We are all Israelis now

“We” being western liberal minded democrats (that’s with a small “d”)

washtimes.com/commentary/200 … -9213r.htm

[quote]

All of us in the Free World owe Israel an enormous “thank you” for defending freedom, democracy and security against the Iranian cat’s-paw wholly-owned terrorist subsidiaries Hezbollah and Hamas.
Israel is doing the Lord’s work. It is defending its homeland and very existence but are also America’s homeland as our frontline democratic ally in the Middle East. Commentary’s Norman Podhoretz was exactly right when he coined the term World War IV to describe the global terror conflict. Repeatedly hostile actions by the totalitarians in Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas and North Korea are all connected. So are the recently foiled terrorist-cell-block plans in Canada, the United States, London and elsewhere around the globe. We are fortunate to have a staunch ally like Israel to assist us in this fight.
As Ben Stein recently put it, “God bless Eretz Israel. God bless Israel for having the [courage] to stand up for herself.” But supporters of freedom and democracy must also say a prayer for President Bush, who has steadfastly stood up for Israel. He outright refuses to publicly ask Israel to stand down.
As expected, France, Spain and Italy have responded to recent events with pacifist posturing. In the smoking rooms of Western Europe and around the coffee tables of the United Nations, we hear more lofty calls for restraint. But the terrorist groups that started this fight have shown no restraint. Rather than pull back, Israel should move forward, cleaning out all the terrorist sanctuaries, training camps, weapons caches and missile systems it can find.
Remember, Israel pulled out of southern Lebanon and Gaza. Later, when terrorist gangs kidnapped Israeli soldiers, Israel appropriately fought back. That is what sovereign nations do, and Israel’s recent military actions deserve our unyielding support. Israel has the right to put the terrorist armies of Hezbollah and Hamas out of business.
Importantly, so called moderate Arab governments Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Dubai and the United Arab Emirates are not taking the Hezbollah or Hamas side. This is undoubtedly a function of the American effort in Iraq, where a forward beachhead has been established for liberalization and representative government. No matter how difficult that effort remains, the center of gravity in much of the Middle East is shifting away from totalitarianism and toward some form of homegrown democracy.
And we cannot delude ourselves about the role of Iran in recent Middle East events. Iran sent Hamas and Hezbollah to attack Israel in the hope of inflaming the Middle East against Israel and the United States. The plan was to divert attention away from G-8 and U.N. sanction efforts to derail Iran’s nuclear weaponization program. Iran miscalculated.
Israel’s next front may indeed be Syria, which is also directed by Iran and is a safe haven for terrorists – including former Saddam Ba’athists and others who move freely between Syria and Iraq to cause trouble. Many experts still believe Syria is safe-harboring Saddam’s unfound weapons of mass destruction.
News reports from London have senior Pentagon sources saying Israel has given Syria 72 hours to effect Hezbollah’s release of the kidnapped Israeli troops. Many strategists also believe Israel should clean out the numerous missile sites, military camps and terrorist sanctuaries in Syria. It is doubtful the U.S. will interfere. Now is the time to really put the squeeze on Syria’s dictator, Baby Assad.
Back at home, doomsayers virtually blame Israel for higher oil prices, slumping stocks and a potential recession. But there will be no recession. The jittery oil-price jump is a short-term event, and when military actions are completed in the Middle East, prices will plummet. If need be, the U.S. can tap into 688 million barrels of strategic oil reserves, at least two months of import protection. And if Iran attempts to stop the oil flow in the Strait of Hormuz, it will take the U.S. and Israel about 35 minutes to knock out the entire Iranian navy and air force.
Recession? American businesses have never been healthier or more profitable. Lower tax rates have spurred a tremendous boom in private investment, while new job hires continue to lift family incomes. Today’s wartime uncertainty and geopolitical risk will not turn these fundamentals around. Indeed, strong world economic growth will continue, spurred by the spread of the very-American-style free-market capitalism that the Axis of Evil and its terrorist divisions are unsuccessfully trying to overthrow.
When the dust clears the world will applaud Israel for its courage. Sensible freedom-loving people everywhere will realize Israel’s furious response in the face of senseless terrorist attacks will have made the world a better place.
In fact, we are all Israelis now. [/quote]

How’s THAT for zionist propoganda?

:bravo:

Ich ben ein Israelier

And the French response, well just one MP:

thedissidentfrogman.com/dacha/001593.html

[quote]Ladies and Gentlemen I give you Jacques Myard, a full blown member of the French Parliament, elected by the people (from the Paris suburb of les Yvelines) to his very own seat at the Assemblée Nationale, publishing on his website a communiqué where he calls for France to undertake military action against Israel.

