There really is not much point posting any more Born because you will always believe your own opinion as you're headstrong, naive and you think far too simplistically. I will post one final post, I know i won't change your mind but i hope it may educate others who perhaps are slightly more open minded, rational and not as taken by media propoganda that some people have. As Chomsky said 'Any dictator would admire the uniformity and obedience of the U.S. media' and the public who believe every word.
I will call Israel a terrorist state. I will accuse them of war crimes. I will highlight the fact they ignore UN resolution after UN resolution. Why? Cos it's all true.
The inherent bias of the media is obvious to anyone capable of basic analysis. there are two sides to the conflict: israel (plus backers) and hezbollah (plus backers). Each side has its own viewpoint and its own narrative, explaining events and justifying actions. both viewpoints are controversial - i.e. they can and should be questioned, not simply accepted.
The mainstream media (and it really is irrelevant whether it is the bbc, sky, itv, cnn or whatever else), however, consistently take the israeli viewpoint as the objective view. The assumption in the media is that Israel's claims are true: that the Israeli military and political leadership desires peace; that its wars are defensive; that israel's enemies simply feel an irrational hatred towards the jewish state and have no possible legitimate political grievances.
You will have to look long and hard before you find a journalist in a mainstream media organisation suggesting than israel's goal is anything other than self-defence. the closest thing is Robert Fisk in the UK, and he remains the exception which proves the rule.
Criticism of Israel, like criticism of the US in general, is limited to bad eggs: soldiers who go too far, unrepresentative elements; at best we get noble intentions gone awry. try to find a bbc report which hints at israeli aggression or hatred of arabs. you can't: it's unspeakable in our media - despite comments such as:
"We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population."
-- David Ben-Gurion, May 1948, to the General Staff
" are beasts walking on two legs."
-- Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, speech to the Knesset
?One million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail."
? Rabbi Yaacov Perrin
The same hateful rhetoric is present on the arab side - in the Iranian president's recent speeches, for example. however, the arabs' repugnant rhetoric is repeated and emphasised; Israel's is not.
I mean, last year we even had an orgy of 'Sharon: man of peace'. He is an out and out war criminal, found guilty by his own general staff. a man too extreme even for the Israeli military. And the party he founded is - God save us - a moderate centre party simply because there is an even more extreme bunch of monsters loyal to Netanyahu.
You also seem determined to forget history and forget that Hezbollah was created as a resistance to the Israel invastion. Putting history aside is a bizarre thing to do. To suggest an arbitrary cut off point in a conflict which has been ongoing for over half a century makes it factually incorrect.
In such a conflict, neither side accepts that it is the instigator: Israel's attack is in response to Hezbollah's kidnapping; Hezbollah's kidnapping is in response to Israel's seizure of its fighters etc etc. the only reason to 'put history aside' is to create an entirely fictitious sense of when the whole thing started. Hezbollah was formed to fight an illegal occupation; in Hezbollah's eyes (rightly or wrongly) the occupation has not ended.
There are still approximately 4 million palestinian refugees who are denied the right of return; there are undemocratic regimes whose stated goal is to 'wipe the state of israel from the map'. you cannot put history to one side and assign blame on the basis of what has happened in the last couple of weeks.
as Howard Zinn says, if you don't know history, it's like you were born yesterday.
Anyway Born. I shall end my post on another quote which perhaps, after all these posts may explain how i feel about this whole situation. Its from Chomsky again:
Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: stop participating in it.
And Born - Please google Shebaa Farms to find out why Hezbollah continue their attacks on Israel - an illegal occupying force.
How many bombs will have to explode in your subways .... how many planes have to be crashed for you to realize the radical islamic movement has come to your town and is spreading worldwide? You are the one that needs a history lesson. These people have been fighting for over a thousand years, this is not a new phenomenon. History records 2-3 dark periods of the Koran where these "holy texts" had dissapeared and no one knew where they were, depending who you ask. Many historians believe that today's modern Koran has been manipulated by various dictators at the time, and seeded with violent materials in order incite riot and force obedience. The Koran is not a book of peace, it is a book of violence and control.