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Nobody has the right to annex sovereign territory, in a, to the victor goes the spoils, justification! And would need a preexisting declaration that a state of war existed between Jordan and Britain? To have force of agreed international law?
And not because England and Germany fought a desert war around there!
As Germany sought to "acquire" oil supplies! And Britain attempted to prevent it! As the local population and their meagre possessions, were either collateral damage or ill informed pawns, obliged to take sides?
Moreover, there is as you say both the two state road map And a later ratified two state solution! Which you seem to want to renege on, on the filmiest of concocted confections/alleged reservations?
As it would've completely curtailed any expansion of the illegal settlements and all the egregious behaviour that went with this forced dispossession of the centuries old habitation by the former generational owners!
That you can't see a problem here, makes you, I believe, no better than a land grabbing Nazi, operating on the might is right principle!
I don't blame the Palestinians for digging their heels in! Neither do, I believe, the majority of decent Israelis/Jewry/ good international citizens!
Take what you're going to take and spill as much blood as you need to to"acquire" new territory!
Just don't try to re-word/hollow out old agreements to make it seem legal or to have the force of existing international law! And stop labelling any and all who disagree with your bombastic belligerence/BS, anti Semitic!
I will continue to say exactly what I think and truly believe, even if That upsets the resident bully! COUNT ON IT!
As for D trump he is probably even more apprehensive/twitterpated about, what might spill from his lips any hour only to say or tweet something completely different within hours?
" Units of 1st Panzer Army, specifically 13th Panzer Division of III Pz.K., reached the area just west of Ordzonikidzevskaja on November 5, 1942. Ordzonikidzevskaja is about 50 miles west of Grozny near Caspian Sea of Iran and Palestinian West Bank . That was the furthest into the Soviet Union that German units penetrated during the war".
"Nobody has the right to annex sovereign territory .... "
There were/are probably a few caliphs , sheikhs, khans, emirs and sultans across the various Muslim Empires over the past 1400 years who would disagree with you, not to mention the 500-year rule of the Ottomans. But let's instead curse the French for 'annexing' territory in the Levant for twenty or thirty years, and the ever-evil British for annexing bits of the Ottoman Empire for all of forty years. That was then, this is now.
the Jewish Agency used explosive arguments to repel the poms. Putin marched in with tanks for freedom in Crimea . The elderly Mr Singer claims moral rights to bulldoze Palestinians. It's bullets not Law that he is banging away at.
Dave is becoming an objectionable nuisance on this forum, and he's not going to go away unless we stop playing his silly little game. If you really feel the need to comment, just call him a daft old fool and move on. He's basically the Jewish version of runner, and should be treated accordingly.
Now wait... he'll be along to accuse me of bigotry against an entire race for calling him a nuisance any second now.
Well. yeah ..... what's your defence ?
Aflao, Feb 07, GNA - Togo on Monday opened its side of the border about 38 hours after it shut its land borders and ports following the death of its long time President Gnassingbe Eyadema on Saturday. Stranded vehicles and people were seen crossing over from both sides with little or no difficulty and security on the Togo side of the border was relaxed.
Mr Jonathan Boamah Boateng, Chief Collector of the Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) said the sector stands to lose substantial revenue that could negatively affect its first quarter and 2005 revenue targets.
"Every second matters in revenue collection. If for hours and days we sit idle, you could imagine the effect on our revenue collection. "It is not only the first quarter that stands affected but the expected annual target as well," he told the GNA.
CRYSTAL PALACE are lining up a double swoop for Bafetimbi Gomis and Pape Souare.
The Eagles are in advanced talks to sign the Swansea striker and Lille defender next month.
A new front man and left back are two of boss Neil Warnock’s January transfer window priorities.
And the south Londoners are increasingly confident of securing both Gomis and Souare.
Starsport understands Palace are hopeful of making a breakthrough this week in their bid to bag targetman Gomis, 29.
He has a £7m buyout clause in his Swansea contract though that doesn’t kick in until next summer.
Palace could try to strike a loan deal next month to avoid having to pay over the odds in the January window.
And if they were successful it would end their interest in Arsenal’s Yaya Sanogo.
Palace also have Wilfried Zaha on loan from Manchester United and can only have two players on loan from their top-flight rivals.
Gomis only joined Swansea in the summer on a free transfer from Lyon and has scored twice in six starts and 11 substitute appearances.
