In !944 Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin met to discuss several issues, among them the future of the post WW II world and what was then called the World Instrument for Peace, which later became the UN. The latter had a main point : the Veto power of the Big Four ( US, USSR, Britain and China).All agreed to it.

Days before the UN partioned Palestine a question was put to the General Assembly : should the UN consult the International Court of the Hague as to its right to partition the land. The pro -Israel lobby went into full gear and the proposition was defeated by one vote.

Is it surprising that we have since witnessed the sheer impotence of the UN?

Sebastian Lobo,
Journalist

The word history has its origins in the Ancient Greek “ historie” which meant “ inquiry” or the search for truth.

Assuming that objective realities exist – current neuroscientific trends seem to go the other way – I would like to bring up the following view, first making it unequivocally clear that I ( a) am not , in any way, advocating the destruction or dismantling of Israel and (b) consider David Irving’s views on the Holocaust the result of a case of serious psychotic disorder.

Now back to history. Israel calls herself the Jewish State, the very gene that gave life to her being the word of the Jewish god, to the Jewish people that he would grant them a Jewish land. This is part of the Old Testament, which can be taken as the story of the Jewish people told by themselves.

I happen to live in Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil, and this area was inhabited by tribes of local natives, among them the Tupis, before the Portuguese discovered it in 1500.

Imagine if, one day, a descendant of the Tupis came to my house and ordered me to get out on the grounds that the Tupi god had told them that the land was actually theirs. I triede to put up some kind of resistance, was crushed by all possible violent means, and had to flee to neighbouring countries.

In essence this happened in Palestine at the dawn of the last century. If it had happened to you, how would you have felt about it?

When I first interviewed Yasser Arafat , in 1979, he stressed that the Palestinian voice was only heard when the Kalashnikovs became their speech.

What can they use as language todaY ? Who is or was to blame ? Who refuses to hear ? And who turned a blind eye to it all, then and today?

Sebastian Lobo,
Journalist

Re: Comment #16041: MattNet writes [excerpt] “Any engagement where 5 times as many children are killed as compatants is not a war, it is a civilian slaughter and it is a war-crime.” - THAT’S FOR DANG SURE. And it’s a war crime that we’re funding and our House of so-called Representatives has blessed and signed all our names to. “House of AIPAC Representatives” is what they should be called.

Dear Rheynaldo, the man’s name was Mossadegh.

In reply to: Comment #16001 by sense on 8/01 at 12:00 am

sense writes: “You people make me SICK!”

I can understand the reason (pun intended) Spinoza was booted from his Jewish community in the 17th Century.

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein wrote in her NY Times OpEd piece, “Reasonable Doubt”. published July 29:

“THURSDAY marked the 350th anniversary of the excommunication of the philosopher Baruch Spinoza from the Portuguese Jewish community of Amsterdam in which he had been raised.

“Given the events of the last week, particularly those emanating from the Middle East, the Spinoza anniversary didn’t get a lot of attention. But it’s one worth remembering - in large measure because Spinoza’s life and thought have the power to illuminate the kind of events that at the moment seem so intractable and overwhelming.

“The exact reasons for the excommunication of the 23-year-old Spinoza remain murky, but the reasons he came to be vilified throughout all of Europe are not. Spinoza argued that no group or religion could rightly claim infallible knowledge of the Creator’s partiality to its beliefs and ways. After the excommunication, he spent the rest of his life - he died in 1677 at the age of 44 - studying the varieties of religious intolerance. The conclusions he drew are still of dismaying relevance.”

Brent Scowcroft wote in his Washington Post article, “Beyond Lebanon: This Is the Time for a U.S.-Led Comprehensive Settlement”, published July 30:

“Hezbollah is not the source of the problem; it is a derivative of the cause, which is the tragic conflict over Palestine that began in 1948.

“The eastern shore of the Mediterranean is in turmoil from end to end, a repetition of continuing conflicts in one part or another since the abortive attempts of the United Nations to create separate Israeli and Palestinian states in 1948. The current conflagration has energized the world.”

My thoughts are that we now know in the 21st Century that the strong must break the cycle of violence. This is the message of the Christ in us. (It as an idea of which we are now aware ... speaking as a Christian existentialist/atheist and quoting what is attributed to Jesus, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.)

Israel is party to driving reason from having a part in the settlement of violence now threatening to engulf the Middle East. No one is saying they are the ONLY party to intransigence ... but because they are allied with the United States, they are the strongest party ... and they are said to have nucear weapons.

