I haven’t had the time to jot down a word on two on this blog in a while; the reason being that I’m simply at a loss for words. What is happening in the already volatile region ails me to no end. From Gaza to Iraq and now to Lebanon, things are deteriorating from bad to worse. Israel’s actions in Lebanon are yet another form of collective punishment that the Jewish State has so skillfully mastered over the years, with the latest example being Gaza where dozens of civilians, including women and children, have perished. Someone, somehow, must put an end to the carnage. It really is beyond comprehension.
What Hizbullah did was provocative and stupid. I see it as Hizbullah’s way of flexing their muscles. They say their attack across the border was to show solidarity with the Palestinians. What I see is that they not only drug their whole country to the bring of war, and killed civilians from both sides of the conflict, but, ironically, they have managed to distract the world’s attention away from the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Lebanon occupies a special place in my heart. I have visited this beautiful country so many times and every time I go there I fall even more in love with this breathtaking place. I have a number of Lebanese friends who I admire greatly and have the utmost respect. My heart goes out to you in these very difficult times. My heart also goes out to the Gazans who are also being bombarded for the actions of one group who also chose the now trendy regional game of muscle flexing.
My heart also goes out to the Iraqis who are now immersed in a civil war. My heart also goes out to the Syrians, the Egyptians, the Jordanians, the Somalis and eventually to humanity itself for what we are witnessing nowadays is a sheer insult to our state of being.
Linda:
First answer this. Why do you men insist on using terms like Babe, dear, or sweety with people you do not even know? Please!
Because we love you, of course. 😉
Are you tommy willing to recognize the faults on both sides?
If by “recognizing the faults on both sides” you mean blaming each party equally, my answer would be no. I blame Hezbollah for this conflict. If you mean that each party has made missteps, then yes. Hezbollah has made the misstep of existing and Israel has made the misstep of appeasing terrorists. The eight dead and two kidnapped Israelis are a direct result of prisoner exchanges during the 90’s and of Israel’s withdrawal from south Lebanon. Those were mistakes.
yes indeed the Israeli governtment does some shady things
Name me a government that hasn’t. Being involved in some “shady” things isn’t very specific. Please provide more detail as to what you are referring to. Most countries with governments involved in “shady” things (that is, every country on earth) aren’t constantly under siege from terrorists.
69 freaking resolution tommy! 69! what is up with that.
The Cafe Annan can pass 669 resolutions for all I care. I don’t give a damn about the United Nations, an organization that has Saudi Arabia, Iran, China, Russia, and Cuba sitting on its “Human Rights Council.” The United Nations is a worthless and corrupt organization, principally composed of the sort of the same sort of nations that sit on its Human Rights Council. The United Nations should be abolished.
Jeff:
I think the naiveté lies in those that somehow think that the Lebanese government would be able to disarm Hizb Allah when Israel itself could not do so after 18 years of trying.
Israel never made a concerted effort to eradicate Hezbollah from the root for the vast majority of those 18 years. It limited itself throughout most of those years to minor retaliatory strikes, establishing a defensive boundary, and attempting to assassinate Hezbollah’s leadership. That is the sort of ‘proportionate response’ that didn’t get them anywhere. In fact, it is this ‘proportionate
response’ that allowed Hezbollah to acquire over 10,000 missles and other asundry weaponry, thus increasing the danger to Israel.
Let’s be honest, Israel doesn’t really expect the Lebanese gov’t to disarm Hizb Allah.
Honesty? That is something I’ve been awaiting from your side for a long time. I’m afraid I’ll have to wait quite a while longer it seems.
Of course, Israel doesn’t think the Lebanese Army can handle the problem. That is why they are (a) doing the job themselves and (b) open to the possibility of an international organization such as NATO coming in, though they do not want more useless UN peacekeepers (as Kofi has suggested) for the reasons I gave earlier.
It’s one of those impossible barriers they put up so often that provides them carte blanche to engage in the kind of collective punishment action now seen on the ground in both Palestine and Lebanon.
That sort of nonsense is only the beginning of the conspiracy mongering from the Arabs and their moonbat sympathizers. Already some are asserting that the kidnappings of the Israeli soldiers were faked:
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2006/07/moonbat-madness-jews-faked-soldier.html
(This in spite of the fact that Nasrallah has spoken freely of having kidnapped the Israeli soldiers. The left is deaf, dumb, and blind. As usual.)
It’s just so disturbing no one will stop them. Worse, the US, the real culprit
That is correct. It is America’s fault, not Hezbollah’s. Spoken like a true leftist.
Again, I ask the question I’ve been asking all along. If you think Israel’s response is ‘disproportionate’ then give me a response that will result in the two kidnapped soldiers being returned safely, will not award a PR victory to Hezbollah, and will lead to a cessation of further aggression from Lebanese guerrillas. I have yet to hear a single concrete suggestion. Instead I just the same old meme about a ‘disproportionate response’ constantly, like a broken record.
I think the naiveté lies in those that somehow think that the Lebanese government would be able to disarm Hizb Allah when Israel itself could not do so after 18 years of trying. Hell, Israel is largely to blame for Hizb Allah’s genesis in the first place. For the Lebanese army to traipse down to the south and fight would bring forth civil war, something the Israelis know very well. Let’s be honest, the Israeli request is disingenuous. This has become something of a proxy war hasn’t it?
That resolution that keeps getting kicked around was a goal and one that everyone involved knew would take some long time — the Israeli military solution, occupation, didn’t work. Lest we forget, there are many other aspects to the resolution as well. The worst part of it all is that Lebanon got onto a strongly democratic path, moved the Syrians East but then are kicked full well off it and no one stands with them. The US said Lebanon was their friend, where are they now?
