Wandering through the Lebanese blogs today, I find much sense, but an uncomfortable amount of raving lunacy. There are commenters scattered throughout the sites who are putting forward the idea that even though Hezbollah started it, if Israel fights back, all of Lebanon must rise up to fight them to defend its honor.
"Oh the terrible police have broken into our house! Our crazy uncle Hezbol who lives on the roof was shooting at them, and we didn't do anything but tell him to be quiet, but that doesn't give the police the right to break into our house! The rest of us are fine, law-abiding people who want to live in peace. Okay, okay, a couple of the cousins are also a little violent, but most of us want to live in peace.
"Or some of us want to live in peace anyway - a lot of us would be angry if you arrested one of those cousins. Come to think of it, we'd all fight the police. But those bastards don't respect peace-loving people like us."
7 comments:
A couple of decades ago a few motorcycle gang-types rented a house in my neighborhood. They parked they hogs in the living room and wrote graffiti on the walls. I would have loved it if the police had gotten rid of them.
The problem is, the Israel Defense Force has not invaded Lebanon as a police force, they are not acting to serve and protect the citizens of Lebanon. In this analogy, the IDF is a rival biker gang. Their attack is an act of testosterone enhanced vengeance.
I can see why the Lebanese are angry. For the people of Lebanon it is like having your town cleaned up by the Hells Angels.
Good to know. I suppose it is more likely hotheads like me who go on blogs to comment, so I should expect that.
Well, I'm sorry to break this piece of news to you, but the IOF did target civilians in Lebanon. The senario you brought, Assistant Village Idiot, should be in reality "We, the relatives of uncle H, have also been targeted by the IOF - the reason why we should support our uncle's resistance. WE ARE NOT FINE."
Does that tell you anything, Katje? Does "=" fit in there between Terrorist and IDF?
Salaam
I don't think the term "civilian" has any meaning in relation to the sort of war that's being conducted. HAMAS and Hizballah kill anyone they consider not of their lot, and consider all of their own as fighters. I don't see a lot of Israeli toddlers decked out in suicide belts. The one thing these hostile sunni and shia seem to agree on is that all not subordinate to them should convert or die. They've dug their own grave, but insist on taking others with them. If every Israeli moved to Mars today they'd be fighting over the empty ruins for the right to kill one another in the name of god. A pox on both their houses. There are a billion muslims ,300 million of which are Arab. There's what, eleven million jews, six million of which live in the levant? And how much of a resource base to these muslims have? They have everything, but choose to throw it away on blood and posturing. If Israel did not exist, the islamic world would have to invent it to provide them with the Divine Excuse for the failures. It wasn't the crusades, it wasn't imperialism--they had that under the Caliphate with an islamic face. The trouble with their culture isn't the west, it's their reaction to it. We learned from our mistakes, where the islamic world, confident that they got the final word on how reality should be arranged, strut and pose like the adolescent rage you see on those fool kids with the RPGs--god is on my side, so why to the kufrs have all the cool stuff? Why, indeed. Pax, to your salaam.
The IOF did not target civilians, though civilians have been hit, more is the pity.
sykadilya, you give away more of your thought than you wish. The phrase "We are not fine." Thoughts of this type are repeated time and again among Israel's enemies. We suffer, therefore it is someone else's fault. We suffer, therefore someone else should suffer to know how we feel. The Israelis do not CARE, the Americans do not CARE. Because we suffer, we are right.
An experiment: Get a copy of Israeli schoolbooks, see what they teach about you to their children. Then look at what you teach your children about them.
For comparison, Egyptian or Saudi textbooks would also be useful, if you can find them.
Katje, I'm really impressed with the much you had to write me.
Assistant Village Idiot, I don't believe in fault. I do not do blame. In my comments - and give-away thoughts - I was talking about a reality that obviously and sadly both you and Katje cannot see. I don't blame you for that. I just expect you to try and invistigate more when you hear a piece of news. Be curious as to find truth.
Check for example;
Democracy Now! and Information Clearing House
Katje, concerning what Palestinians "should" have done in Gaza, read this article on the Bethlehem Bloggers: Voices from the Bethlehem Ghetto.
Salaam
We do read both sides. I have heard the Palestinian arguments many times. I don't find them convincing. As to not blaming, your original comment bears a sharp resemblance to it.
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