Kidnapping

The entire conflict in the middle east right now, whether it is the stepped up involvment in Palestine or the illegal and immoral actions in Lebanon all stems from the "kidnapping" of Israeli soldiers. This is a big enough deal for Israel to displace thousands upon thousands of Lebanese, destroy their homes and buisness's and to cripple their nation. It is a crime frowned upon by the entire world.

Why then is it acceptable for Israel to continue kidnapping memebers of the Palestinian parliament? They now hold over 4o memebers with the majority being Hamas politicians. Last time I checked being a politician associated with a certain party did not make you an enemy combatant. Not to mention that Israel crosses their border with Palestine to kidnap these men. They are not citizens of the Israeli state so this is no police action it is a knowing and willful act of aggresion in the form of kidnapping members of an opposing countries government. Why is this acceptable for them and not for others?

I dont get it?!?!?

This conflict in Lebanon has been going on for over 4 weeks now and there seems to be no sign that it is going to stop. What began as a campaign to rescue two captured soldiers has now turned into a massive bombing campaign to eliminate Hezbollah. When was the last time you even heard mention of the two soldiers. They have been lost and buried under the onslaught of Israeli bombing raids. On top of this Israel claims to be meetings its objectives and eliminating Hezbollahs ability to strike Israel with rockets. Why then did over 200 rockets hit Israel on 3 of the last 4 days. The highest total nubmer of rockets to land in Israel since the conflict began. It seems to me that if you are eliminating their ability to fight and attack then the rocket attacks should diminish, however they are getting stronger and larger by the day. Israels army and military might is being exposed here. Their sabre rattling is wonderful and they are meeting their objectives...if those objectives are to kill as many civilians as possible and destroy the infrastructure and residential areas of Lebanon in the sake of "fighting terror". They are breeding more terror than they eliminate and have not reached any objectives. Hezbollah is as strong as ever, killing 15 Israelis yesterday, 12 of them IDF soldiers yet the military power of Hezbollah is getting weaker, if you ask me its seems stronger, more focused and more effective. This cease fire resolution is looking more and more like it is going to save Israel. Not from being destroyed, but from further embarassment, their military is being coutnered by a militia and the world is seeing them for what they are. Yet everyday on the news we still hear their praises being sung, I dont get it. When is the world going to open its eyes and see the true terrorists in this equation, the true occupation?

Great Sites to check out

Two great sites to check out, not jsut for Israel Lebanon news, but jsut in general.

http://www.transparentgrid.com/wordpress/

Great site, great piece on the main page about the Arab view of this conflict and what it is causing. Also calls into question how terror can be condemend while war crimes go unpunished, great question.

http://arabist.net/

Also great site covering many issues, Iraq, Lebanon being two primary right now. Indepth and accurate looks at Hezbollah and what is going on in the Arab street, even how christian groups are swaying to support Hezbollah.

THings to look at, things to consider, great way to get the other side of the story that the republican media isnt reporting on.

http://makesomenoise-zazou.blogspot.com/

Even more info to show the other side. All great sites, check them out!!

Israel, supported by US and media, why??

I was watching CNN the other day, or Fox News I can never remember which a day later when I am trying to so I can wirte these posts. On the program which was a live program a female interviewer was interviewing the Consulate from Lebanon. She was incredibly rude and was trying to make him look like A. a liar and B. a terrorist sympathizer. This was the most shocking and one sided interview I had ever seen with her asking questions of him, him giving a response and her defending Israels actions and then trying to pigeon hole him with circlical questions.

She claimed that Hezbollah had been unprovoked in their actions. He fired back and made some very good points that the world does not want to hear. He brought up numerous issues, from Lebanons occupation by the Israelis, to their constant special ops and Moosad(spelling) incursions, to kidnapping and imprisonment for people wit no charges for up to 28 years. She called him out and claimed that Hezbollah was opearting rockets from very close to Qana and that was why the building was destroyed. He made a great point, why had no Hezbollah fighters or rocket launching equipment been found, only women, children and the elderly? He made the assertion that Israel targeted the facility purposely and the interviewer asked how he thought that Israel could and did target civilians intentionally, his response being that they have all along that he had seen over 600 innocent country men killed, thousands injured and still over 200 missing that they targeted civilian areas and despite the fact they had precision laser guided bombs and munitions that they still "made mistakes". His claims are true and his story holds up, Israel consistently and routinley makes many "tactical errors" that result in the loss of innocent life. This is not a one time thing, look at Qana ten years ago when they shelled a UN Post and killed 100 civilians, look at their shelling of a UN post this year where they killed 4 UN monitors despite warnings repeatedly to stop firing on their position. These are not nice people.


I also believe that Israel wants a larger war, trying to draw Syria and Iran into the mix. The intnetion is there they are just trying to figure out how to get it done. Just yesterday on the news it was announced that Israel was calling up 15000 more reserve troops "in case there was an accident that would draw Syria into the conflict." That would have to be one helluva an accident and I dont know how you could make an accident big enough to draw another country into a conflict. They are amazing.

My other beef with both Israel and the US on this whole Hezbollah issue is that we and Israel want Lebanon to be able to remove and disarm a milita like Hezbollah. Again their democracy is only 6 years old, they are not in a position to do this. The United States who has the greatest army on earth cant root out militas in Iraq, thats right Im calling Bush out he cant get his shit done with the best toys on the block but Lebanon is supposed to. Israel doesnt appear to have much luck rooting out Hezbollah either. All of their strategic bombing and precision attacks have not reduced the number of rockets descending on their country every day. What they do appear effective in doing is killing large numbers of civilians and alienating an entire population. It is only a matter of time before Lebanon turns its back ont he US for good and I cannot blame them. We deserve whatever we get from them as we have turned our back on them and let their country be destroyed. Supporters of democracy my ass. It speaks volumes that after the Qana attack the Lebanese Prime Minister said that Condoleza Rice was not even welcome in Lebanon so that she could just keep flying. I think we see the true feelings here.

Lastly I leave you with this. Israel's 48 hour ceasefire on bombing, which lasted a whole 12 hours before picking up in full force. This is a nation of liars and muderers at least at the high levels of politics and military. Israel can claim all they want to the fact that they let people leave areas after dropping leaflets, but why then do they bomb and destroy any vehicles moving on the roads, how are they supposed to leave. It was only with that 12 hour break that many of Lebanons citizens were able to leave any area as that was the only time it was safe to travel the roads or whatever was left of them. In closing I agree with the Lebanese representative on CNN(or Fox News) last night. I do not agree with Hezbollah completely but I do support anything they do to fight against the aggresion of a zionist state and anything they do to offer resistance to Americas pet army in the middle east. Lets see how long Israel is allowes to commit its war crimes and massacres this time, its a dark chapter for all of the world who stands idly by.