Israel suspending air bombing
 

for 48 hrs.

Asking people to leave Southern Lebanon and humanitarian aide groups to come in to help people that have been hurt in the bombing. Israel has released sensitive material showing Hezbollah rockets being launched from behind buildings containing civilians.

If this is all true. The people of Lebanon need to do their best to get away from any Hezbollah missile firing now. Dont think this is the end. Just a way to satisfy humanitarian efforts for innocents. The support for Hezbollah is huge, so citizens doing so, are risking their lives for an operation that feeds them, and then turns around and fires rockets at Israel so they will be targeted. The most shameful use of innocent people. Political fodder, thats what the people of Southern Lebanon have become.

Why is it so hard to see through this charade?

Israel needs to grow some balls like the US and go in with troops and weed out the terrorists or stop altogether. Bombing civilians is the act of cowards.

Which is what the terrorists are! Israel isn't bombing innocent civilians, they are attacking terrorist sites...as Pgardn said, it's the terrorists who deliberately hide in civilian areas...do you think a land invasion would produce fewer deaths? A bullet kills just as dead as a bomb!

Using buildings full of children to fire from is the act of ANIMALS. They Know Israel will target their missiles.

Seems to me that this is the only way that Israel and the US could prevent further deterioration in the Arab world. And all the while, I thought we were creating fewer terrorists. And NO, I don't condone Hezzbolah's actions.

Story:
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel agreed to a 48-hour suspension of aerial activity over southern Lebanon after its bombing of a Lebanese village on Sunday that killed a number of children, the U.S. State Department said.

The attack marred Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's mission to halt the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

The suspension of over-flights was announced by State Department spokesman Adam Ereli. He said Israel has reserved the right to attack targets if it learns that attacks are being prepared against them.

"The United States welcomes this decision and hopes that it will help relieve the suffering of the children and families of southern Lebanon," Ereli told reporters traveling with Rice.

In Jerusalem, the Israeli army spokesman's office said it knew nothing of an agreement to halt airstrikes in Lebanon for 48 hours. Government officials were not immediately available for comment.

A State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity about the evolving situation, said Rice had been working on such an agreement for some time before the attack on Qana, Lebanon. The airstrike early Sunday killed more than 50 people, including many children.

Ereli said that Israel will coordinate with the United Nations to allow a 24-hour period of safe passage for all residents of south Lebanon who want to leave the region.

"We expect that Israel will implement these decisions so as to significantly speed and improve the flow of humanitarian aid," he added.

Well go in and get the terrorists then. Air strikes are useless against terrorists. If you know where they are why do you need to drop bombs and kill innocent people. Why? Because they are cowards. They are more willing to kill innocent people than to lose members of their army. Case Closed.

At the United Nations today, Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the Security Council, meeting in emergency session, to condemn the Qana attack and to call for an immediate cease-fire.



Condemn the attack... NO. Apologies for the deaths yes. Hezbollah appears to have been firing 20-30 yards from the building the children in. WITF is Kofi smoking? How about condemning Hezbollah for firing where they KNOW civilians will be killed.

Great so they are animals. I agree. What does that make somebody that kills innocent people though. I'll tell you, animals. Why doesn't Israel go in and root them out? I will tell you why, because they are cowards that feel the life of innocent people is worth less than members of their own army.

Israel did what they are supposed to do. When the US tells them to jump, they say how high. The US should have done this days ago. If Hezzbollah keeps fighting then Israel should do whatever they want, but when you take US money, you do what we tell you. Atleast they got that straight.

Utter BS. They rooted them out 20 years ago and they came right back. It did NOT work. Israel really needs to LEVEL 20 miles of Southern Lebanon and declare it a dead zone. No people enter, no military from the UN or anywhere else. Enter the zone and you are taken out by the UN patrolling outside the zone. If the UN cant do this, then Israel and the US will oversee the 20 mile zone.
If Hezbollah continues to use longer range rockets, make the zone wider.

Just stinkin level it. Get everyone out and destroy everything. Syria did it exactly this to an entire city that opposed their regime except they did not let anyone leave.

Why is the US, my country, doing anything? You want to waste more of my tax dolar overseeing a zone so two groups of Stone Age people can kill each other. No thanks. It is bad enough my money is given to Israel when people in my own military are underpaid and need better health insurance.

Please explain to me what the US gets out of helping Israel anyway. Answer. Nothing.

Are you an American or an Israeli? Where is your allegiance?