Under " Guerre au Liban – Israël a-t-il perdu la raison ? " (‘War in Lebanon – Has Israel lost her mind ?’), the link “Lire la suite” opens a popup with the following full text communiqué:

War in Lebanon – Has Israel lost her mind ? July 18th, 2006

Multiple direct testimonials from Lebanon are coming from French people residing in South Lebanon, and particularly Tyr, according to which the Israeli army is shooting at first sight on everything that moves, and notably on civilians.

These French saw a helicopter kill a whole family, including the children, by shooting at their minivan on sight and from a few meters afar, as they were fleeing the conflict zone. The church at Rachaya is said to have been destroyed while it was packed with refugees.

According to the same testimonials, the Israeli army would be using fragmentation bombs, and "vacuum packed" bombs that result in destruction by implosion. The bodies then look like totally dislocated puppets, like rag dolls.

That we shall let Israel act in such way is inadmissible. The French government must take every measure, [b]including militarily[/b], in accordance with international laws that allow it, to protect her nationals and put an end on these outrageous attacks against civilians.

On the same occasion, only an international intervention force that would [b]disarm all militias[/b] according to resolution 1559 of the Security Council could stabilize the region.

France must act. She can't simply make do with convincing her allies whose faint-heartedness with respect to this conflict is well known.[/quote]

So why don’t A) PROVE that the Israelis have been indicriminantly killing noncombatants, and B) use the same fucking UN resolution to disarm Hezbullah??

Got racism?

I agree Israel’s actions are justified, but I don’t think the world should applaud a war, any war. This war could be prevented if the useless UN would do its job on the border. There are UN peace keeping forces over there already, for several years now. They are sitting next to the strongholds of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Six years since Israels’ withdrawal, and they got the exact opposite of resulotion 1559. The didn’t do anything to disarm this organization, since they cannot do so, nor does the Lebanese government. Can the French succeed!!! :smiley: So, someone has to disarm Hezbollah, the sooner the better, 2 million Israelis are already in bomb shelters and many Lebanese flee their beautiful country. Do we really need the UN? Peace keeping forces… yeh, right. A total waste of money and resources, money much needed in other parts of the world - wrecked by weather or drought.
As for the civilians hurt:

  1. It’s a war! civilians get hurt on both sides, luckily to most Israelis, all of them have bomb-shelters.
  2. Do you think the Hezbollah terrorists wear uniform when they die? They are not part of the Lebanese army, they die as civilians, since that’s what they are.
  3. I’ve spoken to an Israeli friend, he’s a pilot. He said he is often faced with a dilemma he doesn’t wish anyone to experience: They spot a missile launcher on a roof of a clearly populated house. Those launchers are firing misslies on Israeli cities. Would they blow up the house with the terrorists, killing innocent people, civilians, to stop the launches on their civilians? I didn’t know what to answer, and I wish no one will ever have to face this dilemma. It’s a taugh situation, and the Lebanese civilians are being held hostage by those terrorists.
    Sad situation, maybe some Arab pressure on Hezbolla can put an end to the violence.

God’s Work? Iraq a “forward beachead”?
For me, too many mixed metaphors, a blinder-equiped visionary speculation, and an overtly puerile self-justification.
I would prefer to read about what a hard-charging realist like Moshe Dayan, or Avigdor Kahalani would have to say about the whole thing, esp. with regards to the Golan, and the Bekaa Valley.

[quote=“jdsmith”]
So why don’t A) PROVE that the Israelis have been indicriminantly killing noncombatants, and B) use the same fucking UN resolution to disarm Hezbullah??

Got racism?[/quote]

I’ll give you racism. Allowing your children to sign bombs that will kill all who fall in their way.

So you’re saying Israelis are actually giving a shit about where they targetl?
Like there are Hezbollah in the North of the country. Come on they are carpet bombing areas.
So they have a target and if anyone is in the way, tough shit?

What fantasy are you living in? You think Israel has some kind of John Wayne ethic when it comes to fighting? They’re as evil and nasty as anyone fighting any war.
So what difference is there between Israel using so called precision bombs and Hezbullah firing toward an area?

Nothing. Both kill. Both is terrorism.

If Israel were to pull back to the 67 borders, get rid of settlements and allow the Palestinians to have a state, the likes of Hezbollah would lose a lot of sympathy throughout the world.

