David

It seems your final solution is now extending to the people of South Lebanon.

So the scope is broadening. What about the methods are they to broaden in future also?

Martin is rolling about the floor of hell in rapture at your chosen path.

2bob

Are you really lining up with this imfamy?

Keith

Irfan,

You already think that I’m a Nazi, so what’s new? If it helps you think that, be my guest. So far, I haven’t been able to think of a name for you; you are one out of the box.

I presume your mini CV is for the benefit of Scout. He got that wrong too, it seems.

Keith,

It must be a disappointment for you that another poster got in between you and your new best mate. It took the shine off your ‘And not one of the armchair type either”.

Did you tell your federal representatives just why they should be “raging against the Israeli aggression in Lebanon”? They might be perplexed as to why they should say anything about a country with which they have few dealings and which is not in our region of influence or interests. They might also want to know why you want Israel chastised and not the Hezbollah terrorists who attacked Israel first and who are harboured by Lebanon.

The media is producing enough faux indignation against Israeli for everybody. The real villains are Islamic terrorists – the same sort of criminals Australia is fighting against. I don’t think your pleas to Canberra will have any effect, and you probably will not even get a response.

The Israeli government has a duty to protect its citizens and country. To suggest that outsiders should criticise them for doing this is insane

Did you all see the various news services tonight? The almost total destruction of the lives of 1 million people in Lebanon without cause? The tiny child who needs kidney medicine and cannot get to a hospital or the mum about to give birth in the desert as no buses come?

What about the children in the hospitals learning hate before they are 10, or the mass grave of 86 Lebanese people in Tyre because they can't wait to have the people identified. What about the destruction of the TV towers and phones. How does this add to anything at all?

Why do Israel have the right to get bunker buster bombs by the 100 rushed in by the US yet the weapons on display "arrested" by the Israeli's are a pathetic collection of small shoulder rockets? Why are the tanks allowed to demolish homes while people who have done nothing flee for their lives, while the Israelis bomb the buses?

Come on war mongers - what has been proved? Israeli children living in bunkers? Lebanese kids dead or maimed? Refugees in the almost 1 million range and Beirut turned into Kabul in a week?

Do you guys want to give thanks to the foreign correspondents who risk their lives to get the truth? I think we should bow down to them and their courage.

Australia sure have our fair share of them.

Leith, contrary to your dementia - Australia is dealing with a former Taliban warlord in Oruzgan - there is a pretty picture in the AGE today of them shaking hands.

Huh!! What a waste of lives and cities and towns and money and capital this ludicrously named "war on terror" has become.

Leigh

I don't think you're a Nazi and knowing a thing or two about national security issues I'm often in agreement with you on OLO.

This time I think you're wrong in supporting Israel's excessive use of force amounting to conventional terror. Israel has the right to use force against Hezbollah but not against the whole of Lebanon and cause mass evacuations of expatriates.

A minority in Lebanon support Hezbollah and make up Hezbollah, but Israel has used its excessive might to hold the whole country accountable and cripple the whole country. This is victor's justice.

Yes less than 50 Israelis have been killed - how many Lebanese woman and children have died who have no say?

You ask what interest Australians should have in this? Firstly thousand of Australian Lebanese (in Lebanon) are in fear for their lives from Israeli bombs. Secondly Australia has to decide whether it will follow its Master (the US) in continuing to back the Israeli push on Lebanon.

It appears that the ruling Labor Party in Britain has forced Blair to adopt a civilised conscience vote. This is a fundamental shift in "Coalition of the Willing’s" resolve on the Middle East - one plank WAS support Israel without question:

"Speaking to a BBC reporter before travelling on for talks in Israel, where he will also visit the missile-hit areas of Haifa and meet his Israeli opposite number, [British Foreign Office Minister] Howells said: 'The destruction of the infrastructure, the death of so many children and so many people: these have not been surgical strikes. If they are chasing Hizbollah, then go for Hizbollah. You don't go for the entire Lebanese nation." http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1826969,00.html?gusrc=rss

John Howard may have been aware of Britain's vacillation over Israeli excesses. So Howard has been pretty quiet. It will be interesting to see what Howard (or Downer) say in the next 24 hours - or perhaps say little and follow their Master.

