Muhammad Arif,

Rather than point out the shortcomings of Israel, why don't you share with the audience all of the positive things about Muslims, Arabs and Persians, and there are many?

Your point is acknowledged in that Christians subsidize Israel, and nothing that you can say will probably ever change that. Obviously Christians feel closer to the Jews and Judaism than to Islam, given that Christianity was birthed out of Judaism.

Dr. Schueler of the Crystal Cathedral in Southern California, shared with a group of ministers that Yasser Arafat's wife actually accepted Jesus Christ as her personal savior several years before Yasser passed away.

He also shared that the late Yasser Arafat had no antipathy towards Christians. In fact he told Dr. Schueler that in order to be a good Muslim, one would have to of been a good Christian, and in order to be a good Christian one would have to of been a good Jew. Perhapsyou know what he meant!

Mr. Arafat felt that all 3 of the major faiths were inextricably tied.

What is your take on what he said to Dr. Schuler? And wouldn't you agree that if all three faiths could find a way to co-exist, that much of the fighting that all three faiths have been historically involved in, would disappear?

Israel is not useing his tune but they are following their masrter. if they would not follow them it would be impossible to take such a tone that they are not intened to stope war. Now they are playing the game of hide and seek with the muslims and christians. their next target would be definitely Christtians, as we know the diffrences of Jews and christians.

to have children identified as such rather than masquerading as leaders of soveriegn nations?

luverly

Namron,

You cannot like the Redskins, you are too bright for that? Ever hear that song, "Mother's Don' Let Your Children Grow Up To Be Redskins". Okay, the llyrics were, Cowboys. They would be a better team, if they would become so overconfident during their training camp. I visited their training camp last year. After they played each other for a couple of weeks, they thought that they were good enough to win the Super Bowl. Overconfidence?

Now let me tell you about a real team, er herm, the San Francisco 49er's. We have been losing a lot lately, but we are losing more impressively. And we are coming back. When? Probably when Israel has a Jewish Pope or when an Imam is installed in the Genneserat!

Good luck, and at the same time lets stay focused on the worldwide problem of East and West Extremism, particularly that which is effecting the Midlle-East!

peace

MSA,

But when do we come out of the Dark Ages, and set aside 'The Lord of the Flies' mentality that too many nations, people and world leaders are still engaged in today?

Like Tofler and his predictions, I too have failed for I thought that in the 21st century we would be much more advanced.

I do give credit to Science, those folks who by and large stay out of the human fray and work on logical contructs, reason and empirical evidence, seem to be making much more progress than those who are awash in the philosophical, the esoteric, religion and mundane arguments. Wouldn't you agree?

Or is it, on with the Lord of the flies, and the King of the Hill!

By the way, If I were Israel (5million Jews) among (100 Million Arabs, Persians and others), I would simply move out. I would want to do other things with my time than fight and kill. Besides, the 1947 repartion of Palestine was not just in the first place.

The Extreme Rev

==Is this war really like Iraq or Vietnam? I don't think it is, since
Israel is trying to hit back hard enough
to discourage Hezbollah or other future Lebanese versions of Hezbollah from kidnapping Israeli soldiers, launching rockets at Israel's border towns etc...

It was insane to go into Iraq and probably insane to go into Vietnam, though at least some of the politicians thought they were doing something useful in it (i.e. stopping the spread of communism). I can't imagine how any rational leader in the U.S. would have thought that going into Iraq was the right thing to do, which tells us who are in charge in the U.S. :-(

In contrast to Vietnam, Iraq, Israel is fighting a just war where they were attacked by people who want Israel exterminated. Yeah, Israel is ending up killing many people who are innocent, but when the enemy hangs out in the middle of the civilians, that is it for the civilians....==

I don't see a big difference between the three cases. In each case a much stronger country is using overwhelming force to essentially enforce a political settlement onto a weaker country which is to the stronger country's liking.

In each case the war is far from just, as the threat is grossly overestimated or even invented, the methods used can only be described as barbaric and the chances of achieving declared political goals are nearly nill.

In this particular case, while Israel spent considerable propaganda effort to convince the mainstream media that "they started it", it is easy to see a set of problems going back quite a while. To start, Israel occupied a big chunk of Lebanon for 18 years, preciptiating a devastating civil war by building up a faction inside the country (christian phalange). When it finally left, under Hezbolah's pressure, it would not reveal the mining maps left behind, and held on to a meaningless piece of land (to them) which Lebanon wanted, essentially out of spite. In addition, Israel violated Lebanese airspace essentially on a daily basis since they withdrew, apparently considering that their right (one can read UNIFIL's reports which document this pervasive Israeli practice). It also held 3 Lebanese nationals as prisoners and refused to negotiate their release. So I would say there were plenty of provocation from both sides in the run up to the current war.

The narrative that "Hezbolah hides behind the civilians" appears another one of those deliberate "fog of war" efforts. I have read various accounts of Hezbolah's military doctrine and practice, and they appear to have a distrust of civilians, having watched Hamas betrayed time and time again by traitors. It is also worthwhile to notice that Hezbolah did not take Western hostages, having ample time and opportunity to do so.

It would appear to be highly likely that Israel's efforts in this war will be equally successful to our own in both Vietnam and Iraq. In this case, as in the other two, the "host" country will be destroyed in the process.

Arkin writes "Though Israeli air strikes generally have avoided hitting the Lebanese military,..."

This is incorrect and misleading. Israel have hit Labaneses soldiers sleeping in their barracks not just once, but a number of times.

What is the purpose of this?

Are they deliberately trying to drag ALL of Lebanon into the war so they can bomb everywhere, everything and everybody they want to ???

