No war in history has been won without the loss of human life. We would not have defeated Hitler without the loss of human life. Hizbollah , unprovoked, kidnaped Israeli soldiers hoping to trade them for prisoners and fired shells into Israeli cities, also unprovoked. They shelled hospitals purposefully and held Lebanese civilians hostage. Israel has lost many soldiers in this hard and painful war. The lies that are told by the Hizbollah and terrorist sympathizers boggle the mind. They are Kafka-esque lies. Israel is defending her land trying to minimize casualties, and Hizbollah is trying to maximize casualties on both sides, both to terrorize Israel and to win a mother lode of propaganda from Al Jazeera and its sympathizers in the West.

yes brian, who did start this conflict? history didn't begin on july 12.
and john, i don't quite get what exactly is so funny in hundreds of civilians dying. but maybe that's just me.

First off, it is very difficult to define what "unprovoked" means. It is very hard to point fingers at who is "right" and who is "wrong" in this conflict. Clearly, what Hizbulla did was wrong, especially that they do realize that they had acted in spite of the Lebanese government and subsequently put the entire Lebanese population at risk (even the majority of Lebanon that does not support Hizbullah). But even clearly enough, Israel's disproportionate reaction and its ignorance and apathy towards Lebanese life is just as wrong. Many Americans constantly fail to distinguish between Hizbullah and between innocent Lebanese civilians that have been hurt the most by this war.
Light for Lebanon is mainly apolitical- never have we accused Israel of "starting" the war, but we realize and are aware of the horrendous way that Israel has reacted to Hizbullah's actions. Well over 800 Lebanese civilians have already been killed and over 900,000 Lebanese have been displaced from their homes in a mass evacuation that has been said to be the largest since the Second World War.
To call people like us, who think that the loss of civilian life should be a tragedy, as "terrorist sympathizers" is awfully and morally inexcusable. Lebanese mothers grieve for their children just like Israeli (or American) mothers do. All we, as an organization ask for, is an immediate end to this war. We want a ceasefire to hault the loss of civilian life on both sides of the border and the return to a diplomatic and civil way to deal with this conflict. Israel's irresponsible actions will only make it clear to the Lebanese people that Israel is completely indifferent and unconcerned about the entire Lebanese population. The Lebanese will come out of this war realizing that entire villages have been destroyed, more than 1/8 th of their population has been displaced, and most of their infrastructure has been lost. For the world to try to explain Israel's reaction as justifiable "self defence" seems to me beyond the means of comprehension. Nothing should ever excuse violence. After all, whose ideology would you want rather teach your children: Israeli policy or Mahatma Ghandi?

Hmm... Nations have the right to defend themselves? What about Iran? Iraq? Palestine, maybe? Or is it just white allies of the United States of America, with Israel being the 51st state, that are allowed to "defend" themselves? I had no idea whatsoever that defending one's country meant demolishing one half of a country. I had no idea that bombing a building with 57 civilians in it (over half of who were children), in a city where only 10 years earlier the same aggressor (hmm... Israel maybe?) killed 106 innocent civilians staying in a UN refugee camp, denoted defense of one's country. Why did Israel deliberately attack a UN post, killing four UN observers who had been pleading with the Israelis not to kill them beforehand? I don't know but that sure does not sound like "defense" to me. Similarly, why did Israel attack the United States in 1967 killing 34 US Navy sailors? Defense of course... Just like in 1982 in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila, when Israel was responsible for the deaths (after rapes and bludgeonings) of over ONE THOUSAND innocent men, women, and children. What about in Palestine where to this day women, children, and men are being murdered by Israelis on a daily basis? Defense? If "defense" is Israel's only defense than maybe they should call up the lexicographers of the world to change the meaning of "defense" to more closely correlate with the meaning of "genocide".

Peace in the Mideast,
Cyrano de Bergerac

P.S. I would like to commend Ms. Fuller on writing a splendid article that portrays various sides of the conflict, no matter how ridiculous some people's "sides" may be.

And remember: The insufferable arrogance of human beings to think that Nature was made solely for their benefit, as if it was conceivable that the sun had been set afire merely to ripen men's apples and head their cabbages.

