Middle East thread continued

[lord of the mark]

Haaretz

"Lebanese PM denies report he called for Hezbollah disarmament

By News Agencies

The office of Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora on Thursday denied a report in the Milan-based daily "Corriere della Sera" that quoted him calling for the disarmament of Hezbollah.

Siniora`s office said in a statement that his words were distorted in translation from Italian to English.

"What the prime minister said is that the international community has not given the Lebanese government an opportunity to deal with the problem of Hezbollah`s arms, since the continuing presence of the Israeli occupation of Shebaa Farms is the reason for the weapons' location."

The statement continued, "the international community needs to assist us in persuading Israel to withdraw from Shebaa so that we can deal with the problem of Hezbollah`s arms."

"Corriere della Sera" said the publication stands by its report. "The interview was recorded," a senior staff member said.

The daily reported earlier Thursday that the Shi'ite militia has been doing the bidding of Syria and Iran, and that it can only be disarmed with the help of the international community and once a cease-fire has been achieved in the current Middle East fighting.

"It's not a mystery that Hezbollah answers to the political agendas of Tehran and Damascus," Siniora was quoted as saying by Corriere. "The entire world must help us disarm Hezbollah. But first we need to reach a cease-fire."

He added Lebanon is still too weak to attack Hezbollah's stranglehold in the south of the country on its own.

"The important thing now is to restore full Lebanese sovereignty in the south,dismantling any armed militia parallel to the national army," he said. "The Syrians are inside our home and we are still too weak to defend ourselves. The terrible memories of the civil war are still too alive and no one is ready to take up arms."

The prime minister was quoted as saying that to disarm the militia it is also necessary for Israel to help delegitimize it by releasing Lebanese prisoners and withdrawing from the Shaaba Farms.

On Wednesday, Siniora said that 300 people have been killed, 1,000 wounded and half a million displaced in Israel's operation.

Siniora added he would seek compensation from Israel for the "unimaginable losses" to the nation's infrastructure."

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
i would also point out that in the case of the Jenin "massacre" the IDF reports proved to be far closer to the truth than the anti-Israel spin.

It was the dodgy reporting of the so-called 'Jenin Massacre' that swung my regional sympathies several notches in Israel's favour. I'd become used to being sceptical about atrocity-journalism, and that incident set off alarm bells about the way the ME was being reported.

[Sandman]

Originally posted by Sikander
You really don't know what you are talking about. Which country's sovereignty were we going to violate by flying missions over their airspace? Which bases were we going to launch air attacks from? How were we going to deploy and supply ground forces? How were we going to gather enough actionable intel, from the air? All these things take time and cooperation. We went in about as fast as we could have.

The first air attacks on Afghanistan were mostly conducted from carrier-based aircraft and intercontinental bombers. All they needed were overflying rights.

Originally posted by Sikander
We had many allies to consider, Israel doesn't. What do you think the prospects of negotiations with Hezb. were for Israel? About the same as our prospects with AQ imo. By waiting around Israel would simply give Hezb. more time to prepare for what would inevitibly be a very public and predictable response, whether it was from the U.N. or from Israel alone. Instead they wrested the initiative from Hezb. and have a chance to weaken them enough to allow the implementation of the appropriate Security Council resolutions. They have also incentivized the Lebanese government to implement those resolutions, something that previously hadn't been seriously considered. What were the chances that the government was going to forcibly remove a coalition partner from the South?

You think that the US needed to wait for 'actionable intel', but Israel didn't?

'Wresting the initiative' and 'incentivizing' are just spin. The Lebanese government is possibly in a worse state than Hezbollah right now, with the road network damaged and half a million refugees on the move.

[chequita guevara]

http://fromisraeltolebanon.info/

[Thorn]

YOU SHOULD KNOW BETTER THEN TO POST PORNOGRAPHY HERE!!! Shame on you Chegitz /end right winger response.

[PLATO]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
http://fromisraeltolebanon.info/

From the "West" back to them:

Your Welcome.

Now that you know the price for supporting Terrorist in your country, will you do something about it?

