Archive for the ‘Middle East Issues’ Category
Leave it to the New York Times magazine to start rumors of war.
From the Jerusalem Post:
The New Yorker magazine reported that the United States was involved in the planning of Israel's Lebanon offensive, Israel Radio reported on Monday.
According to the magazine, even before the two IDF soldiers were kidnapped, Israeli sources presented the government with a plan for the massive bombing of Hezbollah the next time they provoked Israel.
The report said that US President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were convinced that Sibilla's surrender to the IDF would serve Washington's purposes if the US were to attack Iran.
Israeli Ambassador to the US Danny Ayalon denied the claim.
I wonder who is telling the truth?
by Newt Gingrich
Imagine that this morning 50 missiles were launched from Cuba and exploded in Miami. In addition to buildings and homes being destroyed, scores of Americans were being killed. Now imagine our allies responded by saying publicly that we must not be too aggressive in protecting our citizens and that America must use the utmost restraint.
Our history shows us that we, as Americans, would reject such bad advice. After all, we have never reacted to a direct attack on our soil with any restraint. Every time America has been attacked by an enemy, we set about defeating it and ending the threat.
This was true of Pearl Harbor in World War II, after which we replaced the imperial Japanese government. The regimes of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy met the same demise. Without actually being attacked, President Kennedy risked nuclear war to eliminate the threat of Soviet missiles in Cuba. After the 9/11 attacks, we replaced the Taliban in Afghanistan once it became known that they were providing refuge for the al-Qaeda terrorists responsible for the attack. This is our history as Americans. We believe that our government has a duty to protect us.
When compared with U.S. history lessons, the advice of the Group of Eight industrial nations to Israel is wrong. The communiqué says the No. 1 priority is a cease-fire that would effectively leave Hezbollah in possession of all its rockets. We'd never accept such advice for ourselves. The Israelis should not accept it for the same reasons: It would not end the threat.
Israel, a fellow democracy, has the same duty and right to protect its citizens from enemy attack. It is doing so while making every effort to avoid civilian casualties. The Israeli response is wholly justified based on a history where Israeli concessions to the Iran-Syria-Hezbollah-Hamas terrorist alliance have consistently resulted in their enemies preparing for the next attack. The terrorists have been attacking with increased capability, brutality and violence aimed at civilians. This is only the latest cycle in an ongoing 58-year campaign to destroy Israel.
Thirty-five years ago I took a college course, Theater 101. One of the topics heavily discussed was the use of guerrilla theater in the demonstrations and riots of the late 1960s. Guerrilla theater was staged activity for the benefit of the news services cameras. It was used and developed by the anti-war and anti-establishment. Those with fake wounds or superficial head wounds received by law enforcement and National Guard troops during many of the riots and demonstrations were photograph and filmed to show the "brutality" of the Establishment that they were protesting against.
The object of guerrilla theater was the gain the sympathy of the pubic of the deeds of a few.
In the August 1 post, IDF: Qana building fell hours after strike, I discussed the possibility that some of the photos taken by the news services may have been deliberately staged to get a sympathetic reaction using the shock value of the pictures of the dead. In the pictures from EU Referendum, there was one individual who was seen in almost all the shots. They named him "Green Helmet".
On The Jawa Report, they have posted a German made guerrilla theater video of the same "Green Helmet" actually staging and setting up the shot using for a prop, a body of a boy on a stretcher. He is shown going through a trial run. He then directs the camera and all the others on the "set" to be sure the camera gets the right shot of the action.
As sectarian violence in Iraq continues to escalates, U.S. forces are finding themselves caught between factions who have struggled against each other for more than a thousand years.
Sunni Muslims and Shiite Muslims are religiously incompatible and neither side wants to be dominated by the other. The terrorism seen daily on our television screens isn’t only directed at our forces, it’s clear that Sunnis and Shiites are also killing each other.
Hasn’t the time come when the United States should bid farewell to Iraq? Shouldn’t the Iraqi government we helped install be charged with dealing with this growing problem? Doesn’t the continued presence of U.S. forces invite charges that our nation is backing one or the other faction? Haven’t we suffered enough casualties in this latest undeclared and highly questionable war?
From the NewsBuster's blog:
Rachel Neuwirth writes in The American Thinker that the media have made the job of the terrorists much easier as the media provide the version of reality the terrorists hope to convey. The media never blame the terrorists who hide behind civilians who get killed, and Neuwirth writes that therefore the media are "directly complicit in enabling this tactic to continue and for more Lebanese civilians to be killed."
A major segment of the global media is behaving in a manner that makes terrorism and mass killings more likely rather than less likely. They enable and encourage terrorist slaughter of innocents by supplying providing a propaganda bonanza for the terrorist cause. Without the gain, there would be less incentive for the horrific behavior.
This is true now with Israeli defense measures against Hezbollah terrorism, and has been true for many years, especially during the long Arab-Israeli conflict. Not enough attention has been paid to media manipulation. It is long overdue that this be exposed and the media be confronted and held accountable.
When will the liberal media get it straight?
More information on the Qana tragedy that the Hezbollah concocted the tragedy comes from a Lebanese website, Libanoscopie. Hezbollah insurgents are afraid they are losing favor within the Lebanon government and will try anything to prolong the conflict with Israel.
…associated with Christian elements in the country and which openly supports the anti-Syrian movement called the "March 14 Forces," reported that Hezbollah has masterminded a plan that would result in the killing of innocents in the Qana village, in a bid to foil Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's "Seven Points Plan", which calls for deployment of the Lebanese army in southern Lebanon and the disarming of Hezbollah.