Pgardn and Bold Ruler,
While I certainly respect your intelligent opinions, I think there is something much more important at stake.
Israel is hell bent on dragging the US into this conflict (besides the US supplied weapons). Hezzbolah rides the point for the Arab world.
Despite a short term cease fire to evacuate the innocents, this situation has ramifications that will escalate very quickly.
In the current state of affairs, it's very easy to point fingers and accuse each side of being "animals".
Unfortunately, that doesn't bring resolution to the matter.
Blaming continues to incite.
The Arab world is "on fire" now.
In my view, it's time to take a deep breath.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0729-02.htm

Of course Israel is trying to drag the US into this conflict. Any idiot can see that. If Bush does that though he will lose the House and the Senate in the fall. Let Israel sink or swim on its own. The US should stop giving them aid and then the Arab world won't have supporting Israel to hang around our neck. It is much more important that the Arabs like us than the Israelis. We need support from the average citizen in these arab countries if we are ever going to get rid of the crazies, and we will never get it as long as we support Israel.

Its not all about what the US gets. I wish we would do more in Africa. If you think everything we do should be done just to benifit our country, you and I are on a completely different page and the "conversation" need not go on.

I support Israel as an American citizen because it is one piece of land in that entire region where the people treat each other humanely. I believe in the rule of law, individual rights, and is a democracy. You dont like these ideas?

Costs a lot less money to make a dead zone.

OK. So lets say a Canadian terrorist group supported by the CAndian government starts lobbing missiles at where you live in NY. Just to kill civilians. You dont want air strikes immediately? BS.

I respectfully disagree most vehemently. HEZBOLLAH wants to drag the US into a conflict. Do you guys remember that the southern border had been peaceful until this group of animals decided the time was right to kidnap Israelis in Israel?

Costs a lot less money? Why is it costing me any money? I am all for my tax dollar going to Africa or any country in the form of humanitarian aid, but why is billions, nearly 100 billion of US money buying a military for another country? Nobody can ever seem to answer that question. Is Israel incapable of raising taxes for their own military, or should the working class guy in america pay more taxes so Israeli's can pay less?

Stop with your hypotheticals, I live in the real world. These Stone Age people have been fighting for thousands of years and it will never end. Enough with using my tax dollar for a country that lives in the Stone Ages. It is bad enough my tax dollar is wasted in Iraq for nothing. Israel is the same thing, billions wasted for nothing.

Been reading this thread and two things are obvious:
1. you really hate Israel, so much so that you refuse to see what is so very obvious...no use continuing, you are blind.
2. you think very simplistically...the same folks who blame us for supporting Israel blame us for existing. If Israel falls, we lose a friend and the world loses a democracy...and what country do you suppose the Israeli-hating terrorists will target next?
We support Israel because it is the right thing to do...sure the bomb makers and other special interest groups have financial motives, but the average guy in the street can tell a democracy from a nest of psuedo-religious fanatics! You cannot reason with terrorists...why can't you understand that?? If Israel should fall, that solves nothing and emboldens them further. You negotiate with sane folks who want peace, you kill terrorists!

Pgardn,
1) I agree that Africa is a huge humanitarian concern, however, not on topic.
Maybe we should start a seperate thread to discuss that situation.
2) Lebanon had a democraticly elected government as well as Israel. I don't think they treat others in the region humanely. Seems to me that their treatment of Palistinians and now, Lebanese blows a big hole in that arguement.
3) Dead zones are not less costly. Even if that geographic feat could be accomplishished without a permanent occupation, the other "costs", diplomatic, strategic, and economic remain huge.
4) Canadians? Let's not degrade the topic with hypothetical bs. Stick to reality please.

Agree totally.

See the following post.

From reading this thread I can tell you care more about Israel than you do America and its citizens.

I don't hate Israel. I just don't care about them. I have cities in my own country that are in need of money, but instead my dollar is going to build a military for a country that can afford its own military. If your first allegiance is to another country, maybe you should move.

You however are clueless. We support them because "it is the right thing to do" is ridiculous. The right thing to do is take care of my own country, not some other.

Israel should do whatever it wants, just do it with their own money. I am a realist, we get nothing from Israel. Nothing. The Arab countries atleast have oil, so I see why we have to make a deal with that devil, but there is no reason to make a deal with a devil that has nothing to give you in return.

I am just going to guess the both of you have an allegiance to two countries. That is why you think my taxes should buy a military for your other country.

1. NOt on topic, but it answers BR's do it only for the US.
2. The democratically elected government is full of terrorists which then disqualifies them as a country that follows the rule of Law. Because terrorists follow no law.
3. Level may be the wrong word. No one in, monitored by satellites is very doable. Anything in the zone is immediately taken out.
4. Some people show no empathy towards others; if an example involving them directly is mandatory for understanding, I will most certainly use it.

What are you talking about? Israel has gone into Lebanon with thousands of troops over the last two weeks. Wars are usually a combination of troops and bombings. We did a ton of bombing in Iraq.

