Some resources on Lebanon-Israel

I’m at my annual Quaker gathering in the Shenandoah Valley for most of this week. Just snuck out this morning to catch up with some mail and other vital things. This post is not particularly composed, but I did want to be able to share (and archive for myself) some of the interesting new resources that have been appearing about Israel’s assault on Lebanon.
First is this new blog, whose title in Arabic is “Samidoun”, meaning “steadfast”. Subtitle there is “Updates on the aggression against Lebanon.”
Posted there are various excellent documentary resources about the scale of the destruction, including this (PDF) map which shows the “Transport and vital sites bombed” by Israel throughout the country– but only up to July 24. It’s an excellent graphic presentation of the damage until then, and could be really useful at helping bring home to people the sheer scale of the infrastructural destruction.
Watch the blog site there for more updates (I hope!)
Second is the link for the English-language version of the website of Gush Shalom (the Peace Bloc) in Israel. The site also has versions in Arabic, Russian, and Hebrew that you can access thru the English site.
Not immediately visible on GS’s website is this very informative July 31 report on the state/fate of the Israeli peace movement, that Gush Shalom activist Adam Keller recently emailed to me.
In there, he wrote:

    The streets are still full of patriotic posters, most of them put up by banks and big corporations and bearing the promoter’s logo beside the Israeli national flag and the stirring slogans “United We Will Win!”, “Israel Is Strong!”, “Everybody Embraces Our Soldiers!”. But only a few citizens seem to have taken up the call to raise the national flag over their own homes and cars.
    Meanwhile, at least many in the mainstream Left who in earlier days remained silent or outrightly supported the “Justified War Against Hizbullah Aggression” have been shocked or moved by the Qana carnage. Meretz leader Yossi Beilin has at long last came to the conclusion that the “continuation of the war is useless and counterproductive” and that it should come to an end. A few hours before he made this statement, a leader of the Meretz Youth declared her resignation, feeling “sick and tired of being involved in a peace movement which supports war”. And a whole group of Meretz activists, led by former KM’s Naomi Hazan and Yael Dayan, participated in yesterday’s protest outside the Defence Ministry gates. [I was so hapy to see those two names, even ifmost of the rest of the leaders of Meretz and the — now moribund– “Peace Now” movement have been notably missing in action this time round. ~HC]
    The influential dovish commentator Nahum Bar’nea wrote in today’s “Yediot Aharonot”: “Except for the lunatic fringe leftists, no one disputes that Israel had to react to the killing and kidnapping perpetrated by Hizbullah in our territory (…). I have confidence in the army’s High Command, but having confidence does not stop me from having painful questions. Didn’t the government, the army, the political system, the media, all let themselves be carried away by blind enthusiasm which serves only the enemy? I have heard Defence Minister Peretz boasting that he had “released the army from all restrictions” about harming “civilian populations which live at the side of Hizbullah militants”. We saw the results of this “release” yesterday, with the bodies of women and children taken out of the house in Qana” (…)
    So, there is every reason for the anti-war movement to continue and intensify its own “offensive”. Demonstrations take place every day in various cities…

Third is this insightful analysis from the veteran (pro-peace) British strategic-affairs analyst Paul Rogers.
Rogers writes of the degree to which the actions by Hamas and Hizbullah since June 25 totaly punctured the “security doctrine” that had been developed up to then by the Israeli general staff. He described this doctrine as being one of establishing extremely “hard” security borders all around the country (and around those portions of the occupied Palestinian and Syrian territories that Israel wasd determined to keep), backed up by extensive and often forward-based hi-tech recon capabilities:

