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Peace with Greece

Let me begin with this “controversial” topic. When I took over the Presidency I inherited two separate wars. The first was our war with eTurkey, began by JMatH. The second was the war with eGreece, began by Zaib Atsu. The first war was begun, well, nobody really knows exactly why. However it was stupid and foolish, and it pretty much resulted in most of our current problems. The second war was begun because of the first war, in that it was done be used as a “region swap” war. This meant that Greece could “invade” one of our regions and “block” eTurkey from going further into our country, or we could do the same for them. It was a war of alliance, not of conquest.

When I took office both wars presented problems. Some were common, some were unique to each war. I will not get into the eTurkish war as most of those issues are obvious. What did present a unique problem was the Greek “region swap” war. First let me start by explaining how Mutual Protection Pacts (or MPPs, or Alliances), work according to the game. If Country A has an MPP with Country B, they are allies. If Country A and Country B are both allied to Country C each MPP is separate. Let’s say that Country A and Country B get into a disagreement and decided to go to war. Lets also say that neither country really thinks about it much, but that Country A is the more aggressive (A, get it?) and attacks Country B first. In this case Country C’s MPP with Country A is canceled. However , their alliance with Country B is not. So now Country A has to fight both Country B and Country C.

In our case both eGreece and we (eIsrael) seem to have a lot of the same friends (like the eUSA). Because of our open war status with eGreece none of the other countries we contacted were willing to sign an MPP with us. The reason? Simple: If they did and we had to swap regions with eGreece again that MPP would be canceled for either eGreece or ourselves, basically wasting 200 gold. So to even think about getting an MPP with another country we had to end that threat.

Before the peace treaty with eGreece was signed we had two options. The first was to sign the peace treaty with eGreece and work on getting MPPs/ending the war with eTurkey. The second option was to have eGreece attack and take our last region, thereby removing our war with eTurkey. The second plan was the favored in the beginning. However our plans had to change.

Why? Time and national security. Many of you may have read articles by other publishers covering this topic. Allow me to explain further. Both eGreece and eIsrael had an MPP with the eUSA. That means that the first country to attack would lose that MPP and thereby throw away 100 gold on their end (and another 100 gold of the eUSA’s). eGreece was not willing to attack us first because of that. So in order for us to do this plan eIsrael would first have to attack eGreece on their homeland (not regions of ours they owned). This added up to both time and gold and in the end added up to be too much of both.

While it would have been nice to start with a clean slate it doesn’t mean that everything would have been perfect. Our war with eTurkey could have ended but we would then have faced several new problems. First we would have had to taken one of our regions back (no small feat!). If that was accomplished we would have had a country, but no President or Congress ( I will get to this problem in a bit), and we also could have faced another war with eTurkey (granted, without their MPPs but still a war non-the-less).

What does it mean when a country does not have a President or Congress? Well it means that the country in question cannot sign any new MPPs. So we would have had a country, but no means of getting help to defend it. The bigger problem was that without a Congress ALL citizenship requests are granted. So if a larger country wanted to they could move players into our newly freed region, had them apply and gain eIsraeli citizenship, and then ran their own candidates in our next election. Imagine an eIsrael run by eTurks. This was not acceptable.

After much discussion (many of it late night) with our allies, congressional members, citizens, and other players it was decided that the best course of action was to continue on and work diplomatically to secure a more stable future for eIsrael. This has by no means been the popular decision. However it is the option presented to us, and the option we are working towards. I hope we can all realize that and work towards that goal.

In the end a President has to make decisions. These are not always the most popular or easiest. But a President makes those decisions based off of the information on hand and with an effort towards making his country better. Only time will tell if this decision was the right one or not. If it isn’t I will be the FIRST to admit it. If it is then eIsrael will reap the benefits. The only thing that I as President can ask is that we give our best effort towards this plan and give it time to work. Together we can accomplish anything, we just have to continue to work together.

Nazareth Resistance War

One of the first steps in our plan is to secure our country back. To do so we have to use resistance wars (RWs) to gain those regions. Because of the ongoing war between eGreece and eTurkey these resistance wars have to be coordinated with the eGreek government. It would be a waste to take back one of our regions only to have it attacked by eTurkey the next day. Working with the eGreek government it was decided that the time was appropriate to begin getting our countries back. The first region selected was Nazareth because of the amount of companies located in that region. Companies increase the gold in our nation’s treasury and allow us to pay for things like battles or government companies. Nazareth contained the most companies and could help us rebuild the fasted.