Your statement is a lie. Israel was attacked and its brave soldiers are dying trying to protect their country. At Bint Jbeil (as in Jenin in 2002) Israel lost its men fighting door to door when they could have flattened the place with an aerial attack, with no Israeli casualties, in order to PROTECT the civilians you falsely claim Israel deliberately targeted. The best of Israel died so that those Lebanese did not have to.

Large sections of the international media are not only misreporting the current conflict in Lebanon. They are actively fanning the flames.

The BBC World Service has a strong claim to be the number one villain. It has increasingly come to sound like a virtual propaganda tool for Hizbullah, and as it desperately attempts to prove that Israel is guilty of committing "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity," it has introduced a new charge - one which I have heard several times on air in recent days.

The newscaster reads out carefully selected "audience comments," and among these we are told that "Israel's attack on Lebanon" will serve as "a huge recruitment drive for al-Qaida worldwide." But if anything is going to win new recruits for bin Laden and his like, it will not be Israel's defensive actions, which are far less damaging than western TV stations have been trying to convince us, but the inflammatory and hopelessly one-sided way in which they are being reported by those very same news organizations.

While the slanted comments and interviews are bad enough, the degree of pictorial distortion is even worse. The way many TV stations worldwide are portraying it, you would think that Beirut has begun to look like Dresden and Hamburg in the aftermath of World War II air raids.

International television channels have used the same footage of Beirut over and over, showing the destruction of a few individual buildings in a manner which suggests that half the city has been razed.

A careful look at aerial satellite photos of the areas targeted by Israel in Beirut shows that certain specific buildings housing Hizbullah command centers in the city's southern suburbs have been singled out. Most of the rest of Beirut, apart from strategic sites like airport runways used to ferry Hizbullah men and weapons in and out of Lebanon, has been left pretty much untouched.
From the distorted imagery, selective witness accounts, and almost round-the-clock emphasis on casualties, you would be forgiven for thinking that the level of death and destruction in Lebanon is on a par with that in Darfur, where Arab militias are slaughtering hundreds of thousands of non-Arabs, or with the 2004 tsunami that killed half a million in Southeast Asia.

In fact Israel has taken great care to avoid killing civilians - even though this has proven extremely difficult and often tragically impossible, since members of Hizbullah, the self-styled "Party of God," have deliberately ensconced themselves in civilian homes. Nevertheless the civilian death toll has been mercifully low compared to other international conflicts in recent years.

THE BBC, which courtesy of the British tax payer is the world's biggest and most lavishly funded news organization, would of course never reveal how selective their reports are, since this might spoil their campaign to demonize Israel and those who support her. But one senior British journalist, working for another company, last week let slip how the news media allows its Mideast coverage to be distorted.

CNN "senior international correspondent" Nic Robertson admitted that his anti-Israel report from Beirut on July 18 about civilian casualties in Lebanon, was stage-managed from start to finish by Hizbullah. He revealed that his story was heavily influenced by Hizbullah's "press officer" and that Hizbullah has "very, very sophisticated and slick media operations."

When pressed a few days later about his reporting on the CNN program "Reliable Sources," Robertson acknowledged that Hizbullah militants had instructed the CNN camera team where and what to film. Hizbullah "had control of the situation," Robertson said. "They designated the places that we went to, and we certainly didn't have time to go into the houses or lift up the rubble to see what was underneath."
read the rest at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1154525792640&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Tala surely you know Iran is calling the shots in this war. They provoked it, they control Hizbollah, and if Hizbollah is left intact they will resume it. Your Ahmidenajab will try (again) to destroy Israel. Hizbollah is A's lackey. This is Iran's war against Israel. Most people did not believe Hitler. Most people do not believe Ahmidenejab. I do believe him. Israel is trying to get out of the West Bank, foolishly. This has been the case since 1993 when Rabin was elected. Unfortunately, those who would take power in the West Bank (as in Gaza) are trying to procure the exact same weapons that Hizbollah has. They want them for the same reason Iran wants them-- to terrorize Israel and to destroy it ultimately. The world is no better off than when Israelis were exporting lettuce from hothouses in the Gaza. They are worse off, and so are the Gaza Arab Palestinians.

John, why don't you get a good night sleep and go the library and pick up your history books again. Figures don't lie? Did you know that Germany had more civilian casualties in WWII than any other European country and the Brits once accidentally bombed a hospital killing 83 kids (unlike Hizbollah, which INTENTIONALLY bombed Rambam hospital). The US dropped the A bomb on Japan, killing half a million to save, possibly,a million Americans who might have perished in an invasion. So using figures, was Nazi Germany in the right in WWII by your logic?

