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Imagine our confusion when we started to learn geography in school.
But Sir, it’s in the West.
Shut-up and memorize what’s written.
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I was always bemused by the phrase “Indian subcontinent” in fact it has far more claim to continental status than Europe does. The problem was that many of these distinctions were made before plate tectonics were understood.
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I like this idea, but I’m not sure that Western Asia covers it. As @Magnus pointed out, Lybia, Egypt and other Middle East countries (ie. Türkiye) would be excluded from that denomination. It would probably require a wholly new name.
There is the word Levant, but it’s also coined by Europeans: the Venitians when they were reigning over the Eastern part of the Mediterranean.
There is also the Arabic word Mashriq, but it doesn’t cover the whole are of what we call Middle East.
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If we are going to go down a road of naming regions I would definitely locate Iran in Persia 
.
There’s a lot wrong with many names Kurdistan is a mountainous region full of ‘tribes’ loosely known as Kurds.
I refer to north western Africa as Maghreb.
For many purposes Israel is in Europe yet Lebanon is middle east. Surely both are Mediterranean at most near east?
Don’t we just make it up as we go along?
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If you want to change a well established geographical name, just get Trump to do it. Simples.
Gulf of America. 
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Geographical names are entirely artificial. There are streets in Berlin that had four different names in the 20th century, the names of countries change on a regular basis. This one isn’t even an official name like Europe or India. I understand that there are various issues with the alternatives, but it doesn’t alter the fact that the term is colonialist and inaccurate.
Of course, the region has many more pressing issues.
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Oh I agree with your point 100%. It is colonialist.
I was just going for the crap gag 
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Important to know of these people, because they gain a very large sympathetic audience when they speak of Palestinians. But in reality, their ethics are far worse than merely selective.
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another one like medhurst then.
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Never spurn an opportunity 
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This is an absolutely chilling article, taken from the Swiss Amnesty International website:
Israel: Towards a discriminatory application of the death penalty?
March 26, 2026
The Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, is currently debating a new death penalty bill which, in practice, would apply exclusively to Palestinians. During a visit to Switzerland, Yoav Shemer-Kunz, EU Advocacy Lead for the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, explained the implications of this law.
The death penalty already exists in Israel, but it has only been applied twice: in 1948, shortly after the state’s creation, against an army captain accused of high treason, and in 1962, when Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was hanged. Today, the right-wing nationalist government led by Benjamin Netanyahu seeks to mandate the death penalty for “persons convicted of terrorist crimes” by amending the penal code.
The death penalty would apply when Israeli citizens are killed intentionally or through negligence, and when their death results from an act directed against “the State of Israel’s right to exist.” “In reality, this only targets Palestinian perpetrators,” says B’Tselem’s Yoav Shemer-Kunz. “A Jewish extremist who murders a Palestinian would not be affected.”
“The bill provides for two cases where the death penalty would apply. In the occupied West Bank, the death penalty would be handed down by military courts under military law for acts resulting in the death of a person, even if it was unintentional. In Israel and occupied East Jerusalem, the death penalty would apply under Israeli criminal law, but only for the intentional murder of Israeli citizens or residents.”
The debate focuses primarily on whether the verdict should be mandatory. The current bill leaves no room for judicial discretion—the death sentence would be compulsory. A compromise proposal suggests setting the death penalty as the standard but allowing the court to deviate from it in exceptional cases and under specific circumstances.
“Added to this is the fact that the sentence can be carried out within 90 days with no possibility of pardon—a procedure that is absolutely illegal under the Geneva Convention. Israel remains the occupying power in the occupied territories and must therefore apply this convention to all people living in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.”
In the coming days, the Knesset committee will continue its review of the law, after it passed its first reading on November 10 with a majority of 39 votes to 16. “This law would constitute a flagrant violation of international law. And yet, we should expect it to be passed in about two weeks—without any significant opposition in the Knesset,” concludes Yoav Shemer-Kunz.
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Will we ever know what actually happened???
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Much of this has been reported in fragments previously from tweets posted during the war, but I made a threadreader because this contains the most important information found in a fresh quality Haaretz article that sadly is behind a paywall.
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Spitting image nailing in 30 years ago,
Shame that nothing has changed…
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