Pete
http://spyingbadthings.blogspot.com

Israel has gone too far.
They claim they on a mission to save two soldiers who were allegedly kidnapped.
The reality is that Israel has clearly gone to war and has done so without notice and without regard for the sanctity of civilian life.
It is a shame to hear Lebanese leaders calling Israel a war-machine and having to consider, after all this time of believing them a valuable and civilized ally, that characterization may be correct.
Without warning Israel invaded Lebanon.
They stated at first that they did not do it and then later, when admitting the incursion, stated that they were only there for a little while – as if that makes a difference.
The level of violence they have visited on Lebanon is startling.
The impact of their aggression has sent waves of uncertainty through financial markets around the world. Business in Europe, the United States, Japan, China and as far away as Australia has been impacted negatively.
The Israeli Air Force attacked the civilian airport in Beirut and rendered it useless.
Peaceful business people from around the world are being forced to evacuate Lebanon.
Lebanese that had begun to return home to their war ravaged nation are being driven out by their neighbors, the Israelis.
It is a heroic effort to seek out the two soldiers who were heroically kidnapped. It is a cowardly act to destroy schools, hospitals, businesses and disrupt the lives of millions of people in order to get attention.


They have every right to defend themselves. They have no right to disrupt trade.

Questions :
What are the names of the soldiers alleged to have been kidnapped?
Where are their pictures?
Who is accused of kidnapping them?
What is the name of the group?
Who belongs to it?
What do they want?
Which rockets were allegedly imported from Iran?
Which rockets were allegedly imported from Syria?
If the rockets came from Iran or Syria who actually made them?
In what country were they made?
If the rockets came from Iran or Syria who sold them?

Keith,

To answer your question, as a Jew I have severe and almost visceral reaction against anything which is referred to as a final solution, for obvious historical reasons:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/21/AR2006072101363.html

However, do I believe that the majority of Lebanon’s Shia population would be better off elsewhere?

The Shia population of Lebanon, and particularly that of Southern Beirut, lives below well below the poverty line, predominantly in slums. This powerlessness has directly caused the growth of the Shiite revolutionary groups, the amalgamation of which is Hizbollah. It is interesting to note the contradiction between the relative freedom enjoyed by their coreligionists in Iran, whose citizens enjoy a degree of freedom unknown in the Islamic world, and which has amongst the highest literacy rate as well.

http://www.indexmundi.com/iran/literacy.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran

The characteristics of this group (the fact that it is the only militia to retain its arms) have enabled the Shia population to impose its will on the majority of the country, in the aftermath of the Syrian withdrawal. This withdrawal led to the Syrian support for Hizbollah. It is suggested that Hizbollah has been implicated in the assassination of anti-Syrian politicians, and generally destabilises Lebanon:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedar_Revolution

If Hizbollah is defeated, or significantly weakened, I suggest that the 1 million Lebanese Shia would be well advised to be anywhere but Lebanon. This is Lebanon, payback’s swift, sure, & final.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanese_Civil_War

The Sunni minority should be okay, they are not identified with Hizbollah, and are strongly supported by the Saudi’s (the source of much of Lebanon’s investment), and the Palestinian’s are no longer a force, so I do not believe they would support the Shia:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/07/21/news/jihadists.php

The old SLA has 6,000 veterans living in Israel, who remain Lebanese citizens, who would return after Hizbollah:

http://www.themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=14444
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Lebanon_Army

AKA Phalangists:

And the 2nd Lebanese diaspora has begun:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060722/ap_on_re_mi_ea/mideast_fighting_flight_to_syria

However, Syria is overwhelmingly Sunni, and given their treatment of minorities and dissidents, it is unlikely they would welcome the influx of a large number of Shia, which leaves Iran, which has yet to offer more than clandestine military support.

Not my problem

Inshallah

2 bob