Israel and Lebanon, Zionism and Hezbollah

I think that the conflict between Israel and Lebanon certainly deserves a thread.

For my vacation, I spent most of my time in and around England, and the war started whilst I was staying there. I was staying with a Pakistani friend in a very ethnic part of London and went to observe some of the rallies.

I'm not quite sure exactly where I stand. I'm very upset with Israel and the bombing of the UN base. It seems very thoughtless of them, as well as at Qana, the killing of something like 60 children, which was something, again which seemed not tought through properly. The fact that Lebanon's death rate is far higher than Israel's of course makes me more sympathetic, but then, you don't hear about Hezbollah attacking very many innocent civillians.

I was just wondering what other people thought about this.

israel have no strategy to their bombings, other than to destroy as much of lebanon as they can. at least with the US (yeah, bitch at me. i dont really care) they actually know what youre firing at. this is a lot more random. and hence more worrying.

though i think you could be a bit off with saying that hezbollah isn't attacking innocent civilians. almost all media is biased, so it probably has gone on unreported by the news in the US, UK etc.

Pastor of Muppets:

israel have no strategy to their bombings, other than to destroy as much of lebanon as they can. at least with the US (yeah, bitch at me. i dont really care) they actually know what youre firing at. this is a lot more random. and hence more worrying.

though i think you could be a bit off with saying that hezbollah isn't attacking innocent civilians. almost all media is biased, so it probably has gone on unreported by the news in the US, UK etc.

I said the death rate in Labanon is higher. Different than saying that no innocent civillians are being killed by Hezbollah, because they are...just not as many.

The war was really sudden so I guess neither country has much strategy, but my friend who was going back to her home in Lebanon and then had to move out said that everywhere is wrecked. Apparently there's almost no where that hasn't been bombed. Of course that's just where she was.

right now I'm trying to get behind this all, reading online articles to try to understand what is happening at all
I cant write anything "scientific" because I dont really know alot of it so I dont dare to judge.
its confusing me alot and all I want is this to stop. it sucks cause you feel so helpless. if I could I would do something, but i'm not sure what to do. its not like in the war in Iraq that there are demonstartions you can take part in. Its that I feel so helpless and wished I could do something to make it stop.
...I hope you get what I mean. I'm not good in expressing myself today

I think that we should leave those countries alone and focus on everything that goes on in the USA instead of other countries. I mean, shouldn't we focus on helping our own people rather than other countries people??

They have had a retreat of attack for the moment because the tow places are discussing a soultion to the problem.So they're safe for a while.

Billie Joe's Sweetie:

I think that we should leave those countries alone and focus on everything that goes on in the USA instead of other countries. I mean, shouldn't we focus on helping our own people rather than other countries people??

That depends. If you are part of a multilateral organisation, like the UN, NATO, EU etc then you have to take responsability for your other members so it functions as a group more smoothly. Even with a ceasefire, there will be a tiny amount of people on both sides who will continue to attack.

Look at this :- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mA9GkXFbL4&mode=related&search=

It's an Egyptian cartoon promoting the hatred of both the USA and Israel. Nop matter what, th USA will get involved in some way or another, you just have to continue with peacekeeping so we could have a chance of ending this war.

I agree with Joan, I mean, something has to be done about these countries when we're involved in a multilateral organization. And those against all war period think we should just leave it alone, leave immediately, etc, but think about this: if we were to leave immediately, we'll get statements like, "look at what you joined, you helped caused this mess, you should at least help clean it up" (I have the same philosophy about us and Iraq...). So something indeed needs to be done, but as to what, I have no idea.

Billie Joe's Sweetie:

I think that we should leave those countries alone and focus on everything that goes on in the USA instead of other countries. I mean, shouldn't we focus on helping our own people rather than other countries people??

you are an absolute and utter moron. so you think we shouldnt try and stop people from dying? you think we shouldn't send money to struggling third world countries to try and get them out of debt?

