User talk:GabrielF/Archives/2012/January

Thank you!
I wanted to say thank you directly to you here, for getting me the Kelly 2008 chapter - huge chunks are missing from the preview via Google Books, and having the full chapter has allowed me to make quite a few detailed additions and changes to the Reculver article, which IMHO it really needed. Very much appreciated! :) Nortonius (talk) 18:29, 5 January 2012 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!
Heh, great minds think alike I guess... I've been intending for a while to give out a few more of these and today I started counting up who has been fulfilling REX requests over the last year. I counted up to 100 or so before I gave up and somewhere around half were you doing the legwork. Thanks so much for contributing to Wikipedia's (no-longer-so) secret weapon for ensuring that accurate and reliable knowledge gets presented on our pages. And now, without further ado, we present the 3rd-ever award of this distinguished star. Franamax (talk) 20:31, 8 January 2012 (UTC)

Banditry
I've downloaded. Thanks very much for finding this - it is the seminal paper on the subject. - Sitush (talk) 21:24, 9 January 2012 (UTC)

German and other volunteers
Hi Gabriel. All the books that I’ve read on the subject, including Schiff’s "History of the Israeli Army," Morris’ "1948," Herzog’s "Arab-Israeli wars" and Stein’s "The Making of Modern Israel 1948-1967," note that Germans and Yugoslav Muslims and pro-Axis members joined forces with the Arabs and served as volunteers. Most, especially the Germans had prior military training. As for the Yugoslavs, Stein puts the figure at 500 which is not an insignificant number. So if the other mainstream sources that have written about the war include these figures and important facts, why should we not do the same for our article? Moreover, the Israeli column includes foreign volunteers so it would make perfect sense to include this aspect on the Arab column as well. Just as an aside, I found this clip from a movie called "Hill 24 doesn’t answer" that may be of interest (though I am not using it to bolster my argument). It involves the interaction between an Israeli and a Nazi during the 1948 war.--Jiujitsuguy (talk) 16:03, 13 January 2012 (UTC)
 * The fact they did not tactically have an impact on the battle doesn't mean they weren't there. In addition, of the foreign volunteers Leslie Stein states the following; "The Jews were not alone in mobilizing foreign volunteers. Some 500 Yugoslavs plus a number of Germans, Poles and over 50 Britons fought on the Palestinian behalf." (Stein, Polity, 2009 @ 44-45) But I see your point and I think you're sincere. Would you object to something like "foreign volunteers" (without the flag stuff) similar to that which appears on the Israeli column? Could that be a possible compromise?--Jiujitsuguy (talk) 17:08, 13 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Excellent. Progress is always a good thing. It is refreshing to deal with editors who are open-minded. I'll work on something over the weekend and present you with a modified text. Best,--Jiujitsuguy (talk) 17:52, 13 January 2012 (UTC)