The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
The Forum - On Line Opinion's article discussion area



Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Main Articles General

Sign In      Register

The Forum > Article Comments > Israel 1: Hezbollah 0 > Comments

Israel 1: Hezbollah 0 : Comments

By Gary Brown, published 18/9/2006

The Middle East is caught up in a semi-permanent state of armed confrontation.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. Page 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. 7
  9. 8
  10. All
I agree no-one won anything.
Hezbollah still exists. Negotiations are taking place for the release of prisoners ...on both sides. The Israelis failled in their stated aims. Hezbollah will continue to receive weapons and they will include longer range rockets. They will base themselves outside of the UN zone. That is as obvious as was the Israelis' findings, after their military enquiry, that the bombing of that UN outpost was a tragic error.
The civillians of Lebanon are not the only ones paying the price for the 60 year state of war.

I am amazed not one western source has reported the Israeli Government released for auction another 120 blocks of land in the Palestinian West Bank within days of their withdrawal from Lebanon.

I might ask the question of Condi Rice:

Now we will see who wants really peace in the mid East?

Obviously by their continued deliberate land grabbing the Israelis don't!
Posted by keith, Monday, 18 September 2006 3:05:58 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Gary and the other toadies never bother to let facts get in the way do they?

1. Israel planned this invasion last year as an act to wipe the shi'ites out of the south of Lebanon, ignoring the fact that it is their home and Israel has no right.
2. Uri Benziman reports in Haaretz that all the long range rockets were destroyed within 30 minutes of the bombardment, so why keep killing for 33 days?
3. Jonathan Cook reports from Nazareth that the IDF hid their artillery batteries in arab towns all along the northern border.
4. Israel ran 7,000 bombing runs and fired 2,500 attacks from the port of Haifa and then flooded the whole region with 1.2 million cluster bomblets in the last few days.

You guys can fantasize all you like - try reading the commonsense of some of the Israeli reporters though - they will surprise you in their vehement claims that "we were monstrous and insane, we flooded the towns, we fired phosphorous on people leaving the mosques as a deterrent.

This was not a war against Hezbollah, this was a vicious and monstrous attack on Lebanon proper that had been planned for many, many months in advance.

I would suggest that the islamaphobes on this forum go and read what some of the more rational Jews have to say about it all and then remember this - 1 million people in the south of Lebanon are now living in deadly danger for the next 10 years or so, as are peacekeepers, because the IDF went totally insane.

1.2 million cluster bomblets dropped on people's homes, hospitals, schools, roads, orchards, bridges - everywhere people go there are these evil little bomblets.

Then the IDF used phosphorous bombs to destroy every last trace of food supplies for the people in the south.
Posted by Marilyn Shepherd, Monday, 18 September 2006 3:07:54 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
The prevailing belief in some quarters that Israel did not do well out of the recent conflict needs to be assessed in the light of what could be achieved and not as a conventional military victory.
It is clear that Israel had 5 primary objects for its actions:
1. Destroy the long range missiles and their storage areas.
2. Push the opposing forces back to a point where the shorter range missiles would fall in less populated areas.
3. Destroy as much Hezbollah infrastructure as possible.
4. Kill or disable as many trained and effective fighters as possible and so weaken Hezbollah’s power to persist.
5. Force Lebanon to take responsibility for ALL of Lebanon.
Israel managed to achieve all the above. The fact that it did not go as smoothly as it might has more to do with the fact that Israel has not engaged a large scale conventional operations since 1982 and forgot some lessons from the past. All armies suffer from this problem. Add to this the possibility that, like the US Armed Forces pre Iraq and the Australian Armed Forces now, some senior military appointments may have been based more on political factors rather than military ability.
The main gain for Israel is the last point. Lebanon, with UN help has been forced to take responsibility for all the country. Whether Hezbollah is disarmed or not is not important. Any attack made on Israel from Lebanon is now one sovereign state attacking another, not a “terrorist” attack. The rules have now changed. Under the rules of war Israel is now legally entitled to defend itself until the threat is removed.
Posted by WJP, Monday, 18 September 2006 3:10:53 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Carl,

You disagree with everything I say, so please don't pretend that you are doing anything but having a go at me. I will, however, answer your question although I can be pretty sure that you have already made up your mind what the answer will be, and despite the fact that I cannot see why you would want to know what I think, anyway. Let's be honest, eh? You have been insulting to me in the past. You are unlikely to be any different this time.