If Israel contiues its replay of Joshua at Jericho in the name of Jehovah ... the conflict will escalate.

All this talk of who did what first, who was here first, tit-for-tat, eye-for-eye is bunk.  Here is what I know: whoever pulls the trigger is 100% responsable for whatever that bullet does, no matter where it goes.  Period.

Any engagement where 5 times as many children are killed as compatants is not a war, it is a civilian slaughter and it is a war-crime.

just last week i was talking to an evangelical, conservative, neocon, pro-bush, african american, vetran...i know, he sound like a thinker. well, through the hordes and hordes of disorganized thoughts, I found just one thing i could agree with.  he said something along the lines of “when the bullets are flying you determine the civilians from the armed by who runs away and who stays.” so, you may be wondering why i bring such an idea.  if there is a town in southern Lebanon, and a hotel filled with lebaneese. would you think: a. they are just civilians. b. there are fighters in that building hoping that israel will choose not to hit this civilian target. or c. the fighters are in a field 5km away launching rockets and setting up ambushes for israeli forces.  i honestly must go with c. on this one...but that’s just me.

i cannot help but feel that maybe israel is paying its revenge for being defeated by hesballah. wouldn’t you feel insulted if you had one of the world’s most advanced millitaries and you were beat back by a rag tag militia. has anybody noticed that the lebanese took back one of their occupied towns? i think israel needs to redo some of its training because if you hit a lot of accidental civilian targets with missles that can hit a dime, you’re probably an extacy baby. hey maybe they got it from the israeli dealers either in florida or cali. not too sure but boy do i feel safe with my israel.

i don’t know if any of you proisraeli/prozionist folks out there with no more than a maybe 11th grade education and know nothing more of this world than what you see on channel 1 or cnn(for those self acclaimed librals). i really want you to not just sit there and ponder about the news given to you, ask some questions, be open and for christ sake, check you gd history, that’s all the middle east is. 

also, if i hear one more stupid thing about israel being the first democracy, i’m taking a mallet to the tele.  there was a man in iran, i believe in the 50’s who was removed by the cia and mi5 or mi6 for nationalizing irani oil.  this same thing goes on throughout the world, when someone does something america dislikes, america pounds the life out of it and sets up their own government.  look at iraq right now, even the right wing conservative wannabe liberals are saying that they don’t want to spend their money putting in power a government if it isn’t going the maintain the same train of thought. well, i don’t believe i was hearing things when democrats were saying “should we really pour in billions of dollars a week if their president won’t condemn hesballah.” so yea, you can probably find the coverage of it...anywhere, it is horrible how if the people in this country are kept fat, they will keep a smile.

for the rest that still believe terrorists are crazed religious killing machines, just read something, and a good start is the king david hotel.  you get to see the start of your beloved israelis and what they were considered to be...i’m not making this up, check it out.

anybody that managed to read through all my crap, if you think that i’m a derka derka jihadi, i’m not. i just think that full media coverage shouldn’t be sucking israel’s di.., and anderson cooper, lou dobbs, and their hair, should be tied to a katousha and shot up sharom’s @$$. please understand that there is no evil but misinformation and greed, and commonly they play to one another.

just like sadam hussein’s government, this message was made in the usa

to sense: 911 taught you about evil? Quite late to the game - ask the people of Iran, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Cuba, et al about what is evil.

In fact read Rogue State by William Blum. The US government is evil.

megatron: Land by conquest was supposed to be part of a bygone era. In these ‘civilised’ times that’s not on. Sadly for the Zionists, the Palestinians refused to be moved. And the Palestinians have agreed to settle for 22% of what was their’s. Guess who wants it all?

Question for people like 15966:  What else can Israel do?  Rockets are continuously being launched from a particular town at Israili cities.  Israel warns all civilians to leave because they are going to bomb the town; gives them plenty of time to do so…

Were they supposed to let the rockets continue to be fired from that location forever?

I’m a liberal that is disgusted by the war in Iraq - especially when I hear it referred to as the “war on terror”.  But I will never forget 911.  Muslem extremists that commit acts of terror need to be tracked down and killed.  Period.  The act of tracking down and killing them is not, in and of itself, terrorism.  There is a difference between good and evil.

Hezbollah is a terrorist organization that has taken responsibility for terrorist attacks, therefore they have no right to walk the face of the earth.

