"I'm no Israelie [sic] apologist, however..." These guys are a laugh a minute.

Strewth, please edify us on your solution to the Middle East dilemma.I await with bated breath,since we have a lot of left wing critics such as yourself who display venemous disapproval of the present status quo,yet offer us no workable solutions that will keep the oil flowing,and the terrorists at bay.

Even The title of this article is in itself biased: "do Lebanon's failings justify the scale and intensity of the israeli assault?" How can you even start adressing this subject solely pointing at Lebanon's "failings" without menctioning Israel's continuous failings to withdraw from illegaly occupied palestinian and lebanese lands as a deeper root of the present conflict?!
Also,may I remind you that terrorism has been historically used by zionists to colonize Palestine. Am I making this up?
Here's a brief timeline of the crimes commited by some of the zionist terror gangs against the palestinians and even the brits in the years prior to 1948:
http://guardian.150m.com/palestine/jewish-terrorism.htm

In Lebanon the people are forced to set up tents if they can get anywhere near the rubble of their villages.

In Israel some are setting up tours of the "warzone" of Kyriat Shimona to show the world the suffering of the Jews.

Somehow with so little damage done, with all the roads, bridges, towns and cities fully functioning I don't think the tours will tug at the heart strings of decent people quite as much as looking across the border and seeing the total demolition job done by the Israelis.

The question we here in Australia have to ask ourselves is just what on earth would justify Israel going on such a rampage just because people dared to fight back?

Ed O'Loughlin and others say it is because the much vaunted IDF is impotent because they had only had 5 years of persecuting and killing unarmed Palestinians in their own homes.

Even now the Israelis are bombing Palestiinian homes for no reason.

It has to stop and true friends of Israel would be forcing them to stop the slashing, burning and killing of innocent people.

AS for Bush, he is barely functional above the level of a man with an IQ of 3.

Very droll, Col Rouge - but would you really want to take me on to see if I really am a moron?

Arjay,

You and yours wouldn't recognise a "workable solution" if it hit you in the face. As for the rest, there's been an international consensus for yonks: Israel to lift its siege of Gaza & withdraw completely to the 1949 Green Line, allowing for the creation of a Palestinian state; Israel to withdraw completely from the Golan Heights; Israel to withdraw completely from Lebanon; Israel to repatriate all Palestinian refugees, granting them full citizenship rights. All of which morality and international legality demand.

That should indeed get the oil flowing (is your 4WD getting too expensive to run?). As for keeping "terrorists at bay" we conscript the world's chickenhawks - yourself, Boaz, Horus, sganot, logic and the rest of the crew - into a special squad to be dropped behind enemy lines when required.

I'm with you Strewth.

I'd even offer to find then a militarist multi-demoninational Chaplin who knows both the NT and OT by heart and all its various intrepretations.

That would surely drive the terrorists mad and fleeing for some sanity.