Then there would be sympathy for Israel if they were attacked.

The taking of the soldiers is nothing new, but it was used as an excuse for this attack.
We see no mention of the thousands in Israeli jails many taken inside Lebanon.

The UN are a joke. Why don’t they go in and drive the Israelis out of the occupied territories?
That’s what the majority of the world support.

And the original article has neo con (liberals) written all over it. We’re all Israelis - MY ARSE.

Now I understand what my Grandma meant when she said “the cake is only half baked”. :laughing:

[quote=“jdsmith”]“We” being western liberal minded democrats (that’s with a small “d”)

washtimes.com/commentary/200 … -9213r.htm

[quote]

Repeatedly hostile actions by the totalitarians in Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas and North Korea are all connected. So are the recently foiled terrorist-cell-block plans in Canada, the United States, London and elsewhere around the globe. [/quote][/quote]

Well, not sure how Hezbollah and North Korea are connected- to fill in the six degrees of separation you’d have to plug in Pakistan and China.

The foiled terrorist-cell-block [sic] plans in Canada the United States and London are religiously connected, though the ding-bats in Florida never actually got around to converting to Islam.

And of course, neither of the groups in the first sentence have any connection to the groups in the second sentence.

"Experts " meaning wingnuts who reject the Kay report

Except Israel has been saying over and over again that they are not targetting either Syria or Iran - put your weenies back in your pants, boys, WWIII is not about to be launched. The Fighting 101st Keyboarders won’t get to show their manhood by ripping open that Extra-Large bag of Dorritos while bravely blogging till they drop.

Shin Gua -
And the cake was left too long in the rain… :banana:

Seriously…what can one expect from someone who uses a Photo Shopped pic to justify their looneyness… :loco:

Got Google Earth? It’s free.

Go have a look at San Diego Harbor.

Here’s a reference to help out:
32°40’33.93"N
117° 9’28.08"W

(It’s right next to the McDonalds :sunglasses: )

[quote=“Truant”][quote=“TainanCowboy”]Seriously…what can one expect from someone who uses a Photo Shopped pic to justify their looneyness… :loco:[/quote]Got Google Earth? It’s free.
Go have a look at San Diego Harbor.
Here’s a reference to help out:
32°40’33.93"N
117° 9’28.08"W
(It’s right next to the McDonalds :sunglasses: )[/quote]Oh yeah…its obviously a conspiracy…now I see it all…geeez!
What was I thinkin’…the US Navy is a secret organization of the 3rd., now 4th, Reich to take over the earth…wow…How could I have missed that one… :loco:

[quote=“TainanCowboy”][quote=“Truant”][quote=“TainanCowboy”]Seriously…what can one expect from someone who uses a Photo Shopped pic to justify their looneyness… :loco:[/quote]Got Google Earth? It’s free.
Go have a look at San Diego Harbor.
Here’s a reference to help out:
32°40’33.93"N
117° 9’28.08"W
(It’s right next to the McDonalds :sunglasses: )[/quote]Oh yeah…its obviously a conspiracy…now I see it all…geeez!
What was I thinkin’…the US Navy is a secret organization of the 3rd., now 4th, Reich to take over the earth…wow…How could I have missed that one… :loco:[/quote]
All I’m sayin is the place does exist.

I prefer looking at:
32 42’57.54 N
117 13’24.77 W

now moved to:
32 43’08.72" N
117 13’24.53 W

and in Sept. will be moved to:
31 51’35.28" N
116 37’41.52" W

:yay: :sunglasses:

But that is really off-topic.

Bob

(How do you get the ‘degrees’ symbol?)

[quote=“cake”]If Israel were to pull back to the 67 borders, get rid of settlements and allow the Palestinians to have a state, the likes of Hezbollah would lose a lot of sympathy throughout the world.

Then there would be sympathy for Israel if they were attacked.[/quote]

Are you so sure about that?

I mean, per my admittedly limited understanding of the situation, Israel voluntarily pulled out of Gaza, after evacuating its own settlers, and left the land to the Palestinian authorities.

Terrorists then began to launch rockets from this newly acquired real estate into Israel and then captured an Israeli soldier. Soon thereafter, terrorists in Lebanon began doing likewise.

I think that some people will never be sympathetic to Israel, regardless of the situation.

I doubt the Israelis would find that comforting.

The building, as pointed out above, is in the shape of a swastika, and yes, it was designed that way. However, it was built in 1917, when the swastika had only positive connotations and before the Nazi party was even thought about.

