Bla, bla bla.

This is undeniable.

And while the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah is tactical concerning land rights, and recognition of soveriegnty etc, both Israel and Hezbollah should be accountable to the same rules/obligations.

In particular, it is a clear tactic of Hezbollah to fire missiles etc, and engage the enemy from and in civilian areas. It is smart, but cowardly, and loses any moral rights they may have had.

http://weekbyweek7.blogspot.com/

If an enemy were to fire rockets into Cottesloe oe Caulfield then such an attack could be considered as an attack on civilians.In Haifa where every able-bodied person is a member of the IDF or its reserves, then that city is a legitimate target just as Qana or Tyre was.

Oh well the war of words will last longer than that of weapons, even those provided by it is said the US or Iran. Even outlasting the US need to vilify Iran, a nuclear friend in the Shahs time.
Where does truth lie. Each side is at fault, tit for tat and tat for tit. For another picture see Middle East Report On Line July 312 Hizballah : A Primer.
The truth however is one of many players meddling for their own ends after the Colonial mind saw the demand of Zionism and the guilt of the Holocaust being assuaged by a homeland for the Israeli in an area inhabited by Arabs showing no desire to be rich and modern. Terra Nullis it was claimed by the Jews.
The homeland is narrow hard to defend and the occupation resented. Neither side was prepared to agree each citing the many UN resolutions useful to their case whilst ignoring others.
Israel has ended up as a rich nuclear country, commanding land and water, excluding Arabs in Bantu if not Nazi style. The big powers have seen advantage, geopolitical and in home politics and so the sorry saga of humanity goes on. Jurisdiction of International Law is spurned so one can kill, cheat, obstruct at will co operation just a mask for collecting benefit. But the Jews still trade on their past (and current in places) treatment. No such sympathy vote is accorded the Arabs, classed and thus dismissed as Terrorist, beyond thought or consideration or any attempt at understanding.
So too the Armenians and Kurds, foreign affairs are indeed without morals.

Colin Rubinstein will be a big loss to the Zionist lobby when he finally shuffles off this mortal coil. But what wearisome and tendentious propaganda this is ! First, if Hizbollah was regarded by Lebanese civilians as "cynically" using them as a shield, how does Rubinstein explain the growing popularity of the organisation, even among Lebanese Christians ? Second, Rubinstein should look at an excellent recent paper by Gideon Levy, who argues convincingly that if only Israel would give up on its territorial ambitions and be sensible enough to let go of land it is illegally occupying - West Bank, Golan Heights, Sheba Farms - then the rug would be pulled out from under Islamic extremism and the whole area could at last settle down to peaceful co-existence. Resistance will never stop while land is illegally occupied,and while invaders are killing and destroying, and every civilian death in Lebanon is ensuring a continuation of the cycle of hatred. No amount of ponderous propaganda will alter these simple facts.

kang: All well and good to consider giving up occupied land as a good thing. Under normal circumstances, it would be. However, any land Israel were to give up would not lead to peace. It would be perceived as a weakness on the part of Israel, and an opportunity to reach even more Israeli targets. Peace would only come if Hezbollah and its ilk managed to completely destroy Israel (and possibly all Jews). Would it stop there, or would the terrorists be emboldened enough to spread it further to other regions? To suggest that all Hezbollah wants really is peace is absurd.

Put up a big wall and patrol it with un peacekeepers with the authority to fire at either side who fires at the other.

the truth is, Lebanon needs to pull its finger out and get cracking on Hisbollah to save thier people from further peril. If they dont, and allow this to continue, they are actually showing support for Hisbollah.

The Jews have little choice but to retalliate and the urban nature of the conflict means there are always going to be civilian casualties.

Cease fire today, a new battle tomorrow, it just does not work. Divide & patrol the border, create a no mans land and apply international force to those who dare to be the aggressors. By sitting drinking lattes trying to broker a deal, people will continue to die.

The need to take the bull by the horns or this will end up a tragedy. No one has the guts to get between them, ostracise and contain each side.

Humanity is incapable of peace. If its not the religous nutters, its the athiest nutters pursueing their fairy tales. Thank God that the Prince of Peace will one day sort this out. The crazies on the left and right have no hope. Just look at history.

