Is the U.S and the U.K suporting Israel to distroy Labanon to frighten Arabs to not invest in the middle east.Since 911 the arabs with drew 500 billion from the U.S goverment bonds which they got a mere 1% returns.Emaar properties of the U.A.E was about to invest very heavily in Lebanon.This is to show the rich arabs in the middle east it is not safe to invest in there on country there money is not safe.

The value of the Bush approach has been its moral clarity and consistency, eschewing, in a post-Sept. 11 world, any deal-making with those thought to support terrorists. Both Hamas and Hezbollah are viewed as terrorist organizations, and by that logic, Syria and Iran are on the wrong side of the divide.

writes the NYT.

What a value!

There are some clever jews, that know it better. The US should stop backing the idiots in Israel.

Let's see....Pakistan-based (or encouraged) extremists blew up a commuter train last week and killed more than 150 people in otherwise peaceful India. Now, using Israeli "logic", should the Indian government start carpet bombing Pakistan and kill a few hundred thousand people, cut off their electricity and fuel supplies? Better yet, what is stopping India from nuking Pakistan and kill a few millions? They have the bomb.

Should we kill all of, say, Harlem because a couple of people were shot last week or a few hubcaps were stolen from an uptown car? Should France bomb and cripple Algeria or Morocco or Tunisia because a few immigrant kids rioted earlier this year and commited criminal acts? They have aircraft and missiles!

The point is that weapons must be in the hands of stable people that are of sound mind and they can restrain themselves. Even in USA where there is a constitutional right to bear arms. Every now and then, the Israelis want to prove that they outgun the Palestinians in Gaza-- a group of civilans that have not received their salaries for the last 3 months! Or is it because they chose their leaders in a fair election?! Did UK bomb and destroy Ireland because of the IRA?

If the Israeli approach is a standard of civility, then we should forget about life and pursuit of happiness as we know it.

An interesting myopic approach. Clearly neither side is acceptable with the other and uses each episode of retaliation as justification for the next wave. However, rather than focusing on the Israeli failure to accept the status quo, let us look at the intent of Iran to switch focus from its breach of international law to the anilation of the Jewish state. Cannot we justly assume that Iran is the power behind and instigator of the current round of violence and that we are now witnessing the beginning of the fulfillment of Iran's pledge to bring Israel to its knees?

It has been six years since Israel withdrew to their borders and remember these are legal borders, to the UN and Lebanon(A supposed state supposedly not at war with Israel. Crossing those borders to kidnap and kill is a national affront no matter what the country or enemy. To say that this should prompt a negotiation instead of a rapid response is insane. Mr. Iranian, perhaps the US should invade Iran and kidnap Iranian citizens to create a better negotiating position on nuclear weapons or in Iraq. Even easier there are about 300,0000 Iranian pilgrims in Iraq at any one time. Maybe the US can kidnap them. It would be alot easier then even invading. Like these ideas. I didn't think so.

Israel is only interested in "land grab" as evidenced by their refusal to honor U.N. Resolution 242,demanding they return to the pre 1967 border. For the past 40 years they were interlopers,not settlers.
They continue to build in the west bank,contrary to Internationl Law and U.S. Policy. They build with U.S funds. Israel is the greatest threat to world peace.

What a farce.

To put the claim of all the troubles of the Mideast on Israelis in specific and Jews in general is just returning to the tired old refrain that's led to centuries of persecutions and pogroms. "Israel's lobbyists" pushing for the war, looking for a larger meaning to Israel's retaliatory strikes in Lebanon, claims of a "greater Israel" from the Nile to the Euphrates... these are all the rehashing of claims that Arab regimes and anti-semites have made for years to rationalize away their hatred. When the Arab/Islamic states accept the existance of Israel and stop seeking its destruction, Israel will stop lashing out.

The grim reality is that peace in the ME is not possible with an Israel with Zionistic ambitions. Hindsight shows that giving Jews Arab lands in some guilt trip for failing to stop the Germans from killing Jews and other Europeans truning a blind eye as their Jews were shipped off for these murderous actions. 2 wrongs have created a festering wound in the hopes for world peace; it is obvious that Israel will never be accepted as an member of the ME, and if it takes another thousand years of disaster and war, they will falter and the ravaging hordes will once again send the surviving Jews into another disporia to again await their chnace for revenge; and around we go again!!

