Middle East question.

[curiouswombat]

I am puzzled. My husband and daughter were equally puzzled when they heard the same thing on TV whilst we ate.

I have seen an Israeli government spokesman who told us that they were having a 48 hour cessation of bombing of the Lebanon 'Except to back up our ground forces and to hit at Hezzbollah fighters'.

But isn't that exactly what they have been telling us is all that they have been doing for the last two or three weeks?

Also 'Israel rejects any idea of a cease-fire until an international force is in place'. But if they keep shooting won't members of any international force be killed whilst it gets into place? Which is presumably why the UN says it cannot put such a force into place before there is a ceasefire.

(My daughter, with that bright logic of the eighteen year old, has concluded that Lebanese children are in fact a legitimate target for the Israeli government - the horrors that they see around them will make them more likely to want to join Hezbollah - and so killing them now prevents them doing Israel any harm in the future. She says, after all, if she was Lebanese she would be joining Hezbollah right now - even though she is a practising Christian, because nobody else seems to be doing anything about the death of the innocents - and if she thinks that way, she reckons it is fairly obvious that Lebanese children and young people will use the same logic.)

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/woman_of_/]

Your daughters logic is spot on, they are building up fighter against them in the future from what they are doing at present! They really don't want to negotiate with anyone, and are just hungry for land.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Your daughters logic is spot on,

Yep - and if we can see this, why can't the governments of Israel, the US and the UK? And voting Tory would make no difference to the UK stance (not that I could, as we don't have a vote in your elections!) - I heard a Tory spokesman on Sunday morning saying almost word for word what we have heard Tony Blair saying over the last few weeks. Ming Campbell is the most sensible one of the three - not that I have seen him being interviewed - but some person writing in The Times said he was 'anti-Israeli' so presumably he doesn't just lick George Bush's backside and parrot his every word.

[bogwitch.livejournal.com]

Seeing as Hezbollah formed to oust the previous Israeli occupation, I have to agree.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It seems fairly obvious to me that the current attack by Israel is the best recruiting drive Hezbollah could have - if people are fairly content with the way things are they see no reason to join a 'freedom' movement to improve their lot whilst risking themselves. But if someone razes your house to the ground, kills your granny and your kid brother, and destroy the industry in which you were working, you suddenly find those who are out to get revenge very desirable.

I would guess that 'The Real IRA' (which I have often thought the IRA should do under either copywrite or trades-description legislation) have fewer new recruits these days than they would have had twenty years ago, whatever they were called then. So if Tony Blair pushed non-violence as a solution in NI, why does he not push for it in the Middle East? What awful secret does GWB know about him?

[jerusha]

It's just stupid. That's the conclusion I've come to. I hate that our government keeps talking about a meaningful peace. Just broker the damn peace agreement and worry about the rest later; stop the slaughter of innocents now. The mind boggles.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. And is it any wonder, when your government and the UK one sit there smuggly blaming Syria, going on about meaningful peace and blocking any UN or EU attempts to call for an immediate cease-fire that we are all perceived by the people of the area as anti-muslim?

The only meaningful peace for those huddling in school halls or in the basements of the pile of rubble that used to be their house or apartment is one that starts right now - not'when Israel have had time to finish what they are doing'.

Politicians? Pffttt!

[(Anonymous)]

Subjective perception results in the "I am a freedom fighter; you are a rebel; he is a terrorist" emotive labels.

I am having difficulty in defining any qualitative difference between the actions of Hezbollah and the state of Israel.

Both seem to be committing inexcusable acts in the name of defending their people/land/right to exist.

Israel is an internationally recognised state with an official army and commercial arms supply, with the UK, as usual, acting as a convenient refuelling point for US airborne supplies.

As I understand it Iran (and maybe Syria) are fulfilling a similar dubious function for internationally unrecognised Hezbollah.

Not seeing any moral high ground. Just victims.

Apologies in advance if this sets off any kerfuffle from your visitors, since I normally restrict comments to appreciation of your or Speakers fic.

Clovis

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

If anyone was going to kerfuffle they would have done it already - as my post has been there for a couple of days!

But I agree wholeheartedly with your summing up of the whole thing - and most people that I know on LJ have probably realised now that I find the way that people condemn one side, but cheer on the other because they are a 'recognised government' and GWB likes them, annoys the hell out of me!

That the UK government - or the UK Governor - sides with the country providing weapons to the fighters doing the majority of the killing, whilst condemning the countries supplying much more basic weapons to the fighters doing the lesser amount of damage makes me wonder what personal secret GWB knows about Tony Blair....