Lets face it we humans are proud, arrogant and insist on being right even when we are totally wrong. We can stay in denial and argue our views but at the end of the day nothing will change. Peace might come for a little while for some. Wars begin because the heart of man is evil. You will only have to look at the responses to this email to see the pride, hate and arrogrance that is displayed.

It is time my friends to look to the Prince of Peace who layed down His life for u and me. Peace srarts in a person's heart. Israel will win some and lose some but at the end of the day the God of Israel who is in fact the Only True God will bring peace to the world.

“All this was done in front of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), a peacekeeping force created in 1978 - some four years before Hezbollah’s creation. UNIFIL not only failed to keep the peace, it frequently allowed Hezbollah to locate its forces just outside their own posts.”

Most of the world’s troubles can be traced back to the degeneracy and stupidity of the United Nations

Colin,

This article is nothing more than a lame, predictable regurgitation of the Israeli/US propaganda being pedaled adnausium in the mainstream media.

Baseless, bias, racist and plainly untrue. C'mon mate are you really expecting people to buy this BS?

At least have a remotely evidence based, intellectual attempt. Your article is not even smoke and mirrors it is just plain lame.

I'm glad to see that Kenny (first post) is up to his usual intellectual standard. He will be dribbling next.

There's an interesting article on Hezbollah's use of civilians as human shields in The Epoch Times (http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/6-8-8/44723.html). Let's also not forget Hezbollah's use of live stand-ins (or should I say lie-downs) for dead bodies, to exaggerate or even create a body count. Is Israel doing this, Kenny? Hmmm ... can you talk, Kenny?

What an utter piece of regurgitated propaganda spew.

Absolutely nothing new.
We have seen these exact same views published over and over, in most western media outlets, during the last 4 weeks.
They simply seek to defend from every Israeli action from Israel's aggression through to Israel's atrocities and war crimes.

Why did OLO even bother with this orchestrated pap?

The 'writers' are merely the mouthpieces the of the authors.

"The Axis of Terror", "Hezbollah is deliberately and cynically using civilian shields...yadda, yadda, yadda. I can't even struggle past the title & subtitle.

On Hezbollah & human shields who're you gonna call? AIJAC or Human Rights Watch? No contest. HRW declares that it "found no cases in which Hezb. DELIBERATELY used civilians as shields to protect them from retaliatory IDF attack." It did, however, charge the IDF with "extensive use of indiscriminate force which has cost so many civilian lives."

AIJAC's obscene propaganda offensive in Australia mirrors the obscene Israeli military offensives underway in Lebanon and Gaza.

Strewth, Strewth ...

This is from the website of the Assyrian International News Agency - http://www.aina.org/news/20060808193908.htm. Posted on August 9th.

"A Christian from the village of Ain Ebel, who requested to remain nameless for fear of a reprisal from Hezbollah, reported that he found Hezbollah fighters setting up a launcher on his rooftop. Hezbollah fighters ignored his pleas to stop and fired the missiles. He immediately gathered his family and fled his home, which was bombed 15 minutes later by an Israeli air strike.

Hezbollah has also attempted to stop Christians from fleeing their villages. According to Christian Solidarity International, on July 28, Hezbollah fighters fired upon several Christians fleeing Rmeish with their families, wounding two.

Sami El-Khoury, president of the World Maronite Union, adds that media reports about Christian support for Hezbollah are inaccurate.

"Contrary to Western press reports, indicating high percentages of Christian support for Hezbollah, 90 percent of Christians, 80 percent of Sunni and 40 percent of Shiites in Lebanon oppose Hezbollah," El-Khoury told Christian Solidarity International."

What was that you said, Strewth? Brave little Hezbollah don't use civilians as "human shields"? Baloney, they don't!!

Spin and counterspin -

I have seen other reports that Hezzbollah prefer NOT to be close to civilians because of the possibility of betrayal.

Are both views correct?

Perhaps it would be fairer for everybody if each Hezzbollah stronghold painted a big "H" on it's roof to clearly discriminate it from innocent civilian households.

What bollocks this human shield stuff is. The christians claim that the muslims are stopping them fleeing yet no christian villages are even being bombed for god's sake. Will you people who hate muslims so much you would believe any of this tripe please get a grip.