A RW is started not by a country but by individual players. They have to pay gold to start this war, which can be expensive. The events of the past few months have left our country with very low funds. It was decided that the best option was to see if individual players would start a RW. If they did and if the RW succeeded they would gain a “Resistance Hero” medal. As President I was in charge of coordinating both who would start the RW, when, and where. The fairest solution for who was to base it off of a “first come first serve” basis. This means that whoever asked first and had enough funds would be the first person to start a RW. This way a person’s political alliance, game level, and real life nationality would not be a factor. The first person who asked was Franz Kafka, and thus he was granted the first RW. Others have asked and will be given selection based on their asking order.

While this decision may not be popular by a “select few” it is the fairest. Typically the only people with enough gold to start a RW (which range from 80 gold to 160 gold) are players who have many companies and have been playing long enough. While this may not seem fair it does save our government money to use towards signing MPPs, towards the purchase of hospitals, and/or towards funding government companies. Our Nazareth RW was coordinated with the Greeks and was a success. I cannot stress the amount of work that was put into it by many people. Coordinating a battle is really a large task. A shout of thanks goes out to our allies, the Greek government, our soldiers, and our citizens who helped. Once again it takes all of these people working together to accomplish this seemingly small task.

Hospital in our New Capital

When Jerusalem was taken our capital moved to Beersheba. While in the real life this may anger some people it is the way the game works. It also makes sense for eIsrael. Beersheba South has no borders other than with Jerusalem. This means that if we gain all of our regions back, engage in a war with another nation, and lose that war the last region taken will be Beersheba. While the term “capital” really does not matter in the game what does matter is strategic importance. Hospitals can be a HUGE benefit. Soldiers fight in battles and then use hospitals to heal. Without those same hospitals soldiers cannot recover wellness and then cannot fight as often or be as productive in their jobs. When a region is taken by another country any buildings (hospitals or defense systems) are lost. This means that the hospital we had in Jerusalem before the war is now long gone.

Because of the way Beersheba’s border is this region can be of a large strategic value. It acts as our “last defense”. Any soldier who has been around in the last month can tell you that fighting without having a hospital to use is very bad. To prevent this from ever happening again we will place a hospital in Beersheba. This means that if we get involved in a losing war our last region will still have a hospital in it, giving us more fighting ability (and hope).

The hospital to be placed will be a Quality 5 (Q5) hospital. This is the largest and best hospital. That means soldiers can fight more times before having to heal and still get close to 100 wellness (the ideal amount). Q5 hospitals are very expensive to make, costing in the hundreds of gold to be manufactured. This hospital has been given to us by the eUSA, and more specifically by Max McFarland, for 1 NIS. Max stands to gain no profit from this action but does so to help the eUSA’s allies. Once again we need to take the time to thank both the eUSA and Max. Their efforts are much appreciated.

Jerusalem Resistance War

Many of you may see that another Resistance War has been started in Jerusalem. This RW was started WITHOUT the eIsraeli government’s knowledge. While still a legitimate RW it does mean that we were not able to plan for it or organize our resources with the eGreece government. Because of that the odds of this RW succeeding are very low. However, if you wish to partake in this battle you may. At the very least you will gain experience, and at the very most we gain another region back. Be assured that planning is proceeding should this RW fail and that we WILL gain our regions back in time.

Our Next Steps

As I have stated we (the eIsraeli government) are working hard on securing a more stable future for eIsrael. Eventually we will gain our regions back and remove the threats against our country. This will not be a fast or easy action. People will become discouraged and frustrated. That is the nature of the game. However the best course of action is to be patient and involved. If you want to help out but are not sure then please contact anyone in the government. For a listing of who is in the government you may read my previous article or send me a message asking. I am always willing to help and will gladly respond (it may take a bit). It is always better to ask than not too! Knesset elections are coming up on the 25th (remember, that is eRepublik/Pacific Standard date/time). If you are interested in running talk to your Party President. We need active Knesset members who are willing to put in the time to make eIsrael a better place. Being a Knesset member takes time and energy, but it can be very rewarding.

As always if you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask. I would appreciate it if the comments left would not insult or attack any person. However I know that may be asking too much. If you feel the need to attack someone then please keep the comments directed at myself and not at anyone else.

Thank you for your time.

Joshua Hoss
President of eIsrael