Ranxerox: "Most countries were created by people fighting over the land. But, does it have to go on forever?"

True. If a nation gets defeated, the dominate nation creates a new country. Just like America and Australia etc. However there are 2 problems with this theory.

1- It use to be a law when the world was in dark age. When slavery was legal, apartheid was acceptable and holocaust was allowed to happen. For Gods sack, it is 21st century. Those ancient rules are not acceptable by any decent human being any more.

2- Second problem is that, during the dark ages, if one nation surrendered and quite resistance to the invaders, then invaders created a country and the war ended. Palastinians has not surrendered yet. They are still resisting. Nobody should blame a nation for resisting an occupier. The occupier has to be blamed and should be asked - does it has to go on forever?

In the old days, before TV, internet, radio etc.., you probably could wipe out 1/3 of a country, if they were supporting your enemy. But, of course this would cause a much larger Arab/Israeli war, if Israel did what countries did in WWII to win, since
people find out instantly what is happening in a war.

Is this war really like Iraq or Vietnam? I don't think it is, since
Israel is trying to hit back hard enough
to discourage Hezbollah or other future Lebanese versions of Hezbollah from kidnapping Israeli soldiers, launching rockets at Israel's border towns etc...
I doubt that Israel's leaders are naive enough to think that nobody will ever kidnap soldiers or launch rockets and other
weapons over the border. But, this will prevent many future attacks to Israel, in the long run. How come Syria hasn't attacked Israel in decades? They were "discouraged" by the previous wars.
Yes, there is Iran looming all over this,
and that is the most difficult thing Israel will maybe be facing in the future.

I can't imagine that Israel really thinks the Lebanese people and the Lebanese government will ever get along with Israel for a very long time. But, the Lebanese might get sick of dying and eventually turn against Hezbollah. But, more than likely, they will be happier "standing up to Israel" and dying for standing up to "the Zionist Entity".

It was insane to go into Iraq and probably insane to go into Vietnam, though at least some of the politicians thought they were doing something useful in it (i.e. stopping the spread of communism). I can't imagine how any rational leader in the U.S. would have thought that going into Iraq was the right thing to do, which tells us who are in charge in the U.S. :-(

A true democracy in many countries in the middle east really means having a bunch of autocratic dictators who make women wear Burkas and suppress freedom of thought and religion. That is what many people want in the Middle East in their respective countries.
So, the U.S. has to think whether they want "puppet governments" or true democracies in the countries they go to war against in the Middle East, like the basket case which is Iraq.

In contrast to Vietnam, Iraq, Israel is fighting a just war where they were attacked by people who want Israel exterminated. Yeah, Israel is ending up killing many people who are innocent, but when the enemy hangs out in the middle of the civilians, that is it for the civilians....

>Wow, man, that's pretty deep analysis. Try >googling "Israel invasion Lebanon" and be >surprised to find out that Israel did that >for 18 years (1982-2000) and finally >decided that it couldn't just kill 1/3 >population of Lebanon who support Hezbolah >and constantly resupply its insurgent base.

>That didn't stop Rumsfeld to claim what >you claim in reference to Iraqi >insurgency. I guess he didn't know history >either, even our own in Vietnam. A pity.

==It appears that Israel will have to occupy parts of Lebanon until Hezollah throws down its arms and wants peace and/or they all die trying to fight Israel to the bitter end. Israel will eventually subdue them, since they have the more powerful military.==

Wow, man, that's pretty deep analysis. Try googling "Israel invasion Lebanon" and be surprised to find out that Israel did that for 18 years (1982-2000) and finally decided that it couldn't just kill 1/3 population of Lebanon who support Hezbolah and constantly resupply its insurgent base.

That didn't stop Rumsfeld to claim what you claim in reference to Iraqi insurgency. I guess he didn't know history either, even our own in Vietnam. A pity.

msa, this is the 21st century ,so ?

in the past 100 years we've had genocide in sudan, north korea, iraq cambodia, ethnic cleansing in yugoslavia ,millions were killed under mao's regime, dont even mention hitler/stalin etc. Oh, you mean the 21st century ?, I guess the last 6 years is what makes the 21st century different ? Please, spare me, it was the jungle and still is and will always be. Thats the human animal.

I have been watching this war go on and on.
The excuse Hezbollah used for starting this war was that Israel was fighting back against the Palestinians in Gaza, when Israel was attacked by them and of course, all the rockets hitting Israeli towns right outside Gaza.

I was watching Arab news shows on cable tv and all the Arab stations I saw termed Israel
"the Zionist entity" or "The Zionist occupiers of Palestine" etc... In other words, most the Arab countries do not accept Israel's existance at all.

Noting the above, it would be great if Israel could let the Gaza and West Bank Palestinians move around more freely and go to jobs in Israel and basically live normal lives and trade with Israel and surrounding countries. But, as Israel tried over the years opening up the West Bank and Gaza to Israel, they have suicide bombings, now missiles, and basically a bunch of people who are trapped in West Bank or Gaza and can't move freely around, as much as they want, like any normal country's citizens do. And then the Palestinians "demand" Right of Return for refugees who left these lands during the 67 war. It would be like American Indians demanding all their lands back from the U.S. from the past Indian wars or Mexico demanding Texas and California back.

In short, we have a real mess in the Middle East. How do you solve the underlying hate, tension? I believe Israel had a right to fight back hard in this war, but how does Israel get out of this war the best way? It appears that Israel will have to occupy parts of Lebanon until Hezollah throws down its arms and wants peace and/or they all die trying to fight Israel to the bitter end. Israel will eventually subdue them, since they have the more powerful military.

