Israel strikes Lebanon

[Janice]

The UN did absolutely nothing today. Just let it go.

[nystate]

If so, Israel should retaliate by a massive campaign against the Lebanese civilians.

The Lebanese civilians are not involved in this. Hezbollah is controlled mainly by Iran and Syria; the Lebanese are for the most part powerless to stop Hezbollah as that would result in civil war. Believe it or not, many Lebanese civilians were as angry with Hezbollah as the Israelis were when this thing started.

Israel should leave Lebanon alone and go after Syria, and if need be, Iran. I'm sure that the United States would help Israel immensely if Iran decided to get into the mix.

[Derek Ortt]

I agree, they need to go after Syria and Irna, but I do not subscribe to the theory that the Lebanese government is innocent

[feederband]

If so, Israel should retaliate by a massive campaign against the Lebanese civilians.

The Lebanese civilians are not involved in this. Hezbollah is controlled mainly by Iran and Syria; the Lebanese are for the most part powerless to stop Hezbollah as that would result in civil war. Believe it or not, many Lebanese civilians were as angry with Hezbollah as the Israelis were when this thing started.

Israel should leave Lebanon alone and go after Syria, and if need be, Iran. I'm sure that the United States would help Israel immensely if Iran decided to get into the mix.

Agree to a point ..But right now the rockets are coming in from Lebanon..

[Stephanie]

I just tried to fax something over to Lebanon for a customer but couldn't get the call through. Her sister and brother are stuck in the city and trying to get out. They're American citizens and the embassy is not able to help them very much from what she was telling me. They're trying to get help from the French embassy being her sister was married in Paris. I pray they can get out. Oh and the sister has 2 young children, 5 and 3 years old with her.

I hope that they are able to get the heck out of there soon. This is only going to get worse, IMHO.

[kevin]

Let me repeat what nystate said :

The Lebanese are for the most part powerless to stop Hezbollah because that would mean civil war.

Its probably better for them to actually resist Israel together.

One who isn't familiar with the civil war and mass sectarian violence that destroyed Lebanon really don't have a leg to stand on when they criticize the fact that Hezbollah isn't disarmed.

Lebanon = extension of Syria.

[cycloneye]

Hezbollah is an extension of Iran.If Iran gets involved here,then the U.S should also enter to strike those nuke plants that Iran has.

[Janice]

Yes, Cycloneye, you are so right. Because if Iran gets involved, they will be prepared to go all the way. We need to take action quickly.

[Janice]

Militants blow hole in Gaza-Egypt border gate


GAZA CITY (CNN) -- Armed with rocket-propelled grenades, Hamas militants blew open a gate Friday on the border between Gaza and Egypt, allowing hundreds of people to cross into Gaza.

Militants wounded an Egyptian officer in the raid on the Rafah crossing, The Associated Press reported.

People streamed through the open gate, and the atmosphere grew tense as Israeli attack helicopters hovered over the area.

At the time, some 500 people were inside a lounge in a terminal on the Egyptian side of the border, according to witnesses and security sources.

The people were awaiting deportation back to Gaza because they lacked the proper paperwork.

The crossing has been closed since June 25, when three groups of Palestinian militants, including Hamas' military wing, captured an Israeli soldier.

Israel sent forces into Gaza and clamped down on residents' movements after the capture of Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit, 19, and the killing of two of his colleagues.

Hamas and other militants have demanded a swap for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, but Israel has refused.

In other developments, the Israel Defense Forces said it withdrew some troops from central Gaza on Friday after they completed "their activities in the area" but said forces remained in southern Gaza.

Israel also says it wants to stop Palestinian militants from firing rockets from Gaza into Israeli towns and villages.

Four Israelis were treated for shock after militants' Qassam rockets struck the border town of Sderot on Friday, the IDF said.

The Israeli army said it hit more than 30 armed militants overnight in land and sea attacks, targeting seven groups that the military asserted were plotting against Israeli troops. The fate of the militants was not immediately known.

