Juan, summarising a Christian Zionist view, refers to ' the end of that pesky but temporarily necessary Judaism'. In my understanding of Christian Zionism, particularly as expressed in the notes to the Scofield Bible, its more a question of 'that pesky but temporarily necessary Christianity.' The doctrine seems to be that the Jews are indeed the Chosen People destined to rule the world under the headship of the Messiah. The two thousand year history of the Church was a sort of stop-gap measure that was necessary because 'the Jews' failed to recognise the Messiah and do what was expected of them (not much account seems to be taken of the very large number of Jews who did convert to Christianity in its early days). The crudities of early Christianity (Catholic, Orthodox, Copt etc) - idolatry, veneration of the Saints and of the Virgin etc - are due to the fact that they just weren't the right people, they hadn't had the correct preparation. The right people were then and still are the Jews, and all the prophecies refer specifically to the Jews. Once they've recovered the historical land, whatever exactly that might be, Christ will return, this time they, or enough of them, will make the right choice and everything will be hunky dory.
Juan says 'Right now, the Pashtuns are probably split 80-20 in favor of Karzai against the Taliban'. If that's the case (but is it???) then surely Karzai - if he also has the support of the Northern Alliance, and of Iran, and (and he seems to be working on this at present) of Pakistan - must be in with a chance if he can only distance himself from NATO, which is what he seems to want to do, and make a deal with the Taliban. If he really has that level of support among the Pashtun then he is surely the only person who could prevent Afghanistan collapsing into a Somali like chaos and civil war when (and it is a matter of 'when') NATO leaves.
" They will only be resolved by the bestowal of citizenship on Gazans, either by a Palestinian state (which does not exist and would have to be created) or by Israel (which does not want the Gazans as citizens but may end up being stuck with them)."
This (the second of the two options) is the core of the matter. What is required is what nobody at the present time is willing to advocate - that Israel should annex Gaza (and the West Bank) and accept the moral responsibility for the wellbeing of the people living there (who are already entirely subject to its governance). In the first place this would be an undemocratic blatantly apartheit system, as envisaged by John Mearsheimer, but the inevitable endgame, as also envisaged by John Mearsheimer, would be a single democratic state from the river to the sea. If the Israeli Jews would recognize the inevitability of this they could, from their present position of brittle strength, negotiate a good deal for themselves. Israel/Palestine could still be a 'Jewish state'. It would no longer be an exclusively Jewish state.
Unfortunately 'Northern Ireland' is a rather meaningless entity, a non-functional subordinate entity in which mortal enemies are bound together in the trappings of power. Martin McGuinness as Deputy First Minister speaks for Sinn Fein which is traditionally sympathetic to the Palestinians. But as a government minister he is part of an artificial coalition with the Democratic Unionist Party, which is traditionally sympathetic to the Israelis. If the First Minister, the 'Democratic Unionist', Peter Robinson, had made (or even approved) this statement then it would have been very significant. I've done a brief Google search and so far as I can see he hasn't. A proposal to call a special meeting of the Northern Ireland Assembly to discuss the matter was dismissed by DUP spokesmen as a 'stunt'.
Juan, summarising a Christian Zionist view, refers to ' the end of that pesky but temporarily necessary Judaism'. In my understanding of Christian Zionism, particularly as expressed in the notes to the Scofield Bible, its more a question of 'that pesky but temporarily necessary Christianity.' The doctrine seems to be that the Jews are indeed the Chosen People destined to rule the world under the headship of the Messiah. The two thousand year history of the Church was a sort of stop-gap measure that was necessary because 'the Jews' failed to recognise the Messiah and do what was expected of them (not much account seems to be taken of the very large number of Jews who did convert to Christianity in its early days). The crudities of early Christianity (Catholic, Orthodox, Copt etc) - idolatry, veneration of the Saints and of the Virgin etc - are due to the fact that they just weren't the right people, they hadn't had the correct preparation. The right people were then and still are the Jews, and all the prophecies refer specifically to the Jews. Once they've recovered the historical land, whatever exactly that might be, Christ will return, this time they, or enough of them, will make the right choice and everything will be hunky dory.
Juan says 'Right now, the Pashtuns are probably split 80-20 in favor of Karzai against the Taliban'. If that's the case (but is it???) then surely Karzai - if he also has the support of the Northern Alliance, and of Iran, and (and he seems to be working on this at present) of Pakistan - must be in with a chance if he can only distance himself from NATO, which is what he seems to want to do, and make a deal with the Taliban. If he really has that level of support among the Pashtun then he is surely the only person who could prevent Afghanistan collapsing into a Somali like chaos and civil war when (and it is a matter of 'when') NATO leaves.
" They will only be resolved by the bestowal of citizenship on Gazans, either by a Palestinian state (which does not exist and would have to be created) or by Israel (which does not want the Gazans as citizens but may end up being stuck with them)."
This (the second of the two options) is the core of the matter. What is required is what nobody at the present time is willing to advocate - that Israel should annex Gaza (and the West Bank) and accept the moral responsibility for the wellbeing of the people living there (who are already entirely subject to its governance). In the first place this would be an undemocratic blatantly apartheit system, as envisaged by John Mearsheimer, but the inevitable endgame, as also envisaged by John Mearsheimer, would be a single democratic state from the river to the sea. If the Israeli Jews would recognize the inevitability of this they could, from their present position of brittle strength, negotiate a good deal for themselves. Israel/Palestine could still be a 'Jewish state'. It would no longer be an exclusively Jewish state.
"Completely unacceptable Use of Force"
Unfortunately 'Northern Ireland' is a rather meaningless entity, a non-functional subordinate entity in which mortal enemies are bound together in the trappings of power. Martin McGuinness as Deputy First Minister speaks for Sinn Fein which is traditionally sympathetic to the Palestinians. But as a government minister he is part of an artificial coalition with the Democratic Unionist Party, which is traditionally sympathetic to the Israelis. If the First Minister, the 'Democratic Unionist', Peter Robinson, had made (or even approved) this statement then it would have been very significant. I've done a brief Google search and so far as I can see he hasn't. A proposal to call a special meeting of the Northern Ireland Assembly to discuss the matter was dismissed by DUP spokesmen as a 'stunt'.