Wrath of Dagon

Hello, Ehud Barak offered Palestinians almost everything they ever asked for, they still rejected it. And what you're saying about negotiating with Abbas is simply not true, I don't know where you get that. The problem is no one represents all the Palestinians right now, so negotiations really can't reach any kind of final agreement. And negotiating with Hamas is completely useless, they simply stall for time and arm themselves more and more heavily, same as negotiating with Iran. It's the height of naivete to believe otherwise. In fact, this last time they refused to negotiate at all, which is why the ceasefire wasn't renewed in the first place, they simply announced they wouldn't abide by it anymore.

That. Both ME and MotB are average games, for somewhat different reasons but the design of both is mediocre. I have higher hopes for DA though, it seems to me they put a lot more effort into it, and certainly they thought the world through very deeply. Also it's being developed for the PC first, so hopefully hardware constraints won't be much of an issue, and the writers promise the game is huge, but not as huge as BG.

Shin Fein is not committed to wiping out Great Britain. Israel does negotiate with Fatah, they even negotiate indirectly with Hamas, although so far it's done a lot more harm than good. If Hamas wants to stop the Israeli response, all they have to do is stop firing rockets. If Hamas wants to lift the economic embargo on Gaza (imposed by all Western nations, not just Israel), all they have to do is renounce the goal of destroying Israel, renounce terrorism, and agree to abide by all prior agreements negotiated between Israel and Palestinians. There's nothing Israel can do to stop Hamas from attacking them except to surrender and turn all their territory over to Hamas. Thus the fault for what's happening in Gaza is entirely on Hamas.

I'd like to make that came, keeping in mind the current rate of suicide bombers from the West Bank. Most of the suicide bombers in the West Bank targetted Jewish settlements, settlements which by the way are illegal under international law. The reason not as many suicide bombers come from Gaza is that Gaza has never had as many Israeli settlers, and those few who had occupied land there were forcibly removed by the Israeli government. So in short, since Palestinians and Israelis have not been living side to side in Gaza, and that is the reason there were fewer suicide bombs there. Again, you seem to be ignorant of history. The settlements are better protected than Israeli cities, most suicide bombings took place inside Israel itself. Back to where? If you've not yet realized that fact, Gaza is basically a large squalid refugee camp. You know, Israeli refugees of Arab descent are not allowed to come back again (not that their old houses aren't bulldozed to the ground anyway). They could resettle them in Egypt, in better conditions than they were living in. Back in 1948, the population of Gaza was far smaller than it is currently. I already said they tried to build industrial zones in Gaza, but they all had to be abandoned when the attacks started. Also Palestinians used to be allowed to earn money in Israel, until that was used as an opportunity to carry out suicide attacks. I already said that twice, try to pay attention. The way Israelis envision eventual peace with Palestinians is to have them closely integrated with the Israeli economy, thus improving their standard of living. It's the Palestinians who want as little to do with Israel as possible, even those who claim to support reconciliation. You really need to try to educate yourself on the issues, instead of reading one-sided propaganda. It's a fact that if all the Palestinian refugees returned (not the original refugees, their descendants), Israel would become a Palestinian state, not a Jewish state. At best all Jews would be exiled, at worst massacred to a person. Jews aren't voluntarily going to gas chambers again, no matter how admirable some would find that. And all Israeli citizens are treated the same under the law, the issue is only who's allowed to become a citizen. I was showing actions and attitudes which were close to genocide (Different races have different rights + one is looked upon as a "threat"). The emphasized sentence makes me sick to even read... You obviously have no concern for other people's right to live at all. You should read the different news reports where Israeli military are reported firing on ambulances who try to get to injured (or dead?) civilians. Don't you have a family yourself? Can't you relate in ANY way to what's happening? How the hell do you know they're intentionally firing at ambulances? Those ambulances are going right into the thick of combat, not that that's wrong, but do you find it so hard to believe they could simply get caught in the crossfire? Besides that, it's documented that Hamas often uses ambulances to ferry troops and ammunition, not that I'm claiming it in this case, since I have no idea, but it's certainly a possibility.

Yeah, I know, and I think there's a new Oddworld game in the works too, but it sounds like it'll still take years. Meanwhile I've got nothing to play. Edit: Thanks for the artwork btw, haven't seen that before, looks very cool.

Ah, yes, the fearsome Russian fleet. Unfortunately a Russian ship that's stationed somewhere is likely to remain stationary, if not actually sink.

Lorne needs to shut up with all the philosophizing and make another game already.