[quote=“Taffy”][quote=“TainanCowboy”]Seriously…what can one expect from someone who uses a Photo Shopped pic to justify their looneyness… :loco:[/quote]The building, as pointed out above, is in the shape of a swastika, and yes, it was designed that way. However, it was built in 1917, when the swastika had only positive connotations and before the Nazi party was even thought about.[/quote]Obviously built by directionally challenged Buddhists…

Obviously it’s not a Buddhist-only symbol, but of course you knew that. You also knew that American soldiers used to wear a Swastika before 1930.
Any speculation in what way they were challenged?

Israel - 1967

current approximate borders - 2006

and this…from IHT Opinion page:

[quote] Middle East: This time, Israel’s doing it right
Zev Chafets, The New York Times
Published: July 19, 2006

TEL AVIV On Sunday my 10-year-old son’s summer camp was shut down; it was judged to be too close to Haifa, too vulnerable to missile attack. Instead, he and his sister are at home in Tel Aviv, busying themselves with yard work.

On Monday, the Israeli Air Force discovered and destroyed a Hezbollah rocket capable of hitting our yard in Tel Aviv. There are said to be many more such rockets in the Hezbollah arsenal. So today, when I sent my son and his 9- year-old sister out to buy gardening gloves and a rake, I first briefed them on what to do in case of a missile attack.

Ah, memories. It seems like only yesterday that I was having a similar discussion with my elder son, then 9 years old. That was in 1991, during the Gulf war. My parental briefing included instructions on how to put on a gas mask. Saddam Hussein had threatened to “burn half of Israel” and we thought his Scuds might be armed with chemical warheads or worse.

This time around there are no gas masks (at least not yet; Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has promised “new surprises”). But Hezbollah’s conventional rockets are lethal enough. They have killed 13 Israeli civilians since the fighting began. In 1991, after almost a full month of trying, only one Israeli was killed by an Iraqi Scud.

The Israeli government in 1991 was ordered by President George H.W. Bush to stay out of the fighting. Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir complied without explaining his decision to the Israeli public. When Israelis realized they were unprotected, people panicked. Schools shut down, businesses closed and just about everyone fled to safety.

This reaction led Israel’s enemies to a simple conclusion: Whatever the Israeli Army could accomplish on the battlefield could be neutralized by hitting the squeamish home front. Hezbollah (and the Palestinians and Syria) began laying in stocks of missiles.

Successive Israeli governments made the prevention of missile attacks a major goal. Israeli diplomacy, from the Oslo accords through the unceremonious Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000 and right up to the current frenzied efforts to stop the Iranian nuclear program, have been premised on the fragility of Israeli morale in the face of assault. Starting with the first Gulf war, Israel went from being the deterrent power in the neighborhood to being the chronic frightened patsy.

At least that’s what Nasrallah thought when his men snatched two Israeli soldiers on the Lebanese border. He figured the new prime minister, Ehud Olmert, would meet almost any price to get the soldiers back peacefully. Instead, Olmert attacked. He knew that retaliation would bring on the missiles and rockets, but he evidently thought it was worth the risk.

What Olmert didn’t know when he gave the order - what the Israeli public itself didn’t know - was that the rockets wouldn’t cause panic.

Fear, yes. Caution, too, and some complaining. But, amazingly, most people in even the most vulnerable areas have behaved with something like the sanguine good nature of the British during the Blitz.

What’s different this time? Leadership, in Jerusalem and in Washington.

For Israelis, fighting back made all the difference. We’ve taken Hezbollah’s best shot and we’re still standing. “We will win,” Olmert told the Knesset on Monday, and this simple assertion became an instant headline and a rallying cry. Olmert’s confidence is based on military capacity, of course - fully unleashed there is very little the Israeli Army can’t accomplish against Hezbollah (and beyond) - and on his faith that George W. Bush will give him the time and the international support needed to finish off Hezbollah.

And this faith is well placed.

There is, of course, a certain poetic justice in having this President Bush help Israel restore the deterrent power President George H.W. Bush undermined in 1991. Unlike his father, the president doesn’t seem to regard Israel as a nuisance. On the contrary, he sees it as a friend and an ally.

An Israeli victory in Lebanon wounds Hezbollah’s patrons, Syria and Iran, both of which threaten American troops and aspirations in Iraq. It establishes Olmert as a major figure as he tries to set Israel’s permanent borders in accordance with American policy.

And, with any luck, it will make it possible next year for my children to stay in camp for the entire summer.
iht.com/articles/2006/07/19/ … hafets.php[/quote]