Lebanon
I had not particually wanted to comment on Lebanon but here goes.
After it was created by the UN in 1947 it was the Jews that accepted the two state solution. The arab countries around Israel have never accepted that it has the right to exist, and many still don't. After the partition in 1947 the arabs, not accepting the two state solution, started attacking the Jews this grew into the War of Independence in 1948. Israel was attacked by Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq but it somehow managed to survive. This is when the so called 'refugees' left Israel, with an equal number of Jews being forced from the surrounding countries into Israel. Of course you never hear about these refugees as they have assimilated into Israel rather than being kept permanently in refugee status as a stick to beat their smaller neighbour.
During the 1950's Israel got involved in the Suez crisis with Britain and France to stop the nationalisation of the Suez canal, and then had to fight the 6 Days War after Syria, Jordan, and Egypt started hinting that they where to attack and Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli vessels, a blockade being a recognised act of war (the US was very careful not to call it's blockade of Cuba during the Cuban Missiles crisis a blockade so as to not automatically end up in World War 3).
Then there was the Yom Kippur War of 1973 when Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack against Israel, but where again beaten back.
Then in the 1980's after it was attacked by terrorists operating from the political vacuum caused by the Lebanese civil war Israel moved in to defend itself, just like what is happening today. Once again the arabs where totally outclassed.
Despite the myth of victimhood fostered by the arabs it has always been the radical groups amongst them that start things in an attempt to wipe Israel from the pages of history to use the President of Iran's (one of the main sponsors of hizbullah, and currently in need of something to take the spotlight off their nuclear ambitions) colourful phrase. Starting a fight and then getting the shit kicked out of you does not make you a victim. It makes you a loser.
posted by chris at 7/22/2006 12:38:00 pm
4 Comments:
Ah, see, the problem here? Generalising. At what point in all the above did the Lebanese Govt declare war on Israel?
Also, how many of those countries can be said, in any way, to be democratic?
Blaming all arabs for the actions of the authoritarian dictatorships in charge of 3 countries would be like blaming the French-Europeans for the actions of the German-Europeans in 1940.
The people of suthern Lebanon did not start this fight, nor did the people of Gaza. Extremists loons tried to start a fight, and Israel not only took the bait, they're going overboard. As far as most Lebanese are now concerned, Israel is now definately the enemy, as the supposedly peace-wanting Govt has done this.
Now, the extremists have many more supporters and members. Cycle of violence continues. I can't take sides on this one, except for the side that says "not us, we didn't try to kill anyone".
In this case, that's a significant proportion of the 200+ Lebanese civilians killed, especially those in the Christian villages that used to ally with Israel.
In Israel proper? The Govt is democratically elected, and accountable for its actions to the people. Thus, the people are responsible for the Govt. Ergo, they're not "innocent" civilians, merely non-combatant civilians. The same can't be said of the Lebanese innocents.
No side is in the right on this one. But there are so many wrongs I don't see any solution now being possible without masses of bloodshed. Congrats to the Rapturites. WWIII is on its way.
I should have said Islamists not arabs. Islamists you can certainly generalise about since they generalise themselves. One of the foundations of Islamism is that they are all part of a single empire that must eventually rule the world. Anything that stands against the empire anywhere becomes an obstacle to all that consider themselves part of the empire.
But what really pisses me off is how all Islamists will now use this fight picked by Islamists as a way of claiming that they are victims. No matter if they have any real connection with Lebanon what so ever. This will go into the suicide note of the bombers to come, no matter where they strike against. Not that Israel not striking would stop said bombers, they would just find another reason that they are victims and do it anyway.
If the Islamists see that they are winning anything then it is a sign of the inevitable victory of Islam, so the Jihad must continue. If they lose then they are poor oppressed victims and must fight this oppression, so the Jihad must continue. This is the problem with religious nuts, having rationalised their invisible friend telling them to kill people they can rationalise anything. So anything at all is a sign that they are right and the crusade to get the entire world to submit to Islam must continue.
Read this story as to why there should not be a ceasefire. Sometimes it is necessary to fight until the opponent is beaten.
Ah, but the distinction between islamist and arab is where it falls down; Syria is Ba'athist, and therefor secular/atheist socialist; very much inspired by a certain Mr Hitler of Austria.
The nuts on the extremes of both sides need to be discredited and fought against. Unfortunately, that's as much Bush/Olmert as it is AQ, Hiz or any other loony islamist faction.
How is beyond me, but Blair really isn't helping
but the distinction between islamist and arab is where it falls down; Syria is Ba'athist
And the CIA is American. But that does not stop Bin Laden being an Islamist, or his act perpetrated to further the cause of Islamism, because the CIA funded him at one point.
Nor does it change the myth of Islamic victimhood.
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