Or does the "West" continually have to be forced to deal horrible lessons like this to those who support people that want the total genocide of another people?

If you want peace: Recognize, at the very least, the right of Israel to exist!!

[Imran Siddiqui]

Yeah, Lebanon really 'supports terrorists'

This lie that the right has built up to support Isreal wholeheartedly once again is utter insanity. Even Bush doesn't believe Lebanon is responsible!!

[SlowwHand]

They are also in the path leading to Syria.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by PLATO
Now that you know the price for supporting Terrorist in your country, will you do something about it?

I'm sure that you'd find a large cross section of Lebonese who be very grateful to have the Iranian-Syrian proxy defanged but the central government as it is currently constituted lack the force necessary to do it.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
I'm sure that you'd find a large cross section of Lebonese who be very grateful to have the Iranian-Syrian proxy defanged but the central government as it is currently constituted lack the force necessary to do it.

Especially as no one can really tell what the Lebanese military will do. After all, most of that force was put in place by the Syrian run Lebanon and a good deal may be pro-Syria even while the government is not.

[DinoDoc]

I must say though that the UN force in the area seems to have done a wonderful job peacekeeping.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by PLATO


From the "West" back to them:

Your Welcome.

Now that you know the price for supporting Terrorist in your country, will you do something about it?

Or does the "West" continually have to be forced to deal horrible lessons like this to those who support people that want the total genocide of another people?

If you want peace: Recognize, at the very least, the right of Israel to exist!!

Do you notice that you show all signs of a terroristic mindset?

Let me flesh it out. It is not a troll. It is very sad to see someone like you falling like that.

1. You support killing civilians because they support an idea (and not for their actual actions)

2. You support collective punishment: for something an organization has done (in this case, Hezbollah), you see the punishment of civilians in a positive light (you did notice that all these pics are of very young children, who are very unlikely to be Hezbollah members)

3. You support the murder of people so that you can scare them enough that they change their mind. Yet, striking terror in the public opinion to obtain a policy change is the very raison d'être of terrorism.

Please Plato, I bid you. Stop and think criticially a few minutes about your stance in this issue. Your support for Israel blinds you, and makes you say things that would very well fit bigots, but that don't fit you. Please realize that you aren't reational here, and that your emotions are leading you to support the very logic of murder that you despise.

[SlowwHand]

U.N. reminds me of the road construction person holding the Slow sign.

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Yeah, Lebanon really 'supports terrorists'

This lie that the right has built up to support Isreal wholeheartedly once again is utter insanity. Even Bush doesn't believe Lebanon is responsible!!

Actually, this is starting to play a bit like the Israelis said many days ago. Something about showing that the GoL was implicated in Hezbollah.

"What the prime minister said is that the international community has not given the Lebanese government an opportunity to deal with the problem of Hezbollah`s arms, since the continuing presence of the Israeli occupation of Shebaa Farms is the reason for the weapons' location."

Kind of strange the GoL is setting conditions for disarming Hezbollah that the UN has said won't happen (the Farms are recognised by the UN as part of the Golan, ie Syrian territory).

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by Spiffor

Do you notice that you show all signs of a terroristic mindset?

Let me flesh it out. It is not a troll. It is very sad to see someone like you falling like that.

1. You support killing civilians because they support an idea (and not for their actual actions)

2. You support collective punishment: for something an organization has done (in this case, Hezbollah), you see the punishment of civilians in a positive light (you did notice that all these pics are of very young children, who are very unlikely to be Hezbollah members)

3. You support the murder of people so that you can scare them enough that they change their mind. Yet, striking terror in the public opinion to obtain a policy change is the very raison d'être of terrorism.

Please Plato, I bid you. Stop and think criticially a few minutes about your stance in this issue. Your support for Israel blinds you, and makes you say things that would very well fit bigots, but that don't fit you. Please realize that you aren't reational here, and that your emotions are leading you to support the very logic of murder that you despise.

Your words would be more convincing if you were as vocal a critic of Hamas and Hezbollah as you are anything the Israelis do in a conflict.