Bluesman

Two points:

1) It WAS approved by the UN, and in that one fact alone was the flaw: it was simply not enforced as agreed upon, because the UN:
A) is toothless, and
B) is inherently anti-Israel.

It was SUPPOSED to work like this:
1) Israel withdraws from Lebanon,
2) the Lebanese Army deploys to the southern border to ensure the thugs from Hezbollah did not return to start murdering Israelis again, and
3) Hezbollah lays down its arms and either
A) becomes a political party, reverting away from an armed gang, or
B) fades completely away.

But, as was completely predictable, the UN insisted on only one party living up to its end of the bargain, and after endlessly hectoring the Israelis to leave Lebanon and endangering their own citizens again, Hezbollah intimidated the Lebanese into accepting that southern Lebanon was their squalid little hunk of turf by Squatter's Rights, and the UN, feckless as always, allowed it all to happen.

And as for Point #2, What DID they get in return"

Respect from the international community for living up to their end of the bargain? Territorial integrity? Oh, HELL no. More backhands from the UN; more dead Israelis.

Bingo; dead right, Dan.

Traumatic, actually. It almost tore Israel apart.

Right again, Dan.

That brings us up-to-date nicely; thank you. Because this is what israel has had to endure since its very first day, and they have NEVER known a day of peace since. It would be easy to bring about, as Egypt and Jordan have found out: stop shooting; the Israelis stop taking your tonsils out through your anus. Simple; you just have to have the guts to stand up to the Pallie thugs and the Iranian puppet-masters.

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"The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it, and if one finds the prospect of a long war intolerable, it is natural to disbelieve in the possibility of victory."
- George Orwell

Confed999

I'm betting on, best weapons, tactics, and soldiers.
They were attacked, they counter-attacked. No gun jumping, the way things work.
They are part of the Lebanese government. Do you actually know anything about the region?
It already is a war.
I still don't see why you think they cannot move-in, and then leave. Israel does not have to occupy Lebanon to smash their infrastructre, and disable their government.
Been done, UN already has it written up and passed. All anyone had been waiting on was Hizbollah to do their thing, but they attacked instead, prompting this whole thing.
Then they will continue to get exactly what they are asking for...

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No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

Confed999

But to those of us paying attention, it made Israels intentions quite clear.

Bluesman

Yeah, absolutely. Sharon was a general, and he was thinking like one when he made that decision. In my opinion, it was a correct one, but BOY...it took a toll when they implemented it. Tough scenes to watch.

lemontree

Why blame Sharon? Do you know how many "christian thugs" operated in Lebanon in the 80s? They were as under:

1. Lebanese National Movement (LNM) led by Kamal Jumblat, a prominent Druze.
2. Lebanese Front led by Camille Chamoun. This faction was dominated by Maronite Christians. They got aid from the Syrians.
3. Lebanese Forces, led by Bashir Gemayel, a Maronite Christian, this group allied with the PLO.

Why should you call the Druze "christian thugs" because they sided with the IDF? Why does siding with muslim Syrians and Palestenians make the maronite christians of the Lebanese Front and Lebanese Forces better than the Druze?

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Cheers!...on the rocks!!

MIKEMUN

There's nothing disproportionate about war. It's kill or be killed. If I take your argument to the extreme,the US then should have crashed planes in the caves of Afghanistan in their fight against OBL and his Mullahs??

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"They want to test our feelings.They want to know whether Muslims are extremists or not. Death to them and their newspapers."

Protester

HistoricalDavid

An interesting point.

"Let's not actually find an earthly, rational solution to the problem, let's pray to God that He'll all work it out for us!"

Alistriwen

The larger, root cause of all the violence that people ignore is the same cause of most of the problems in the world: money. In order to maintain their priveledged lifestyles the leaders of the Arab world need a way to divert attention from the obvious abuses they enact against their own populations. The Arab world sits on arguably the most valuable commodity on today's market - oil. There is nothing stopping these countries from using oil revenues, foreign aid etc. to raise their populations from the state of squalor they currently live in except that they don't want to.

Much as medeival leaders used religion as a means to assure their preeminence (swapping one form of Christianity for another as the need arose) the leaders of the Arab world use Israel. In reality you can substitute Israel for Jews in just about every instance. Jews have long been the world's scapegoats, targeted every time the leadership of a nation cannot solve its own problems. So long as Israel (read Jews) exist, the Arab nations can continue to direct attention away from their corruption and their totalitarian ruling style by galvanizing their people against Israel. It can be seen in their newspapers (if you can call them that), it can be heard in their broadcasts, it resonates through every speech given by an arab leader, every interview Arabs and Muslims give on tv. "We are not the problem: Israel is."

Ask an Iranian politician why they are developing nukes and ignoring the U.N. he will probably come up with some reason why Israel is at fault. Ask a Canadian Muslim if they think that terrorism is the way to go about bringing about a two-state solution and they will immediately turn to blame for Israel. "Yes, we terrorize them, but really they are the terrorists, I have been educated since birth this way so it must be true." Muslim schools preach hate for the Jews, Muslim parents preach it, the mullahs preach it, the fatwas against Israel and Jews are countless, and what it all boils down to is the elites preserving their power.

Most muslims are purposely kept uneducated (see Mspalestine) to ferment this sort of manipulation. In my humble opinion the uneducated are the biggest problem and only education can correct the problem. On that note, I also think that Islam is the biggest problem facing our planet after nuclear war and global climate change. Their radical leaders are agitating towards a world war that will place the crescent moon flag all around the world. What better way to preserve their power than by creating a world-wide islamofacist state?