In Afghanistan it was said the Taliban his behind the civilians - so the US and us bombed weddings and funerals, cars driving on the roads and so on. The death toll is astronomical. The US dropped cluster bombs in yellow packets along with food in yellow packets. So much love and care the west have.

In Iraq it was the same tired old yarn. Yet not a trace of evidence has been found while the US bombed weddings, funerals and cars on the road.

Israeil is now trying it on in Lebanon. Every person in Israel over 18 or so has to do two years in the armed forces, I presume they go home and hide in the civilian population until they are called upon to bomb a wedding, funeral, car on the road or whatever they feel like.

Israel is not under seige - a few piddling rockets have managed to occassionally hit something where as entire swathes of Lebanon have been razed to the ground. There are only about 600 trained fighters you know, not the millions that the cowards in Israel would have us believe.

Up against the biggest army in the region.

Perhaps you could look at today's Australian - see the tiny babe pulled dead from the rubble and not a sign of a rocket in sight.

The christians in Lebanon should be ashamed of themselves for their cowardly role in Shatila and Sabra and for allowing Israel to let them hide in the community while they committed those murders for Ariel Sharon. Or in Palestine where the IDF used Palestinians to hide behind.

Colin, we in Australia are nowhere near as stupid as our government or you.

I too cringe whenever I hear an Israel supporter make the claim that Hezbollah "cynically using civilian shields". From what I can gather both sides are guilty of the practise and the only thing that can be said in Israel's favour is that their High Court put a temporary ban on such activities.

From the Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem

"the IDF systematically used Palestinian civilians as human shields, forcing them to carry out military actions which threatened their lives. It was not until a High Court petition was filed by Israeli human rights organizations opposing such action, in May 2002, that the IDF issued a general order prohibiting the use of Palestinians as "a means of 'human shield' against gunfire or attacks by the Palestinian side.'" Following this order, the use of this practice declined sharply."

I wonder if Mr Rubenstien was supportive of the ban?

I do not want a heated argument about this topic as the violence demonstrated from both sides is quite horrific. You left out a very important detail in the article. The Hezbollah took those prisoners to swap Israel who were holding some of their men captive. But this little snippet of information has been conveniently left out.
Israel is not in a no-win situation; they are better equipped than the Hezbollah and are killing innocent people. They claim their war is against the Hezbollah, but they are not taking the fight directly to the Hezbollah. The UN is founded on the right for negotiation rather than war and even after they are saying, you can’t just bomb a country, Israel are just ignoring them. Why? Because they have US support if needed.
The Hezbollah are made out to be evil, but when you look at it, they are their country’s protector, not that I agree with extreme methods from ANY country

Marilyn shepherd,

I saw your comments (4) on the BBC Have your Say reg. Australian policies. I am so sorry for you because you are a fan of terrorists. Today, some 10,000 may have died and you missed a chance to feel happy.

"Hezbollah is deliberately and cynically using civilian shields to confront Israel with a no-win situation."

This article reminded me of an interview with an Israeli spokesperson who claimed that Hizbollah are not only deliberately using civilians as shields but they are using them with the knowledge that they will be killed. His view was that Hizbollah would do this because the deaths of civilians would bring condemnation from the Arab states and the rest of the world on Israel and would bulster support and empathy for thier cause.
Is it not farcicle that a group which claims to be a resistance movement would knowingly and intentionally plan for deaths of the very people it claims to defend?

This is not say that Hizbollah's methods of operation are justified in any way but the main discourses which have emerged from this conflict are centred on the idea that Israel has a right to defend itself against 'terrorists': I use this term lightly because it seems that only Arabs and Muslims fit this criteria of deliberately attacking civilians, and yet, I quote from today's Herald:

"The war has cost the lives of at least 1005 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 116 Israelis, mostly soldiers."

These figures are sufficient evidence that attacks and retailiation of from either side are only adding to the humanitarian crisis as well as the long-term psychological effects this will have on those involved.

It's pretty easy to say that the Israelis are to blame for what is happening in Lebanon; or blame Hezbollah for sending missilles into Israel. As has been indicated many times the beginning of this conflict could have occured 2,000 years ago; or with the capture of the Israeli solders; or somewhere inbetween.