Why did Japan, Germany, and other countries in WWII recover from their destruction, rebuild their societies and now are at peace with one another? Why do the Arabs continue to cling to demanding that Israel either go away or give up 50% of its land in "Right of Return" AFTER losing a bunch of wars with Israel?

Most countries were created by people fighting over the land. But, does it have to go on forever? Or, is this the beginning of a Muslim extremist war against
the west? I had one friend mention to me that perhaps many of the Middle East countries want to live like the 6th century. Maybe this is the problem with Israel and some of the surrounding countries forming peace treaties? Egypt and Jordan were wise enough to seek peace with Israel. When are Lebanon, Syria, Iran going to want more than death and destruction for Israel and the Middle East?

Cain and Sarah had a characteristic trait in common. Both had the nerve to lie to God when questioned by God (see Gen. 4:9 and Gen. 18:15). In contrast, Hagar told the truth when questioned by an Angel of God (Gen. 16:8)

I consider the tendency to lie or deceive to be a congenital deficiency as evidenced by Abraham's lie that Sarai was his sister, Jacob's deceipt of Isaac by posing as Esau, the sons of Jacob's deceipt of Jacob about Joseph's death. Therefore, how can any claims recorded by the descendants of liars be taken as perfectly true?

Your reality, people of the Middle East, is lies and balderdash, and I'm happy to say I have no grasp of it whatsoever. There is no moral high ground in your quagmire of quagmires.

The bloody conflict will continue without end as long as deceipt and disrespect persist between the descendants of Hagar and Sarah.

This war at times seems pointless and a bad case of de ja vue. However, watching and seeing the events in the Middle East, you cannot wonder what is the bigger picture. Is it Iran and trying to flex its muscle and remind the West that it doesn't want to play by rules laid down by the international community? Is it Hezbollah making a power play for Lebanon since Syria's withdrawal? Or is the Israeli's finally saying enough, is enough. As painful as it is to see the daily images of death and destruction, knowing it's 100x worse on the ground, I believe that we, the Western world, must combat these situations and make it painfully obvious to those opposed to Israel presence and the Western world that this is not an acceptable way to enact change. I wonder how the Arabs cannot draw on the lessons of Ghandi and MLK, Jr. to get the world's attention for whatever wrongs they want righted. "Eye for an eye makes the world go blind" or something like that...

Mr Arkin, I submit to your wisdom a celebrated question that you might ask about people (in the Middle East) who seem to have a pretty good memory of military history:
'How many divisions does the Vatican have?'

right,

remember that it's a scam to hide the real agendae which is oil based.

Well it seems that IDF is not invincible after all. In the past, each time, it was the unmotivated army of the retarded Arab dictators and their brainless war strategy that was defeated by IDF in a couple of weeks. Now IDF is faced with a force which seems to adapt to Israel's war machine and have rockets that IDF just helplessly watch flying over their heads towards Israel. IDF never had a protracted warfare before. They are used to just go out there and mop up the enemy in a week or two. They never had a real long war which also packed a punch. Are they willing to face a real war?

And then the rockets, how you would protect Israel from rockets? IDF could not get rid of rockets from relatively small Gaza strip. How would they clear Lebanon from rockets which fall on Israel? It seems that after all Achilles had a heal.

My point is that neither Israel nor Arabs can resolve their political problems by waging war against each other. Israel had an upper hand in military in the past and tried to use weapons to solve political problems. That power might not be a factor now or in the future. Violence does not solve any conflict except making situation worse. So Israel should talk to her neighbors and listen to them. Don't try to be a gun wielding cow boy in the region because there is an old saying that those who live by the sword, die by the sword.

worrying about people that can't pay for their medicines, but are being blocked from buying from the cheapest medical supply housses....

because big pharmacopiae needs protection...

are any old people dying? morethan 600?

who would know?

be live able....

they are blocking on the word

C on Pli C I T

globalization includes the concept
of "mutual impact"....there is no seperation of needs.....

One poster noted that if everyone consumed at the Rate Of Consumption that the Americans did that we would be livingon a desert world within a few years.

How about America managing it's resources as a sustainable thing, rather than viewing Americans as a consumer class only. Who needs more fat Americans driving hummers?

Having someone besides greedy children running the corporations and government would go a long way to wards making the world a better place to live in. Exhibiting moral restraint, keeping osmotic trade barriers up between participants that were trying to mandate third world conditions as "fair" environments and requiring civilized nations to start trading their citizens rights away and leveling the playing field by reestablishg the peasant class in their home countries, in order to stay competitive doesn't make the world a safer place to live....it makes it a hungry, deeply dissatisfying place to live...

and given a choice I would like to let the aristocracy taste the peasant life immediately....for their selfish gift of understanding hell that they wish to foist on the rest of us....

Iraq and democracy.....right, and I'm the friggin tooth fairy.

I would start arresting people that sell arms to stupid people in Africa...

Globalization could be beautiful or ugly, with the current administration and congress in power it'll be darned ugly....

lying theives of perfidy....opportunists of gluttonous aspect...the 600 pound man in the wheel chair demanding 6 steaks and a dozen eggs for breakfast.

On the other hand, actually finding alternatives to oil would evaporate the danger of having oil in the hands of "the wrong people," it would cease to be an issue and we could use our resources to make the world a better place...