    The establishment of these frontier defences has been at the core of a reorientation of the IDF described in 2006 by the chief-of-staff, General Dan Halutz. According to Defense News, Halutz “cited Israel’s sensor-fused network along the northern border as an example of how the nation is achieving ‘full situational awareness through intelligence superiority’. Halutz said Israel’s operational concept of ‘knowing first, understanding first, deciding first and acting first’ allows Israel to choose the time, place and conditions when it will act'” (see Barbara Opall-Rome, “Raid Reveals Hole in Israeli Net”, Defense News, 17 July 2006 [subscription only]).
    Such an approach is accompanied by an extensive reconnaissance capability designed to provide near-total information superiority and a stand-off capacity to respond to perceived threats with air strikes, naval bombardment and, in some circumstances, the use of special forces. The entire approach is seen to be supremely high-tech, very modern and able to ensure Israel’s security without having to maintain expensive ground forces of a size and at a level of training that was necessary in the past. [Notably relevant in view of this week’s extensive use of ground forces for a ground invasion of Lebanon. ~HC]
    Almost everything about this approach has been found wanting by the events of 25 June onwards. Hamas’s capture of Gilad Shalit was bad enough, but Hizbollah’s incursion near Za’arit on the Lebanese border on 12 July was far worse. As Defense News puts it: “Evading dozens of eyes trained on computer screens in the base’s combat information center, the operatives disabled at least one camera, penetrated a so-called dead zone of the border fence, and ambushed reservists despatched to investigate alarms.”
    A number of senior retired Israeli military officers are now deeply critical of the IDF’s embrace of technocentric warfare, and profess the belief that this has been achieved at the expense of what is often termed “basic soldiering”. There is also recognition that the Hizbollah militia have become far more competent in their understanding of the Israeli moves towards high-tech warfare and have recognised some of the weak points in the entire system.
    This, moreover, is in addition to Hizbollah’s other intelligence surprises of the past three weeks, including the attack on the missile corvette (see “Israel, Lebanon, and beyond: the danger of escalation”, 17 July 2006) and the ability of Hizbollah to maintain its missile attacks in the face of repeated Israeli air strikes.
    For the moment, concerns within the Israeli military establishment express themselves in a firm belief that Israel must remember the “old ways” of doing things, and when necessary launch major ground-force attacks on the model of the six-day war of 1967 (even though the IDF failures in Lebanon in the early 1980s offer caution to this view).
    Whatever happens in the coming weeks, the doubts over and criticisms about Israel’s military course will be a core part of a developing controversy, as Israel traps itself in a protracted and dangerous conflict that is hugely costly to communities across Lebanon, and ultimately even to Israel itself.
    The stage where Israel begins to recognise that it cannot maintain security through military power and has to achieve negotiated settlements if it is to live in peace has not yet been reached (see “Israel: losing control”, 20 July 2006). But it will eventually come, and it is just possible that the current arguments over Israel’s evolving military posture are an early signal of a new way of thinking.

Do these last conclusions look like wishful thinking? I think (and certainly hope) not. We are in a period of rapid transition in international affairs. Even the “mighty” US of A is busy being (re-)taught some wrenching lessons in Iraq about the tight limitations on the political utility of military power… Plus, as I wrote in my most recent CSM column, the ability of the US– Israel’s prime sponsor in the world– to maintain the dominant role it has played in international affairs since 1945 has started eroding very rapidly over the past three years…
Israel’s citizenry did, of course, have one very educational prior opportunity to learn about the tight limitations on the political utility of military power, during their ground forces’ previous 18- (or 22-) year military occupation of great chunks of Lebanon. But it seems that– pumped up by the rhetoric they heard from Washington? (but unable to recognize the horrendously failed nature of the US undertaking in Iraq?)– the current crop of Israeli leaders wilfully chose not to learn those lessons.
It almost makes me wish that Ariel Sharon was not now lying in a vegetative state in some longterm care facility in Israel, but that he was still at the helm in that country. He at least proved– after the disaster of 1982– that he did have a learning curve regarding the utility of military power. He at least, so long as he was at the helm in Israel, showed himself willing to negotiate some realistic and fairly extensive prisoner-swap deals with Hizbullah…
But there he lies now, edging toward his fateful encounter with his Maker… And meantime, these callow, militarily untested but testosterone-driven children have taken over the whole edifice of Israeli “strategic” decisionmaking. What a terrible, terrible prospect for everyone involved…

34 thoughts on “Some resources on Lebanon-Israel”