One matter is clear though, and that is that the infra-structure has been blasted out of a country Lebanon that has not declared war on Israel. Once a cease fire has been declare the Lebanese will continue to suffer for sometime into the future: housing, water, food, sanitation, transport, etc,etc. Innocent Lebanese people will be dying from this war even after it has been finished.

Darwin1, 30,000 children died today and not one terr'ist in sight. They were too weak to cry, too tired to moan, too hungry to ask for food. Where were you Darwin 1 and please tell me just precisely what locking up christian refugees from West Papua has to do with a bogus plot to blow up planes with stuff the experts said could not cause an explosion and that nothing at all was planned for today.

Are you suggesting the children dying in the desert were going to do it or the West Papuan refugees? I reckon Britain's latest "terror" attack is about the same as Jean Charles De Menendez was a terr'ist and the two student brothers were terr'ists.

Give it a rest Darwin1. What on earth some refugees have to do with Israel blowing Lebanon to bits when not one Lebanese is on their soil beats me.

It also beats me this hysteria about refugees - because under this law if Jewish refugees want to come and can't get papers they will be sent to Nauru or sent back, just like before when we sent them back to be killed.

I am not anti-Jewish, I think the survivors of the holocaust are the most extraordinary people on earth, their spirit and their hope for decency to others should inspire every person on earth.

Others like Rubenstein choose the path of gross paranoia pretending that Israel with all it's military might is a poor little victim while they slaughter refugees.

I know this will not be popular with the civil rights crowd, of whom I am one (albeit an unusual one, civil rights in a country belong to those who reside in that country). This an opinion peice by Alan Dershowitz, the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School:

He states that the terrorists in this conflict, have long used the fact that the deaths of their own civilians, as well as the deaths of Israel's civilians, both benefit them, whilst harming Israel.

http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/2006/07/21_dershowitz.php

A better advocate, it is obvious, would be hard to find. He explains the requirements of proportionality, here:

http://web.israelinsider.com/bin/en.jsp?enPage=ViewsPage&enDisplay=view&enDispWhat=object&enDispWho=Article%5El3555&enZone=Views&enVersion=0&

For those who would question his civil rights credentials, please read:

http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/directory/facdir.php?id=12

Also see his biography on wikipedia:

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

To Keith in particular, I have no ambition to engage in a tete-a-tete with this man, very few people in Australia would, and certainly not over this issue. However, in any prosecution of a member of the IDF this is likely one of the faces you will encounter.

Inshallah

2bob

Hi Marilyn,

I am sorry to say the things which you believe:

" 1.Bali blasts, 9/11, 7/7, Madrid blasts, Jordan, Israel (Telaviv suicide-blasts), Indonesia, Thailand, Phillippines, Mumbai, Kashmir,Delhi blasts are all fake..

2. and even if they did occur, they were done by CIA, Mossad agents

3. The videos of Bin Laden, Zawahiri are all fake. Infact, they are Bush and Blair (howard too)who wear those masks.

4. Even Al-jazeera is also a CIA TV station which shows those videos.

Are you happy now?

And few questions for you:

1. You said "30,000 children died today".. Where? How?
2. Have you ever tried to help those children?
3. Why do you loathe your own country(if it is)?..

(My suggestion: Please find a better country that suits you.. as living in the country that you hate gives you no peace of mind.)

4. who are al-qaeda? Are they fake terrorists? Do you like to join it?

This man needs to be Institutionalized !

"Gideon Levy, who argues convincingly that if only Israel would give up on its territorial ambitions and be sensible enough to let go of land it is illegally occupying - West Bank, Golan Heights, Sheba Farms - then the rug would be pulled out from under Islamic extremism and the whole area could at last settle down to peaceful co-existence."

Clearly Levy has not read the HAMAS CHARTER article 11 which CLEARLY and UNMISTAKABLY outlines a 'No-Israel' vision of the region known as Israel/Palestine.

MARILYN you are not doing your credibility any good whatsover by pointing only to SYMPTOMS (30,000 children died today) rather than CAUSES.

CAUSE 1.

Human heart alientated from God. (some of you might dispute this, no problemo)

CAUSE 2. (based on cause 1)

Greed, Lust, Arrogance, Racism.

