The Middle East Problem explained in 6 minutes

I cant's say I have been ever as disappointed in this forum as I am now, I came in expecting an educational video. Being an expert on the situation, I liked to see how this guy can explain the very complicated ME situation in 6 minutes. He then proceeds to collapse all the problems of the ME into one part of it.

There was no mention of the Arabisim movement, no mention of the gulf wars, no mention of the rise of the GGC countries due to oil. No mention of the reasons why the Arab spring happened. Seriously, claiming he is explaining the whole ME situation and then only talking about the Israeli-Arab conflict is ridiculous.

That enough should tell everyone who watches this video about the biased nature of the speaker. Explaining a conflict as deep as the Israeli Arab conflict in 6 minutes is in itself a farce.

He spent 6 minutes on that video, I can spend 6 days arguing against every point he made.

But let me go from the top:

His explanation of the forming of Israel is full of holes, not only did he not mention what the region was before Israel came to be. No mention of the history of the idea, from Balfour Declaration of 1917 to the eventual United Nations partition act. He casually mentions how the Arab states refused to sign (if they refused to sign, you should have negotiated more instead of declaring yourself a nation) and then skips right to the war. He falsely explains how Palestine would have been divided by tow "halves" while the landmass Israel got was about 56% while they only legally owned 7%. He does not mention how Israel got a continuous land mass and the plains of the south while Palestine where stuck with a non-contentious land mass.

Then he just briefly mentions the 1948 war without mentioning the heavy reinforcements Israel got from the U.S and the U.K.

The legitimacy of a country existing from thin air is never questioned by him, the rights of the people who owned the land never addressed. If that is not bias I do not know what bias is.

He claims that Arab states want "Jews to be killed" while the simple consensus is to free the Palestinian, and have a democratic Palestine that incorporates ALL Palestinians whether they are Jew, Hindu, Muslim, or fraking Scinetologists.

Claims on the History of Palestinian states;

First, he claims that Palestine was a part of Jordan, which is untrue. Palestine was a British colony, and was fighting for independence similar to Syria and Jordan. There were calls for a Palestine before 1917 which saw the Balfour Declaration.

Second, he falsely claims that no state on Palestine, that have never been Jewish. Which is absolute Bull Shit.

Here are a couple of states that controlled that Area and were not Jewish:

1- The Neo-Babylonian Empire.
2- Alexander the great's empire.
3- Egyptian Empires.
4- The Roman empire.
5- The Islamic empires.
6- The Mongol Empire.
7- The Ottoman Empire.

States that only had control of Palestine and few neighboring territories.

1- The Canaanites whom current Palestinians are from were the first Civilization to inhabit Palestine, and they were kicked out or subjected to Israeli rule after the Israeli invasion. This is NOT a Jewish state, and is an Arab state (Canaanites are considered ancestors of Arabs).

2-The Assyrian Empire. Non-Jewish

3- The Fatimids. Muslim.

4- The Ayubids. Muslim

5- The Mamluk's. Muslim

6- The Britich Colony of Palestine.

From all the above states, you can see clearly that this guy is talking out of his ass. He also fails to mention the death toll cause by Israel against Palestinians in times of peace which borders on 500000 thousand out of 3 million, since 1 million Palestinians were driven out of Palestine after the 1948 war.

He also uses 2 and half minutes talking about illogical scenarios that invlove Martians and absolute theories. This is obviously a troll video that is aimed at people with very little knowledge of the subject, aiming to make them sympathize with Israel, and hate those "evil Jewish hating racist terrorist Arabs". Which is obvious by the choice of pictures he portrayed the Arabs with in contrast with the Israelis.

Also, the quote about "Khamas" (it is Hamas you moron, learn to pronounce your subject matter) is non-existent and is further of the proof on propaganda that exists against them and Muslims in general.

Of course, they are completely ignoring the use of illegal weaponry including white phosphorus against civilians.

This video completely disappointed me. Apparently, you don't have to double check your facts or cite your source in youtube. Nor do you need credibility when you are part of the majority.

oh well, now i know not to watch anything by prager university



Lord Spencer, pointing out the biased video, hopefully people aren't taking this seriously

LS, I think he specified autonomous regions. Clearly he can't be ignorant of the fact that it has been under control of non-jewish states before.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:LS, I think he specified autonomous regions. Clearly he can't be ignorant of the fact that it has been under control of non-jewish states before.

The Cannanites, the Assyrians, and the Ayubids were autonomous regions primarily situated in Palestine.

He completely ignored those three states.
Also, those three are done on basic research. If I need to go deeper I would find more lesser states. Which there was.