  1. The lebanese border was so “hot” looking back at reports from the area that a provocation of this sort should have been highly forseeable, but your link shows the IDF border plans overated their technology. The Hizbullah incursion kidnapping and immediate aftermath, (tank crosses border 70M and is blown up and falling for a diversionary attack)-must have been an immense embarassment to local IDF commanders. They over-reacted. That triggered a long existing attack plan a new government couldn’t or wouldn’t stop. Bush “sees an opportunity.” Yet another unstable situation, in a century where the global power dynamics you wrote of are just as turbulent as at the start of the last century. The forces involved are so much greater and globally reactive, this time around. More great links though thanks Helena, I just wish more Americans were inclined to research such things online. This piece on top of “HR watch on Qana”, its links and thought provoking comments by readers will keep my own contributons to a minimum for a while. Also there is so much more than typing lay people can do. I’m all for such positive censorship! God Bless everyone working for peace and all those suffering through war, according to their needs.

  2. Regarding the israeli peace people-they sound like the americans who oppose the Iraq war not because it’s morally wrong but because americans are being killed. Amazing how israelis and americans are so much alike. But it’s a start.

  3. And meantime, these callow, militarily untested but testosterone-driven children have taken over the whole edifice of Israeli “strategic” decisionmaking
    And who put the high-tech aerial weaponry in the hands of people too immature to use it properly?
    I would like to see foreign aid monies intended for Israel diverted to Lebanon reconstruction.

  4. Bob H.,
    Now you’re talking. But first the AIPAC stranglehold is gonna have to be broken…

  5. Bob and Soapy – you are both correct. I wonder when the internet observers from the israeli side will start interfering with this web discussion. The links to the peacemovement in Israel are very helpful, Thanks Helena

  6. The stage where Israel begins to recognise that it cannot maintain security through military power and has to achieve negotiated settlements if it is to live in peace has not yet been reached.
    I think this is a shame. As Immanuel Wallerstein stated recently:

    What the Israeli governments do not realize is that neither Hamas nor Hizbullah need Israel. It is Israel that needs them, and needs them desperately. If Israel wants not to become a Crusader state that is in the end extinguished, it is only Hamas and Hizbullah that can guarantee the survival of Israel.

    In the meantime, I would give enthusiastic support to a proposal like that of bob h at August 3, 2006 06:40 AM above.

  7. Please just be careful some pictures very disturbing and graphic , hope this will let you see in balance this war and the huge lose for Lebanon and the most importantly the civilians loose and the suffer they will facing now and will continue may be for more years to come.
    Also I would like to pick your attention those “Iraqis” had same massive distractions twice, one in 1991 during the Bush Senior, and then in 2003 GWB invasion of a country for his personal revenge and greediness and there are still 26Millions civilian suffering same as Afghanistan, so why all of this…..
    Effect of bombing. Mideast conflict: Israel / Lebanon

  8. Sorry for the off-topic post, but there IS another war going on after all.
    WaPo published an interesting statistic: Insurgents have been planting an average of more than 8 roadside bombs per day in the city of Ramadi alone, of which half “found their targets.” Since their targets are presumably U.S. military and Iraqi Army convoys, four successful bomb attacks per day in one city is an astounding success rate.
    From a counter-insurgency viewpoint, this condition would normally be called “losing the war.” But if you’re George W. Bush, you’d better start calling it “victory” and get your people out while you still can.
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/02/AR2006080201690.html
    PS: I also learned that in military speak, “Oorah” apparently means “yes, I’ve gotten over last night’s bombing.”

  9. NON-RECOGNITION WATCH
    Number of days that Israel declared its independence and the overwhelming majority of Arab and Muslim nations have refused to recognize that nation’s right to exist in peace.
    21,265

  10. MANAMA, 3 August 2006 — Newspapers in Bahrain criticized a letter yesterday from the British Embassy here which they interpreted as a request to stop publishing pictures of destruction and suffering in Lebanon.

    News of the request which was made in a written statement issued by the British Charge d’Affaires Stephen Harrison broke yesterday morning after some of the newspapers revealed that their editors had received it.

    The English version of the letter that was provided by the embassy quoted Harrison as saying: “We all wish to see an end to the horrific photos of destruction on your front pages over the past week.”