Those 2 major causes are expressed in political movements which destroy other people.
Marilyn, if I have a cough, the Quack checks my chest to see it there is a bacterial infection. If none, then it is a virus, and I have to wait it out.
You see the connection ? SYMPTOM.....CAUSE....

Sadly, many 'causes' such as our good debate killing friend "Adolph" and company required radical military surgery to remove his cancer-like grip on Europe.

Marilyn, looking back, can you see any other way of dealing with Hitler than massive military action ? I agree we didn't need to saturation Bomb Dresden, but that aside...... well ?

I leave you all with these echoing words from the past couple of days.

"Massive death on an unimaginable Scale" ....... (Airline Terror plot)

I recommend a visit by all to CourtRoom 3.3 at 250 William Street Melbourne any time over the next week or 2. It will be a revelation of apocalyptic proportions.

Just another Brick in the Wall

Yes, more blah blah about the rights of Israel and the wrongs of Hezbolah and like a misguided missile, altogether missing the point.

We are witnessing the carnage you have wrought on perfectly innocent men, women and children sanctioned by George Bush and Tony Blair, based on the very same argument put forward by Mr Rubinstein.

This is inexcusable.

There can be no justification whatsoever for what is happening and furthermore I find it personally offensive to read this dumb down drivel from these expensively educated and overly privilaged spin doctors. Is it not some some kind of Hezbolah recruitment drive?

Clearly the Israeli offensive massively underestimated the enemies capacity to respond in kind and has precipitated an even worse situation, with no end in sight.

These people are terrorists not necessarily directed by, or acting under the orders of any national government. By implicating Iran and Syria without conclusive evidence of culpability is reminiscent of the way Arafat was constantly held responsible for every bullet and bomb rendered on Israel by Hamas. No doubt, if he were still alive he would still be copping the blame.

The latest attempt to blow up aircraft over the Atlantic will no doubt be blamed on Islam and the persons arrested will be kept as long as possible without trial in order that we can be prevented from learning the truth. Al Quada is not a religion and terrorists are not necessarily religious fanatics but I expect this will not deter the propagandists pointing the finger and more innocents everywhere will sooner or later pay the price.

This affair can only end when somebody nukes their next door neighbour. So go on, peddle your propaganda and poison and let's see where it gets you.

Colin,

There is a bit of truth and lots of misleading comments in your article.
Here is a sample:

- Hezbollah runs guerrilla warfare of 3-5000 people in the bottom south of Lebanon and they are not an army, a known fact that guerrillas live inside cities with no offices or head quarters. One would think to fight it is to engage ground forces and comb the southern 30 miles of Lebanon. Why would Israel destroy all Lebanese airports, ports, bridges, sewage stations and displace 25% of the Lebanese population unless as Putin said it ‘they are pursuing a wider agenda’.

- At first glance it appears that Israeli forces panicked from their early casualties in the ground offensive and decided to pull back and use aerial bombs. But why would you expect that dumping +20 tons plus of bombs on a residential building will not harm civilians in surrounding buildings? You can’t be taken seriously if this is your assumption.

- Hezbollah in essence kidnapped 2 military personnel to negotiate releasing 20,000 prisoners plus held indefinitely in the Democratic republic of Israel. Can you explain why all these people are held and on what charges?

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20060807&articleId=2919

Being supportive of your cause should not mean you sit and justify wrong doings. Right now your credibility is biting the dust and Israeli actions is reflecting negatively on Jewish people.

Tassie, you seem to have a strong desire for truth...lets start with your post :)

You said: "By implicating Iran and Syria without conclusive evidence of culpability"

Iranian Missiles.
Iranian Soldiers captured.

Not good enough ?

Then you said:

"The latest attempt to blow up aircraft over the Atlantic will no doubt be blamed on Islam and the persons arrested will be kept as long as possible without trial in order that we can be prevented from learning the truth. Al Quada is not a religion and terrorists are not necessarily religious fanatics"

-They were all 'MUSLIMS'.
-Their inspiration came from a strong connection to 'PAKISTAN' (fact)
-and undoubtedly the Madrassah's there. (an educated guess on my part)
-They were motivated by so-called Western attacks on....ISLAM/Muslims.

