I saw a video of the interior of one of the newly decorated stores and I really liked it.
However, my wife and I stopped eating there because the consensus is that their food has gone terribly downhill. I’m sure it’s because they want to avoid raising prices in spite of increasing costs. But at the end of the day it means we are no longer fans of their food.
Yep. Also, reducing the voting age to 18 didn’t help. And there is no way I buy the “old enough to die, old enough to vote” line. They tried it with alcohol and reversed it. Voting does even MORE damage.
Yep. That speaks to why I sorta see Israel in the middle east like the European settlers of North America. They pushed out the indigenous “campers” and created civilization.
Now that Israel has FINALLY abandoned “land for Peace”, I’m looking forward to them simply annexing Gaza and the West Bank and turning the whole area into a middle eastern oasis.
And Arabs will be as welcome there as they are in the current Israel. But they need to be careful that they don’t become the next South Africa.
This whole thing is really just a rabbit hole, at least for me. And a very complicated one steeped in geopolitics, world war, balfour, etc.
For me, it’s similar to arguing the Indians having claim to land in the US. The 20th century, by the end of WWII, pretty much put an end to how land was conquered for the history of mankind, even before we started building walled towns.
The history is interesting, but has little power to enforce changes to modern claims. And no, the Indians (or “native Americans”, as some prefer) are not getting any land back. I think the best thing that could happen to them, long term, is the abolishment of all land treaties and fully absorb them into the states they are currently in. Maybe that would pull them out of the abject poverty that they enjoy so much today.
But, of course, the treaties are sacred. And their leadership is a bit xenophobic.
BTW, based on the history I’ve read, the reason there were so few Muslims in the coastal areas is that that is where the Crusaders entered long before and it was considered by most to be a place avoided - just in case.
Of course, the Jews didn’t worry about such stuff when they bought up so much of the land.
Yes. It’s the only truly civilized country in the region. And now that they’ve finally abandoned “land for peace”, they can bring the Gaza strip and the west bank up to speed.
Yep. “Palestine” is the name of a geographic location, and a very new one. There are palestinian arabs, palestinian jews, etc. But there are no “palestinians”.
And when the Jews took over that area almost a hundred years ago, there were only a few thousand arabs living there. But millions came after Israel tried to civilize the area, and now they are trying to argue that they are “indigenous.” It’s laughable.
It’s like when a metro bus is involved in an accident and everyone around it quickly climbs in so they can claim they were a passenger and should get some benefit.
IMO, any “deep pocket” that assumes any responsibility for preventing such individuals from being behind the wheel of a semi should be sued. This would include the company that hired him, the government that gave him a license, etc.
I’m not saying it went away. I’m saying it reached its peak. And thanks to the internet and the freedom afforded by it (at least so far), the crazies are severely limited and outed.