Bangkoktraveler Posted August 4, 2006 Report Share Posted August 4, 2006 I don't know what any of you people are talking about! The Middle East is in the US and consist of Washington DC, Maryland, New Jersey, and Virginia. Maybe I got some of it right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted August 4, 2006 Report Share Posted August 4, 2006 Let's declare Washington DC an independent country and solve a helluva a lot of problems! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted August 4, 2006 Report Share Posted August 4, 2006 Haaretz 4 August 2006 Jordanian king: IDF offensive turning Hezbollah into heros Jordan's King Abdullah, a staunch pro-U.S. ally, said on Thursday that Israel's offensive against Hezbollah had turned its fighters into heroes among ordinary Arabs. In the toughest rebuke against his peace partner Israel in recent years, the monarch said the rise of guerrilla groups such as Hezbollah who targeted the Israel stemmed from Israel's reluctance to give up Arab territory captured in the 1967 Six-Day War in return for lasting peace. "They [israelis] want to destroy Hezbollah by tanks and air force. Peace comes by returning occupied territory and setting up a Palestinian state," he said. "The war will not solve anything and Arab peoples see now in Hezbollah a hero facing aggression and defending their land," Abdullah said. "Ok, if you [israel] destroy Hezbollah and, let's say, after a year or two there is no solution to the Palestinian cause or Lebanon or Syria .. then a new Hezbollah would emerge, maybe in Jordan, Syria or Egypt .. Israel should know this." "A fact America and Israel must understand is that as long as there is aggression and occupation there will be resistance and popular support for the resistance," the monarch said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.. Posted August 7, 2006 Report Share Posted August 7, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/world/20060804_MIDEAST_GRAPHIC/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaiLuk Posted August 7, 2006 Report Share Posted August 7, 2006 Interesting. The NYTimes satellite photo from July 12th is in color. The later photo showing the destruction in the same area is in black and white, making it look more like a waste land. The hizbollah propagana machine has the media by the balls. Seems the media will jump on any story about civilian deaths and immediately report it as fact. A few hours ago it was all over the net that 40 lebanese civilians were killed in an israeli airstrike. Now comes this: Lebanese PM now says 1 killed in strike By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writer 17 minutes ago BEIRUT, Lebanon - The Lebanese prime minister said one person was killed in an Israeli air raid Monday in the southern border village of Houla, lowering the death toll from 40. Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said at a news conference that he had based the initial tally on unspecified information that he had received. ADVERTISEMENT He offered no other explanation for the error. He had announced that 40 were killed in the attack during an emotional address during opening remarks at a meeting of Arab League foreign ministers. "It turned out that one person was killed. They thought that the whole building smashed on the heads of about 40 people and it turned out, thank God because we are not happy if someone is killed, they have been saved," Saniora told reporters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaiLuk Posted August 7, 2006 Report Share Posted August 7, 2006 Does it matter that the Israelis are holding thousands of Palestinians and Lebanese prisoners, many of whom they snatched after crossing an international border? They hold them without access to lawyers or their families, many without charge and with no prospect of a trial. Many of these prisoners are women and minors. Many are innocent. The international community is doing nothing to press for their freedom. Given this fact I can understand why they would kidnap a few soldiers as leverage. I notice you did not answer the question which is why you don't condemn hezbollah. I see now that you think hezbollah are some sort of heroes. Not sure i should even debate someone so far from reality but here goes. Once upon a time on the northern israeli border a group of militants took hold. Their holy men believe that the children of jewish descent have no right to play, go to school, sit down to eat, laugh or cry. In fact these children, in the view of these wise holy men, are not human and have no right to exist on this earth. The lord god himself decrees, according to the holy men, that these child abominations must be exterminated. In pursuit of God's will, these holy men and their followers fire rockets into israel hoping to kill these children. Hundreds of rockets. The Fathers of these children for some unknown and hard to understand reason object to these rockets falling on the places where their children live and play and go to school. So these fathers go amongst these holy people and if they can catch them they lock them up and throw away the key. This way the fathers of the children can be sure that these holy men will fire no more rockets at the children. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuckwoww Posted August 7, 2006 Report Share Posted August 7, 2006 Interesting article from the Economist on how Israel is viewed from Europe and US... "ANYBODY who doubts the size of the transatlantic divide over Israel should try discussing the Middle East conflagration in Britain and then doing the same in America. Everybody watches much the same grisly footage. But, by and large, people draw very different conclusions. The emphasis in Britain is overwhelmingly on the disproportionate scale of the response. Americans are much more inclined to give Israel the benefit of the doubtâ??and to blame Hizbullah. Some Jewish organisations are so confident of support for Israel that they even take out slots during news programmes, pleading for donations. Opinion polls confirm that Americans are solidly on Israel's side. A USA Today/Gallup poll conducted on July 28th-30th showed that eight in ten Americans believed that Israel's action was justifiedâ??though a majority were worried about the scale of the action. A plurality (44%) thought that America was doing â??about the right amountâ? to deal with the conflict. An earlier USA Today poll found that 53% put â??a great dealâ? of the blame for the current crisis on Hizbullah, 39% put the blame on Iran and only 15% blamed Israel." http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7255198 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.. Posted August 7, 2006 Report Share Posted August 7, 2006 Interesting, but not surprising IME. I have a few friends who are rational, left-leaning folks, but lose the plot IMO when it comes to Israel. Mai Luk, we can just go round-n-round on this...how is Isreal to be applauded when they do exactly the same shit to innocent civilians -- even if you exclude the entire Muslim population of Lebannon whom you obviously feel are guilty of something. What about all the Xtians and pro-American Lebanese? Well, they don't exist anymore, so fuck 'em, eh? Sorry, the Isrealis are not victims (six deaths by Hesbollah rockets in six years, remember), but as much criminals as their neighbors. Even moreso, if you look at bodycount. Cheers, SD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fidel Posted August 8, 2006 Report Share Posted August 8, 2006 Hi! Back to seriousness! "I see now that you think hezbollah are some sort of heroes." Well, no. But I do believe that we need some heroes in a situation like this, and there are no heroes forthcoming from the "Free world". I have a question. Mai Luk, do you believe that the Palestinians should just disappear into the other Arab nations? Accept the fact that their homes have been stolen, melt away, stop fighting for their rights? Would that make it all better? I honetly believe that Israel and their Western backers are pursuing a policy of keeping the Arabs down, keeping them underdeveloped for their own reasons. We have one thousand innocent human beings dead; burnt and torn apart by the schrapnel of American weapons deployed by Israelis. This is wrong. To stop the bloodshed on both sides a peaceful and just settlement needs to be reached. The Palestinians need to have their own state. This won't happen as long as America has it's say. I don't support terrorists, state terrorists or non-state terrorists, but if a conflict arises, I'll back the side that's fighting a just cause. In the current crisis the Israelis don't fit the bill here. If the Israelis were fighting a just cause I would support them. I hope that sense and justice prevails here but I know that it won't, I know that US/Brit/Israeli interests will prevail. This is very sad... this is neo-imperialism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuckwoww Posted August 8, 2006 Report Share Posted August 8, 2006 I honetly believe that Israel and their Western backers are pursuing a policy of keeping the Arabs down, keeping them underdeveloped for their own reasons. I think you have touched on the core of the problem. Israel wants peace but on it's own terms. Perhaps there was a time when Israel could have been integrated peacefully into the region but things have gone too far. Thinking they can ever do it simply by maintaining military superiority is absurd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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