Al Qaeda ? It would be difficult to find a MORE "Islamic" group than this. Your right, they are not "A Religion" but they are all dogmatic,fanatic,bigoted FOLLOWERS of and PROMOTERS of the religion of "ISLAM". They only 'exist' because of that religion.

I honestly am tempted to believe that most of those on the 'Left' of politics got their training from a long stint with the Jehovah's Witnesses. The level of reasoning and manner is about the same. They only give you a moment to speak so they can think up the next thing THEY want to say irrespective of what YOU have said to them.

This is a war with Islam (in its true form)

The example of the lefts 'JW' mentality is that they are already claiming the 13 terror suspects in custory are 'innocent' irrespective of the fact that the evidence has not even progressed past the 'committal hearing' stage. I saw THOUSANDS of pages of notes on the desk of the defense and prosecution. But hey....the left already know it all ? :)

'They only give you a moment to speak so they can think up the next thing THEY want to say irrespective of what YOU have said to them.'

The same can be said of some people who quote the old testament to justify positions held today.

Hummmmm now what was that you said about the OT, David?

FH,

On the whole the majority of Palestinian prisoner's are held either after they have been convicted of criminal offences, or whilst on remand awaiting trial for criminal offences. These offences range from theft, robbery, extortion, violent crimes, terrorism related offences and membership of terrorist organisations. Contrary to the argument put by the PA in recent times, none of these people are combatant's, as they wore no uniforms, carried no identification as a combatant, and made no attempt to target military targets, in fact on the whole they have attacked civilian targets.

There are also 1,000 or so who are held under administrative detention, similar to that used to house illegal immigrants in Australia, although the majority of those in this classification could be convicted of membership of a terrorist organisation. This administrative detention has not been criticised by the Israeli Supreme Court, although it has been by the International Court, which has no jurisdiction, which is a direct parallel to the position in Australia, where international law does not come into effect unless it is done through legislative enactment.

Given the behaviour of the UN's new Human Rights Committee, which was used to condemn Israel and praise Hizbollah, after being hijacked by the moslem states, I see no reason why International law will be accepted in Israel in the foreseeable future. In fact the behaviour of the Arab states was such as to destroy any prospect of this new body enjoying any legitimacy whatsoever in the future, especially when the condemnation is supported only by such freedom loving nations as:

1.Algeria
2.Azerbaijan
3.Bahrain
4.Bangladesh
5.China
6.Cuba
7.Indonesia
8.Jordan
9.Malaysia
10.Morocco
11.Pakistan
12.Russian Federation
13.Saudi Arabia
14.Senegal
15.South Africa
16.Tunisia

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=19450&Cr=Leban&Cr1

These freedom loving countries were justifiably upset at Israel defending itself, wonder why?

Inshallah

2bob

How gullible you are. It was the notoriiously vile Pakistani Intelligence services that "claim" there was a "terr'ist" plot against some airlines and some muslims were arrested only on that basis.

Reid claimed they had been following the people for a year but the Pakistanis claim they knew nothing about anything until 2 months ago or two weeks ago depending on which day they tell the story.

An enormous amount of paper was used to describe something that didn't happen, based on no evidence that it was ever real and on the basis that they didn't know when it was going to happen. The Mi5 have stuffed up so many times they are a joke and Michael Chertoff of Homeland security didn't know Katrina was going to drown New Orleans even when he was told 6 months before it happened.

Talk about hysterical, bigotted drivel.

Since Condi the moron stated that we would see who wanted peace after the UN brokered ceasefire the Israelis have tripled their forces in Lebanon and murdered another 20 or so civilians.

Guess Condi of the Iraqi fiasco should stop brokering peace - 58 months now as Afghanistan descends further into hell and Iraq is a catastrophic failure.

We do still have such a thing as innocent until proven guilty, trials and little things you know you war mongers.

Marilyn Shepherd

You can smother me with me kisses, you can smother me with dreams. You can always be the mistress of my schemes.

But the sand is a very special thing, it can leave you at the stop. It can keep you standing naked in a jar.

Another ship could find you and now's your chance, and now's your chance.

Another ship could find you and now's your chance, and now's your chance.