By the way, according to your logic, I guess we were huge cowards dropping a couple of nuclear bombs on Japan in World War II. I would argue that it was not cowardly on our part at all. Japan attacked us and we were defending ourselves. I guess according to your logic, we should have gone into Japan with troops instead of bombing them.

We give more of our money to Egypt than Israel. So thats 3 countries that I guess we are showing utter allegiance to. The list goes on.

I am going to ask this for the 100th time, because nobody ever can seem to answer it

Why does Israel need tax dollars from the US to have a military? Should the US taxpayer pay more in taxes so Israeli's can pay less?


I love how everyone thinks people don't like another country because they ask rational questions.

We also bombed the hell out of Bosnia and did not send a troop. The Euros where not happy about us not sending in ground troops. So hell yes, we got balls, spongy ones.

No kidding. I don't see any reason to give them money either. I love how people just make up other examples to justify things. So if we do one stupid thing, it is ok to do more stupid things. Gotcha.

Somer answered it. Read it please. Same goes for Egypt.

You are truly hopeless. The US is always going to help their allies. We have a long history of doing so. If we didn't help Britain and France in World War II, we would have been in trouble. If you were in charge back then, Germany would have taken over the world.

Luckily for us, support for Israel is a bi-partisan thing in Congress. I guess you need to explain to all the policy-makers on both sides of the aisle that supporting Israel is not in our interest.

I got a kick out of your post where you called Israel "the devil". I know that you also called the Arabs the same thing, but how could you say that about Israel? Here is a tiny country that is just trying to survive and you think they are "the devil" for defending themselves. It's a joke.

I can tell more and more somebody has Israel #1 on their list and the US #2.

The US military has huge balls. The aren't cowards like some countries. The US wasn't at war with Bosnia and did what they could working with the rest of the world. Israel is killing innocent people because they are afraid of casualties. Simple as that.

That isn't an answer. That is saying we do one stupid thing s it is ok to do another.

Ok then, insert Egypt in there too and now answer it.

The reason they have support is congress is because of their lobby. Which is fine, just like the US supporting them verbally is fine. I could care less, just stop giving my tax dollar to them so they can have a military. Use their own tax dollar. Same goes for any country that isn't giving us oil, or something in return.

This isn't a political issue for me, it is a financial one. The US should not be in the busness of giving countries money to build a military. Stay out of other countries. Just look at Iraq. Waste of my money.

This is now becoming bizarre and hopeless. We want casualities so we can say we have balls? Good God. Later. Have a good evening people. Time for some work.

Well, by "we" I guess you mean Israel, but no, you want to save innocent civilians, even if it means taking casualties. That is the problem here. Your country is more worried about their own army suffering casualties than innocent civilians.

I agree...I'm through with this thread, there is no room for logic here...just hatred of Israel.
But before I go...a brief rant: I fought for my country in Nam dip****...how dare you question my patriotism???? I watched friends die, and I did things that still haunt me at night...the price of liberty is never cheap and young people always pay it! War is hell but to allow terrorist animals to kill you at their will is insane...we can stop these thugs over there, or face them over here when it's our women and children dying...remember 9-11?? You worry so damn much about your money...lots of folks have lost something much more precious to them!!

I am sure you did fight in Nam. LOL. People who fought in it don't refer to it like that, but you already knew that. I have more involvement with the US Military than you will ever know and helped increase the death benefit recently. Feel free to send me your e-mail and I will send you my op-eds that ran in some major newspapers, and also the newspaper run by DoD, Stars and Stripes. I know for a fact the military is poorly funded and am currently fighting to increase health benefits for veterans to include mental health, PTSD in particular. Wasting money on other countries before taking care of our own is disgusting.

I guess 48 hours to the two Stone Age countries involved is different from the rest of the civilized world. :eek:

I'm not talking about Viet Nam, Bosnia, Africa, Canada, and all of the other places that come to some people's minds...
This is about Lebanon:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0731-04.htm

I agree that it's terrible and sickening when you read about all the people getting killed in Lebanon. But what can you do? You have these terrorists firing hundreds of rockets into Israel killing and injuring a lot of civilians. The Lebanese government is doing nothing to stop these terrorists from firing rockets into Israel. These terrorists fire the rockets from residential neighborhoods and hide in people's houses. I don't know what the answer is. Should Israel just sit there idly and keep getting hit by these rockets?

The thing that is so sick about this whole thing is that Hezbollah likes it when Lebanese women and children get killed. It's makes great propaganda for them. It makes Israel look like the bad guy. I think the blood is on Hezbollah's hands. They know that Lebanese civilians will get killed if they fire rockets into Israel from civilian neighborhoods.