IF we were in a "war," instead of an "occupation" we would have mandated changes at home that would keep our country out of risk and would make for easy changes if the middle east went up in flames. We would pass laws that made it a crime punishable by paying more money for extravagance in gasoline usage.....payable at the pump. We would mandate telecommuting as a way of doing business, we would require that people that work over the telephone for United States Companies actually be United States Citizens.....there are a boatload of OUT_OF_WORK_EX_FACTORY_WORKERS that have been a burden on the rest of us since their companies moved to China, Indonesia, India and other places....that could use the work, and could stay in the rural areas and not bother the rest of us with their commuting needs. You could also mandate urban travel rules at a federal level....this is ?wartime? right ha ha ha......war against stupidity _WOULD_ be nice.

You take oil out of the equation, the Middle East becomes SUPERFLUOUS to planning, and they either fall in line with social skills or stay isolated.........

YOU KEEP OIL IN THE EQUATION, then we _have_ to control the region....

you bunch of stupid people.....OIL IS A NON RENEWABLE RESOURCE, IT IS GOING AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!

start living without it NOW! and make the world a safer placeto be living in immediately.

.

I think there's something to be noticed here,

"most people," tend to think in paradigms that are already existent.

Globalization has always existed, most people are aware of trading ships that have moved around the world since the beginning of time. The Phonecians sailing in reed ships to the British Isles to trade in iron. Usually through the years there have been royal families that have held connections with other royal families that has been part of the backdrop on which trade is done.

Right now, we have a royal family, or suite of royal families that are trying to push for world dominance and escape government notice. There are even some countries that are willing to use their military, and intelligence operations to benefit their royals....

That is olde stuffe. What hasn't truly happened is a benevolent, socialistic, democratic, semi-capitalistic society emerging to work with the peoples of the world in an

ecologically sound way.

Now, mind you, ecology means on some level that all of the niches serve a particular purpose, that makes sense _FORTHESYSTEM_

not for a particular part of the ecology.

From an engineering standpoint, we have piracy rampant within the ranks of the so-called free world.

We have the MILITARY_INDUSTRIAL_COMPLEX, a money making, money oriented portion of the extended government family, making decisions for the Executive Branch. We have an Executive Branch that is not acting in the best interests of the country that it purports to serve but acting in the best interests of the ruling families, some of whom are not even from the United States.

We are _not_ operating as a soveriegn nation, we_are_acting as a tool of a few rich people.

Raising minimum wage, being linked to estate tax abolishment...how benevolent is that managment of resources? How benevolent is it of the congress to increase the medicare burden on fixed income peoples' by $30 to pay for their containment of scarce resources.

Look, we don't need oil, and are not threatened by a lack of it unless you're an oil sellor....and don't want an alternative, or alternatives to be developed because you want to make top dollar. If cars start, "running on water," as it was implied in the movie Syriana....the need to control or dominate the middle east ceases to exist.

That is not what this administration, E x x o n, B P, C h e v r o n and whoever else is playing you, the citizens of the world and United States want.

FIND an alternative to oil, and destroy the families that are using the United States Military as their personal tool.

An Engineer, doesn't waste his or her time backing a favorite product or group, they get the job done by doing it effeciently.

You can not run a country efficiently, if you don't take into account the effect of globalization on the citizens. The current administration and congress, is only looking at globalizations impact from their personal level, which is corporate....

These pikers, are a bunch of sociopathic mommas' boyz that want to get drunk, steal, lie and mandate raises and benefits for themselves as they destory the lives of ordinary citizens as a way of doing business.

There are ways to stop this, most of them involve telling the truth. I suggest, you the media, start doing what I _have_ been doing which is using plainspeech to address what is going on so that the average citizen can _get_it_

for example: apparently with the finding of 500 or so old chemcial warheads and using the administrations phrase, WMD's the republicans have convinced the public that WMD's did exist. Weisman, spoke of this in his Friday column.........why is that okay? Keep people informed, take the spin offffffffffffffffffff.

Do that and we'll arrive at a globalized economy that doesn't turn eveyone but the elite into peasants....otherwise, what you're calling globalization looks to me like the United States inviting third world standards into the United States as _the_ standard.

This congress and president doesn't obey or adhere to the same standards of responsibility that the ordinary citizenship does. That has to change.

Meanwhile both Isreal and the US drag ourselves deeper and deeper into quagmires of our own creation.

the Washington Post is now blocking not just on swear words but

C H E V R O N, B_P, E X X O N

naming the people that were involved inthe Midnite Oil conference to take over Iraqi production.....

the infamous CHENEY "it's all about the oil" meeting

As Israel had about 100,000 troops in the previous occupation of Southern Lebanon, 7.000 to 10,000 looks more like a sweep of the area than a long term occupation. Perhaps they intend to bring more troops in later? However, if they can't get the rockets out of Gaza, it seems highly unlikely they will have success in Southern Lebanon.
By the way, Iran doesn't need a nuclear weapon. Rockets are now landing in Israel. Insurgencies have become the model for offensive and defensive action. They can bleed an invading army.

eastern crisis.

there is an attempt to control a scarce resource disguised as "the good fight."

find an alternative energy source and there will be no Military involvement from outside the region.

.

The "theistic" propaganda language on both sides and among their backers shows how dangerous to the world peace it is that so unprincipled people with no genuine respect to human rights or international law are calling the shots, including in the most powerful country of the world.

The logic of Howard's speech and related propaganda is so profoundly evil that it could motivate anything. Who knows what next, a pre-emptive nuclear strike to wipe out some of those "terrorist-supporting islamo-fascist", or "zionist" population centers?

KILL FOR PEACE!

No, seriously, I mean it! I learned in war that the path to peace is killing those who hate peace. Those who start killing because it is a path to power and wealth. Only by destroying that path, and those who walk it, can peace be established.