Palace will offer Gomis regular first team football he has been unable to secure at the Liberty Stadium where he has played second fiddle to eight-goal top scorer Wilfried Bony.
Gomis’s wages, though, are another potential stumbling block.
His current £50,000 package is the maximum Palace are willing to offer.
But they may have to push the boat out to tempt him to make the drop from mid-table Swansea to relegation-threatened Palace.
Palace have made a £2.5m offer for Souare, 23, after a move for Roma’s Ashley Cole failed to get off the ground.
Lille are understood to want £3m but they are strapped for cash and Palace are now trying to agree a cut price deal.
Warning: Association with co-ops could prolong life, promote financial security.
Jesse Donaldson is an author, journalist, photographer, and one of the founding members of The Dependent Magazine. His forthcoming book, This Day in Vancouver, will be published by Anvil Press. Find his previous Tyee articles here.
This article is part of a Tyee Presents initiative, made possible with the support of Vancity Credit Union. Vancity is a financial co-operative owned by members. This model has enabled Vancity to translate member deposits into millions of dollars of credit, grants and shared profits that support local economic, social and environmental initiatives.
Tyee Presents is the special section within The Tyee where we highlight contests, events and other initiatives that are either put on by The Tyee or by our select partners. We choose our partners carefully and consciously, to fit with The Tyee's reputation as B.C.'s Home for News, Culture and Solutions. Partners do not have editorial control over articles within Tyee Presents initiatives. Learn more about Tyee Presents here.
The co-op movement is thriving in Vancouver. Photo by Reckless Photography/Rufio van Hoover, via Modo the Car Co-op.
Tyee Poll: What percentage of Canadians are members of at least one co-op?
As of 2012, there were an estimated 1.4 million co-operatives in existence worldwide. Far from being a product of the flower-child era, co-ops are among the world's oldest and most resilient forms of social enterprise, ranging from the very large (Best Western, for example) to the very small (Vancouver-based SHIFT, for example), and today they have grown to hold a stake in everything from agriculture to politics.
In fact, so far-reaching is their influence that in 2009 the United Nations passed a unanimous resolution naming 2012 the International Year of Co-operatives, to recognize their contribution to our social and economic landscape.
In Canada, Oct. 13 to 18 is Co-op Week. Just in time for the festivities, The Tyee presents five facts about a movement centuries in the making.
As in, close to 600 years.
That said, modern co-operative businesses can trace their roots back to the Rochdale Principles, a set of guidelines developed in England in 1844 by a group of labourers known as the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers.
They are believed to be the first co-operative in history to pay a patronage dividend, rewarding members financially for their investments. Every one of its 28 members paid a pound each toward housing, the establishment of a co-op store and the manufacture of goods, with the direction of the business to be determined solely by the members (this, especially, was unusual at the time).
And while the Pioneers are the most often cited example of early co-operative success, Rochdale in the mid-1800s was a hub of co-op activity (born from the depths of Industrial Revolution poverty and unemployment), beginning with the Rochdale Friendly Co-operative Society formed in 1830.
Rochdale was a solid beginning for the co-operative movement, and its establishment in North America wasn't far behind. Co-op organizations began appearing in North America in the late 1840s (often developing hand-in-hand with the burgeoning labour movement), with the first true co-op store in Canada opening in Stellarton, Nova Scotia in 1861.
Farming co-ops were the first to have widespread success in Canada; between 1860 and 1900, farmers in Ontario and the Maritimes were responsible for developing a number of co-operative cheese and dairy factories, as well as mutual insurance. And 1906 saw the birth of the Grain Growers' Grain Company, which allowed prairie farmers to market directly to millers, as well as buyers in Europe.
These days, there are co-ops in every corner of the business landscape, influencing how we get around, how and where we live and what our communities look like.
On the local level, the car-sharing co-op Modo, which now boasts 250 vehicles and 10,000 members across the Lower Mainland, began back in 1997 with only two cars and 16 people.
Housing co-ops have existed successfully for decades, with many residents (such as those in Kitsilano's Trafalgar Housing Co-op gearing up to celebrate their final mortgage payments before the end of the decade. Newer co-ops also continue to be developed and financed, including the First Avenue Athlete's Village, where 25 per cent of the units feature below-market rents.