Also, I think with respect to Israel and Hamas, differentiate between "killing" and "murder." They are two different things. Intentionally blowing up a bus with 50 civilians or a packed restaurant is murder,and its intentional. So is a Hamas member going to a car and shooting a woman (Tali Hatuel) and her four young children at point blank range. Israel responding to fire from a building that had launched 150 rocket attacks is self defense. They had no way of knowing, in Qana, that Hizbollah had placed 29 children in harm's way. When Nasrallah meets his maker, he will get to answer for those deaths too.

Why bother with futile discussions? Human Watch Right joined today by Amnesty International have accused Israel of commiting war crimes in Lebanon. Unless those are anti-semitic, islamo fascist organizations in disguise, I think we can all agree tha Israel campaign in Lebanon is far from being "self-defense", but closer to mass murder and state terrorism.
Lets hope the International community will have the b(a)lls to put those responsible on trial.

The UN and other groups allready condemned Hizbullah deliberate attacks against Israeli civilians. As a Lebanese, I do the same.
Quetion is are you willing to do the same?

To Tala Al-Ramahi,
I hope that you will also take a look at the map and see that there are 22 Arab Muslim countries (57 members of the Muslim nation voting bloc of the UN - which explains all those resolutions condemming Israel but none to help the poor people in Darfur for example). Please also consider Resolution 181 which called for 2 states in 1947 but which the Arabs rejected and went to war for.
When Palestinians get a state, the 23rd Arab Muslim state, I hope that it is beside Israel, not in place of Israel as so many Muslim leaders call for - including the current Palestinian government.
What you may not understand is that history has shown Jews that we really have nowhere else in the world to go.
Israel is the land of our beginnings. This is home for the Jews who have been subjected to the whims of the rulers and populations of countries we find ourselves in, often to no good end. Jews predated Muslims in this land by centuries.
Peace can happen. But Muslims have to understand that Jews take seriously threats to exterminate us. For once we can fight back. And trying to clear away 16,000 deadly missiles pointing at our cities, which were supposed to be dismantled as per UN Resolution 1559 is not disproportional force. We all weep for the innocents killed in this war but lets be clear about whose fault this is. Would you tolerate a rocket launcher on the roof of an apartment building that is housing your family?

Rob provides no evidence or reasoning for what he says.

A good way of understanding the situation and differences between the 2 sides is this. Imagine 2 situations. If the enemies sworn to Israel's destruction would lay down its arms, there would be peace.
If Israel layed down all its arms, there would be no Israel.

I have a little test for you all, especially you Rob. Can you tell me how many nations make up the Muslim voting bloc at the UN?

the present situation in the middle east is really quite disturbing. It comes at no surprise that such an attack on Lebanon would occur at a time when America is fighting its own 'war on terror' and when Palestinian, Lebanese, or Arabs at large can further be conviniently labeled "terrorists". Media coverege continues to reiterate "Israel's right to defend itself" against a Hezzbolah attack. However, it fails to include the context of a larger Israeli-Palestinian conflict that has been occuring for decades (not the often misinterpreted idea that this is an age-old religious conflict that has lasted for centuries- do your history people!!!! 1947, 1967, 1982... and so on). Its easy to blame Hezzbolah for this most recent development, yet not so easy to look at a history of War and subjegation that Israel has waged on the Palestinian poeple with the financial, military, ideological, political, and media help of hte united states- a history which does not exist without its own prisoners of war (many of which are detained for many, many years and which Hezzbolah continues to negotiate trades for). Israel's retaliation is highly unproportional and serves as a military tactic to completely and literaly level any Arab resistance, including the civilian force which intrinsically makes up that resistance. Palestinians have no other method of protection but a gerrilla method (sadly, this would not be so necessary if there wasnt such a blatant disregard for their civil and human rights as well as Israel's flagrant refusal to obey several UN resolutions). Hezzbolah is a gerilla force and as such they are supported by many Palestinian civilians who have only them to look towards for protection in any sort of an organized way since they dont have the luxury of a us-backed top-of-the-art military. Of course there are civilians where hezzbolah is, becuase hezzbolah members and supporters are just that- the civilian population of Palestine (this is not the first time in history we see american opposition labeled as 'terrorists' by the united states media yet considered gerilla forces for those who are the underdogs of several other political conflicts: the zapatistas in Mexico, the African National Congress with Mandela...) .
it is clear that the world today views objectivity within the same sphere as power- whereas it should view it were justice and truth truly reside. Democracy my ass!!!!! the UN and its ideals will never truly work unless we stop looking towards who has the big bucks to make all the dicisions. resolutions get vetoed left and right by the US and its shady hunger for more money and power- lets cut the bullshit everyone, we know whats going on and who is the real manipulating bad guy!!
If we can manage to address the truth about the US and israel and stop diverting it with claims of anti-semitism or propaganda that is seen in the way of news bites by the working population of this country (one that is kept subjegated in its own way by its government) then we can begin to see the truth that most of hte rest of the world already sees- WE are the TERRORISTS!!!!!

