I don’t understand why Arafat refused that last peace offer from Bill Clinton. Clinton said he offered the Palestinians just about everything they asked for. When Arafat turned him down, Clinton said he knew he wasn’t seriously interested in a peace settlement. Why don’t the Palestinians want peace?

My ancesters come from Holland. Maybe the United States should go there and take Holland back for me. We will make it a Quaker State and drive everybody else out.

Yes, sounds fair and reasonable.

What happens if Iran gets a nuclear warheads from North Korea? Yes, I know Israel also has nuclear weapons, but who wants to risk nuclear war?

The U.S. has abandoned its dual role as peace-keeper and supporter of Israel. Now the policy is merely support of Israel, with no pretense at neutrality. Do you think there won’t be more anti-American backlash , even by moderate countries like Egypt and Jordan? I guess Bush is giving up on the “hearts and minds” part of his ME policy.

I blame the British for setting up this mess in the first place. They were well-meaning but they were naive to think that the Palestinians would just eventually accept Israel’s right to exist and be absorbed by other Arab countries in the region. And shouldn’t Germany do more to help? They drove the Jews out of Europe in the first place.

That has been my point for the past thirty five years.

They were not “transplantedâ€? anywhere. They went down there voluntarily with the specific intent to take that land away from the Arabs. They started killing Arabs and Brits with five named terrorist organizations a decade before WWII. Long before the Nazi persecution of the Jews. Its all public knowledge. You just have to dig a bit because it seems to be getting harder and harder to find.

Because it will produce another result, not civil war. It will instead cause them to join together since the country is ruined, and fight Israel as one unit. If Israel want’s civil war in Lebanon you sure as hell don’t do it by attacking every group there, you support the non-Hezbollah groups and recognize the government separate of Hezbollah. You use diplomacy to freeze them out, and offer under the table to stomp Hezbollah some for the fledgling Lebanese government, and they might have gotten somewhere with clearer results.

I say let them do it.

Hahahahahaha…….BWAAAAHAhahahahahaha…….

We can leave Iraq at anytime and at aytime it would be to our benefit to do so. We do not need to have troops in Iraq.

From a more cost-benefit viewpoint… Israel doesn’t want to blow away the Lebanese government. As Brij (and very few others) note, Lebanon is a democracy. It’s quite possible that if it weren’t for the Syrian/Iranian implantation of Hezbollah (estimated at over half a million USD a month, likely more), Lebanon could be a normal if unstable friend (not likely, but possible).

Israel can’t afford to toss anarchy into the country: it’s simply too likely to make things worse than they currently are. Hezbollah or a similar group could establish a dictatorship in Lebanon. Or the LAF could go nuts, that could end nastily, too.

Israel doesn’t need to blow apart the Lebanese government. It needs to blow Hezbollah out.

They’ve got two options. If Hezbollah’s money is coming primarily from the Lebanese government, the Israelis need to show the Lebanese people a good reason to get the Hs out of politics. If it’s coming from Iran and Syria, we’d be better off using Hezbollah and other proxy groups to drain the two mullacracies of funding.

I do not believe the “this war� is about the safety of Israeli civilians. I believe it is merely an extension of a war that began in the 1930s with five Jewish terrorist organizations killing Arabs and Brits to take over Palestine. One that has been repeated several times. Beyond that it is a Carthinigan-Arab tribal squabble that the United States has allowed itself to be dragged into. You must remember that Jew is not a race but a religion and the Arab and the Jew are the same race, (ref: Encyclopedia).

Israel being a Democracy pounding the regions only other democracy is rather Ironic. I would venture a guess that Israel did not have to destroy so much Lebanese infrastructure. They gave no descriptive reason for it. Seems very cruel and an awful unnecessary over-reaction..

After that Brij, your analogy descends into rhetorical assumptions and assertions as you run out of logic.

I have a better idea. Why not demand all Shia be removed from Lebanon and sent to Iran or forever shut their mouths? If they decide to stay and be good, then Israel foots the bill for their prosperity and domestic tranquility. A few hundred million a year should be a small price to pay.