    The British Embassy denies that this comment was a request for local media to censor themselves.

    http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=85965&d=3&m=8&y=2006
    Well, well, we got “State Inside State”

  11. Even those who have never read a line written by Carl von Clausewitz, the Prussian military philosopher, accept as truth his dictum that “War is simply a continuation of policy with other means.” Yet, that statement was only superficially true for the European world in which Clausewitz lived, fought and wrote, and it never applied to the American people, for whom war signified a failure of policy.

    Conflict, not peace, is the natural state of human collectives. We need not celebrate the fact but must recognize it. If peace were the default condition of humankind, wouldn’t history look profoundly different? Thousands of years of relentless slaughter cannot be written off as the fault of a few delinquents. Human beings aggregated by affinities of blood, belief or culture are inherently competitive, not cooperative, and the competition is viscerally — and easily — perceived as a matter of life and death. Pious declarations to the contrary do not change the reality.

    By Ralph Peters is a retired Army officer and the author of the new book “Never Quit The Fight.”

  12. Joshua,
    NON-RECOGNITION WATCH 21,265
    Small advise for you don’t waste your time change it for better counter that will be “The Christ’s Return WATCH”

  13. NON-RECOGNITION WATCH
    Number of days that Israel declared its independence and the overwhelming majority of people in neighboring countries have refused to recognize that nation’s right to exist in peace, while Israel herself regularly kills them by the bombload to occupy more of their territory:
    21,265
    HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
    Israel guilty of war crimes.

  14. رسالة استقالة من شبكة الأميركية
    سيرين صباغ
    أعزائي جميعاً..
    نود ابلاغكم باستقالتنا من شبكة في عمّان، على الرغم من أننا لم نعمل مباشرةً لصالح شبكتكم، ولكننا ساعدنا في تسهيل أعمالكم في الشرق الأوسط، لمدة ثلاث سنوات.
    ويستند قرار استقالتنا على مسائل أخلاقية. إذ لم يعد بإمكاننا العمل مع شبكة إخبارية تدعي العدالة والاعتدال، وهي بعيدة كل البعد عن ذلك. فشبكتكم ليست أداةً في يد الإدارة الأميركية والدعاية الإسرائيلية فحسب، بل انتم تجار حرب من دون أي حس باللياقة أو حتى الاحتراف.
    لقد استبحتم كل الحدود الأخلاقية والخطوط الحمراء، إن الأم العربية ترثي أطفالها تماماً كما تفعل أي أم أميركية أو إسرائيلية. فالدم العربي ليس بخساً، ونحن لسنا برابرة.
    كان يتعيّن عليكم أن تكونوا أكثر مسؤوليةً، وأن تتحلوا بمزيد من اللياقة حينما قررتم الوقوف إلى جانبٍ من دون آخر. كان يتعيّن عليكم أن تتحمّلوا مسؤولية ما تعرضونه على المشاهدين السذّج.
    طوال السنوات الثلاث التي عملنا فيها لديكم، اعتقدنا أنكم ستكنّون بعض الاحترام للناس الذين يعيشون في هذا الجزء من العالم. ولكن الترفّع الفاضح والسلوك الأحادي الجانب في تغطيتكم لجميع الصراعات في الشرق الأوسط، لا تبرز سوى افتقاركم للإنسانية وانحيازكم لإسرائيل. أن افتقاركم للحس المهني جعلكم موضع سخرية في جميع أنحاء العالم. كما أن انعدام الخبرة لديكم، وتزمّتكم العنصري ليس فقط وصمة عار على صدر الوسائل الإعلامية الأميركية، وإنما يمثل كيف تدار شبكاتكم التلفزيونية وسط بلدان لا تكنّون لها سوى الاحتقار.
    الاثنين 31 تموز 2006
    سيرين صباغ
    جمانة كرادشه
    ? عملت صبّاغ وكرادشه كمنتجتين لشبكة فوكس الإخبارية
    http://www.assafir.com/iso/today/world/481.html

