ISRAEL: Most Hated Country in the World?

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Arrian


Heh, so apparently you've forgiven Theo? Cog in the machine, baby. The Nation has become somewhat Imperialistic of late

This should be a fun season. Both teams are loaded with talent again.

-Arrian

No, I still think Theo sucks - Pineiro?!?! No closer? details, details...

Not to mention that Lugo's defensive failures (already demo'd to beautiful effect in spring training) just don't offset the additional OPS he provided over Gonzalez. IMO, having Gonzalez would also help Pedroia develop better at second.

It's always a fun season, but I think it's just insane to have a hole at closer at this stage. Timlin can more or less do the job, but he's made more appearances than any pitcher in the game over the last four seasons, so I think it's a big question of how much he has left before he trashes his arm or shoulder?

[Arrian]

I'm betting on Donnelly.

-Arrian

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
What's been going on with everyone/thing in polyville?

Arrian mentioned some changes. We've also got a Sports Forum.

[Arrian]

Heh, this is true. We could start up a 2007 MLB thread.

-Arrian

[MichaeltheGreat]

You mean there isn't one yet?

Or we could just threadjack and bug the crap out of people.

Donnelly? - 5 for 15 in career saves vs save opportunities. Hell, if I was Steinbrenner, I'd offer to pick up his payroll if he's the Sox' closer.

[Arrian]

No, there was an offseason thread that has fallen off the front page. I've been pondering bumping that or starting a new thread... and have thus far been too lazy to do either

As for Donnelly, oof! I didn't know he had struggled that much in the role. That's Scottie Proctor-esq. He was a damned good setup man for a number of years, though.

-Arrian

[MichaeltheGreat]

Yeah - the Sox have a lot of good setup guys. More than they can use, but nobody to solidly shut things down.

The one trade I was hoping for was to get Aki Otsuka from Texas. He's a buddy of Matsuzaka's, and did great in the setup role in SD and as a closer in Texas.


Maybe Theo's theory of the month is that if the starters give you innings and you bludgeon the other team offensively, you can give back most of your lead in the ninth.

Should be entertaining.

[Heresson]

Mobius is kind of right, except for the part about happy dhimmis in Middle East.
He's right that only the creation of Israel made Jews really hated there.
I'd also like to remind You that by that time equality of religion was theorethically established in Ottoman Empire; there were christian and jewish MOP etc.
Israel did establish itself in the Middle East without any respect for local inhabitants, whom they were happy to get rid of, hoping they'd blend into the population of the regions they took refuge in.
Israeli creation and its further behavious destabilised entire region and is responsible for the rise of islamic fanaticism and hatred towards the West in the muslim world.

[Arrian]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
Yeah - the Sox have a lot of good setup guys. More than they can use, but nobody to solidly shut things down.

The one trade I was hoping for was to get Aki Otsuka from Texas. He's a buddy of Matsuzaka's, and did great in the setup role in SD and as a closer in Texas.

Maybe Theo's theory of the month is that if the starters give you innings and you bludgeon the other team offensively, you can give back most of your lead in the ninth.

Should be entertaining.

Well, if Donnelly can move into Timlin's role, then Timlin could close. He isn't Mariano, but he's not terrible.

And you never know. If the closer situation is a real problem, I wouldn't be surprised if Papelbon is suddenly medically cleared to relieve again.

-Arrian

[Arrian]

Israeli creation and its further behavious destabilised entire region and is responsible for the rise of islamic fanaticism and hatred towards the West in the muslim world.

That's a bit of a stretch, blaming all of it on Israel. Israel is obviously a key element to all that, but there would be Islamic fanaticism w/o Israel. They'd be ranting and raving about Western culture, or Western support for apostate governments (Saudi Arabia, etc), or some other affront, real or imaginary.

-Arrian

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by Arrian


That's a bit of a stretch, blaming all of it on Israel. Israel is obviously a key element to all that, but there would be Islamic fanaticism w/o Israel. They'd be ranting and raving about Western culture, or Western support for apostate governments (Saudi Arabia, etc), or some other affront, real or imaginary.

-Arrian

Particularly as bin Laden's original shopping list didn't even include Israel - it was mostly about Saudi Arabia ISTR. More like Israel was tacked on to the list of excuses after western Israel-bashers wrote the script.

[Heresson]

yeah, I wrote about it in my post, but decided it was getting too long, so I trimmed it.

[Arrian]

Yep. It was an afterthought. "Oh, yeah, that really riles 'em up, that bit about the oppressed Palestinians! How could we have forgotten that! Quick, stick in a new paragraph about the Zionist Imperialist Entity!"

-Arrian

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
You havent been listening closely enough. There have been many whove pointed out widespread antizionism in Britain and some who have pointed out the antisemitism which, while not the same thing, often accompanies it.

If theres been less concern about antisemitism in Britain, that may have to do with a much lower level of violent incidents against Jews in the UK.

Can't argue with that, as I didn't follow all those debates. It was just something from my experience, including from my experience on 'Poly.

German numbers, I would not, include the population of former East Germany, who were certainly exposed to anti-Israel propaganda.

East Germans accounted for about 20% of the population of unified Germany. They are far from explaining the German numbers all by themselves, even if we were to accept that all of them would see Israel negatively (which is quite a stretch already).

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Heresson
Mobius is kind of right, except for the part about happy dhimmis in Middle East.
He's right that only the creation of Israel made Jews really hated there.

actually its considerably more complex than that. Leaving aside the whole dhimmi thing. From the early 19th century onward, Jews who were quick to take advantage of contact with the West, to gain education, to use their contacts to expand their role in trade, etc were increasingly resented in the region - something similar happened to some Christian communities, for similar reasons.


This contributed to the strength of the Zionist movement among Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews, which in turn further alienated the muslims. Thats why some of the worst anti-Jewish acts, like 1943 Baghdad pogrom, came before the independence of Israel.