Read and open your eyes world.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5389.shtml

The answer is 57. There are 57 nations in the Muslim voting bloc at the UN. Many are dictatorships, monarchies and theocracies that subjugate their own people. 22 of these are members of the Arab League. The Jewish state is outnumbered 57-1 in the UN. Did it ever occur to you that this may be the reason the word terrorist has never been defined, Hezbollah has never been disarmed, Iraq is a mess, Saudi Arabia oppresses their women, the Palestinians have been refugees for 4 generations, the larger number of Jewish refugees from this period have been forgotten, bombs are strapped on children and told to go blow up pizza parlors and the poor souls of Darfur are dying at the hands of the Islamic government of Sudan.

Israel and Zionists TRIED to give Palestinians a state of their own in 1937 (Peel Plan) 1947 (Partition Plan) 1977 -79 (Camp David accords with Anwar Sadat)1993 (Oslo Plan), 2000 (Barak-Clinton Plan) 2002 (Road Map), 2005 (Gaza eviction plan). So why isn't there a Palestinian state? We all know the answer-- there is no serious partner for Israel to negotiate with and never has been. The more serious Israel gets about political settlement the more serious its opponents and enemies become in their genocidal plans, Trojan horse plans (to quote Faisal Husseini), and refusal to lay down their arms. For Israel to give an inch in this environment will make things worse. Look at the history of the past 13 years. Those who ignore history are condemned to repeat its mistakes.

I have not commented on any of this stuff, but Tala seems to have a very weak grasp on history. She says if "Israel had accepted the Native Palestinians from the beginning instead of treating them and looking at them like second class citizens and unworthy..."
First, the land help by Briton split into two states, one for the arabs and one for the Jews, called Jordan and Israel respectivly. It was not the Jews who rejected this plan, but the multiple Arab nations who declared war the second Israel was established. It did not matter if the arabs in the Israel side of the partition were treated well or not, because the Arab nations did not want a Jewish state in the middle east no matter what, period.

Arab nations in fact told the arabs living on the Israel side to leave until Israel would be destroyed, which they thought would be very east to do since Israel was one small nascent country.

And the other big proble

It is amazing to me how this group has the nerve to protest Israel's response to those who want to destroy it, while they dont do a thing to condemn terrorists.

I lose all respect for them when they have a singe minded ignorant goal of attacking Israel for any reason they can, while they dance around the subject of Hezzbolah, Hamas, Kashmiri, or other Islamic terror groups being culpable.

I critisize Israel for not being aggressive enough from the outset in driving Hezzbolah away from their borders and eliminating as many of them as possible. Now they finally seem to be picking up the pace.
The sooner Israel is allowed to do this the more stable the region will be in the long run if Hezzbolah is truly disarmed and not allowed back in southern lebanon.

Here are a few simple facts here for people to be mindful of and to help you ignore the red herrings often bantied about in this debate (such as so-and-so is the new Hitler -- sorry he's been dead for 50 years or the power/resolve of the UN -- hello, the UN was designed NOT to have any power and therefore its resolutions are meaningful in the face of naked power).