"We have it from a credible source that Hezbollah, alarmed by Siniora's plan, has concocted an incident that would help thwart the negotiations. Knowing full well that Israel will not hesitate to bombard civilian targets, Hezbollah gunmen placed a rocket launcher on the roof in Qana and brought disabled children inside, in a bid to provoke a response by the Israeli Air Force. In this way, they were planning to take advantage of the death of innocents and curtail the negotiation initiative," the site stated. (ynetnews.com)
Hezbollah are truly terrorists who have no compassion for innocent civilian lives, especially children. I looks like they are wearing out their welcome in Lebanon.
The world, especially the Arab countries are condemning Israel for the attack on Qana in Lebanon that supposedly caused the death of 57 civilians. Many of them were children sleeping in the basement when the building collapsed.
But, the facts show the attacked occurred around midnight and the building did not collapse until eight hours later.
And why would the victims continue sleeping in the basement after the building was just attacked?
The attack on the structure in the Qana village took place between midnight and one in the morning. The gap between the timing of the collapse of the building and the time of the strike on it is unclear," Brigadier General Amir Eshel, Head of the Air Force Headquarters told journalists at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, following the incidents at Qana.
Eshel and the head of the IDF's Operational Branch, Major General Gadi Eisnkot said the structure was not being attacked when it collapsed, at around 8:00 in the morning.
The IDF believes that Hezbollah explosives in the building were behind the explosion that caused the collapse. (ynet.com)
Besides, there is a strong possibility that Hezbollah are behind the actual building collapse. And there is some questions on the photos release by many of the news agencies on site. A post on EU Referendum shows many of the photos (beware they are quite graphic) and the same "rescue worker" is in all of them. Also, many of the bodies in the pictures may be the same body used in different poses and it looks like it has been dead for a long time judging by the ashen color.
Apparently, the Hezbollah may be using the shock value of the pictures of the dead to gain sympathy from the world.
It is noted in another post on EU Referendum, that the same rescue worker appears in other photos taken on 18 April 1996 in Qana after another attack in another war in.
The Hezbollah are cowards. They hide behind women and children using them for shields. They dress in civilian attire to disperse into crowds of civilians after they launch a rocket or high caliber attack against Israel. All civilian deaths can be blamed on the Hezbollah cowards.
The Herald Sun in Australia just published some very damning photos of these cowards. These photos were taken by a visiting journalist and smuggled out of Lebanon.
The photographs, from the Christian area of Wadi Chahrour in the east of Beirut, were taken by a visiting journalist and smuggled out by a friend.
The Melbourne man who smuggled the shots out of Beirut and did not wish to be named said he was less than 400m from the block when it was obliterated.
"Hezbollah came in to launch their rockets, then within minutes the area was blasted by Israeli jets," he said.
"Until the Hezbollah fighters arrived, it had not been touched by the Israelis. Then it was totally devastated.
"It was carnage. Two innocent people died in that incident, but it was so lucky it was not more." (Herald Sun)
Hezbollah in the Middle East has been causing major grief to US citizens for over 20 years. The following list of dates show the evidence that the Hezbollah are hard core terrorists. (The source of this list is from a comment on www.zionist.com):
July 19, 1982: The president of the American University in Beirut, Davis S. Dodge, is kidnapped. Hezbollah is believed to be behind this and most of the other 30 Westerners kidnapped over the next ten years.
April 18, 1983: Hezbollah attacks the U.S. embassy in Beirut with a car bomb, killing 63 people, 17 of whom were American citizens.
Oct. 23, 1983: The group attacks U.S. Marine barracks with a truck bomb, killing 241 American military personnel stationed in Beirut as part of a peace-keeping force. A separate attack against the French military compound in Beirut kills 58.
Sept. 20, 1984: The group attacks the U.S. embassy annex in Beirut with a car bomb, killing 2 Americans and 22 others.
March 16, 1984: William F. Buckley, a CIA operative working at the U.S. embassy in Beirut, is kidnapped and later murdered.
April 12, 1984: Hezbollah attacks a restaurant near the U.S. Air Force Base in Torrejon, Spain. The bombing kills eighteen U.S. servicemen and injures 83 people.
Dec. 4, 1984: Hezbollah terrorists hijack a Kuwait Airlines plane. Four passengers are murdered, including two Americans.
Feb. 16, 1985: Hezbollah publicizes its manifesto. It notes that the group’s struggle will continue until Israel is destroyed and rejects any cease-fire or peace treaty with Israel.
After spending nearly a week in Israel as terrorists launched violent attacks against the Israelis, ACLJ Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow said he is encouraged that nearly 50,000 Americans already have signed on to the ACLJ Proclamation for Solidarity with Israel which urges President Bush to stand firm and support Israel during this time of war.
“The battle against terrorism is front and center in the country of Israel,” said Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel of the ACLJ. “As Americans watch this war unfold in the Middle East, it is critical to show support for our friend – our ally – our partner in peace – Israel. True freedom and peace can only arise after the terrorist infrastructure has been eliminated. And, we support Israel in its efforts to do just that. Israel has every right to defend itself against terrorist organizations that have vowed to eliminate the nation of Israel. While these are extremely dangerous and difficult times, we stand with Israel and support their fight against terrorism and we encourage President Bush and the U.S. government to stand firm in its support of Israel.”
Sekulow is in Strasbourg, France this week – the home of the European Union and headquarters for the European Centre for Law and Justice, an organization affiliated with the ACLJ. Last week, Sekulow was in Israel as the battle against terrorism began to intensify. In just three days, Sekulow said nearly 50,000 Americans have signed on to the ACLJ Proclamation for Solidarity with Israel and he is hopeful that number will grow to 100,000 in the week ahead.
Led by Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow, the American Center for Law and Justice specializes in constitutional law and is based in Washington, D.C.