Ted,

I think I praised your honesty in a previous topic, no I do not think you are a liar. In fact I respect the fact that you are willing to argue your point of view in a public forum.

A couple of questions if you care to answer:

Has Israel ever used models of these missiles in displays of captured weapons?

Did Israel find American missiles left over from the Iran Contra scandal?

Are the Russians wrong when they categorically deny the Israeli assertions that these weapons were used.

Is it totally implausable that intelligence agencies do not always tell the whole truth?

I have no animus toward Israel, but I remember that they also denied developing nuclear weapons.

Ted, maybe you have mates in the arms industry - I don't know. But what I do know is there will not be a military solution to terrorism.

The answer will be political. However, it won't come while we have fanatics in power in Tel Aviv and Washington who think the only solution to injustice is by the barrel of a gun, or while we have a powerful 'Israel First' lobby that is willing to put Australia's interests behind Israel's.

Why don't you write an article about how Australia can keep itself out of conflict and help solve terrorism rather encouraging more expensive weapons to engage in more conflict.

If you want killing, you can always return to Israel: they're pretty good at it there.

Ted why will Israel not join the NNPT?

Here's big warmonger Ted back, one of the creators of Hezbollah during the invasion and massacres of over 20 years of occupation of Lebanon. Did you help the phalangist's murder the Palestinian refugees Teddy, or did you watch or am I maligning you and you are a peace lover?

Reading the words of Haaretz, Shlomo - Ben-Ami, Gideon Levy, Amira Hass, Uri Avnery, Norman Finkelstein and Tanya Reinhardt it is not too hard to unpack your humbug.

1. MI report they knew Hezbollah would take soldiers and "didn't act in time to stop it". - Ze'ev Schiff September 18.
2. Ganz, February 2005 - We will bomb Lebanon back 20 years.
3. hezbollah monitored our cell phones to track troop movements then fired their rockets at places they knew IDF senior personell would visit - that old lefty pinko Ze'ev again.
4. The IDF took over arab Israeli towns to fire their barrages from.
5. We here in Ozland have seen the demolition of Aitaroun with out own eyes, unlike those in Israel.
6. There has just been launched a court case to stop the IDF arbitrarily blocking off the roads to Palestinians.

Above all else Teddy boy. When an IDF commander is so sickened by the behaviour of his own troops that he blows the whistle about "what we did was insane and monstrous, we flooded all of south Lebanon with 1.2 million cluster bombs and most of them after the ceasefire had been agreed".

Ted when you want to bleat at us, please remember we are literate here in Australia and we can also read the many voices around the world who say to you - humbug.

Steve:

The missiles were the real McCoy, right down to the Cyrillic lot numbers stenciled on the canister. I even had a look through the sight of the Kornet launch unit. The Iranian M-16s were old A1 models that had been supplied by the US during the Shah's regime (I assume). The exhibit also featured a bunch of Chinese AKs, the odd Czech Skorpion, and a Russian SVD sniper rifle.

Yes there was a TOW missile there as well, although there was some speculation among the IDF types as to whether it was Iranian (which means Israeli via the 1980s arms for hostages deal) or from Lebanese army stocks.

Yes the Russians are lying if they say there were no Russkie ATGMs used by Hezbollah. Once again, I saw examples of them close up.

eet - It is lunacy to think that our jihadi enemies will simply go away if we do nothing. Australia first appeared on the al-Qaeda hit list long before Afghanistan or Iraq. The reason? We pissed off Bin Laden because we liberated E. Timor from Islamic (Indonesian) rule. This appeasement theory that the jihadis don't like us because we are not nice enough to them is dangerous nonsense.

And Marilyn, the only one whom you malign is yourself, by virtue of your semi-coherent, hysterical blatherings. On the rare occasion when you manage to get the odd letter up in a newspaper, you never fail to generate a giggle. You are such a stereotype that it's as if you came direct from central casting - aging ex-60s radical who never outgrew her Vietnam protest days. Enmeshed in a time warp that makes her view the world through the 'movement' prism of the 'New' Left (although it's getting pretty long in tooth by this stage).

It's 2006, not 1996. Ho Chi Minh is dead, communism in Vietnam was a disaster (the most murderous ideology in human history with well over 50 million bodies world-wide to its discredit)

I'd like to say 'get with the times, Marilyn,' but I know a lost cause when I see one

A mere $50 million you say, in order to protect Australian troops against the advanced weaponry of Hezbollah?

Ted, your article is quite insulting to me on so many levels, mostly your complete ignorance to the physical and civic devastation that Israel has committed in Lebanon.

I cannot begin to fathom what it would be like living in Israel, neighbors that hate, rather despise your very existence? Living in a constant state of fear, constantly afraid of random terrorist acts? Entering a war in the name of 'self defense', to protect your borders, your way of life from those who want nothing more than to see you perish...

Might be a bit like living in Lebanon recently?

There are major differences of course, too namely to state here. Although for mere respect to the dead, one cannot go past the number of civilian casualties caused in Israel's latest attempt at self-righteousness.

The bombing of Lebanon was on the Israeli agenda long before the summer of 2006. Much like the hand that feeds them, Israel justifies their military action as being a ‘counter attack’ on the violence and persecution of ‘Others’.

Yes, let's spend $50 million on buying more bombs and tanks.