The muslem world wants Israel to cease to exist.  If it were up to them, Israel would have been wiped off the face of the map already.  Israel merely wants to co-exist.  When it gives up control of an occupied area, that area quickly gets taken over by terrorist groups that are an imminent threat.  Israel has always stood by their claim that when the threat stops, the land will be ceded.

If Isreal never fired another shot, they would be attacked relentlessly like nothing ever changed.  If the Muslem extremists never fired another shot, it would be the last shot heard.  And you all know this!

Civilians die in Lebanon and Palistine because terrorists are hiding behind them.  Civilians die in Isreal because terrorists are targeting civilians directly.  And you all know this!

Israel staked claim to the home of their roots only because they needed a sovereign place to exist.  Did you forget the holocaust?  Jews and Muslems have both staked claim to the land of Israel forever and the only solution is co-existence.  You all know the only solution is co-existence.  What weight do your claims that Israel is an illegal state carry in light of this fact?  How long will that claim last?  Should the U.S. give all their land back to the Native Americans?  Compromises have to be made at some point and the only side willing to compromise at this point is Israel.  True?  Are you against co-existence?  Do you suggest the jews pack up and leave?  Are you against the existence of Israel?

You people make me SICK!

Did you forget 911?  911 taught us all the true meaning of evil.  Muslem extremists = evil.  Which side are you on?

Reminds me of the beginning of our so-called ‘shock and awe” campaign in Iraq.  Lots and lots of dead babies.  It lead to absolutely nothing.  Bush and gang did exactly what they wanted, and we were shown to be impotent.  Same thing here.  Our buddies in Israel can commit the most heinous crimes, and our government will act like it never happened.  I wonder if Mel has an opinion about this?

I find it strange that people chose to take there history back only so far.From what I know the Jews were around far before Islam was even a thought, so whos land is it again....who took whos land first...I guess its easy to make a point to the dumb,brain washed people of this world.How many people have to die before the Muslums accept truth.The land that YOU KILL your own people over is not yours..........YOU WILL NEVER WIN!!!! Keep it up
untill you lose it all.Try to be smart for once and maybe you will have some land to call your own.Or keep it up and lose it all.Please if you truely love this world go back and study Hitler.He understood that the western world would not want to respond to any threats so soon after world war 1.He used our media against us just like is the case today.People be smart..dont let the evil of this world continue to pull the darkness over your eyes.America is not the evil. If you cant see that than I feel for you.Nor is Israel.

I am no expert on the politics involved here.  I only know what I see.  Unfortunately, much of what we could be seeing in the US media is left out.

I wrote an posting about this situation the other day on my blog.  I tried to be fair to both sides, but could only find pictures of the devastation as it was felt by the Lebanese people.

A man commented that I was slanted against Israel then.  I am not.  I am slanted against this useless idea of faith that the world is so torn up over.

Here is my posting…
http://myboringbest.blogspot.com/2006/07/on-backs-of-i nvisible-men.html

People - all people - are good inside.  I don’t see how it can ever happen, but the only true answer to all of this is for everybody to just move on from this mess that religion has created in the world.

To be clear…

I feel horrible about this situation and mourn the loss of people in Lebanon and Israel.  I take no side, other than to say, “It’s time to let religion go.  We’ve only got so much time left to just get on with things and love each other.”

And yes, I know it isn’t “that simple.” I don’t need a lesson in history here.  I’m aware of what is going on politically.  None the less, without removing religion from the mix, it will continue on and on and on.

I just cannot believe that little children are dying by the tens.  It makes me terribly sad.

Justin Raimondo, at antiwar.com, says it best:

“[Israel’s] jealousy of a thriving as well as liberal Arab neighbor to the north has, in part, driven popular support for the invasion. The cafes and skyscrapers of a revived Beirut attracted visitors from throughout the world, while tourists – except for Christian fundamentalist crazies and the thinning trickle of Jews making aliya – largely disdained the Zionist Sparta.”

Yes - the nasty old queen looked in the mirror, didn’t like what she saw, and decided that Snow White was going to have to die.

In #15957, Samir Younes writes:

“To avoid an evil act, like the one committed by Israel in the ongoing conflict in Palestine and Lebanon, one has only to remove the reasons of evil.”

1- Israel has in its prisons thousands of detainees held for tens of years, many of them are children and women.