So if Iran is determined to nuke Israel, which is the endgame they seek, let the bloodbath happen now before Iran can kill millions of people. That Iranian\North Korean nuke could end up in an American city too. Let's cut the selfish, cowardly crap (Spain, Frence, EU got that covered) and take action to resolved the almost 60 years of arab tribal violence against Israel. Oh, and us too. Remember 911!

The Real Pandemic..

...that citizens of the whole world should be concerned about, here in the beginning of the 21st Century, is the petulant disease that has broken out and is even more dangerous than the Bird Flu outbreak that has also been spreading around the world.

It is the Pandemic of all the lying, manipulating, undermining, self-interested, malfeasant and corrupt governments and government officials (accompanied by dangerous religious zealots and zealotry all over the world), who are stirring up unrest all over the planet.

These folks have divided the world up into there spheres of influence and they are attempting to spread their influence around the rest of the world as if the world were their own private Parcheesi board; the rest of us are mere pieces in the game.

We all need to be inoculated against this disease which is spreading rapidly, and hopefully we will get on with it and find a permanent cure by putting the power back into the hands of the People. For it is not only the people in the Middle and Near-East who are experiencing its symptomatology, we are also witnessing the corruption of our own officials at home, who are standing by and supporting the current conflagration in the Middle-East.

Can you believe that Mr. Bush has been critizing Mr. Putin for years given his purported efforts to consolidate power. And who got rebufed by America's Supreme Court.

This cease-fire thing is a game that has America has been playing so well!

But will it really matter to most American men given that football camp and football season will begin shortly?

Someone had better keep their eyes on the real game that is being played with all of our lives!

Olmert's speech, as posted by Howard on August 2, 10:53 am., on the righteousness of this war which is for self-defence and the survival of Israel and all civilized, democratic, christian and non-secular countries, is very true. We should all wake up to the pan-Islamic ambition/agenda of the muslim extremist groups/countries, like Hezbollah and Iran. We should help Israel , instead of condemning them, for they are not only fighting for their own survival, but they are also fighting for us. Remember, that Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas and others of the same kind, are out to destroy Israel or annihilate or kick the Jewish people out their land. They will not be satisfied until all the Jews give up all the land to them - this is their real agenda. They always initiate the killings/violence by terrorist acts and when Israel hits back, they resort to complaining about the damage to their homes and deaths to their civilians to all TV stations, newspapers of the world and whine/complain of 'Israeli aggression/violence/genocide". They justify and cover up their hidden agenda to destroy/kill Israel/Israelites to make them leave and give all the land together to them, by calling their own terrorist acts as "acts of resistance" against Israeli occupation. In short , they want the Israelites to give up all the land to them and leave, move to Europe, as Iran's president had declared to the world

We should not lose any American lives in this upcoming conflict.

Nuclear weapons did that to end WWII.

Time to use them preemtively to put a stop to this mess at the beginning. Period.

For uncensored news please bookmark:

www.wsws.org
www.almartinraw.com
www.onlinejournal.com
www.takingaim.info
otherside123.blogspot.com

We're All Republicans Now. We're Either Rich Republicans. Or We Are Banana Republicans...

(1-2-06) The year 2005 has been another stellar year for the top 20% of the United States of America. It can also be reported that the goal, or the "magic number" has finally been reached. That number relates to what George Bush Senior said in 1992 - the goal of having the top 1% of the nation controlling 70% of all the private wealth in the nation. That number is even a little deceptive because that private wealth also includes "public wealth" because of the concentration of holdings of U.S. Treasury and governmen't obligations by the top 1% of the nation. However Bushonomics should be lauded for accomplishing its agenda. People should be reminded of what George Bush Senior said (which we have mentioned many times before) in the famous interview of November 1992. When he was asked what Bushonomics was, Senior replied by saying -- Bushonomics is the continuous consolidation of money and power into higher, tighter and righter hands. And this is how the Bushonian agenda was advanced in 2005...

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Yesha Rabbinical Council: During time of war, enemy has no innocents

The Yesha Rabbinical Council announced in response to an IDF attack in Kfar Qanna that "according to Jewish law, during a time of battle and war, there is no such term as 'innocents' of the enemy."

All of the discussions on Christian morality are weakening the spirit of the army and the nation and are costing us in the blood of our soldiers and civilians," the statement said. (Efrat Weiss)
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http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3283720,00.html
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Does this apply to Germany in the 40's? If so Hitler was just doing the same as the IDF. Murder is Murder, unless you go by Talmud law, then you see all of us (christian, muslum, hindu) as cattle to be slautered.

Zionism is terrorism, it must be stopped.

Rev -

"But will it really matter to most American men given that football camp and football season will begin shortly?"

GO REDSKINS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

==Olmert's speech, as posted by Howard on August 2, 10:53 am., on the righteousness of this war which is for self-defence and the survival of Israel and all civilized, democratic, christian and non-secular countries, is very true. We should all wake up to the pan-Islamic ambition/agenda of the muslim extremist groups/countries, like Hezbollah and Iran. We should help Israel , instead of condemning them, for they are not only fighting for their own survival, but they are also fighting for us...==

It wasn't Olmert's speech, it was written by a journo, like an editorial. It's already pretty bad at that, but would be much worse if Olmert gave such an speech. Next thing we know, Israel will bomb LA to "clean it up" from Mel Gibson, a "known anti-semite."

There is a lot of good stuff here to read.... some of it spot on... some of it total nonsense...

but for all the blathering (myself included) let us not forget one hard, true fact....

This was/is propogated by Iran.