Why does everyone blame Israel, Hzzbulah promted an attack,, and Israel gave fair warning to the citizns which is why they never got a base, with them in it. Isarel did overreact a little, but they're defending themselves from people who think that the Holocaust needs to be finished, which is unacceptable.

The whole war started because Hezzbollah crossed the Israeli border and killed 8 boys and captured 2. And about the death rate thing, how there are so many more Lebanese deaths than Israelis, numbers can be decieving. In WW2 more Germans were killed than Americans and British combined. I'm not condoning any war, but I think Israel has a right to protect itself. I mean they pulled out of Lebanon. Israel will always be the target of international wars, because people will always want the Jews dead, don't they have a right to defend themselves? This is a little off topic, but I don't understand why when a Jew kills a Muslim it's the worst crime possible. Of course I don't think killing is right, but in Darfur you have thousands upon thousands of Muslims killing each other, and that gets nearly no attention. It seems the only time when a Muslim death gets attention is when it is at the hands of a Jew.

Billie Joe's Sweetie:

I think that we should leave those countries alone and focus on everything that goes on in the USA instead of other countries. I mean, shouldn't we focus on helping our own people rather than other countries people??

Isolationism is a seriously ourdated policy that is no longer effective in todays society.

Fianlly someone who understands! Thank you!

Because we took sides long ago, we now are 'bound' to those countires to keep our allies and thats why the US gets involved because we want someone to back us up too. Also when small countries like Israel get into conflicts they bring their allies which can be great powers like us and that escalates things.

I think that as a part of the UN and a major power since we do have veto power, we should work with hte UN and other countries to help solve the problem. We are a international community and what happens around the world does effect all of us.

Billie Joe's Sweetie:

I think that we should leave those countries alone and focus on everything that goes on in the USA instead of other countries. I mean, shouldn't we focus on helping our own people rather than other countries people??

to a certain degree i agree with you (even though i live in UK) but shouldnt we help people less fortunate than us?

Lucifers Angel:

Billie Joe's Sweetie:

I think that we should leave those countries alone and focus on everything that goes on in the USA instead of other countries. I mean, shouldn't we focus on helping our own people rather than other countries people??

to a certain degree i agree with you (even though i live in UK) but shouldnt we help people less fortunate than us?

There is a difference however between helping and enforcing.

Anji:

Lucifers Angel:

Billie Joe's Sweetie:

I think that we should leave those countries alone and focus on everything that goes on in the USA instead of other countries. I mean, shouldn't we focus on helping our own people rather than other countries people??

to a certain degree i agree with you (even though i live in UK) but shouldnt we help people less fortunate than us?

There is a difference however between helping and enforcing.

yes of course there is, if these countries dont want help then we should leave them be to sort it all out.

Lucifers Angel:

yes of course there is, if these countries dont want help then we should leave them be to sort it all out.

The German Government Didn't want help with it's conflicts with countrie's throughout Europe in the 1930's-40's , should we have never become involved in that either? I think when innocent people are being slaughtered and harmed, sometimes it is needed to become involved.

i think its very sad that thats been going on for so long,


im not really sure on the sides though, i mean
its was islamic land in the first place, but the
jews had just gone though the holocast and
they really wanted to have a country of their
own, and they only have a very small part of it!

i do think that jews need a nation that is mostly
jewish beacuase if you look at their history they
have been mistreated alot.

i have alot of friends that are jewish and one
of them have muslim nighbors and the nighbors
kids will like, throw trash in my friends lawn or start
curseing at her for no apparent reason, and shes not
sure if its beacuase they dont like jewish people
or beacuase they are just rude to everybody.

the other thing that upsets me about this is how
both sides are killing like, 10 year olds on purpose
and saying they didnt mean to. I mean, how the hell could
you bomb and kill 30 children "on accident"?

in all i just wish that people would respect
each others religions. that would save
so many people from war, tourture, murder, and
other really awful things people do to each other!