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The Forum > Article Comments > Promised land a hollow promise > Comments

Promised land a hollow promise : Comments

By Greg Barns, published 25/7/2006

Israel has lost its direction as a nation.

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Here is another perspective for the Supporters of the Israeli actions worth reading from a Beirut editor.He has better credentials to comment than most of the posters on this forum

Rice's Fantasy Ride
Rami G. Khouri
July 24, 2006

Rami G. Khouri is editor-at-large of the Beirut-based Daily Star, published throughout the Middle East with the International Herald Tribune.


http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/07/24/rices_fantasy_ride.php
Posted by maracas, Tuesday, 25 July 2006 2:58:48 PM
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Greg my compliments on your thoughtful article all you have to do is read the comments below you to realize you have pretty much hit the nail on the head. The only complaint I have is that you give the impression that Israel’s immoral behavior in Lebanon is a relatively new phenomenon, it isn’t. Their immoral conduct of war has been evident since the Balfour Declaration. During their war of independence after the UN split Palestine into two they conducted such a policy of ethnic cleansing of the Arabs from the territories they conquered that was unparalleled in its barbarity to this date. The only difference today is that President Bush is giving them a totally free hand and they don’t even have to give lip service to the word humanity, remember Israel is god’s chosen country for his chosen people and no one has a right to question god’s choice. Don’t you remember Qana? That is Israel bombing civilians who took refuge at a UN station. Now its ambulances, telling civilians to leave their homes and then bombing the convey that resulted. Bombing TV stations, highways, roads, bridges, ports, the airport, civilian residential areas, apartment blocks, the electricity grids in fact as they promised sending the country back 20 years. Disproportionate doesn’t even begin to describe their actions.
Posted by drooge, Tuesday, 25 July 2006 3:14:15 PM
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Religion religion, they are all in the wrong.

israel is bad, the muslim opposers are mad, and they will all end up sad and ripped apart.

At least both countries will undergo a construction boom after this!
Posted by Realist, Tuesday, 25 July 2006 3:33:01 PM
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Terrific piece, Greg. I have only one quibble. The "great Zionist dream" you refer to was actually a nightmare from the beginning. It all boils down to the fact that a political movement, Zionism, based exclusively on a particular ethnic grouping, European Jews, came to Palestine, not to live alongside its existing inhabitants, but to establish an ethnic state run by Jews, in the interest of Jews. As such it could only be established at the expense of the existing non-Jewish inhabitants of Palestine and so posed an existential threat to them. The entire history of the Zionist project in Palestine since 1948 is a history of the expansion of an ethnically exclusive Jewish state and the corresponding contraction and diminution of the lives of Palestine's non-Jewish inhabitants. Israel has no moral compass, as you correctly say, but not because it has somehow 'lost its way'. It has no moral compass because its ideological underpinning, political Zionism, is based not on universal moral values but on ethnic exclusivism..
Posted by Strewth, Tuesday, 25 July 2006 4:25:49 PM
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Keith,

Egypt took part of the Sinai back in ’73, then lost it when Ariel Sharon led an armoured brigade to the Suez, which they crossed, and headed for Cairo. The Egyptian army was stopped by the Israeli army, and Cairo was saved by the UN which brokered a ceasefire. The Syrian army launched a massive assault, which was stopped at huge cost (esp. to the 7th Armoured), but it was stopped. The Israeli army then headed for Damascus, which was saved by the UN ceasefire as well, at the cost of the Golan Heights (including sheba’a/shaba farms).

The consequence of the Egyptian army being soundly defeated in the Sinai was the secret talks between Israel and Egypt, which resulted in the ex-Irgun leader, Menachim Begin being given a Nobel peace prize, the dismantling of the settlements in the Sinai by Sharon, and the return of the Sinai to Egypt in return for peace. Note however, that settlements and territory were given up in exchange for recognition and peace between the two countries, both of which live up to this to this day.

Peace cannot be unilaterally imposed, and unless both sides want it, it will not work. Therefore, until Lebanon concedes that it cannot win this war, and complies with its obligations under UNSCR425, Israel is not obligated to stop, and frankly shows no signs of doing so. The Lebanese should really not expect International pressure to save them, they squandered their opportunity for peace by choosing war, the ball is in their court.

Instead of putting pressure on Israel, the International community could best aim at disarming Hizbollah, but of course that is way too hard?

On the legal front, there is a major difference between targeting terrorists hiding amongst civilians, and targeting civilians intentionally.

Until there is an effort by the Lebanese to disarm Hizbollah, the war will continue.

Egypt & Jordan have treaties with Israel, Syria doesn’t & does not recognise the States right to exist, when has Israel not recognised Syria?

Inshallah

2bob
Posted by 2bob, Tuesday, 25 July 2006 4:44:58 PM
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I vowed never to read anything Greg Barnes churns out, and I have stuck to that vow.

Reading posters’ comments, however, was enough to show that he hasn’t changed his nutty views – anti-Israel and praise for those wonderful Hezbollah ‘freedom fighters’.

Noticed that Carl and Rancitas are still on illegal substances, and Strewth doesn’t seem to realise the proper meaning of ‘terrific’ if he agrees with Barnes
Posted by Leigh, Tuesday, 25 July 2006 4:52:28 PM
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