They could stop it with a snap of their fingers.

They don't. They won't. They are trying to take the world's eyes off their nuclear program... off their collaboration with N Korea....

I say... Let Iran and N Korea have what they want.... BUT don't complain if we use our nukes to stop them from doing what they say they want to do - wipe us off the map....

I have only one question from the jewish hardliners and the so called the super power of the world, why they are forgetting the reality of WW1&2 and the history, and what Hitler done and why? at least we should learn some lesson from the history, because it repeat itself but in the apposite direction.What is today, will not always be the same. Where is Roman empire, Elexander the great and the Utman empier?

The US administration has another wacky idea: There will be diplomatic relations between Lebanon and Israel after this tragedy ends. Not in a million years (maybe a century or 2 a least). Can you imagine an Isreali embassy in Beirut ? after all the destructions and carnage the lebanese suffered. Even the lebanese that hated Hizballah hate Israel more today, and the US also for that matter.
Before trying to coax Lebanon into accepting Israel, the US should try it first with the Iraqis. There again, there is a red line that even a "friend of the US" like El-Maliki cannot cross: having any dealing with Israel.

On the kiling of children in Cana.
Israel has recklessly dropped US Bombs on the children of Cana. It is easy for them to say they did't know. How would you feel if someone shoots your kid then turns around and say, " eeeuh..sorry, I thought it was someone else, and its your fault, you shouldnt have been there ".
Both US and Israel should be condemned for this heinous crime. The first for supplying the weapon and abeiting, the second for murdering the children.

The Checkered Flag...The Yellow Flag

Days or weeks, what will it matter anyway if a cease fire is put into place and the same games are still being played? In my view, until those systemic problems that remain unsolved are addressed once and for all, there will probably be another flare-up before the ink can dry in response to a sepal cease-fire. So have a cease-fire in a few days or a few weeks from now, it will save lives in the interim, but what we really need to see is a resolution of the problems still in place that will hopefully result in a permanent and lasting cessation of the hostilities that frequently flare up in the Middle-East. I suspect that there are citizens in Palestine, Lebanon and Israel who would want the same thing.

One place that we can start addressing the real problems is at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, in Washington DC. I am convinced that it is not just the nations of Syria and Iran, who have been egging on a fight between the usual combatants over the years, clearly American policymakers, and several Administrations have been equally culpable, and providing financial, military and political support..

Yes, there is the religious and secular component to this conflagration, however, these people are also fighting over territory, with all sides laying claim to territories which have political, historical and religious meaning to all of the combatants. All sides are also fighting for honor and respect. Until each side, the Arabs, Persians, Syrians and Jews are satisfied that all of the above has been resolved, waiving the Yellow Flag won't matter, and it will only be a temporary stop-gap cessation of overt hostilities, and for a brief period of time, when the Green Flag will be waived, and the combatants will be off to the races again.

And keep in mind that the Middle-East is merely a microcosm of what is going on in the world. Although the spotlight is on Israel, Lebanon and Hamas right now, just about 600 miles away the country that purportedly champions Democracy and justice for all, is still occupying a nation where it has wantonly and illegally replaced its leaders and its government, destroying several hundred thousands lives, through death, injury and displacement. Nope, not Syria or Iran, the United States of America is the culprit-nation.

And the world is looking to our corrupt, hypocritical and biased Government to come up with a solution? As my man John Stoessel of ABC's 20/20 show would say, 'Give Me A Break!

People I encourage you to keep speaking truth to power, and never allow anyone in religion or politics to propagandize your beliefs. And instead of praying for the Peace of Jerusalem, we had all better start praying for the 'peace of the world'!

A lonely voice from Israel

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The most unsuccessful war

By Ze'ev Sternhell

No situation can continue to exist for long without an ideological reason. That's how when once it was clear that it was not achieving its aims, an unsuccessful military campaign was upgraded with the wave of a magic wand to the level of a war of survival. When everyone understood that a moral reason had to be found both for the dimensions of the destruction sowed in Lebanon and the killing of the civilian population there, and for the Israeli dead and wounded (nobody is even talking about the exposure of the entire civilian population in the North of Israel to enemy fire while people are kept in disgraceful conditions in bomb shelters), a war of survival was invented, which by nature must be long and exhausting.

That is how a campaign of collective punishment that was begun in haste, without proper judgment and on the basis of incorrect assessments, including promises that the army is incapable of fulfilling, turned into a war of life and death, if not some kind of second War of Independence. In the press there have even been embarrassing comparisons to the struggle against Nazism, comparisons that are not only a crude distortion of history, but disgrace the memory of the Jews who were exterminated.

The architect of this unsuccessful campaign has outdone himself: In order to cover up his failures, he delivered a poor man's pseudo-Churchillian speech, and promised us more "pain, tears and blood." There really is no limit to shamelessness. It must be said in favor of the government spokesmen who are in greatest demand on the foreign stations, from the Israel Defense Forces Spokesman to Tourism Minister Isaac Herzog and former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- that none of them has stooped to propaganda of this kind.
...
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http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/745313.html

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Yesha Rabbinical Council: During time of war, enemy has no innocents

The Yesha Rabbinical Council announced in response to an IDF attack in Kfar Qanna that "according to Jewish law, during a time of battle and war, there is no such term as 'innocents' of the enemy."

All of the discussions on Christian morality are weakening the spirit of the army and the nation and are costing us in the blood of our soldiers and civilians," the statement said. (Efrat Weiss)
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http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3283720,00.html

Is this like an Israeli "fatwah"? I hope these are some nutty Israeli "ayatolahs" and not representative of mainstream religious or public opinion.