Military action on Thursday included a missile strike aimed at the Palestinian Foreign Ministry headquarters in Gaza City.

Witnesses and Palestinian security sources said 10 people were wounded and the building's fourth and fifth floors were hit.

CNN's Ben Wedeman contributed to this report.

[cycloneye]

Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Dan Gillerman said many missiles that have been fired from Lebanon toward the northern Israel were made in Iran.

"Many of the long-range missiles fired into Israel in the recent days were Iranian missiles made by the same regime that is now trying to possess nuclear weapons," Gillerman said at the U.N. on Friday.


I say it's time for the U.S and Israel to go and bomb the Iranian Nuke Plants.

[NBCintern]

Yes, Cycloneye, you are so right. Because if Iran gets involved, they will be prepared to go all the way. We need to take action quickly.

Who is "WE" that you speak of?

[Janice]

The UN for one.....

[kevin]

We = group think.

[feederband]

The UN for one.....

Forget the U.N....That place is a joke.

[Janice]

Everything that is happening in the Middle East is affecting the whole world. We, the people of all nations need to help get this resolved. I believe the UN is useless too, but we need to try to get some type of control over this.

[NBCintern]

We = group think.

Eh, group think meaning the US also. We should not get involved, since this is a Israeli problem...

[sunny]

Just found this - thought I'd share it:

"Neighborhood Bully" (Dylan's lyric/poem about Israel)

Well, the neighborhood bully, he's just one man,
His enemies say he's on their land.
They got him outnumbered about a million to one,
He got no place to escape to, no place to run.
He's the neighborhood bully.

The neighborhood bully just lives to survive,
He's criticized and condemned for being alive.
He's not supposed to fight back, he's supposed to have thick skin,
He's supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in.
He's the neighborhood bully.

The neighborhood bully been driven out of every land,
He's wandered the earth an exiled man.
Seen his family scattered, his people hounded and torn,
He's always on trial for just being born.
He's the neighborhood bully.

Well, he knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticized,
Old women condemned him, said he should apologize.
Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad.
The bombs were meant for him.
He was supposed to feel bad.
He's the neighborhood bully.

Well, the chances are against it and the odds are slim
That he'll live by the rules that the world makes for him,
'Cause there's a noose at his neck and a gun at his back
And a license to kill him is given out to every maniac.
He's the neighborhood bully.

He got no allies to really speak of.
What he gets he must pay for, he don't get it out of love.
He buys obsolete weapons and he won't be denied
But no one sends flesh and blood to fight by his side.
He's the neighborhood bully.

Well, he's surrounded by pacifists who all want peace,
They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease.
Now, they wouldn't hurt a fly.
To hurt one they would weep.
They lay and they wait for this bully to fall asleep.
He's the neighborhood bully.

Every empire that's enslaved him is gone,
Egypt and Rome, even the great Babylon.
He's made a garden of paradise in the desert sand,
In bed with nobody, under no one's command.
He's the neighborhood bully.

Now his holiest books have been trampled upon,
No contract he signed was worth what it was written on.
He took the crumbs of the world and he turned it into wealth,
Took sickness and disease and he turned it into health.
He's the neighborhood bully.

What's anybody indebted to him for?
Nothin', they say.
He just likes to cause war.
Pride and prejudice and superstition indeed,
They wait for this bully like a dog waits to feed.
He's the neighborhood bully.

What has he done to wear so many scars?
Does he change the course of rivers?
Does he pollute the moon and stars?
Neighborhood bully, standing on the hill,
Running out the clock, time standing still,
Neighborhood bully.

[brunota2003]

BEIRUT, Lebanon - The fighting between Israeli forces and Islamic militants in Lebanon hasn't touched Iran or Syria yet, but many analysts think those countries were the hidden hand behind Hezbollah's capture of two Israeli soldiers.

At the White House and in Arab capitals, the belief is strong that the Mideast's top two hard-line states are playing a dangerous game to increase their influence. However, analysts say it could backfire and weaken Hezbollah, and by extension its two patrons.