Anyway, here it goes:

1) the Jewish relocations to the Middle East started in small numbers in the late 19th century due to anti-Semetism in Europe
2) the Rothschilds pushed for - and gotten government support - for a Jewish homeland (e.g., the Balfour Declaration)
3) many European powers favored this solution -- to rid themselves of Jews. They conveniently ignored the feelings of the local populations that were being displaced (more racism)
4) The Jewish population in Palestine grew quickly, brought up land from poorer local Arabs, refused to sell to or treat local Arabs fairly, etc. with the hopes of consolidating their power and presence in the area. Ultimately, after years of concern and protest by local Arabs, the Jews announceds their confiscation of Palestine leading to the first Arab-Israeli war [it was not a spontaneous act of violence is commonly portrayed, and the Jews had prepared for it for years, hence their quick victory]
5) Israel has maintained itself as a colony of the West since its independence. It is still economically, politically, diplomatically and militarily dependent on the West for it's survival.
6) Contrary to US popular opinion, the country has always been aggressively expansionist - more land, more natural resources, control of water/ports, constantly searching for oil, attacking the Suez Canal, etc. This is what Arab's remember in addition to the bantustan-like conditions the Palestinians are trapped in.
7) Now after nearly 60 years, Israel's policies are suffering greater and greater reversals. Signs - Loosing land they took, building a separation wall, removing settlers, etc.
8) The West continues to pour aid into Israel- to prop up what is essentially a failed colony. Think Rhodesia or Algeria.

What will happen is inevitable (although not necessarily violent). It depends on how soon the parties realize the untenable nature of the situation and recognize the fact that violence (even the attempted destruction of a people (the Palentinians) and a country (Lebanon) will not crush the human spirit.

I believe the US and Israel have blown an opportunity to move the peace process. The issues are complex and need careful consideration. The conflict is long and history tells us there have been mistakes and injustices since the Balfour Declaration, Picot-Sikes Agreement, the British Mandate, etc. Does anyone know what Irgun or Haganah did to the Arabs or British? In 1946 Israeli terrorist blew up the King David Hotel, killing 91 people because they didn't like the British stopping illegal immigration to Israel. Israeli terrorist will say they were freedom fighters, fighting for their land. Funny, that's what Hizbollah says, that's what Hamas says. The Israeli terrorist executed and assasinated British government representatives in its quest for land and the establishment of their state. This land was given to them by the British and statehood was given by the UN without fair consideration of the Arabs claims to land. This would make you angry and reject that decision too. They gave them the land they took from the Palestinians by using terror tactics and political manipulation. Of course the Nazi persecution played a role in creating the sympathy for Jews.But, Jews did commit crimes against Arabs and in some cases massacres. In 1917 the Jewish population was less than 10%, when the zionist convinced the Brits to support them militarily to estabish the jewish state. They were not to disturb the balance of existing arabs who were living there. Of course the arabs were upset with the massive immigration taking place in their lands. Please read about the way Isreal was established.
My point is that is history and one needs to consider that when looking at the plight of both Jews and Arabs. As for the current conflict and my original point, I think the US who gives Israel Billions of dollars every year could play a more significant role in this conflict. If only the governments of the USA and Israel had stopped for a moment before destroying Lebanon and knowing this government was so new and just beginning to emerge, they could have prevented and the deaths of so many on both sides and come to a politial solution to this conflict and impressed the whole world of its sincere goals for peace in the region. This path has only created more divisions as you can read above and fuel hatred for both Israel and the US. Think before you act is what I say..there will be negative consequences that will follow because we didn't step in and help the Lebanese control Hezbollah in a peaceful way.

By the way, why doesn't anyone ever challenge the fact that Israel has nuclear weapons in the region and won't allow any inspections from the IAEA, or anyone else. Instead they deny they have them and put anyone who speaks out about them in Israel in jail. No wonder Saddam and Amadinajad pursue WMD. I think they should be banned by all countries in the Middle East. Did you know that Israel will receive over 3 billion dollars minimum from the USA this year and the entire budget for homeland security for the US is less than 1.5 billion for the year? Priorities..

"there will be negative consequences that will follow because we didn't step in and help the Lebanese control Hezbollah in a peaceful way."

This is one of the things I agree with you on, sort of. There are problems though. Do the Lebanese actually want to get rid of Hezbollah? Does the US want to get involved there, where over 200 marines were killed in a terrorist attack by Hezzbolah in the early 80's? What exactly would the US be doing to help them?

Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. aid since World War II. The $3-plus billion per year that Israel receives from the U.S. taxpayer is about one-fifth of the total U.S. aid budget, and amounts to more than $600 per Israeli. Most of this money is transparent, earmarked in Congress’ foreign operations (foreign aid) appropriations bills, with the three major items being military grants (Foreign Military Financing, or FMF), economic grants (Economic Support Funds, or ESF), and “refugee assistance.” Not earmarked, but also included in the foreign operations bills, is Israel’s portion of the grants for American Schools and Hospitals Abroad (ASHA). In addition, and less transparent, is the interest from early disbursement of aid and monies buried in the appropriations for other departments or agencies, primarily the Defense Department (DOD). These are mostly for so-called “U.S.-Israeli cooperative programs” in defense, agriculture, science and hi-tech industries.
Before 1998, Israel received annually $1.8 billion in military grants and $1.2 billion in economic grants. Then, beginning in FY ‘99, at the instigation of then-Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, economic grants to Israel have been reduced by $120 million and military grants increased by $60 million each year. For the current fiscal year (FY ‘06) the amounts are $2.28 billion in military and $240 million in economic grants, for a total of $2.52 billion.

The difference is is the goal of the contributors. Iran's open goal is the elimination of Israel. Israel's goal is to live in peace with its neigbors, and has given away land it won it wars started by others in order to achieve this. Also, Hezzbolah is a terrorist organization which tries to murder civilians.

I am not saying Israel does not have a monetary advantage over Hezzbolah. All I am saying is that they are justified in defending themselves against Hezzbolah.
Just because one side is poorer does not at all mean they are right.

"No wonder Saddam and Amadinajad pursue WMD"
Unlike Saddam, Israel never killed between 300,000 and 1 million people with WMDs. Unlike Iran, Israel does not threaten to destroy another country.

They are a democracy that elected a terror organization to their parliment and prime minister positions.

Hezbollah doesn't care if they kill their own people on either side of this war. Do you guys realize they have so far killed more than 10 Israeli Arabs? And why is it ok for Arab Muslims to live in Israel (1 million/a fifth of the population) but it ain't ok for Jews to live in Gaza or the West Bank.

oh yeah, the Palestinians have so much money! and you should see the rockets they use compared to the satellite weapons,500 lb bombs, bulldozers, etc. We have supplied Israel with one of the most sophisticated arsenals in the history of mankind.
Israel also has a pattern of disregarding the rights of civilians and accepted international humanitarian law. Furthermore, Israeli security forces have commit human rights abuses against Palestinians and others in the occupied territories for years.
What began as a “kidnapping of Israeli soldiers” by the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah is now being seen by some senior Bush administration officials as a golden chance to move on with the U.S. plan for the region that includes a far larger struggle with Iran and Syria, specially that the capture of the two Israeli soldiers came at a time of mounting tensions between the two Mideast powers and the West.

I hope Israel is given the chance to destroy Hezzbolah so that Lebanon can continue on its path towards democracy and so that Israeli civilans do not have to deal with rockets falling onto themselves and their children.

That's really it Alejandro. Jews don't have a taste for killing and they really want to be liked by their neighbors. (Fat chance of that happening - I know) Since it's a democracy they have to face their own people if they even thought about targeting civilians. So, that big huge military, the nuclear advantage, it's really useless to Israel when they are concerned about their image both to the world and to their own people. This is a good thing because Jews too are human and capable of terrible things. Terror groups all know this and aren't shy about bringing their wars to civilian neighborhoods. Imagine if Palestinians, Iraqis and Lebanese would not allow these thugs to operate from their neighborhoods. I suspect that is the wish of many but it is the thugs who carry the guns and the people have seen 'collaborators' slain and dragged through the streets.

Patrick - How can you fault Israel for not taking the UN seriously. There are 57 Muslim nations in the voting bloc that drafts and passes these resolutions. They are all on the same page for anything to do with Israel. 57-1. Ok, 57-2. The US has usually stuck up for Israel. And why is the mother of all UN Resolutions never brought up? That is Resolution 181 (1947) which partitioned Palestine into an Arab and a Jewish state. The Jews accepted it and the Arabs went to war.

"They despise the UN"
I dont know if Israel despises the UN, but how can any Israeli respect the UN which is regarded as a pro-arab body with so many arab and muslim countries making it up. There are several UN nations that do not even recognize Israel, and some that openly want to eliminate Israel.