Caspit the friendly ghost writer...

I'm neither Israeli nor even Jewish. I'm Canadian. A Canadian officer was killed recently in Lebanon. Still I support Israel's right to self-defense.

In Canada during the 60's and 70's, we used to have a terrorist group called the FLQ that was committed to achieving independance for Quebec. Now what would have happened, if instead of numbering less than two-dozen, they numbered in the thousands, controlled considerable territory along the Canada U.S. border, and regularly bombarded U.S. border towns with a huge stockpile of rockets supplied to them by China and Russia while the Canadian government sat idly by and did nothing about it? What would the U.S. have in such circumstances? Negotiate? Go to the UN and ask for a peacekeeping force? I think not.

As a former soldier, I mourne the death of of our U.N. observer, but I also know about the friction that occurs in war, communications foul-ups and how human frailty leads to tragic errors. That's part of the process.

I also know that no foreign peacekeeping force will ever be welcome in Lebanon or keep Hezbollah from attacking Israel. Only the Lebanese themselves can do that.

great speech

Ben Caspit's "A Speach for the Prime Minister" - All true, but Isarel does have friends, I (a gentile) at least am one.

==Today I am serving as the voice of six million bombarded Israeli citizens who serve as the voice of six million murdered Jews who were melted down to dust and ashes by savages in Europe. In both cases, those responsible for these evil acts were, and are, barbarians devoid of all humanity, who set themselves one simple goal: to wipe the Jewish race off the face of the earth, as Adolph Hitler said, or to wipe the State of Israel off the map, as Mahmoud Ahmedinjad proclaims.==

Remarkable. Equation of the irregular force of 5,000 fighters armed with katyusha rockets with the Nazi war machine and then acting on that equation against all bystanders. In a public square, this would be considered the ravings of a lunatic. But as suggested position for a prime minister of a regional nuclear-armed superpower? Scary.

This is exactly how Iraq started.
We said the same thing. Remember when Rumsfield said there were only about 2000 insurgents ? Israel thinks there are about 2000-3000 Hezbollah. Yeah, sure, keep dreaming. I read last week the reason the Lebanon military couldn't contain Hezbollah is because they were too big. I think they said the Lebanon Army was about 80,000. Israel better add a zero to their estimates and then multiply by 3 or 4. Hezbollah seems willing to negotiate. We have never been able to get the Iraq insurgents to negotiate anything. This is going to be interesting. We spend about 2 billion a week. I wonder how much money and lives Israel wants to invest in this. I bet it costs then a lot more than they think. Invasions are always difficult.

To Mr Zimmerman:

Name one armed conflict in history that never killed any civilians, any non-combatants.
Just one.

Smart bombs do not equal godlike perfection. I recall 4 Canadian soldiers killed by an American jet fighter in Afghanistan. It happens, get used to it or at least put on some blinders and watch Leave It To Beaver if you want to live in a dream world.

There are no excuses to kill unarmed people while trying to kill others.

There is no excuse (by accident) to bomb UM peacekeepers, especially after being warned that they are in danger.

This journalist has expressed the idea of freedom perfectly...we must not submit to popularity. There is such a thing as evil and we must fight it. This is an easy thing for the Jews to remember--why does it have to be so hard for the rest of us ?

I am neither Jewish nor Israeli; but in the conflict against extremist Islam, the entire West should consider itself Jewish and Israeli.

Sir,
Howard says because russians killed in chechenya or sunnies killing americans, Isreal also has the right to kill lebanese civilians who support Hizbollah.
To me the recent attack by Isreal in retaliation for the kidnapping is showing lack of planning on part of IDF as well as lack of good intelligence on part of Mossad.Any war has to have an objective.This war by isreal should have the objective of disarming Hizbollah,full lebanese control of south lebanon and until that time an EU force in the buffer zone.The main objective should be the complete elimination of katyusha threat.But Hizbollah knows this.i think they are wanting to draw IDF and wear them as they did some years back while periodically targetting the heartland of isreal.The eveolving scenario will decide the future of Middleeast.But if instead of the lebanese army; it becomes the army of hizbollah as happenned in gaza with hamas; then are we witnessing the birthpangs of world war II of which netradamus predicted.?Full air control, gunlocating radars,AWACS but still Hizbollah seems to be doing OK for a terrorist army.Mossad and IDF have a lot of explaining to do to the Isreal people.

Ben Caspit, an Israeli journalist wrote this proposed speech for Prime Minister Olmert:

July 31, 2006
Ladies and gentlemen, leaders of the world. I, the Prime Minister of Israel, am speaking to you from Jerusalem in the face of the terrible pictures from Kfar Kana. Any human heart, wherever it is, must sicken and recoil at the sight of such pictures. There are no words of comfort that can mitigate the enormity of this tragedy. Still, I am looking you straight in the eye and telling you that the State of Israel will continue its military campaign in Lebanon.

The Israel Defense Forces will continue to attack targets from which missiles and Katyusha rockets are fired at hospitals, old age homes and kindergartens in Israel. I have instructed the security forces and the IDF to continue to hunt for the Katyusha stockpiles and launch sites from which these savages are bombarding the State of Israel.

We will not hesitate, we will not apologize and we will not back off. If they continue to launch missiles into Israel from Kfar Kana, we will continue to bomb Kfar Kana. Today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Here, there and everywhere. The children of Kfar Kana could now be sleeping peacefully in their homes, unmolested, had the agents of the devil not taken over their land and turned the lives of our children into hell.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's time you understood: the Jewish state will no longer be trampled upon. We will no longer allow anyone to exploit population centers in order to bomb our citizens. No one will be able to hide anymore behind women and children in order to kill our women and children. This anarchy is over. You can condemn us, you can boycott us, you can stop visiting us and, if necessary, we will stop visiting you.