I ASK… WHY? Don’t just tell us “facts.”

2- Israel has occupied Arab lands in Lebanon and Syria, not to mention Gaza and the West Bank without a glimse of hope of returning these territories to their people.

I ASK… WHY? I don’t want your OPINION… I want to know the actual REASON Israel is “occupying” the lands you mention. Why would they?

3- Israel has built a conrete barrier separating members of the same family. Israel has refused any kind of negotiations with its counterparts.

I ASK… WHY? Why the barrier? Why refusal to negotiate? (Perhaps they tried than and were disappointed with the results?)

4- Israel is terrorising the Palestinian population in daily incursions and killing innocent civilians, many of them are children and women.

I ASK… WHY? Do you actually assume that their TARGET is children and women? Or is it perhaps that the “Palestinian” population is allowing/enabling MILITARY positions to be housed amongst the civilian population?

5- Israel has refused to recognise a democratically elected Palestinian government as its counterpart in negotiations accusing it to be a terror organisation.”

Again… tediously… I ASK… WHY?

Please don’t infer that I’m “pro” either side. If I seem pro-Israeli it’s because I find it impossible to just ASSUME that intelligent, civilized people would commit atrocities for no reason. Perhaps I’m wrong… perhaps the Israeli government is run by madmen/women who are profoundly evil and deserve to be destroyed. I do not know because I don’t live there and really haven’t a clue why hostilities go on forever in that region.

Regarding R.A. Earl’s earlier comment:

“When my limit of tolerance is reached in an unwinnable situation, I WALK AWAY. It doesn’t matter what I’ll lose at that point… to continue means only that I will lose MORE. To stand and fight a battle I can’t win is not brave nor smart… it’s STUPID. I can only hope it dawns on the Lebanese (Hezbollah) that they have NO HOPE TO WIN A WAR AGAINST ISRAEL, at least by force, and that they decide to call it quits before tens, hundreds or thousands more of their children wind up dead.”

I think the situation is different when you CAN NOT walk away - when you are fighting on your homeland for your home. This is what BOTH Israel and Hizbollah claim to be fighting for. It is peculiar that you choose to forward your argument ONLY at Hizbollah but do not ask Israel to WALK AWAY. Do you think Israel can WIN this war?

It is a shame what they are doing to Lebanon.  I did a ww3 flash intro for Lebanon at http://www.zenwire.com/ww3.php
you can see it here.

and check out my newest slap Ann Coulter variation.

terrible israeli terrorism as usual…

A brief comment froma journalist"Between 1979 and 1983 I went to the South of Lebeanon several times, both as journalist and writer.I wrote two books on what was then called The Palestinian Problem. The fact is that Israel has been shelling palestinians for 50 years, she never obey SC Resolution 242 and will not even dream of allowing the right to return for those who had to flee since 1948.Of course, views such as these are held to be “anti - semitic”, the effective clichê of those who are for Israel right or wrong. The recent shelling, killing, or rather , slaughter will only have one outcome : more people willing to die as suicide bombers.It makes one despair of political humanity.
Sebastian Lobo.

To avoid an evil act, like the one committed by Israel in the ongoing conflict in Palestine and Lebanon, one has only to remove the reasons of evil.
1- Israel has in its prisons thousands of detainees held for tens of years, many of them are children and women.
2- Israel has occupied Arab lands in Lebanon and Syria, not to mention Gaza and the West Bank without a glimse of hope of returning these territories to their people.
3- Israel has built a conrete barrier separating members of the same family. Israel has refused any kind of negotiations with its counterparts.
4- Israel if terrorising the Palestinian population in daily incursions and killing innocent civilians, many of them are children and women.
5- Israel has refused to recognise a democratically elected Palestinian government as its counterpart in negotiations accusing it to be a terror organisation.
And so on...........
What do you expect of the supressed people to do. Israel has all reason to think that these abovementioned actions and scores more are the main reason why the oppressed resort to unconventional methods.
It’s time for Israel to treat its counterparts as partners for peace and not as adversaries by considering to be just and not hide behind its military might with the help of the U.S. and the Jewish Lobby.
The usual accusations, of being anti-Semite by critisizing Israel´s evil actions, do not frighten anyone anymore. If I were to be accused to be anti-Semite by writing this opinion, then let it be.