Still, you're not answering my question, only reiterating that Gaza is under control by Hamas. Let's put it this way so you can understand it easier: Why are Hamas in power in Gaza and not in the West Bank? And FYI: I know the current political situation in Palestinian territories perfectly well. Why don't you ask then why did almost all the suicide bombers come from West Bank and not Gaza? The answer is at that point Palestinians were unwilling to negotiate with Israel, and right now Fatah is willing, but Hamas is not, and never will be because of their religious fanaticism. Hamas won elections in all the Palestinian territories, but militarily only won in Gaza, thus the current situation. Yes, for historical reasons Gaza is very crowded, but that's not Israel's doing. You might want to ask why did Egypt never move Palestinians out of their squalid refuge camps back when it had control of Gaza. And as I said, any efforts by Israel to improve economic conditions were met by terrorism, and allowing Palestinians to earn money in Israel was rewarded by suicide bombings. Israel is already guilty of racial discrimination (see Law of Return and this law labeling Palestinian return to Israel "Infiltration"). And even though the stated purpose of not only assassinating Hamas' leaders but also murdering their families is not terror, they are closer to genocide than you appear to believe. I would also point your attention to quotes by Benjamin Netanyahu (Israels next leader?) that speak of the race of Arabs of a "demographic threat". And that is primarily pointed at Arabs who live and work peacefully in Israel. Last but not least, I'd like recommend you all to read this excellent analysis of the current situation by Rabbi Michael Lerner. Israel was founded as a Jewish state, thus the Law of Return. Allowing Palestinian refuges to return to Israel would mean Israel would cease to exist. Israel isn't going to commit suicide just to win admiration from European bleeding hearts. Anyway, once again you change subjects as part of your argument, this time away from genocide. There is no nation that goes farther than Israel to avoid civilian casualties, this against an enemy that purposefully tries to kill as many civilians as it possibly can.

Could you at least study up on your facts before you start arguing? The West Bank is under control of PA, which has accepted Israel's right to exist and is willing to negotiate with Israel. Gaza is under control of Hamas, which believes in total destruction of Israel and using any means necessary to achieve that goal. That is why rockets are coming from Gaza, that is to say from Hamas. Israel will not commit genocide, because it's a civilized nation. However genocide is exactly what would happen is Hamas ever won. And whoever said why doesn't Israel give all of Gaza to Palestinians, that is exactly what they did, there were no Israelis in Gaza until yesterday, and as the reward they got constant rocket attacks.

Do you believe in Santa Clause too? With the credit Hamas would get for improving the lives of Palestinians while attacking the hated enemy with impunity, they would only get stronger and more popular. What you're talking about has never happened in human history, to maintain such fantasy is mindboggling. As I've said before, Israel did try to improve the lives of Palestinians, in fact things are much better on the West Bank, but it's impossible to do when all attempts at reconciliation are met with suicide bombings and rocket fire.

You are spreading misinformation. Hamas remains completely committed to the total destruction of Israel, as is their boss Iran. Everything else is just a fantasy. Not only won't they negotiate a peace, they won't even extend the ceasefire. And the Hamas terrorists were killed because they were digging a tunnel to carry out an attack inside Israel.

Those look like titles that've been announced, not necessarily titles that've been announced for 09.

The children might be relevant, but you completely changed your argument in the middle.

I don't know that 64 bit has much to do with it. NWN2 crashed quite a bit on my 32 bit XP machine, especially towards the end of the game. MotB ran rock solid on that machine (except for the horrible lag, but that's a spec issue). When I started it on Vista, it got many crashes, which I'm pretty sure are related to the video driver, but I seem to have accidentally fixed it, at least so far.

More from Ralph Peters: http://www.armchairgeneral.com/the-guns-of...amas-reacts.htm

The answer is simple: only 15 Israelis have been killed by rocket attacks (since 2002) while over 600 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military in Gaza in response to these attacks. Tell that to the children being killed, and who watch their friends being killed, in both sides of this conflict. The violence has to stop if those are to get a chance to grow up to anything else than violent fanatics themselves. As usual liberals display an awesome inability for logical reasoning. You were talking about dealing with children, and I answered in that context, now you completely change the subject to something else. And the issue is not just casualties, the issue is the whole Israeli population within the rockets' reach being terrorized daily. How would Sweden respond if Stockholm came under daily rocket attack? Did the grand hypocrites think that through? You're right, the violence must stop, and it will stop as soon as Hamas quits firing rockets at Israel. Edit: And in case you're not following the news, Hamas rockets are getting longer range and more powerful. Is Israel supposed to wait until they have the same missiles as Hezbollah, so in the next outbreak they'll lose 140 people or more?

Hamas doesn't just want statehood or the settlement land. Their stated goal is complete destruction of Israel.

I had some crashes with MotB on Vista 64. I messed with some graphic settings in the game and so far it's been working.

These are not children they're dealing with. It's kind of hard to improve living conditions for someone trying to kill you. They tried to set up industrial zones etc, but of course any Israeli who tried to show up there recently would be instantly killed. You'll note the living conditions on the West Bank have improved significantly since PA decided to engage Israel peacefully.

What, you think there's actually an infinite number of Hamas members? And they did agree to ceasefires in the past after getting enough punishment. Edit: No there isn't, if there is what is it?

Yes, they're not infinite, and their behavior has been modified in the past. When someone attacks you, you have to retaliate, that seems so obvious I don't see why I would have to defend that idea. Perhaps you think they should just accept their fate and agree to being murdered without protest, in which case there's really nothing left to discuss.

And your alternative would be what? Just sit on your hands while your people are being murdered?

FO3 going to more countries. http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3172088 They would allow it in Saudi Arabia? Really?

Not sure what your point is. Whether it's intentional or incidental makes a huge difference. Any country has the right to defend itself. No one has the right to intentionally target civilians.

What the hell does that mean, when terrorists intentionally kill civilians it's more OK than if a democratic state does it?