The Silence is killing me.

[Culprit]

[Pa Marmo]

Its a very scarry build up we are witnessing. I read some stuff today that the Qatar governing body wants to call together the arab council to discuss what to do about israel

[Culprit]

[HAL]

I don't think I've read that. Can you give me a reference?

[sherrife]

I love that there has been no abuse . Allow me to add my 2 cents...

To both Dave & Culprit: the fact that the media is pro-israel is not because either side is objectively right or wrong, it's simply because popular media sources are parts of corporate entities and corporate entities are designed to follow money. To put it another way; the only inherent 'morality' in a capitalist system is the financial imperative. Given that there are more wealthy/politically active Israelis/Jews then there are Palestinians or even 'Arabs' (i use that word without really believing in the existence of some united Arab Identity, there is none), the media bias towards their bigger client group is easily understandable.

Hamas is not a unified entity. It comprises people as varied as the current PM (who only espouses really radical rhetoric to keep the militants in his party happy, simple posturing really which israel could see through if it wished, politics students are taught to do it in first year!) to radicals such as the late Sheikh Yassin. What you have to understand that it is not a homogenous body, there are a number of wings and branches that often work in opposition to each other (eg. PM wanting to deal with Israel as a statesman but then radical terrorists (yes even as a anarchist i believe the word is applicable in a technical sense) in the organisation act without thought and provoke Israel). In reality, you could call Hamas an united party only in the sense that the Coalition in Australia (including all the states and territories) is one. It is true at a very abstract organisational level, but not in any real sense. Just like within even just the Libs there is huge divergence on policy, the same thing occurs within Hamas (and any group for that matter, including al Qaeda...). Much more actually.

Lebanon did not actually get involved, radicals within lebanon got involved. Hezbollah is similar to Hamas in the sense that it has hugely divergent wings... Unfortunately it is a much more established political entity then Hamas which makes it difficult to target without screwing with the whole nation. However the fact stands that Lebanon as a nation did not do anything to aggravate Israel, and the response by Israel has been Insanely, Outrageously, Disgustingly disproportionate to the death of a maximum of 10 Israelis. Honestly, it is just incredible... Could you imagine if we invaded Indonesia and bombed its airports and everything in response to an Indonesian affiliated wth JI committing an attack here?

By the way, I do not condone what the terrorist wing of Hamas does and ditto for Hezballah. It is insanely stupid for the mouse to pull the cats tail and give it a reason to eat it. Beyond insane. The fact that this happened is concrete support for my contention that both wings of both groups do not represent their countries... No country wants to be attacked, and no country will do anything deliberately that will encourage a stronger enemy to completely decimate it. Only terrorist groups act with that kind of reckless abandon, because there is no state for the enemy to target.

That's all i can think of for the moment, I'm pretty depressed about the whole situation. I just wish Israel for once would react with dignity and a bit of maturity... I with even more that something could be done about the terrorists in that area... unfortunately as long as the war continues you cannot prevent more people from buying into violent ideologies... That's why i place some more blame on Israel i guess (apart from the fact it kills much more people then the Palestinians and Lebanese fighters combined). The leaders of Israel are very well educated and well off, you would think they could take the higher moral ground...

[Culprit]

Food post Sherrife

We are in a serious situation and as each day passes it gets worse. Israel's Government is on the path of genocide and is using everything else as a smoke screen to achieve this. The others feel that if they keep attacking Israel they will cease their actions. It's stupity and this is the result of religous fanatics on both sides. Either way innocent people will die and keep on dying until one side is dead.

They will not be at peace until they are all dead. We are talking generations of hate that will not die in a single battle.

As for Australians trapped over there our Government should be doing more than mere words.

The world is very meek when it comes to telling Israel to pull their head in. We are quick to condem Hamas etc, but never the Jews.

[sherrife]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/7/13/202447/377

Great letter to the American pollies by an ex CIA guy from the region.

[Culprit]

Good read, will they listen?

[sherrife]

[Proud Pies]

Sherrife, your post above was probably one of the best posts I've ever had the privilege to read on here, thank you

And thank you to everyone else on here who's commenting on this debate. It's a great to read things when there's no personal abuse.

[Culprit]

[Proud Pies]

It's getting scary now

[Pa Marmo]

I have been watching most of the morning on Foxtel, and its not looking to good. No-one seems to have a clue how to handle this situation. The United Nations has seemingly become irrelevant

[sherrife]

It's because of America's blanket support of Israel's actions. There is no room to negotiate because America is not willing to budge an inch.

Thus the problem with the veto powers of the security council are on display again; with just one dissenting voice the entire UN is rendered a joke and Maniacs are free to act as they will (see Iran, Israel, NK and Burma).

No idea what can be done... Israel is not accountable to anyone at the moment and never will be until the US is prepared to be more evenhanded in its treatment of the region. Unfortunately that won't happen until the various arabic and/or islamic lobbies increase in strength in the US.

But the worst part of it all is the representation in the media. It is truly incredible how they are still desperately trying to portray Israel in a sympathetic light. If you watch CNN more than half the images they are showing are from an Israeli perspective, talking about their fears of rocket attacks from Hezballah when less than 10 Israeli's have died vs. 100 Lebanese, not to mention the damage to Lebanon's infrastructure. I would be willing to bet that there have been relatively tiny amounts of rockets dropped on Israel. Another example is when all the headlines on the screen say things like "Hezballah declares open war on Israel, what should the US do?" The implication being that Hezballah is the primary protagonist. Such blatant bias is honestly hard to take. I expect it at an intellectual level obviously, but to see it when people are dying... it's just depressing.

The UN in its current form is almost worthless, but US and China will never join an organisation that doesn't allow them to veto, so basically we're stuck with this.

[Culprit]

You are right as far as the media goes. The US is in a corner if they have a go at Israel they would be perceived as supporting terrorists.

Fuel prices will rocket up and the peoples voice will make something happen.