There are also community-minded organizations like Common Thread (which employs mentally ill, newly-arrived, and low-income women to make tote bags from recycled street banners), as well as Our Community Bikes and the Vancouver Tool Library which provide members with tools they can borrow and workshops and seminars on how to use them.
And did you know that Ocean Spray (of Cranberry Cocktail fame) is a co-op? In existence since 1930, it includes more than 650 growers across North America, and as of 2005 boasted profits of more than $1.5 billion. Commercial cranberry producers have been involved in the co-operative movement for more than a century, and in fact, Ocean Spray's collective ownership structure has allowed it to survive a number of disastrous developments over the years, including a USDA cancer scare in 1959 (which saw fresh cranberry sales literally plummet to zero), and a widespread price collapse in the 1990s. Though it was originally founded under a far less catchy name ("Cranberry Canners, Inc."), and initially sold little more than jellied cranberry sauce, the co-op is now the largest collective producer of cranberries in the world.
Believe it or not, Real Madrid, the most valuable football club in the world (estimated to be worth €3.3 billion in 2013), has been owned by fans since its foundation in 1902.
In that time, they have also been one of the most successful, going on to win nine European cups -- more than any other team in Europe. In addition, the team also holds the record (which they have broken three separate times) for paying the highest transfer fees ever recorded, acquiring Zinedine Zidane (€76 million), Cristiano Ronaldo (€96 million), and mostly recently Gareth Bale (€100 million).
Adding fuel to the fire, FC Barcelona, Real Madrid's chief rival (and the third most-valuable soccer franchise in the world) is also owned by its supporters. Formed in 1899, FC Barcelona now holds more official titles than any other team. And, while fan ownership certainly increases passion for the game (FC Barcelona has a record 45 million fans and counting), it has also contributed to the bitter rivalry between the two teams; Madrid fans are already notorious for stooping to racial insults against opposing players, and on one occasion, Madrid fans even assaulted Barcelona chairman Enric Piñeyro.
And fan ownership doesn't stop with Europe; the Saskatchewan Roughriders, one of few publicly-owned sports franchises in North America, has sold shares to the public on a number of occasions throughout its history, allowing shareholders to determine the team's future by voting on key issues.
Sound like a lofty claim?
Not according to Dr. David Erdal, who wrote his PhD thesis on precisely that. In 1997, Erdal compared three cities in the Bologna region of northern Italy -- all prosperous, with low unemployment rates, and all within 50 miles of one another. On paper, the three cities were statistically identical, except in one key region: employee ownership.
One town, Imola, had 26 per cent of its population employed in worker co-ops, while the others (Faenza and Sassuolo) had 13 per cent and zero per cent, respectively. What he discovered was startling: not only was the population of Imola living 2.5 years longer on average than in the other two regions, but they also scored better in virtually every metric he surveyed, including health, education, crime, social participation and perception of the social environment.
In Imola, a town where one in four workers is employed by a co-op, the entire population experienced significantly less cardiovascular disease, less crime (including less domestic violence), higher voter turnout and less social and economic stratification. They even donated blood more frequently. And while Erdal's study was the first of its kind, it speaks to broader social changes that are allowing co-ops to increase in both size and influence, playing a part in community and even politics, and strengthening a movement 600 years in the making.
Even in the face of the current global recession, the future of co-op business is staggering in scope, reaching beyond the business landscape, even into public utilities and government. Currently, it's estimated that there are more than 30,000 co-ops operating in the United States alone. Spain's Mondragon Corporation, formed by a handful of technical college grads in the Basque region, now employs more than 80,000 people.
Despite a shaky history which dates back to the 1920s, the U.K.'s Co-operative Party (a political association which represents the interests of -- you guessed it -- co-operatives), has since the late 1990s grown to become the fourth-largest political party in Britain, exercising considerable influence over both past and present-day policy-making.
In fact, co-operative businesses in Britain have remained remarkably resilient since the recession, a 9.8 per cent overall increase in revenue since 2008 (compared to a 1.7 per cent decrease in the general economy). Not only that, but the co-op model seems to contribute to business longevity. After three years, 98 per cent of British co-op companies are still trading on the stock exchange, compared to only 65 per cent of private ones.