Xana and The Warsaw Ghetto

same place
different time
while the world stood by
genocide
live

Regarding two sides to every story, here are some facts from Fairness And Accuracy In Raporting that aren’t making it into MSM these days:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JULY 28, 2006
1:21 PM

CONTACT: Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting
212-633-6700
fair at fair dot org


Down the Memory Hole
Israeli contribution to conflict is forgotten by leading papers


WASHINGTON - July 28 - In the wake of the most serious outbreak of Israeli/Arab violence in years, three leading US papers—the Washington Post, New York Times and Los Angeles Times—have each strongly editorialized that Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon were solely responsible for sparking violence, and that the Israeli military response was predictable and unavoidable. These editorials ignored recent events that indicate a much more complicated situation.

Beginning with the Israeli attack on Gaza, a New York Times editorial (6/29/06) headlined “Hamas Provokes a Fight” declared that “the responsibility for this latest escalation rests squarely with Hamas,” and that “an Israeli military response was inevitable.” The paper (7/15/06) was similarly sure in its assignment of blame after the fighting spread to Lebanon: “It is important to be clear about not only who is responsible for the latest outbreak, but who stands to gain most from its continued escalation. Both questions have the same answer: Hamas and Hezbollah.”

The Washington Post (7/14/06) agreed, writing that “Hezbollah and its backers have instigated the current fighting and should be held responsible for the consequences.” The L.A. Times (7/14/06) likewise wrote that “in both cases Israel was provoked.” Three days and scores of civilian deaths later, the Times (7/17/06) was even more direct: “Make no mistake about it: Responsibility for the escalating carnage in Lebanon and northern Israel lies with one side...and that is Hezbollah.”

As FAIR noted in a recent Action Alert (7/19/06), the portrayal of Israel as the innocent victim in the Gaza conflict is hard to square with the death toll in the months leading up to the current crisis; between September 2005 and June 2006, 144 Palestinians in Gaza were killed by Israeli forces, according to a list compiled by the Israeli human rights group B’tselem; 29 of those killed were children. During the same period, no Israelis were killed as a result of violence from Gaza.

In a July 21 CounterPunch column, Alexander Cockburn highlighted some of the violent incidents that have dropped out of the media’s collective memory:

Let’s go on a brief excursion into pre-history. I’m talking about June 20, 2006, when Israeli aircraft fired at least one missile at a car in an attempted extrajudicial assassination attempt on a road between Jabalya and Gaza City. The missile missed the car. Instead it killed three Palestinian children and wounded 15.
Back we go again to June 13, 2006. Israeli aircraft fired missiles at a van in another attempted extrajudicial assassination. The successive barrages killed nine innocent Palestinians.

Now we’re really in the dark ages, reaching far, far back to June 9, 2006, when Israel shelled a beach in Beit Lahiya killing eight civilians and injuring 32.

That’s just a brief trip down Memory Lane, and we trip over the bodies of twenty dead and forty-seven wounded, all of them Palestinians, most of them women and children.

On July 24, the day before Hamas’ cross-border raid, Israel made an incursion of its own, capturing two Palestinians that it said were members of Hamas (something Hamas denied—L.A. Times, 7/25/06). This incident received far less coverage in US media than the subsequent seizure of the Israeli soldier; the few papers that covered it mostly dismissed it in a one-paragraph brief (e.g., Chicago Tribune, 7/25/06), while the Israeli-taken prisoner got front-page headlines all over the world. It’s likely that most Gazans don’t share US news outlets’ apparent sense that captured Israelis are far more interesting or important than captured Palestinians.

The situation in Lebanon is also more complicated than its portrayal in US media, with the roots of the current crisis extending well before the July 12 capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah. A major incident fueling the latest cycle of violence was a May 26, 2006 car bombing in Sidon, Lebanon, that killed a senior official of Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian group allied with Hezbollah. Lebanon later arrested a suspect, Mahmoud Rafeh, whom Lebanese authorities claimed had confessed to carrying out the assassination on behalf of Mossad (London Times, 6/17/06).

Israel denied involvement with the bombing, but even some Israelis are skeptical. “If it turns out this operation was effectively carried out by Mossad or another Israeli secret service,” wrote Yediot Aharonot, Israel’s top-selling daily (6/16/06; cited in AFP, 6/16/06), “an outsider from the intelligence world should be appointed to know whether it was worth it and whether it lays groups open to risk.”

