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Bleeding Red · 07-14-2006, 07:51 AM

A few notes culled from today's Canada.com News:

1 - Humanitarian aid - food, water, medicine - is being distributed in Gaza. The 'basics' are being delivered. In the same token, humanitarian aid will get through in Lebanon.

2- Israel does all it can to avoid civilian casualties - "The raid came just a few hours after Israeli planes dropped leaflets in South Beirut warning residents to avoid areas where Hezbollah operates." - similar measures were taken in Gaza before that offensive.

3- Israel tried the diplomatic approach in Gaza - backroom negitiations went on for almost a week before the incursion. Israel refused to trade Shalit for almost five hundred "violent criminals" (yes, yes, to a few here one man's criminal is another man's political prisoner). How do you negotiate with terrorists? If these groups are all disjointed, then who do you negotiate with?

4 - Hezbolah is more than just a rag-tag fundamentalist group in Lebanon - Hezbolah "holds seats in the Lebanese legislature." Surely they have some links to the kidnappers to convince them to return the hostages. However, the Lebanese Government did take some action - "The Lebanese government insisted it had no prior knowledge of the move and did not condone it -- and even withdrew its ambassador to the United States after he made comments seemingly in support of the guerrillas."

5- Looks like Egypt and Saudi Arabia have decided who is to blame:

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=c5a49da8-ff49-4502-9502-226125d95ec5&k=68955

"Egypt launched a diplomatic bid to resolve the crisis, amid apparent frustration among moderate Arab countries that Hezbollah -- and by implication its top ally Syria -- had started the fight with Israel.

Saudi Arabia, the Arab world's political heavyweight and economic powerhouse, accused Hezbollah guerrillas -- without naming them -- of "uncalculated adventures'' that precipitated the latest Middle East crisis.

"The kingdom sees that it is time for those elements to alone shoulder the full responsibility for this irresponsible behavior and that the burden of ending the crisis falls on them alone,'' said a Saudi official quoted by the Saudi Press Agency."

A part of the problem not mentioned is that the PA and the Labanese govm't refuse to try to disarm militants fearing internal civil war, nor have they tried to incorporate them into any official military - the PA has a 10,000 member police force/army - and take responsibility for them. At some point someone pulls the strings - these are not just two or three guys with AK-47s who decided one morning 'Hey, let's go get us a Zionist dog to torture!" - someone is in control - finding that someone is the hard part, but the pressure is mounting on the PA & Lebanese gov't to find them and set them straight.

07-14-2006, 07:51 AM	#91
Bleeding Red Powerplay Quarterback Join Date: Oct 2001 Exp:	A few notes culled from today's Canada.com News: 1 - Humanitarian aid - food, water, medicine - is being distributed in Gaza. The 'basics' are being delivered. In the same token, humanitarian aid will get through in Lebanon. 2- Israel does all it can to avoid civilian casualties - "The raid came just a few hours after Israeli planes dropped leaflets in South Beirut warning residents to avoid areas where Hezbollah operates." - similar measures were taken in Gaza before that offensive. 3- Israel tried the diplomatic approach in Gaza - backroom negitiations went on for almost a week before the incursion. Israel refused to trade Shalit for almost five hundred "violent criminals" (yes, yes, to a few here one man's criminal is another man's political prisoner). How do you negotiate with terrorists? If these groups are all disjointed, then who do you negotiate with? 4 - Hezbolah is more than just a rag-tag fundamentalist group in Lebanon - Hezbolah "holds seats in the Lebanese legislature." Surely they have some links to the kidnappers to convince them to return the hostages. However, the Lebanese Government did take some action - "The Lebanese government insisted it had no prior knowledge of the move and did not condone it -- and even withdrew its ambassador to the United States after he made comments seemingly in support of the guerrillas." 5- Looks like Egypt and Saudi Arabia have decided who is to blame: http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=c5a49da8-ff49-4502-9502-226125d95ec5&k=68955 "Egypt launched a diplomatic bid to resolve the crisis, amid apparent frustration among moderate Arab countries that Hezbollah -- and by implication its top ally Syria -- had started the fight with Israel. Saudi Arabia, the Arab world's political heavyweight and economic powerhouse, accused Hezbollah guerrillas -- without naming them -- of "uncalculated adventures'' that precipitated the latest Middle East crisis. "The kingdom sees that it is time for those elements to alone shoulder the full responsibility for this irresponsible behavior and that the burden of ending the crisis falls on them alone,'' said a Saudi official quoted by the Saudi Press Agency." A part of the problem not mentioned is that the PA and the Labanese govm't refuse to try to disarm militants fearing internal civil war, nor have they tried to incorporate them into any official military - the PA has a 10,000 member police force/army - and take responsibility for them. At some point someone pulls the strings - these are not just two or three guys with AK-47s who decided one morning 'Hey, let's go get us a Zionist dog to torture!" - someone is in control - finding that someone is the hard part, but the pressure is mounting on the PA & Lebanese gov't to find them and set them straight.