LS, how did you become such an expert on this topic?

everest1 wrote:LS, how did you become such an expert on this topic?

I have a degree on political science and sociology from UT Austin.

Have taken major course on the subjects from Cornell, Harvard, Oxford, and UT Austin.

I have a law degree, with a concentration on political affairs in the Middle East from a self designed course
with the help of UT Austin.

I got the Law degree by studying at the above institutions.

Also, reading, reading, and reading. And skepticism.

I am not advocating any side here if you notice, I am just presenting major flaws in his argument.
I simply don't believe one side without reading a lot on the other side. Thus getting a comprehensive knowledge of the material.

I am currently working on politics and law, but due to the stressful nature of the job, I am currently pursuing an engineering degree to get out of the political scene. So I wasted enough years of my life getting the experience necessary to distinguish between BS and real facts.

Aside from my credentials, I also come from a scholarly family that helps me understand the situation. I lived most of my life in the ME and understand the situation much more than a person who can't even pronounce the names of the major player's correctly. And before anyone says that you need an outsider opinion, the opinion of a U.S. citizen who due to tax money and U.S. foreign policy, is hence heavily involved with Israel.

There is no outsider to the ME, everyone is involved given the massive size of the situation.

Talk about one-sided, this guy can go fxck himself

I didn't watch the video but seriously you could never really condense historical [and current] problems in a few minutes. Its like explaining WWI, the great depression, WWII and the cold war in 6 minutes.

"You give us 5 minutes and we'll give you a semester"... Lol.

Glad that the holes in the argument were exposed, great job LS.

So, I searched Google for this University.

Here is what I got:

It does not exist in Wikipedia, meaning it is not well known.

It does not offer a single degree, since it is not a real university.

They offer 5 minute online course for free, and they claim that is a substitute for semesters of real universities.

Here is the idea behind this "virtual university", from their website:

"The idea behind Prager University is to build a virtual university online. Our goal is to become the un-university.

We want to do right what the real university does wrong: the real
university is absurdly expensive; our courses are free. The real
university teaches students to despise America; we teach them to admire
it. The real university uses grad students to teach classes; we use the
best minds in the world. The real university takes months to teach
nonsense; we offer wisdom in five minutes. In fact, our motto is "give
us five minutes and we'll give you a semester."

It sounds like a boast, but the university has set the bar so low, it's not."

This is really hilarious stuff,

First, lol wut, American Universities teach students to "despise" America. What, why, how, when, wtf you saying. This cannot be proven in any arithmetic method. I studied in the U.S. and can say that American Universities only gave good ideas about the U.S. Except this one of course, but it is not even real.

Again, baseless comment, as I see no Noble Laureate in your cabinet of teachers. And you would have to define the "greatest minds" in the world though, which in itself requires classes longer than five minutes.

Who gave you the right to decide what is "nonsense" and what is not. Especially since you produce such a "nonsense" video about the ME as I proven by providing actual points.

You have indeed set the bar low, the bar of credibility that is.

At first, I was like the guy must have an agenda or something, but now I am more like:

That video. is so full of fail.

So glad LS pointed out the holes so that I didn't have too. Excellent job broski.

Also I genuinely LOL at the "Gives us five minutes" bit xD

Zealous wrote:That video. is so full of fail.

So glad LS pointed out the holes so that I didn't have too. Excellent job broski.

Also I genuinely LOL at the "Gives us five minutes" bit xD

And if you see the Universities motto (which I highlighted and ridiculed above) you would get a change in heart.

At first, I was really furious as I felt this might actually have some credible people behind it
or is a part of some real university somewhere. But then, I felt very secure in the knowledge
that this university is full of fail.

Seriously, "The real university teaches students to despise America; we teach them to admire
it.". This says it all really, no need to comment further.

Okay, I found the university's "mission" and it really explains the video quite well:

"

Prager University seeks to create a better understanding and
appreciation of our unique American Judeo-Christian value system by
leveraging the viral power of the Internet with content-rich, visually
compelling courses. Taught by some of the best minds in the world, our
five minute videos make key concepts accessible, understandable and fun.
The result is a whole new approach to higher education - the five
minute university."

Seriously I hope no one takes that video seriously. I watched it again to make sure I wasn't being overly critical but it's so one sided and biased it's not even funny.

Lord Spencer has quickly become one of the best posters I'v ever seen on a forum, so insightful .

Lord Spencer wrote:

everest1 wrote:LS, how did you become such an expert on this topic?

I have a degree on political science and sociology from UT Austin.

Have taken major course on the subjects from Cornell, Harvard, Oxford, and UT Austin.