My main complaint is two fold. One is that Israel pulled out of Lebanon without making sure a competant UN or other force was placed into southern lebanon to disarm Hezbollah instead of simply observe them fire rockets at Israeli civilians and kidnapp Israeli soldiers. Secondly, I think Israel should have been faster and more agressive from the beginning in pursuing Hezbollah, instead of being slow and methodical.

Hypothetically, if Hezbollah decided it wanted to use Jewish settlers in the outposts as shields- hiding among them as they fired thier rockets- do you think Israel would bomb THOSE settlements? Hell no. But for some reason Arabs across the border are expendable in Israels fight against Hezbollah.

Israel as a nation does not value non-Jewish life as equal- anyone who knows the plight of Bedouins in Israel can testify to the "Jewish state's" treatment of non-Jews. Israel currently holds over 313 children (under 18) and 109 women in Israeli prisons as security prisoners (no trial). If one of them were my family i would have to do whatever I need to do to free them- especially since Israel provides no avenues of legal recourse.

I value the secular movement in Israel- and abhore its Zionist tendencies... but as of now the whole concept of a "Jewish State" is a racist one. As an Indian, I couldnt imagine in this day an age declaring India as a "Hindu State"...any attempts to do that in the past were born out of peoples lack of humility and respect for other customs.

"Did you know the soldiers were captured on the Lebanese side of the border? No one took the time to investigate the incident."

This is classic. Lots of opinions but few facts - that's this entire issue. People always forget inconvenient facts.

Not matter how you view it, the conflict arose from displacing local inhabitants from their land. That same problem has created land ownership issues in southern Africa, South America and Asia. In America, it's not an issue because the Indians were mostly wiped out and the survivors herded onto reservations.

As stated so clearly on many posts above, Israel hasnt hesitated to use violence to achieve its goals and maintain its control on the occupied land. It comes down to force of arms...might making right.

All this noise about UN resolutions, levels of foriegn aid and who hit who first is just that....noise. Arabs oppose occupation of their land by foreign powers. You can say Arabs are violent, you can claim they're not democratic, you can even say they're corrupt but that doesn't void the key issue.

Foriegn powers have a racist lack of regard for Arab concerns. The West backs its views with nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, attack aircraft and subs.
Oh yeah, and cash to buy off corruptible Arab princes, tyrants and despots.

I beg to differ with 'watching and waiting'. Israel is not Arab land. Are Arabs so greedy that they need Israel too? Jews predated Muslims in the land by centuries. When the Ottoman Empire broke up and many Arab countries were carved out at this time as well, the Palestinian Arabs were considering being part of Syria. Palestine had never been a state with a government etc not ruled by foreigners such as Rome, Ottoman Turks, Britian. For a history of the Jews in the area you call 'Muslim land' check out any bible (Jewish or Christian). And what do you mean by occupation anyways? Are you talking about Gaza (which was already given back) and the West Bank or are you talking about all of Israel? Just curious.

I find it amazing how people will go out of their way to single out Israel for fault, when they are surrounded by religious dictatorships with very little human rights who want to destroy Israel. It is either a case of ignorance, anti-semitism, or a misguided knee jerk reaction labeling anything "western" as colonialists.

I see anti-Israel behavior common among those who are knee-jerk anti-American. Israel is the lone strong US ally in the region and thus Israel can serve as a punching bag for those countries and people in the world who hate America. It is much harder to critisize America than Israel since Israel has a lot less size, influence, economic sway, and military power than the US.

"Arabs oppose occupation of their land by foreign powers."

How much of UN recognized Lebanon was under occupation by Israel a few weeks ago when Hezzbolah did the kidnapping?

"Arabs oppose occupation of their land by foreign powers."

They don't seem to be too upset about "occupation" by foreign powers when other Arab states are threatening to take them over.

If it weren't for American "occupation" of Saudi Arabia, Saddam would be sipping martinis in Mecca and Medina.

Many of you want to have your cake and eat it too.

The Muslim world is so dysfunctional, so they use Israel as something to unify the Arab street and distract the Arab street from the terrible situations they are in due to a Islamic fundamentalism and a lack of freedoms. Palestinians and now lebanese end of being the pawns of the likes of the mullahs in Iran and the royal families in the Gulf who do not want to focus on fixing the problems in their owns countries but would rather harass Israel.