In Lebanon, Israel’s culpability was taken as a given. “The Israelis, in hitting Islamic Jihad, knew they would get Hezbollah involved too,” Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, a professor at Beirut’s Lebanese American University, told the New York Times (5/29/06). “The Israelis had to be aware that if they assassinated this guy they would get a response.”

And, indeed, on May 28, Lebanese militants in Hezbollah-controlled territory fired Katyusha rockets at a military vehicle and a military base inside Israel. Israel responded with airstrikes against Palestinian camps deep inside Lebanon, which in turn were met by Hezbollah rocket and mortar attacks on more Israeli military bases, which prompted further Israeli airstrikes and “a steady artillery barrage at suspected Hezbollah positions” (New York Times, 5/29/06). Gen. Udi Adam, the commander of Israel’s northern forces, boasted that “our response was the harshest and most severe since the withdrawal” of Israeli troops from Lebanon in 2000 (Chicago Tribune, 5/29/06).

This intense fighting was the prelude to the all-out warfare that began on July 12, portrayed in US media as beginning with an attack out of the blue by Hezbollah. While Hezbollah’s capture of two Israeli soldiers may have reignited the smoldering conflict, the Israeli air campaign that followed was not a spontaneous reaction to aggression but a well-planned operation that was years in the making.

“Of all of Israel’s wars since 1948, this was the one for which Israel was most prepared,” Gerald Steinberg, a political science professor at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University, told the San Francisco Chronicle (7/21/05). “By 2004, the military campaign scheduled to last about three weeks that we’re seeing now had already been blocked out and, in the last year or two, it’s been simulated and rehearsed across the board.” The Chronicle reported that a “senior Israeli army officer” has been giving PowerPoint presentations for more than a year to “US and other diplomats, journalists, and think tanks” outlining the coming war with Lebanon, explaining that a combination of air and ground forces would target Hezbollah and “transportation and communication arteries.”

Which raises a question: If journalists have been told by Israel for more than a year that a war was coming, why are they pretending that it all started on July 12? By truncating the cause-and-effect timelines of both the Gaza and Lebanon conflicts, editorial boards at major US dailies gravely oversimplify the decidedly more complex nature of the facts on the ground.

###

War is and has always been dirty.  It’s what always happens.  Sad but true.

What I’m waiting for here is for TruthDig to admit to being anti-Israel / anti-Jewish by leaving up headlines and pictures that incite rather than work towards peace.  Because even if one is not proIsrael, the presentation need not be so provocative.

The Libs/Left today us filled with this fervor and sounds like a bunch of televangelists.

Collin

http://evangelicalperspective.blogspot.com

I have just sent an email to Jimmy Carter asking him to step forward and speak out on the tragedy unfolding in the Middle East.  I can’t think of anyone else of his stature who could make a difference.  It was comment #15198 that prompted me to write because I found myself wishing that Eisenhower and others of his reknown and stature were not dead. I really believe that men and women of wisdom and vision are sorely lacking in today’s world, and I also believe their voices are the answer to these terrible times in which we live.

Some perspective: Israel has no declared borders, and it has no constitution. Its territorial claim is based on theology. Palestinian Arabs have lived in that area for thousands of years. The Israeli army is an occupying force illegally seizing land in contradiction of international law. Children are not military targets. Giving 24-hour notice in no way removes criminal liability for international war crimes. Air war is pure cowardice.

There are ALWAYS two or more sides to every story and unless/until BOTH or ALL sides of these issues are considered, understanding why this is happening and who is to blame can only be made on an IRRATIONAL, EMOTIONAL KNEE-JERK level.

The killing of chilren… or frankly, ANYONE of ANY AGE, is an unacceptable act of barbaric proportions. Killing, whether as lone maverick crazed gunmen, or state-sanctioned executions or armed attacks, are, in my view, CRIMINAL ACTS and should be dealt with as such.

If I were a parent of one of these Arab (Lebanese) children, I’d be out of my mind with fury and would be looking only for REVENGE. The last thing I’d be looking for is an opporunity to see the situation from the Iraeli side.

So what would this thirst for revenge accomplish? No question… MORE KILLING… GUARANTEED. We all know this. Yet we “all” continue to stay on the same stupid merry-go-round.

What’s the answer? In my opinion, until one side or the other decides the price they’re paying is too high, and decides to take a look at all sides of the issue, there is no answer. For example, with the next Hezbollah rocket launched into Israel (after the children were killed) we KNEW that having their children killed was NOT a too high a price for the Lebanese… yet. It can’t be otherwise… it can’t be both too high a price AND continue to pay it.