I have a law degree, with a concentration on political affairs in the Middle East from a self designed course
with the help of UT Austin.

I got the Law degree by studying at the above institutions.

Also, reading, reading, and reading. And skepticism.

I am not advocating any side here if you notice, I am just presenting major flaws in his argument.
I simply don't believe one side without reading a lot on the other side. Thus getting a comprehensive knowledge of the material.

I am currently working on politics and law, but due to the stressful nature of the job, I am currently pursuing an engineering degree to get out of the political scene. So I wasted enough years of my life getting the experience necessary to distinguish between BS and real facts.

Aside from my credentials, I also come from a scholarly family that helps me understand the situation. I lived most of my life in the ME and understand the situation much more than a person who can't even pronounce the names of the major player's correctly. And before anyone says that you need an outsider opinion, the opinion of a U.S. citizen who due to tax money and U.S. foreign policy, is hence heavily involved with Israel.

There is no outsider to the ME, everyone is involved given the massive size of the situation.

thats badass man, a very impressive list of degrees from some very respectable schools. you're one smart dude!

Lord Spencer wrote:Okay, I found the university's "mission" and it really explains the video quite well:

"

Prager University seeks to create a better understanding and
appreciation of our unique American Judeo-Christian value system by
leveraging the viral power of the Internet with content-rich, visually
compelling courses. Taught by some of the best minds in the world, our
five minute videos make key concepts accessible, understandable and fun.
The result is a whole new approach to higher education - the five
minute university."

hahaha, it all makes sense now... you could even say that trying to explane the ME conflict in 6 minutes is like trying to explain 4.5 billion years of geologic history in 6,000

BarrileteCosmico wrote:

Even shorter explanation by babun for all the interested parties
What is in the past is in the past you can't change it! I'm sure there were some cromagnons or neanderthalers before arabs and jews there The question what shoud be the solution?
Current situation: leave out the political and other BS. No country fights for religion or other made up reasons. Wars are always caused by lack of recources or for gaining them.
The main core, Isreal isn't a wholesale country like many people think. Their cities are built around many oasis with the source of water and only there. Now, the surprise, outside of those oasis is Palestine! You can't draw a border between Palenstine and Isreal for this simple reason
Basically, you have a state where Palestinians live in wastelands and Isrealitis in the best parts of the land possible Imagine the situation and you could clearly see that Isreal's economy would greatly suffer if they were to fusion with Palestina On the other hand, Palestinians would only gain from any kind of agreements, a very one-sided matter No sane man in Isreal would agree to it unless there's immense pressure from outside Now,the question, which pressure?

Justice will be served.

Will be happy the day those Isreali scum fck off from the middle east and give their land back to it's rightful owners- Palestine.

fck the United States government too for babysitting these *bleep* and stealing the land and giving it to Isreal back in 48.

goooooooo Israel!!!!!!

Devil-Is-Red wrote:Will be happy the day those Isreali scum fck off from the middle east and give their land back to it's rightful owners- Palestine.

fck the United States government too for babysitting these *bleep* and stealing the land and giving it to Isreal back in 48.

If you are going in a rant here, it would be wise to produce so@me facts.

Besides, the GCC countries are mostly friends (behind the scenes) with Israel, and the only plausible solution is for either Palestine and Israel to merge into one democratic nation and take back all the Palestinian refugees, which will never happen. Or for Israel to stop expanding, and for Palestine to be a country funded by the U.N since they are responsible for the frak up in the first place.

@Dansik, it is obvious from your well constructed post that you have the IQ of a tea pot. And that is an insult to the tea pots in the world. Either provide some real arguments, or GTFO.

Lord Spencer wrote:

@Dansik, it is obvious from your well constructed post that you have the IQ of a tea pot. And that is an insult to the tea pots in the world. Either provide some real arguments, or GTFO.

Tea pots are the most intelligent of all the pots. Thank you for the compliment.

On a more serious note, what arguments do I need to provide? I didn't realize I was arguing with someone, I was merely stating my support for the great state of Israel. Either way, it appears that I have angered you. For that, I laugh at you.

dansik wrote:On a more serious note, what arguments do I need to provide? I didn't realize I was arguing with someone, I was merely stating my support for the great state of Israel. Either way, it appears that I have angered you. For that, I laugh at you.

How exactly is Israel "great", I can say that the U.S. is a great state. The U.K., Germany, Japan, China, but I can't see Israel being anywhere near the definition of "great". I am not angered by your statement if that was what you were aiming to do, I simply laugh at your lame trolling attempt (Which I hope is what you are doing) or cry at your ignorance (in case you are not trolling).