  15. رسالة استقالة من شبكة الأميركية
    سيرين صباغ
    أعزائي جميعاً..
    نود ابلاغكم باستقالتنا من شبكة في عمّان، على الرغم من أننا لم نعمل مباشرةً لصالح شبكتكم، ولكننا ساعدنا في تسهيل أعمالكم في الشرق الأوسط، لمدة ثلاث سنوات.
    ويستند قرار استقالتنا على مسائل أخلاقية. إذ لم يعد بإمكاننا العمل مع شبكة إخبارية تدعي العدالة والاعتدال، وهي بعيدة كل البعد عن ذلك. فشبكتكم ليست أداةً في يد الإدارة الأميركية والدعاية الإسرائيلية فحسب، بل انتم تجار حرب من دون أي حس باللياقة أو حتى الاحتراف.
    لقد استبحتم كل الحدود الأخلاقية والخطوط الحمراء، إن الأم العربية ترثي أطفالها تماماً كما تفعل أي أم أميركية أو إسرائيلية. فالدم العربي ليس بخساً، ونحن لسنا برابرة.
    كان يتعيّن عليكم أن تكونوا أكثر مسؤوليةً، وأن تتحلوا بمزيد من اللياقة حينما قررتم الوقوف إلى جانبٍ من دون آخر. كان يتعيّن عليكم أن تتحمّلوا مسؤولية ما تعرضونه على المشاهدين السذّج.
    طوال السنوات الثلاث التي عملنا فيها لديكم، اعتقدنا أنكم ستكنّون بعض الاحترام للناس الذين يعيشون في هذا الجزء من العالم. ولكن الترفّع الفاضح والسلوك الأحادي الجانب في تغطيتكم لجميع الصراعات في الشرق الأوسط، لا تبرز سوى افتقاركم للإنسانية وانحيازكم لإسرائيل. أن افتقاركم للحس المهني جعلكم موضع سخرية في جميع أنحاء العالم. كما أن انعدام الخبرة لديكم، وتزمّتكم العنصري ليس فقط وصمة عار على صدر الوسائل الإعلامية الأميركية، وإنما يمثل كيف تدار شبكاتكم التلفزيونية وسط بلدان لا تكنّون لها سوى الاحتقار.
    الاثنين 31 تموز 2006
    سيرين صباغ
    جمانة كرادشه
    ? عملت صبّاغ وكرادشه كمنتجتين لشبكة فوكس الإخبارية
    http://www.assafir.com/iso/today/world/481.html

  16. Regarding the inevitability of war Peters (via Salah) said: “Thousands of years of relentless slaughter cannot be written off as the fault of a few delinquents. Human beings aggregated by affinities of blood, belief or culture are inherently competitive, not cooperative, and the competition is viscerally — and easily — perceived as a matter of life and death. Pious declarations to the contrary do not change the reality.” Yet to my mind, this undeniable fact applies in general only to males, not females, who are so often left with the mopping-up, the care for the physically and emotionally maimed, the peacemaking between families and factions in communities when the out-of-control males get tired of war. Females, too, are competitive, yet we do not for the most part see competition as a matter of life and death. Yet we are often complicit in war, egging the males on, teaching our children glory of war and patriotism, or remaining silent and compliant when we know what’s happening is wrong.

  17. Israel/Lebanon Animal Rescue: 28 July 2006
    “IFAW is providing a grant to NOAH to help feed displaced dogs and cats abandoned in the conflict in northern Israel. NOAH has set up a 24hr animal rescue hotline and is mobilizing a large number of volunteers to go house to house to check for abandoned pets. IFAW’s grant will also support communication costs for the animal rescue hotline, cell phones and transportation for volunteers. In addition, it will help provide for the costs of feeding and transporting animals to the safety of humane shelters.”
    http://www.ifaw.org/ifaw/general/default.aspx?oid=174101

  18. The US Deparment of State has apparently offered that the US military train and equip the Lebanese army. Considering the US support of the Israeli action in Lebanon,would the Lebanese even want the US to be so involved? Will Lebanon have a choice?