Israel certainly could have exercise some patience. Not saying that their current campaign is completely out of line, a bit of an attempt at diplomacy sets the stage for greater world support. And while this may not be as important in life/death situations to Olmert, it shows his and the entire Kadima's lack of maturity at foreign policy.

We, we being America, have certainly screwed ourselves. To not stand up and speak a little louder about the disproportionate use of force on the entire Lebanese population, is to not endorse a democracy in an Arab country. Yes, perhaps not one to our liking, but its a democracy.

Bush has failed us again. Where is Rice? What a farce!

Israel can pull back, and wait. Combat patience is vital, and could provide respite for the Lebanese people and show that Israel really isn't bloodthirsty, as many regional newspapers may say.

It is important for us all to recognize that Israel's actions here have been forced upon them by the calculated strategy of much of the Arab world. If Israel minds her own business, she's invariably attacked. If Israel is attacked and doesn't respond, great. If they do respond, so much the better as the Arab world can cry foul to the rest of the world about Israel's "crimes". They are attacked by men wearing masks and civilian clothes, so that when Israel's army replies, she is "killing civilians." Terrorists operate from civilian areas to make military response by Israel impossible without collateral damage to civilians. States like Iran and Syria sponser smaller organizations like Hezballah and Hamas to do their dirty work so that Israel, a fully military state, never has a comparable opponant to oppose and her responses are always "disproportionate." And on that topic, what the devil is a "disproportunate" response? Every military man and woman in the world will tell you that the whole point is to make the conflict as disproportionate in your own favor as you possibly can. Far from aggression, Israel has shown remarkable restraint. It should be remembered that if they really wanted to, their military is more than a match for any of their neighbors, and has been for years.

Israel is guilty of far more kidnapping and murder than Hamas. To claim the moral highground from atop their dung heap is outrageous. Media support for their doing so is a farce.

There is certainly enough blood on everybody's hands. There must be some attempt on both sides to move beyond blaming and scapegoating, and so normally I would simply recommend mutual forbearance and diplomacy, however strained. And while I still believe in that recommendation, we also don't really have equal sides in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Israel has the money and the power to cause nearly irreversible damage to its neighbors, which is why many of them have resorted to terrorist tactics (There are, of course, other reasons too). Since Palestine has virtually no means to inflict similar damage, however, some might wonder whether or not Israel's response to this crisis might appear to some as disproportionate to the provocative act of kidnapping the soldier. I feel Israel is going to have to be more forbearing than the Palestinians and be restrained and measured in their responses, or there will be yet another intifada and even more bloodshed on both sides. To make real inroads to lasting peace, the regional superpower must forego their usual military tactics, part and parcel of their culture of fear (to appropriate Glasser's term).

This is for not a terrorist...
When has it been acceptable to knock out power for 700,000 people to save the life of one? Not saying that one life isn't important, to the contrary it is. When Israel decides that it is okay to collectively punish a nation for the crimes of a few it doesn't gain sympathy from those who may garner it...

Btw, a wise person speaks or in this case writes becuase he/she has something to say and not because they have to say somthing

israels militant arab neighbors must show that they are willing to change. they must stop teaching their children that the jews are the cause of all of their problems and that killing jews showers allah's blessings upon them. these arab psychos prefer death to the jews above the lives of their own children. in addition, arabs were killing jews long before israel became a soverign country. arab countries have never accepted the jewish right to exist anywhere in the middle east, and continue to devote their resources towards the destruction of jews and the jewish state.

Fellows, there is blood on ALL their fundamentalist hands - Jew, Muslim, and Christian!

a Final and permanent solution...I think we have heard that one before. At what point do we send the jews to their slaughter in your timeline.

It seems to me that Israel is not the only party to gain from Instability in the Middle East, especially in Lebanon. A stable Lebanon would not benefit, Hezbollah which acts as a state within a state. And it was Hezbollah, funded by Iran, which initiated this situation with its cross-borer raid into Israeli capturing Israeli soldiers in the process.

Hezbollah knew that such an action would all but guarantee retaliatory action, yet despite of that, they carried out their attacks.

israel's disregard for law and order? i suppose kidnapping is an accepted practice then.

p.s. i think you are a camel jockey