"We would be idiots if we believed it was only about the Israeli captives," Hazem Saghieh, a senior Lebanese columnist with the London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat, told The Associated Press.

"The issue, at the end of the day, is all about Syria and Iran, and Hezbollah is just giving them more trump cards," Saghieh said.

Wednesday's seizure of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah guerrillas came at a time of mounting tensions between the two Mideast powers and the West.

Iran is embroiled in a diplomatic fight with Europe and the U.S. over its nuclear program. Washington accuses Syria of sending insurgents to Iraq, interfering in Lebanon and hosting the Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Syria is also believed to have been behind the collapse of a deal that would have led to the release of an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas militants along Israel's frontier with Gaza on June 25.

Iran and Syria, analysts say, believe the intensified violence will help strengthen their positions in their conflicts with the West and show they hold the key to a settlement of the Arab-Israeli issue.

The White House said Wednesday, hours after Hezbollah took the two Israelis, that it holds Iran and Syria responsible.

On Friday, French President Jacques Chirac implicitly suggested the two states might have a role in the expanding crisis, saying he has "the feeling, if not the conviction, that Hamas and Hezbollah wouldn't have taken the initiatives alone."

Moderate Arab governments like Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia appear to have the same belief — though they haven't said so outright because of a reluctance to show splits with fellow Muslim nations. Instead, it's reflected in their mild criticisms of Israel's air campaign in Lebanon and their indirect denunciations of Hezbollah.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Friday that Israel couldn't hurt Iran in its campaign, declaring Israel and its Western supporters "do not even have the power to give Iran a nasty look."

Earlier, he called Syrian President Bashar Assad and assured him that if Israel attacks Syria "it will be equivalent to an attack on the whole Islamic world and the regime (Israel) will face a crushing response."

Ahmadinejad has often fanned anti-Israeli sentiment to bolster his image as a fierce opponent of the West, saying Israel should be "wiped off the map" and casting doubt on the Nazi Holocaust.

The Iranians "have an interest in fomenting as much trouble here as they can and think that it will benefit them somehow in terms of their ambitions in the region and ultimately how they resolve the nuclear question," said Dennis Ross, a former U.S. Mideast envoy.

"In the case of Syria ... they feel this makes them a factor, that people have to pay attention to them," he said.

But they may have miscalculated.

In Lebanon, there is mounting resentment against the Hezbollah action, which has killed a tourism season many had expected to be one of Lebanon's best.

If Hezbollah fails to win a prisoner swap for the soldiers and if Israel carries out its threat to push Hezbollah away from its border, the group will be blamed for the damage to Lebanon.

"Hezbollah will definitely emerge as a loser," said Saghieh, the columnist for Al-Hayat. "It's hijacked the country and is demanding the Lebanese pay with their lives for its actions."

"The people and other political parties are going to demand that Hezbollah account for its actions since it has always claimed that its resistance offered us protection," he said.

Paul Salem, director of the Middle East Center of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said Hezbollah's military presence in the south was seen by many Lebanese as a deterrent against any Israeli attack on Lebanon and even on Iran.

"But if you use your military power, you lose it," said Salem. "It will no longer be a deterrent."

Israel destroyed the home and office of Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah on Friday, but Hezbollah said Nasrallah and his family were safe.

While Iran doesn't have a stake in seeing the violence end, Syria might "if they decide that it's becoming more costly to them," Ross said.

"That's where the Saudis could play a major role," by pressuring Damascus, he said.

Saudi Arabia has harshly criticized Hezbollah, without naming it directly, for escalating the situation, saying "uncalculated adventures" could precipitate a new Middle East crisis.

Interesting read there IMHO...

[Audrey2Katrina]

I pray they can get out. Oh and the sister has 2 young children, 5 and 3 years old with her.

I pray for them too, CM; they did not ask to be caught in the middle of this mess. Keep us abreast of any new developments.

A2K

[Audrey2Katrina]

I hope the UN can help make peace

I hope for peace.. sincerely; but I doubt the UN could find their own rear-end using both hands. JMO.

A2K