And in the face of a current debt crisis that threatens to see their public water supply sold into private hands, the people behind Thessaloniki, Greece's Initiative 136 are taking a stand, and working to transfer the public utility into the hands of a network of citizen-owned co-ops. While it remains to be seen whether the initiative will be successful, it speaks to broader social changes that are allowing co-ops to increase in both size and influence, playing a part in community and even politics, and strengthening a movement 600 years in the making.
William "Billy" DeWalt felt helpless and scared when a petit mal seizure would grip him more than 10 times a day, leaving him completely immobile but still able to hear everything around him.
Ten years of military service left him with depression and an anxiety disorder. A traumatic brain injury, which forced him to leave the military when he was 28, resulted in memory retention problems and seizures.
He felt like no one could help him readjust to civilian life, and it was nearly impossible to get into a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs medical center for the care he needed.
"I was mad," said DeWalt, who turns 40 this month. "I gave all I had as a soldier and felt discarded after my injury and unimportant. It was a tough pill to swallow, but I kept moving forward to provide for my kids as best I could."
Now, more than 10 years later, DeWalt runs to ensure that no one else will feel the same way he did.
He is running his 19th half-marathon Sunday, March 13, to continue his mission of raising money for local veterans organizations and to raise awareness of the difficulties they encounter after leaving the military.
He's running in the GNC Half-Marathon, which is part of the annual Tobacco Road Marathon in Cary. The event, which also features the Allscripts Marathon, has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charitable organizations, including the Wounded Warrior Project.
Organizers expect about 4,000 runners, 500 volunteers and 8,000 spectators to attend the event, now in its seventh year.
DeWalt, a Wake Forest resident, served in the U.S. Army from 1994 to 2004 as an airborne medic. He was stationed in Germany and Fort Bragg with assignments in the 82nd Airborne and 1st Infantry Divisions.
After an accumulation of head injuries resulted in his traumatic brain injury, DeWalt attended ECPI University and earned a degree in network administration and security management. He not only had to readjust to civilian life but he had to go to college and raise a family at the same time because he joined the military when he was 18.
"It was like one day I was in the Army, and the next day I was a civilian. That was it," he said.
This difficult transition, plus the side effects from his brain injury, caused DeWalt to jump between several jobs in different industries.
DeWalt now is a project manager in the healthcare industry. He also is a board member with the Military and Veterans Resource Coalition, a local nonprofit that seeks to connect service members and veterans with organizations that provide medical care and other aid. He also is a member of Team Red, White and Blue, which gets veterans involved in their community through physical and social activities.
He said he sympathizes with those who must readjust to civilian life after leaving the military.
"When I got out in 2004, there wasn't really anybody there to help me at all," he said. "I kind of figured it out in my own way to get to where I am today. I want to try to help other veterans not have to go through all the stumbling points that I had to get through myself."
DeWalt, the father of five children who are 7 to 20, hasn't had a seizure in eight years.
He believes running played a role in his improved health.
"It burned off my anxious energy," he said. "It helped me focus on what I needed to do throughout the day."
It also has given him a sense of purpose.
His goal is to run 15 half-marathons this year, including Sunday's event. This year alone, he's raised about $1,500 for MVRC and Team Red, White and Blue. He participated in last year's Race 13.1 half-marathon in Durham, which he completed with a stress fracture.
"For that race, we raised $400," he said. "I said even if I have to crawl in, I have to do this race."
Sunday, he is raising money for veterans causes through more than just his race registration.
For each mile he runs, DeWalt and other runners with Team Red, White and Blue will earn money toward their organization.
Money donated directly by family, friends and others will go to the MVRC. Those contributions go directly into an emergency fund for veterans in need.
"We use that fund in a kind of pay-it-forward mentality," said Erin Timmermans, MVRC's interim board chairwoman. "So the veteran is asked to either pay us back or pay that money forward toward another veteran."
Timmermans said since DeWalt joined MVRC last year, he has become a dedicated "fundraising aficionado."
"If you think about the dollars that he has raised, he's just the catalyst for change that just continues to grow in our community," she said. "It just takes doing what you already do to make a difference, and I think that he is a fabulous example of how anyone can integrate that into their daily life."
© Copyright 2019 The Cary News (Cary, N.C.). All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
I was one of those people who voted against genetically modified organism food labeling.
Why? Well, because I know the truth about GMOs, and I don’t buy into the hype that says they’re bad or need to be specially labeled.
I have some knowledge on GMOs because my family used to be big in agriculture, particularly the almond industry.

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