  19. Helen,
    I agree with your view of the male gander mentality for the wars, but in the history there are few female leaded their nation to wars, one of them Alistair the queen of Parisians she leaded her nation for the war to destroy the Babylonians Kingdome that war distracted most of the Babylonians kingdoms includes the Hanging Gardens (one of the World seven Wonders).
    In another case of female involvement in the war during WWII, as I recall two third of the workers in military factory and support for the Brits army are women.
    Our experiences in Iraq during 1980 War (Iraq/Iran War) and 1991 Bush Senior War the women took a major part to keep the economy and services running in state of Iraq while most of the male went for war zones, also her involvement in rebuilding Iraq after 1991 war while Iraq was under inhuman sanction lasting for13 years Iraqi’s women suffered massive loss by losing 500,000.0 babies during that time when your former secretary of state side “Its Worth It” she is also a woman but without heart.
    In addition to the implications our Iraqi mothers, sisters and wives suffers complicated health problem due to use of Deployed Uranium Weapons and materials used in 1991 causing lost of their babies or they can not get pregnant for ever…………!
    Of course no one denied that the mothers, sisters and wives are the God gifف as brothers and husbands we all feel the warmth in tier hearts and their hugs.
    God Bless

  20. BTW, Peter Ralph is the voice of scattering the Arab/Muslim nations and their borders and boundaries. It’s so pathetic to some one like this man gives himself the authority to redesign new boarders fro other countries! Which law and which justices this man using to facilitating his ideas?
    Did he know that the Meddle East had no borders before WWI, they were one nation all the problems came when you put these borders and supporting those corrupted families /regimes in Saudis and Gulf?
    Just three weeks before Lebanon war he writes this article
    Blood borders
    How a better Middle East would look
    By Ralph Peters

    But the unjust borders in the Middle East — to borrow from Churchill — generate more trouble than can be consumed locally.

    While the Middle East has far more problems than dysfunctional borders alone — from cultural stagnation through scandalous inequality to deadly religious extremism — the greatest taboo in striving to understand the region’s comprehensive failure isn’t Islam but the awful-but-sacrosanct international boundaries worshipped by our own diplomats.

    This is same ideas as our Davis marketing here in Helena space not suppressing at all…

  21. Yes, it’s true; there are female heads of state, military commanders, and other influencial women who have led nations to war and promoted other cold blooded actions. Golda Meir, Margaret Thatcher, Condoleeza Rice and others come to mind. But these women are few, and they were trained by males (professors, military commanders, perhaps their fathers) to consider their humanity irrelevant in “rational” affairs of state. On the other side of the gender gap, there are of course great male humanitarians, non-violent activists, diplomatic leaders: I hardly need to mention Martin Luther King, Mohandas Gandhi, Kofi Annan, and so many others, both famous and unknown. This leads me to believe that males (and humans generally) are not “naturally” aggressive, and that war-making is a learned behavior facilitated and accentuated by upbringing, culture, history, and the absence of intelligent options to approach world conflicts nonviolently. But then, maybe this is my Quaker conviction speaking.

  22. محتشمي: حزب الله قاتل مع الجيش الإيراني خلال الحرب ضد العراق
    وزير الداخلية الإيراني الأسبق كشف لصحيفة إيرانية أن الحزب اللبناني شارك في قمع انتفاضة الأحواز
    http://www.asharqalawsat.com/details.asp?section=3&article=376561&issue=10112
    Ali Akbar Mohtashemi, who served as Iran’s ambassador in Damascus during the 1980s, said:
    “Hezbollah it’s not just a party or revaluation militias, its apart of Iran regime.”
    Well this is facts come and to prove to those who have any doubt when we talking Iranians heart lovers and backing same as we seeing in Iraq or other places these are the cancer in our nation in ME which causing the chaos each time for their lover the “Parisian lover in Iran”
    Just to pick your attention for two incidents happened in Iraq
    First one Abu Jaafar Al-Mansoor statues was bombed in Baghdad who likes to be destroyed the creator of Baghdad “The Dar Al_Salam” “The House of Peace” guess who?
    Secondly there is a historic Islamic place represent the Islamic commander camp far west of Iraq (in Al Qaim town) it’s there form the 2nd Khalifa Omer till now just recently were destroyed completely and vanished from that place on claims that American tropes did that but that place marks the time that the Islam went to Iran and defeated the Persian and Islam became the dominate faith in that area.
    We don’t need more prove and event to prove what we facing from bad neighbour, Iraqi’s knew their history very well and they knew their enemies.

