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root causes .....

‘The rage and extremism of the Islamic militants in Lebanon and the occupied territories in the West Bank and Gaza appear incomprehensible to the outside world. The wanton murder, the raw anti-Semitism, the callous disregard for human life, including the lives of children and other innocents, permit those on the outside to thrust these militant fighters in another moral universe, to certify them as incomprehensible.

But this branding of these militants as something less than human, as something that reasonable people cannot hope to understand, is possible only because we have ignored and disregarded the decades of repression, the crushing weight of occupation, the abject humiliation and violence, unleashed on Lebanese and Palestinians by Israel because of our silence and indifference. It is the Israeli penchant for violence and occupation that slowly created and formed these frightening groups.

The failure by the outside world to react to the years of brutal repression, the refusal by the United States to intercede on behalf of the occupied Lebanese and Palestinians, gradually formed and galvanized the radicals who now occupy the stage with Israel, answering death for death, atrocity for atrocity.

Those inside these zones of occupation pleaded over the years for help. We refused to listen. And once they burst through these barriers, enraged, bloodied, bent on revenge, we recoiled in horror, unable to see our complicity. We asked them to be quiet, to be reasonable, to calm down, and when they did not, their blood heated by years of abuse and neglect, we condemned them to their fate.’

Israel's Wall of Horrors

and nothing has changed in 58 years …..

The Plight Continues

Have you ever wondered why

Have you ever wondered why Hizbollah rockets deliberately targeted at innocent population in Israel nearly always miss their goals and the Israeli smart bombs deliberately targeted at military installations always end up killing oodles of civilians, including women and children?

Is this the rocket manufacturers faults? or is there an attempt by Hizbollah to hit willy-nilly just to terrorise the populace with minimum damage while the Israeli tactic would be to do maximum damage?

Peace be with you...

Behind the news...

Today [http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/reaction-is-as-affronting-as-the-meltdown/2006/08/02/1154198202326.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1|Miranda] (03/08/06) dilutes her words into greying murky waters as she tries to expose drink-driving as a hellish thing to do but her last words betray her intent as they are reserved for the ABC and anti-semitism... She could nearly make sense if she did not load her prose with so much razor wire...

""""""Closer to home, the ABC this week was embarrassed into an apology for a biased and "inappropriate" story about the Middle East crisis for its program for school children, Behind The News. The show described Hezbollah as an organisation of Palestinian "refugees" and its terrorists as "soldiers" rather than Iranian-backed terrorists determined to destroy Israel.

Anti-semitism is on the rise but Mel Gibson is the least of it.""""""
Well Miranda, I will bat for the kids of "behind the news". They are nearly right. Hezbollah draws its recruits from many of the Palestinian refugee camps the care of which has been in the hands of good samaritans for yonks. There is some time limit one can spend in "refugee camps" without resentment. For many people they were born in this exile-no-man's-land, with nowhere to go and nothing to do, while the land that once was theirs is now someone else, bywhat they see as an officially sanctioned highway robbery. Yes Miranda, there are still many Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and what can you expect? People whose life is condemned forever at being on the fringe bending their heads and accepting their fate of being victimised and killed day in day out? And yes, these "terrorists" are soldiers, of a different kind. They are only "terrorists" because the omnipotent United States decided that Hizbollah was a "terrorist" organisation despite Hizbollah being a fully fledged political party representing a large part of Lebanon. And they know that their survival, as precarious as it is, wrongly or rightly depends on these militia, especially since the Syrian armies have gone back.
Yes there is some bad will in Hezbollah's politics, but it is not exclusive... Israel has done its share of bad deeds to make sure anti-semitism would flourish well, giving it a "reason" to hit people some more... and claim the high moral ground.
And yes, drink driving is a bad thing... but killing people with an intentional gun is a lot worse.

Poor misunderstood petal

From the Guardian

Blair: You've misunderstood me over the Middle East

· PM to confront critics today at press conference
· Dismay at approach spreading through party

Patrick Wintour and Ewen MacAskill
Thursday August 3, 2006
The Guardian

Tony Blair will face down his critics today over his [http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,,1835955,00.html|controversial handling] of the Middle East crisis by insisting that he has been working throughout for a ceasefire in Lebanon and that his position has been misunderstood. He will argue at a Downing Street press conference that he wanted a ceasefire, but only if it was coupled with a clear understanding that the Hizbullah militia would be disarmed.
Mr Blair, who returned from his US trip yesterday, will say that he is trying to secure a durable settlement, rather than a short-term fix which would leave armed militias operating on the border of Israel.

But Mr Blair has being criticised publicly and privately by ministers and senior backbenchers, and has antagonised most members of the EU as well as the United Nations secretariat.
It emerged yesterday that he ignored not only the advice of the Foreign Office but foreign affairs specialists in Downing Street, who argued that the Israeli offensive was counter-productive and favoured a call for an immediate ceasefire.

Root Causes

I am glad someone has said it Gus. Your last three paras put it well,particularly, 'the penchant for violence and occupation' which is again being demonstrated. To take and hold territory by military means and then consider it an asset and populate it is something I believe only Israel and Indonesia have done in the last 50 years. Lets face it, Hezbollah never fired a rocket before Israel started destroying Beirut. Dubya and Olmert have a lot to answer for in its reprehensible continuation.