Just like Leila Khaled said, just like Leila Khaled said.

Meeting people round the table, trying hard to get excited for your brand new name. Bringing friends all round for dinner ...

Just like Leila Khaled said, just like Leila Khaled said.

There seems to be a lot of accusations of targeting civilians.
As Hezbollah is not a Lebonese defence unit then all their members must be civilians ! Seems straight foward to me.
If you act in a uncertain way or in a place where some action takes place you would become a target. Can't see what the fuss is all about.

UriAvnery states on http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14522.htm

"The war has proved that Hizbullah is a strong opponent, and any political solution in the North must include it. Since Syria is its strong ally, it must also be included. The settlement must be worthwhile for them too, otherwise it will not last.

The price is the return of the Golan Heights.

What is true in the North is also true in the South. The army will not defeat the Palestinians, because such a victory is altogether impossible. For the good of the army, it must be extricated from the quagmire.

If that now enters the consciousness of the Israeli public, something good may yet have come out of this war."

Since Vietnam guerrillas, terrorists or whatever you wish to call them have had the upper hand. Each bomb sent into Lebanon strengthens the resolve of people to either join Hezbollah or sympathise with them. That is, the Israelis and USA is doing the recruiting for Hezbollah and other terrorists in the Middle East.

Lets hope that the cease fire holds, but with all the saber rattling that has been occurring by Hezbollah and Israel, the cease fire is exceptionally fragile.

The terrorists don’t believe we, or any man, apparently, has an expectation to life. The terrorist have shown that they can commit, intend to commit and are committed to intentional, indiscriminate killing of innocent strangers.

What greater disparity could there be in the beliefs between the terrorists and ourselves?

What makes this so devious, so desperately troubling, is this. A part of the terrorist movement has, will have or wants to have nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The actions of the terrorists to date tell us that they are released from our inhibitions to kill indiscrimately by using nuclear weapons and other WMD.

And the terrorists are being encouraged, fueled and even driven toward the use of WMD by the likes of Iranian President Ahmadinejad, various imams, mosques, madras’s, political activists and others. In fact, throughout Pakistan and other Moslem nations, terror has superseded a religion.

This means, for the terrorists, all treaties, all normal forms of the so called “laws of war,” and all the normal underpinnings of negotiation are off the table.

To put this in a nutshell, Israel, has been using a conventional military force bound by restrictions on the indiscriminate killing of civilians, to find and kill people lobbing unguided rockets into their civilian population with no restrictions on their use of indiscriminate killing; a kind of asymmetric warfare of the most heinous sort.

John E. Carey
http://peace-and-freedom.blogspot.com/

2 Bob,

My comment was to clarify that resolving the land and borders issues is in everyon'e best interest and Israel is on the top of this list.

Its starts from Israel agreeing and defininf what their own borders are. Using the BS scare tactics of 'arabs hate us' is not a part of the solution.

Most arabs will agree that all they need from Israel is a Palestinian state, respect of legally defined borders and internationalise Jerusalem. Yes there is more right wing position but its in the minority.

Israelis are still debating on their borders among themselves.
Israel agreed its western (and easter borders with Egypt and Jordan. How hard is it to neogitate the same re Sheeba farms and Golan Heights?

Perhaps its time to stop the blame game,

Boaz David,

With your ongoing intellectual dishonesty you promote fear which a step of the Trinity (fear, hate then violence).

I am amazed that your mob are / were not held to account by their the admin of OLO or security authorities. After all, there is a law that prevents inspiring violence against others.

My other view of the situation...

Israel has made a mockery of the UN and all that it stands for, merely with their US support. We cannot honestly believe that if it was any other less wealthy country, which ignored UN pleas to stop the attacks would not be without ramifications from the US. We all know this is not true and the fact that anyone may say, Lebanon is bombing Israel or it is only retaliation, is folly. The Hezbollah or any other extremist groups are being named as vicious but there to protect their country, sometimes by unnecessary means. They defend themselves but know if they get too out of hand, even with Israel, the very country that continues to bombard them, the US will invade. The US need and want an opportunity to get their way into the Middle East without getting too much resentment internationally.
It is like a ‘little’ kid with his hands behind his back getting beaten up by a ‘big’ kid, who in this case, has back up