Let’s be honest, Israel doesn’t really expect the Lebanese gov’t to disarm Hizb Allah. It’s one of those impossible barriers they put up so often that provides them carte blanche to engage in the kind of collective punishment action now seen on the ground in both Palestine and Lebanon. It’s just so disturbing no one will stop them. Worse, the US, the real culprit in allowing this to fester from the first kidnapping, is rushing missiles for the Israelis to attack Lebanon on one hand and then on the other they are anteing up 1 billion dollars for reconstruction of the country. It’s just madness.
Tommy,
First answer this. Why do you men insist on using terms like Babe, dear, or sweety with people you do not even know? Please!
You act as if Israel just left South Lebanon and didnt do anything. I am willing to recognize the faults on both sides. Are you tommy willing to recognize the faults on both sides? the fact that yes indeed the Israeli governtment does some shady things? or are you the type to think they are always on the defensive? because if youare then we cannot have suitable discussion here, because what you have to say then is deviod of substance.
the UN is a joke because countries like mine the US and Israel go against too many resolutions. 69 freaking resolution tommy! 69! what is up with that.
Linda,
but 1559 is not being followed because unfortunately there are more than 60 UN resolutions Israel does not follow.
You are dreaming, babe! If Israel suddenly followed a whole bunch of UN resolutions, Hezbollah still would not voluntarily disarm nor would the Lebanese government move to reign Hezbollah in.
This is the same old appeasement argument that the left has made time and again with disastrous results. “If you just appease the terrorists, they will go away.” So many leftists continue to argue that if Israel will just withdraw to the 1967 lines, terrorism will stop. They argue this in spite of the fact that withdrawing from southern Lebanon hasn’t brought peace from Lebanon and hasn’t diminished the power or influence of Hezbollah – quite the opposite – nor has withdrawing from Gaza brought peace with Gaza. Instead, it has resulted in nonstop rocket attacks from the day the Israelis left.
I have to ask all of you a question: if Israel were to withdraw to 1967 lines and when terrorism inevitably doesn’t stop, then what action would you authorize the Israelis to take to secure their country?
Carpet bombing maybe? Maybe mass deportations of the Palestinian population? What is your plan for stopping terrorism if concessions do not work?
Your argument is about as hokey as the one I hear Lebanese bloggers making: if Israel will just withdraw from the Shebaa Farms, Hezbollah will simply wither away and not threaten Israel anymore.
Naive.
As for the UN. The organization is a joke. The United States should depart from the organization and shut down their offices in New York. They can relocate to Riyadh, Havana, Tehran, Khartoum or Beijing; that is, some other country that is more representative of their stance in international affairs.
Can you blame Israel for not trusting the UN when their peacekeepers assist in kidnapping and killing Israeli soldiers and then the UN covers the affair up?
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/187339.php
Tommy,
Arabs did pick and choose to support the UN whenever it bennefits them. but 1559 is not being followed because unfortunately there are more than 60 UN resolutions Israel does not follow. Israel not following those resolutions cause for groups like Hezbollah to form.
The frustration I think many Arabs have is when Israel does something wrong, it goes unnoticed and sometimes it is applauded. when arabs do something wrong, the west makes sure the whole world knows about it and they make sure to create a message that makes it look like they are the root cause of all these problems. as long as people think that way there will never be peace. people need to recognize the faults of both sides, then we can honestly have fair peace negotiations.
hareega,
The reason I bring up the UN isn’t because I’m a supporter of the United Nations. Far from it. I want the United States to withdraw from the United Nations, in fact.
However, since Arabs never cease their insufferable whining about the importance of United Nations resolutions when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian issue, I feel justified in asking why the Arabs themselves disregard UN resolutions without consequence or condemnation.
Cat: “Don’t worry, genocide and ethnic cleansing is a White/Jewish thing. Hizbouallah may want to see the end of jewish racism but their religions and ideology does not permit genocide.”
Ah! So the Janjaweed are really a zionist conspiracy! Thank you for clarifying…
And since when does religion prevent people from becoming genocidal? All religions forbid genocide, yet all religions that ever had the opportunity and the means engaged in it. The only religions that never engaged in genocide just never had the means.
You know, every time I read racist posts like this I am tempted to regret the fact that Israel is not taking that genocidal course they should have taken in 1948, if they’d only thought of their own interests. On the other hand I am also tempted to regret that Israel ever came into being, so the Arab world wouldn’t have an excuse. But then again: they would probably have found another scapegoat.
Rallying for Lebanon and the West double Standards
tommy, read history my friend.
before 1559, there were 242 and 338 and zillions of other UN decisions that Israel did not and very rudely refuses continuously to obey, not mentioning other decisions condemning Israel that were approves by the all the countries in the world but were vetoed against by the US (and Israel itself)
There was no Hamas or Hizbollah 25 years ago. Have you ever wondered how was the situation in Palestine /ISrael in 1940s till the foundation of Hizbollah and Hamas?? Why was Iraq atttakced twice for not complying with 2 UN decisions but ISrael was barely criticized despite not comlying with dozens of UN decisions??
“All of Lebanon is to blame for not disarming Hezbollah as they had originally promised in return for Israeli withdrawl from southern Lebanon.”
So you can kill hundreds and destroy homes and bridges to free three captured Jewish militants, but when the Arabs try to free thousands of their own you have taken hostages you accuse them of terror. You are sad people.