{"id":150552,"date":"2022-01-25T21:07:35","date_gmt":"2022-01-25T21:07:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/?p=150552"},"modified":"2022-01-25T21:07:35","modified_gmt":"2022-01-25T21:07:35","slug":"peace-between-israel-and-palestine-give-hamas-iron-dome-too-then-get-teenager-to-shout-at-both-sides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/peace-between-israel-and-palestine-give-hamas-iron-dome-too-then-get-teenager-to-shout-at-both-sides\/","title":{"rendered":"Peace between Israel and Palestine? Give Hamas Iron Dome too, then get teenager to shout at both sides"},"content":{"rendered":"

GRETA Thunberg has taught the world\u2019s teenagers that as soon as they have a GCSE, adults MUST listen to what they have to say.<\/p>\n

Old people are wrong and the young are right, always.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udd35 Read our Israel-Gaza live blog for the very latest updates…<\/p>\n

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Which is why, this week, they\u2019ve all been on social media telling us exactly how they would solve the latest bout of fisticuffs in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s incredible. They may only be 16 years old but somehow they\u2019ve been able to look at a war that\u2019s been raging for 2,000 years then form an opinion that can be neatly expressed in a seven-second TikTok video.<\/p>\n

Hmmm.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve read many books on the Middle East, I\u2019ve been there and I\u2019ve spoken to people on both sides of the argument. And I\u2019m really not sure it can be solved with a soundbite from a weeping teenage vegan in Harpenden.<\/p>\n

Technology, though. That\u2019s a different story\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009<\/p>\n

All week, we\u2019ve been watching Israel using the Iron Dome system it built to protect itself from a rocket attack.<\/p>\n

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It sounds like science fiction. The idea you can build a bullet that can be used to shoot down another bullet is preposterous.<\/p>\n

But they\u2019ve only gone and done it. I\u2019ve watched the footage and it\u2019s amazing. Hamas launches a rocket. It\u2019s seconds away from hitting a target in Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n

Then \u2014 whoosh! \u2014 an Israeli missile streaks into the night sky and, even though the two projectiles have a closing speed of maybe 1,000mph, there\u2019s a flash of orange and \u2014 kaboom! \u2014 the Hamas rocket is destroyed.<\/p>\n

And then it happens again. And again. According to reports, more than 90 per cent of incoming projectiles are being knocked out of the sky before they can do any damage.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s like Israel has a superpower.<\/p>\n

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So how\u2019s this for an idea? Now we know this technology works, why doesn\u2019t someone sell it to Hamas?<\/p>\n

Because if you have two enemies facing one other down and both sides know they can\u2019t land a blow, they won\u2019t bother trying to launch an attack in the first place. Once they realise this, we might be able to get them to the negotiating table\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009where they could be shouted into submission by an Instagrammer with a C in history.<\/p>\n

I'LL GIVE CLUELESS MIX A MISS WHEN IT COMES TO LECTURES ON THE MUSIC BIZ<\/h2>\n

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JUST when you thought the world\u2019s supply of earnestness has been mined, along come a band of people called Little Mix to explain that the music industry has been dominated for years by \u201cwhite men\u201d.<\/p>\n

Really? I only ask because I\u2019ve been through my record collection and in it there\u2019s a lot of Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Bob Marley, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry and James Brown.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a lot of Debbie Harry, Kiki Dee, Kate Bush, Janis Joplin, Carole King, Cher, Tina Turner, Martha Reeves, Diana Ross, Carly Simon, Rita Coolidge, Linda Ronstadt, Patti Smith and Alicia Bridges. So, after careful consideration, I have deduced Little Mix haven\u2019t got a clue what they\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\n

Which is probably why they use a stockbroker to write their songs. A stockbroker who\u2019s black and a woman.<\/p>\n

CLOOS HAVE IT ROOF<\/h3>\n

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WE read this week about the collection of extremely beautiful houses that George and Amal Clooney own around the world.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s the remote hillside home in California he bought from Stevie Nicks; the elegant Georgian mansion on the banks of the Thames in England; the spectacular Villa Oleandra on the shores of Lake Como in Italy; and a cool, modern beach house in Mexico.<\/p>\n

It all sounds idyllic \u2013 having homes around the world so when people you\u2019ve never met invite you to their wedding, you have somewhere of your own to stay nearby.<\/p>\n

But the fact is that in each house, the boilers will explode from time to time, the fuses will blow, trees will fall down in the garden, the washing machine will break and there will be a burglary.<\/p>\n

Having one house is exhausting. Having four must be a nightmare.<\/p>\n

Small wonder we don\u2019t see him in many movies these days.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s probably under a sink somewhere with a plunger.<\/p>\n

KING'S ROAD TO RUIN<\/h2>\n

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FELICITY KENDAL is wrong. The much-loved actress, above, who shot to fame in The Good Life, says that if plans to build an \u201cEmirates\u201d-style block of offices and flats on the King\u2019s Road in South West London are greenlit, the street will be ruined.<\/p>\n

No it won\u2019t. It was ruined long ago.<\/p>\n

But that said, if the plan gets the go-ahead, it will stop any attempt to bring it back to life.<\/p>\n

The King\u2019s Road is where Mary Quant launched the mini skirt. It\u2019s the birthplace of punk and, more recently, it saw the dawn of the Sloane Ranger movement.<\/p>\n

You have the Chelsea Potter pub, sung about by 10cc. Flip, where you could buy second-hand American clothes, is long gone. It\u2019s now mainly chain stores.<\/p>\n

But thanks to online shopping and a shortage of staff post-Brexit and the pandemic, they won\u2019t survive. Which means the small independent retailers will be back.<\/p>\n

But only if the shops haven\u2019t been replaced with luxury apartments.<\/p>\n

PIGS-STYLE<\/h3>\n

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EARLIER this week, The Sun\u2019s Rod Liddle argued that pigs should live in better conditions than they do now.<\/p>\n

I hope he wasn\u2019t pointing the finger at me. I have two pigs that live on a two- acre plot, where there\u2019s a small copse and far-reaching views of the Cotswolds. It\u2019s idyllic.<\/p>\n

But every single day, they escape. The fence is well-maintained and the gate is metal but this doesn\u2019t stop them. Which is why I\u2019ve called them Steve McQueen and James Garner.<\/p>\n

Yesterday they built a vaulting horse and the day before they were wandering around treading subsoil into the grass.<\/p>\n

Last week I caught one of them on the other side of the farm riding a motorcycle along the fence line.<\/p>\n

I think the problem is they share their plot with a family of badgers \u2014 and they don\u2019t get on.<\/p>\n

Who can blame them? Because contrary to what Rod and Brian May would have you believe, badgers are bs.<\/p>\n

Living next door to them is like living next door to that Lottery winner who built a stock car track in his back garden and spent all day vomiting.<\/p>\n

TRAIN IN VAIN<\/h2>\n

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AS I had to get from Oxfordshire to a distant part of South East London this week, I thought I\u2019d use the train.<\/p>\n

And then, when I reached the capital, something called \u201cthe Tube\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, all services into London were cancelled because cracks had been found in the locomotives, so I had to drive instead.<\/p>\n

And guess what? I arrived at my destination 15 minutes before I would have done had I used public transport.<\/p>\n

The car was cheaper, too. Plus. I didn\u2019t catch a disease.<\/p>\n

PLAY IT AGAIN…<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

I HAVEN\u2019T been to a football match for more than a year but I have tickets for two in the coming days.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s Chelsea versus Leicester this afternoon.<\/p>\n

And then, next week, Chelsea versus, er, Leicester.<\/p>\n

Most read in Opinion<\/h3>\n