Yes. I would consider the job finished if every Hezbollah terrorist were to be wiped out. That's just common sense. However, there is every chance that other terrorists would take their place and, yes, the problem would last until they too were wiped out.

Weapons were (and probably still are) being brought INTO Lebanon with the full knowledge of the Lebanese government - one or two members of which are also members of Hezbollah. So, razing Lebanon would not see the end of available weaponry. Not all Lebanese are Islamic fanatics, nor even Muslims. It would be regretable if Lebanon did have to be razed in the future, but the Lebanese people who are not terrorists and fanatics must do something to ensure that their government never again allows terrorists to launch attacks on Israel or any other country from Lebanese soil. If they don't do this, Israel will surely raze Lebanon to the ground and, if that is what it takes, so be it.

Who are the 'large amounts' of people who hate Israel? Unless they attack Israel, this is a hypothetical question. All I can say is that, Israel, like any other country has the right to defend itself in any way it chooses if it has been attacked. And that means killing as many of the enemy as possible. That's what war is about, Carl.
Posted by Leigh, Monday, 18 September 2006 3:39:23 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/763676.html

Yeah right, Leigh and co. What a vile lot the MI in Israel is. They knew all about it and did nothing which explains why they acted like spoilt nasty brats.

Thank goodness the Israel's have more honour than their rabid supporters in the rest of the world.

The IDF knew the soldiers were going to be taken, three hours later they blew up Lebanon - this is a war crime par excellance I think.

Why don't some of you just grow up and stop pretending to give a stuff about Israel or at least tell us just why you support their lies and obfuscations and killings.

it is just that you hate muslims so much that murdering them is good enough no matter who does it? Come on, tell us the truth and stop supporting the lies of Israel.
Posted by Marilyn Shepherd, Monday, 18 September 2006 4:44:44 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Part One

Balance of Power Strategy, now Vital for Middle East.

Regarding the commentaries to this thesis, it could be said that though a couple do back Israel, which also means America, of course, while another couple back Hezbollah, seemingly out of sympathy, one other, and doubtless the right way to look at it, reckons the problem will go on and on.

This is where we must try to find the real problem behind it all, besides the never-ending Western colonial thirst for hegemon and contraband.

In the Comment and Analysis section of the Guardian Weekly, a letter has been chosen by the editor from Steven C Raine, of Glenalta, South Australia, which does bring out what we might called a commonsenical appraisal of an event which in dangerously altering the balance of power in the Middle East between its nations, has ten times multiplied the chances of a major war beginning in the Middle East. The predicted cause of it. Israeli atomic power, of course.

Steven begins his commentary, by talking about Iran, and how it is now facing American-driven sanctions for the crime of possibly going nuclear. So there we have unipolar America with enough nuclear capacity to destroy the whole world many many times over, and Iran’s near neighbour, Israel, with an illegitinate semi-secret, though US backed, nuclear arsenal, with no UN sanctions against it, nor not even a whisper of Western diplomatic condemnation.

Steven goes on to say how he can sort of see why the Muslims these days, feel so oppressed and unjustly treated. The words ‘blatant hypocrisy’ must spring strongly to mind, even to pro-Israelies, when deeply contemplating this situation
Posted by bushbred, Monday, 18 September 2006 4:47:22 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. Page 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. 7
  9. 8
  10. All

About Us :: Search :: Discuss :: Feedback :: Legals :: Privacy