There is no distinction between what Ive stated and what is going on now. These recent abductions and agitations did not occur now for no reason. Israel had pulled out of Gaza, proving AGAIN that it is willing to go great lengths for peace. The attempts to sabotage democracy in Iraq aren't succeeding, the Americans and moderate Iraqis are persisting in their goals, Iran is the target of world-wide suspicion due to their nuclear programs, Syria is being hounded for supporting terror and the British have finally woken up to the Muslim problem facing our planet (When the bombs rock Paris and Berlin perhaps France and Germany will be able to see past their business contracts and recognize that same truth). People are starting to focus in on the Islamic world and its hateful radical ways and they picked now to again flare up tensions with Israel to divert that focus so that they can continue to maintain their stranglehold on wealth (read power) in the region and continue to perpetuate their war against civilization. By day 2 of the counter-offensive ( I like that terminology, I had to steal it ) CNN had special mid-east crisis banners, CBC my own country's government broadcasting company apparently also ran out of other news to report, the BBC couldn't find anything else of substance to talk about.... The point being that their attempts at diversion succeeded.

After the crisis defuses, however that may happen, there will continue to be a one track focus on Israel, with rebuilding, peace efforts (possibly "peace keepers" [and I use that term very very lightly]) and it may be years before the world again picks up the pressure on the real terrorists (Iran, Syria, Malaysia, pretty much anywhere ruled by, or influenced by Islamofacism)

What do I predict? I think Israel will continue to strike until they are satisfied that hamas and hizbollah have been weakened to an extent where Israelis can feel safe again (for a time) and then it will pick up again once the radicals have had a chance to re-arm and recruit more misguided alienated youths. What do I think the solution is? The West invades the muslim world, replaces all of its leaders and begins re-educating the new generations of muslims (the older ones have been indocrinated to a degree where I doubt there is any hope of re-education) in the values of civilization and most other human beings and integrate the muslim world into the world at large.

Whether or not the Europeans have the balls to do this I don't know. (Read into that please)

Ray

I wonder if lack of education is the problem.

I think it is the brainwashing about Dar ul Islam that is responsible for the problems that Islam has with everyone else.

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"Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

HAKUNA MATATA

Sea Toby

The Muslims are not rational. They weren't sixty years ago. In Pakistan they demanded that India be divided, but in Palestine/Israel they want it all. They aren't now. Their hatred is facism.

Egypt and Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel. Notice they don't attack Israel and vice a versa Israel doesn't attack them.

And oh by the way, we should load the jet liners with Palestinians when we crash them into skyscrapers in Damascus and Teheran. Its about time we returned their medicine.

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MsPalestine08

If human rights really exist then where are the PALESTINIANS' human rights?
The US SHOULD BE the last country to speak about HUMANITY.....
Don't the Palestinians? NO LETS SAY THE MUSLIMS AND CHRISTIANS HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO THIS LAND ALSO??

Tronic

Ms... do you not think that it would be in the best interest of Palestine to accept the current borders and recognize Israel as an official state and in return, you will end all the violence and soon Palestine can run and operate like a free soveirgn nation in peace... after all, do you not think that the War and misery has been going on for too long a time now??? I mean, Palestinians and Israelis CAn co-exist... heck, maybe once Palestine becomes a free nation, you can always still fight the Israelis but in terms of economy and development... heck, fight to have a stronger economy and higher standars of living then them... hehe... that would be much better rather than all this violence at present, no???

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MsPalestine08

Sir... Since when does Israel care about ouR economic or development status? The only favors you are trying to come with are only to fall to your existance. Am not trying to be rude. Islam taught me-"what i want for myself, is what i should want for my brother".
The issue isn't recognizing what is or when it was put there. It's recognizing that we all live in this same tunnel WHERE YOU CAN NEVER FIND A way out. Both sides are mistaken , First because my people whom are mostly Muslims aren't fighting the right way in which what Islam taught them. And Second :they are not noticing that Palestine isn't based on culture but more on three major religions. All what worries both sides is which culture or name this piece of land should carry ..
Israel on the other hand, is completely forgeting that Muslims and Christians have every right to own this Holy Land also. Israel, is completely forgetting that all mankind are welcome . Israel completely wiped Palestine offf the map to prove that Jews existed somewhere in the world. I can't doubt that Jews never existed, If i did , i would be lying to myself and the history i admire. Israel is forgetting , ignoring or denying that this Holy land isn't to be used against religions but to get them closer to what they worship.
Am gonna try my best to give my People that sign , and iw ill try my best to find some good Jewish friends and give them that sign of intelligence.


But till then ;Palestine and Israel WILL KEEP ON SAYING ::::::::::: It's either them or us..........

Officer of Engineers

Laudable goals, Young Lady. I'm reminded of a quote by one whom you would've opposed.

"Enough of blood and tears. Enough!"
- Yitzhak Rabin

Apparently, no one has had enough.

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Chimo

Tronic

listen.... the world is not fair... its as simple as that... this is a dog eat dog world... and the actions being carried out by the Palestinians aren't really helping in their existence... i'm sorry to say, but you might be wiping yourself off the map... rather then blame Israel why doesn't Palestine drop its arms??? I mean, do you fear that once you drop your arms that Israel will invade you and crush you??? Because, they won't be able to do such a thing... looking at the world from your view, the strongest weapon for the Palestinians should be Peace... if Palestinians make the first move towards Peace, Israel will really be pretty much helpless to carry out further war...