  23. Juan Cole sums it up:
    “The difference between Ahmadinejad and Olmert is that the Iranian president is a blowhard. The one who had practical plans to wipe a country off the map was Olmert.”

  24. NON-RECOGNITION WATCH
    Number of days that Israel declared its independence and the overwhelming majority of Arab and Muslim nations have refused to recognize that nation’s right to exist in peace.
    21,267

  25. Do you claim, Joshua that this non-recognition of Israel(which at the governmental level is not nearly as broad as you portray it)in any way “justifies” Israel’s continuing assault on Lebanon?
    If recognition and good relations are what Israel indeed seeks with its neighbors (an unproven assumption, but one that could perhaps be argued for), then don’t you think battering the heck out of a neighboring country and killing hundreds of its civilians is a rather strange way to win those goals?

  26. Helena
    is a rather strange way to win those goals?
    It’s a fact Israeli without war will not exist and expanded the war it’s a major instrument Israel and Israelis gain power of this world.
    DANIEL PIPES, NEW YORK SUN COLUMNIST

    PIPES: Well, I don’t think Israel itself is a mistake. But I think Israelis, since 1993, have had a wrong understanding of their situation. Namely that through compromise, retreat and so forth, they can win the good will or at least the acquiesce of their neighbors and the conflict.

    My view is that the Israelis had it right before 1993 in their aspiration for victory. Wars end with one side winning and one side losing. If you don’t win, you lose.

  27. Israel PM Olmert admits bombing civilians on purpose.
    Hezbollah’s twilight zone
    By Kathleen Parker

    “As Human Rights Watch explains on its Web site (humanrightswatch.org), a civilian area can be targeted if it “makes an ‘effective’ contribution to the enemy’s military activities and its destruction, capture or neutralization offers a ‘definite military advantage’ to the attacking side in the circumstances ruling at the time.””

  28. “Do you claim, Joshua that this non-recognition of Israel(which at the governmental level is not nearly as broad as you portray it)in any way “justifies” Israel’s continuing assault on Lebanon?”
    No, but I do think it is the ultimate root of the problems plaguing the area.

  29. Yup. I wrote all about this in my long Boston review article last year. It took the NYT, with their vastly superior amount of financial resources, this much longer to figure it out?

  30. Helena, John C.
    Ohh yah, you figure it now, good…
    Our spy guy Davis said about Helena when she was in Lebanon and here mysterious visit to Iran, keep wonder if Helena were went with the line of these Mullahs in Lebanon and Tehran….
    Did any one asked why Asistani or the killed Abdul Majid al-Khoei in Najaf first week of invasion why and what all about?
    It’s all to hold these religious placed collecting money from those people in Iraq in Lebanon and used them for their destiny that’s you figure out now or NYT do lately.
    Those Mullah using their nice talks and tongs to collected the money in any manner even chatting “if you need approve go to Iraq and ask the Iraqis they will tell you” were there is a wide spread poorness and poverty it’s the best media those Mullah living “Just like Viruses” they grow bigger and bigger using all the means and tools, the most ugly things those women each one he using them as servants to him to care about him in return of paying the bills what a marvellous discovery Helena.
    (This is real story from Hilla //Iraq in 1971, when the government starting targeting those Mullah some of the house owned and supervised by those Iranian/Iraqi Mullah the police found 7 women when they asked them why they are here? what they doing here? They replaied all he is our sponsor!!!) Off course he is their sponsor he managed to flee to Iran before the police come to the house….)
    Just imagine those kids born from those women will be loyal to whom? Guess?
    This is a long time stories and scenarios but you and others not lessen to us what we said and we saying but in the end you put it your discovery…… good.
    BTW, who pay Asistani millions right now in addition to all the money collected from Najaf which in some reports estimated reached 100Million Dollars!!!!

  31. Salah, I for one did not mean to imply that there is anything angelic or altruistic about Hezbollah’s field work – only that it has been remarkably effective. Please show me a political movement of any kind that is free from greed and corruption.

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