer temps, sometimes reaching 50C. That’ll mess up the European league schedules.

Apart from sponsoring sports teams such as Barcelona and the Sky News weather reports, Qatar’s ‘best friend’ is Hamas. Big transfers of cash have been widely and openly pubicised.

Well….Amotz has the solution: Qatar builds a fantastic stadium in Gaza, where there is a 2 million population. And Qatar delegates some of the World Cup matches to the Gaza stadium.

How could Hamas refuse?? Its young male population, making up a large part of the 60% unemployed, are big soccer fans. They would whoop! with joy at the prospect. There would be immediate employment for many.

And it is certain that the stadium would be filled for post-World Cup matches.

Hamas would be shocked into doing something wonderful and positive for the population. Israel would not and could not object, making only slight gestures of border control to let the job get done.

The international community would have a feast day; illustrated daily by the media.

It’s a win-win suggestion.

How do we make this ‘viral’?

And finally, the last 3 images from Hadar Chen’s Monster Calendar –

October – The monster at Mount Tabor

November – The monster at Hula Valley Nature Reserve

December – The monster at Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights

Stephen

May 16, 2019