Hezbollah

I got a call the other night from a listener, who wanted to know, and I quote:

"Why does everybody hate the Israelis so much?"

I went through the litany of reasons both sides in the Arab-Jew conflict hate each other, and how things are hardly going to get solved quickly or easily given how long things have gone on, and then went on to explain why Hezbollah is as militant as it is. The gist of my rant was on righteous religious indignation, and how such an approach to life is as destructive as it gets.

Both sides have been sticking to their guns so ferociously that diplomacy is almost laughable, and all attempts have failed. The occasional glimpse of hope is quickly snuffed out by those extremists whose position of power demands constant conflict and fear amongst its constituency.

Hezbollah is organized as such a terror unit, and the fact that the elections in Lebanon lead some to believe that Hezbollah is now a morally legitimate organization is equivalent to saying that a Lebanese terrorist gang got one of its own elected into office - that neither legitimizes their continued existence, nor does it mean they will be any more likely to work for peace.

I'm afraid it means that Hezbollah now feels more emboldened to do what they did: attack Israel out of righteous religious indignation. Let's hope Israel is extremely effective in wiping the members of Hezbollah off the face of the earth.

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• American Jews and Israel's Future
A new poll released last week from J Street, the self-proclaimed "pro-Israel, pro-peace" political action committee, contained very promising data regarding American Jews and their views of the Middle East peace process. The poll found that, of 800 American Jews surveyed, 76% believed that Israel should negotiate with its enemies, and that 81% would support any peace deal the Israeli government made with an Arab state. These numbers are very important in light of Israel's recently begun peace • Mosaic News - 07/23/08: World News From The Middle East
Dandelion Salad Warning . This video may contain images depicting the reality and horror of war/violence and should only be viewed by a mature audience. linktv For more: http://www.linktv.org/originalseries ?Obama Tells Israel He?s Committed to its Security,? Al Jazeera English, Qatar ?Mixed Reaction to Obama in Israel,? IBA TV, Israel ?Hezbollah Hands Syria Remains of 114 Arab Fighters,? Al Jazeera TV, Qatar ?Sudan?s President Pays Defiant Visit to Darfur,? Dubai TV, UAE ?Turkey?s R • If You?re Not ?
If you?re not reading William S. Lind, you?re doing yourself a disservice. He?s not as cool or hip or abrasive as the War Nerd, but he?s every bit as good. Evidence by William S. Lind: From the perspective of 4GW theory, it is beginning to look as if the drug traffickers/Hezbollah model may be more sophisticated and more successful than the al Qaeda model. Al Qaeda seemingly is on the ropes in Iraq, not because of the ?surge? but because of its own blunders. To at least some extent those blu • Hezbollah?s Independent ?Foreign Policy? Forges Ahead
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The following is cross-posted on the Lilith Blog: The Zionist Women?s Organization, Hadassah, had its annual convention last week in Los Angeles. Plenty of noteworthy goings on went on there. But that will have to wait for another post. Right now I?m more interested in what happened at last year?s convention in New York. Having attended the closing brunch of the convention, I posted my thoughts about Hadassah then, but I didn?t post about the most moving ? and tragic ? part of the event, whe

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