Today I am serving as the voice of six million bombarded Israeli citizens who serve as the voice of six million murdered Jews who were melted down to dust and ashes by savages in Europe. In both cases, those responsible for these evil acts were, and are, barbarians devoid of all humanity, who set themselves one simple goal: to wipe the Jewish race off the face of the earth, as Adolph Hitler said, or to wipe the State of Israel off the map, as Mahmoud Ahmedinjad proclaims.

And you - just as you did not take those words seriously then, you are ignoring them again now. And that, ladies and gentlemen, leaders of the world, will not happen again. Never again will we wait for bombs that never came to hit the gas chambers. Never again will we wait for salvation that never arrives. Now we have our own air force. The Jewish people are now capable of standing up to those who seek their destruction - those people will no longer be able to hide behind women and children. They will no longer be able to evade their responsibility.

Every place from which a Katyusha is fired into the State of Israel will be a legitimate target for us to attack. This must be stated clearly and publicly, once and for all. You are welcome to judge us, to ostracize us, to boycott us and to vilify us. But to kill us? Absolutely not.

Four months ago I was elected by hundreds of thousands of citizens to the office of Prime Minister of the government of Israel, on the basis of my plan for unilaterally withdrawing from 90 percent of the areas of Judea and Samaria, the birth place and cradle of the Jewish people; to end most of the occupation and to enable the Palestinian people to turn over a new leaf and to calm things down until conditions are ripe for attaining a permanent settlement between us.

The Prime Minister who preceded me, Ariel Sharon, made a full withdrawal from the Gaza Strip back to the international border, and gave the Palestinians there a chance to build a new reality for themselves. The Prime Minister who preceded him, Ehud Barak, ended the lengthy Israeli presence in Lebanon and pulled the IDF back to the international border, leaving the land of the cedars to flourish, develop and establish its democracy and its economy.

What did the State of Israel get in exchange for all of this? Did we win even one minute of quiet? Was our hand, outstretched in peace, met with a handshake of encouragement? Ehud Barak's peace initiative at Camp David let loose on us a wave of suicide bombers who smashed and blew to pieces over 1,000 citizens, men, women and children. I don't remember you being so enraged then. Maybe that happened because we did not allow TV close-ups of the dismembered body parts of the Israeli youngsters at the Dolphinarium? Or of the shattered lives of the people butchered while celebrating the Passover seder at the Park Hotel in Netanya? What can you do - that's the way we are. We don't wave body parts at the camera. We grieve quietly.

We do not dance on the roofs at the sight of the bodies of our enemy's children - we express genuine sorrow and regret. That is the monstrous behavior of our enemies. Now they have risen up against us. Tomorrow they will rise up against you. You are already familiar with the murderous taste of this terror. And you will taste more.

And Ariel Sharon's withdrawal from Gaza. What did it get us? A barrage of Kassem missiles fired at peaceful settlements and the kidnapping of soldiers. Then too, I don't recall you reacting with such alarm. And for six years, the withdrawal from Lebanon has drawn the vituperation and crimes of a dangerous, extremist Iranian agent, who took over an entire country in the name of religious fanaticism and is trying to take Israel hostage on his way to Jerusalem - and from there to Paris and London.

An enormous terrorist infrastructure has been established by Iran on our border, threatening our citizens, growing stronger before our very eyes, awaiting the moment when the land of the Ayatollahs becomes a nuclear power in order to bring us to our knees. And make no mistake - we won't go down alone. You, the leaders of the free and enlightened world, will go down along with us.

So today, here and now, I am putting an end to this parade of hypocrisy. I don't recall such a wave of reaction in the face of the 100 citizens killed every single day in Iraq. Sunnis kill Shiites who kill Sunnis, and all of them kill Americans - and the world remains silent. And I am hard pressed to recall a similar reaction when the Russians destroyed entire villages and burned down large cities in order to repress the revolt in Chechnya. And when NATO bombed Kosovo for almost three months and crushed the civilian population - then you also kept silent. What is it about us, the Jews, the minority, the persecuted, that arouses this cosmic sense of justice in you? What do we have that all the others don't?

In a loud clear voice, looking you straight in the eye, I stand before you openly and I will not apologize. I will not capitulate. I will not whine. This is a battle for our freedom. For our humanity. For the right to lead normal lives within our recognized, legitimate borders. It is also your battle. I pray and I believe that now you will understand that. Because if you don't, you may regret it later, when it's too late.

With all due respect Howard, Caspit's speech was nothing more than a bucket of self righteous sanctimony of the very same mournful stripe as that often uttered by George W. Bush: "'We' will not flinch...", "'We' will not back down...", "'We' will not be intimidated...", yada, yada, yada.

It is always prefaced with the self serveing "We" pronoun as though everyone in the world save for the "enemy" they were attacking were in total agreement with them. Whether it is Bush or whether it is Caspit, the same arrogant moral conceit is embedded within the rhetoric they employ. There is no attempt to understand the motivations of those they see as the enemy. It is as though they see the entire world in this simplistic good versus evil context with them always being on the side of God and his angels.

It never seems to occur to them that in employing this theistic moral conceit, they are mimicking their enemies whose rhetoric can hardly be distinguished from their own. It is the reason that so many of us out here are disheartened and sickened and doubtful that there can ever be peace in this world until the present leaders in all of the warring factions are replaced with men with a facility for reason and thoughtfulness.