When my limit of tolerance is reached in an unwinnable situation, I WALK AWAY. It doesn’t matter what I’ll lose at that point… to continue means only that I will lose MORE. To stand and fight a battle I can’t win is not brave nor smart… it’s STUPID. I can only hope it dawns on the Lebanese (Hezbollah) that they have NO HOPE TO WIN A WAR AGAINST ISRAEL, at least by force, and that they decide to call it quits before tens, hundreds or thousands more of their children wind up dead.

I’m not pro either side. I just know that it is completely unreasonable to expect Israeli citizens to just sit there under a rain of rockets day in and day out without trying to do something about it. The “something” though has to be something other than killing more people.

Pardon my naivete… but when you LAUNCH a rocket or drop a bomb isn’t it the INTENTION to kill? The Lebanese INTEND to kill Israelis. Israelis INTEND to kill Lebanese. This is WAR. What’s the complaint? Everything is going as INTENDED… isn’t it?

My god, my god, why have we forsaken thee?

http://ncswede.blogspot.com/2006/07/my-god-my-god-why- have-we-forsaken.html

As Bob Herbert writes in today’s NY Times OpEd Section, “Yes, Virginia, the world is going mad.”

He’s writing regarding the spread of nuclear weapons capacity/capability ... it’s all about escalating the tolerance for violence.

On the other hand, maybe we’re simply reverting to Jehovah as God ... forsaking the enlightenment taught by Jesus, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.”

King James Version, Old Testament, Joshua 6:17-21:

“And the city shall be accursed, [even] it, and all that [are] therein, to the LORD: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that [are] with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.

“And ye, in any wise keep [yourselves] from the accursed thing, lest ye make [yourselves] accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.

“But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, [are] consecrated unto the LORD: they shall come into the treasury of the LORD.

“So the people shouted when [the priests] blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.

“And they utterly destroyed all that [was] in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword.”

Which version of God do we follow? Which do we forsake?

One of the valuable lessons we learn from the New Testament is that the strong must break the cycle of violence ... if it ever is to be broken. If we allow the bullies—as in we beome one—to have their way, we subscribe to fear and the jungle rather than hope and civilization.

It isn’t just the lessons of their prior occupation and the ten years earlier bombing of same village with the same outcome that Israel has failed to learn, it is the lessons of their own ancient history.

Violence ALWAYS sets in motion payback, until someone is willing to step forward and say, “It stops here.”

How many times do we have to crucify the Christ in us before we learn the lesson?

My friends, lest we forget, there is a silent epidemic among us, the people of this earth: it’s known as the Military Industrial Complex (MIC).  Note Eisenhower’s parting, haunting words.

“In the counsels of Government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the Military Industrial Complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together.”

- President Eisenhower - January 1961

See http://www.irc-online.org/rightweb/profile/1432 (long read, but quite informative)

So it seems that these “huge industrial and military machines” have somehow stole away with our sanity, in the name of profits, uninterrupted.  In the name of Hezbellah and Israel alike.  And we, the people, the asleep and nullified citizenry have been strong armed, and hoodwinked into submission.  With no time for neutrality on a runaway train, our efforts to understand and contain this growing problem must be equally cunning and decisive.

The way to the MIC’s jugular is a convoluted route.  They’re dug in and well fortified.  But they are dependent on military spending and appropriations committee approval for some of their cash, for some of their budget.  So write your congressional reps and tell them that enough is enough.  The senseless horrors unfolding in front of us daily (and for some Lebanese, Afghanis, and Iraqis literally exploding in their front yards, or bedrooms, for that matter) can be curtailed; halted.  But we need to speak with an unmistakably clear voice of concern, and more important, voice of opposition against this candidate come future elections, should they “stay the course.” And don’t be fooled.  Democrats love cash for their constituents as much as the other bastards.

See http://www.house.gov/writerep/ to determine who your congressional representatives are, and use that website to write personal letters to these elected men and women, and speak clearly your concerns about Eisenhower’s warnings.  Demand change, and demand accountability.  Review the voting records of these people, and promise active involvement if changes aren’t made swiftly. 

This mess is ours to fix.  We let it happen, we let it spiral out of control to the terrifying place that it’s come to reside today.  Get active.  Never Forget.