Israel Marks 60th Anniversary of Independence Amid Uncertainty About Future

[jillian]

Its not anymore true than the last time you said it.

and your saying it's not true doesn't make it any less true than when i said it the first time.

 

[Annie]

Interesting read:

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MGM4M2M5YWRhYWY4YzgwYjdkYWI2NTViMmM5MTc2MTM=

Be Careful What You Wish For
Israel’s doom would be bad news for Europe.

By Mark Steyn

Almost everywhere I went last week — TV, radio, speeches — I was asked about the 60th anniversary of the Israeli state. I don’t recall being asked about Israel quite so much on its 50th anniversary, which as a general rule is a much bigger deal than the 60th. But these days friends and enemies alike smell weakness at the heart of the Zionist Entity. Assuming President Ahmadinejad’s apocalyptic fancies don’t come to pass, Israel will surely make it to its 70th birthday. But a lot of folks don’t fancy its prospects for its 80th and beyond. See the Atlantic Monthly cover story: “Is Israel Finished?” Also the cover story in Canada’s leading news magazine, Maclean’s, which dispenses with the question mark: “Why Israel Can’t Survive.”

...

 

[RetiredGySgt]

Oh look, the peace loving terrorists have laid down their arms.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080511/ts_nm/lebanon_dc

Well not really. For having quit fighting I wonder why the press is lying and saying fighting has SPREAD? Perhaps Larkinn can come tell us why this story is not true?

 

[Larkinn]

Oh look, the peace loving terrorists have laid down their arms.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080511/ts_nm/lebanon_dc

Well not really. For having quit fighting I wonder why the press is lying and saying fighting has SPREAD? Perhaps Larkinn can come tell us why this story is not true?

Only you would be stupid enough to link an article that supports my pov.

From your article

Lebanon's political stalemate turned violent on Wednesday after the government decided to try to move against a military communications network operated by Hezbollah, and sacked the head of security at Beirut airport, who is close to the group.

Hezbollah called the move a declaration of war, saying the network had played a key role in its war with Israel in 2006.

Hezbollah seized much of west Beirut on Friday, then pulled back to let the army take control of areas they had captured after the army overturned the government's decisions.

However, Hezbollah said it would maintain a campaign of civil disobedience until all its demands were met.

They are trying to overthrow the government...by pulling back? Please explain how pulling back falls into their plan of overthrowing the government.

 

[Larkinn]

and your saying it's not true doesn't make it any less true than when i said it the first time.

I provided an argument to back it up. You've done nothing but repeat assertions.

 

[Annie]

Only you would be stupid enough to link an article that supports my pov.

From your article



They are trying to overthrow the government...by pulling back? Please explain how pulling back falls into their plan of overthrowing the government.

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/totten/5371

Lebanon’s Third Civil War
Michael J. Totten - 05.10.2008 - 9:22 AM

The third civil war has begun in Lebanon.

The first war was a short one. Sunni Arab Nationalists in thrall to Egyptian dictator Gamal Abdel Nasser wanted to attach Lebanon to the United Arab Republic – a brief union of Egypt and Syria. An even larger bloc of Maronite Christians resisted. A nation cannot hold itself together when a large percentage of its population – roughly a third – wish to be annexed by foreign powers.

The second war was a long one. This time, Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Liberation Organization formed a state-within-a-state in West Beirut and South Lebanon and used it as a launching pad for terrorist attacks against Israel. Again, Lebanon’s Christians resisted, as did Lebanon’s Shias. The second civil war was actually a series of wars that were merely triggered by that first fatal schism.

The third civil war resembles both the first and the second. With Iranian money and weapons, Hezbollah has built its own state-within-a-state in South Lebanon and South Beirut which is used as a base to wage war against Israel. Hezbollah also wishes to violently yank Lebanon from its current pro-Western alignment into the Syrian-Iranian axis. Roughly one-fourth of the population supports this agenda. No country on earth can withstand that kind of geopolitical tectonic pressure. For more than a year members of Hezbollah have tried unsuccessfully to topple the elected government with a minimal use of force, but their patience is at an end and they have turned to war....

“Hezbollah is not mounting a coup,” Charles Malik writes from Beirut at the Lebanese Political Journal. “They do not want to control ALL of Lebanon. They have no interest in controlling state institutions.”

This is mostly right. As long as Hezbollah gets what it wants, taking over all of Lebanon is unnecessary, as well as most likely impossible. But this is still a coup d’etat of a sort. What happened is, literally, a blow against the state. Until this week, Hezbollah existed both inside and beside the state. Hezbollah now exists above the state, the parliament, the police, and the army. No member of Hezbollah will be arrested or prosecuted as they would in a normal and properly sovereign country.

...

Though Hezbollah still occupies West Beirut, the city is reportedly calm at the moment – but don’t expect that to last long. Hezbollah is a Shia army in league with the Islamic Republic of Iran, while West Beirut is mostly made up of hostile Sunnis aligned with Saudi Arabia, France, and the United States. Lebanese blogger Mustafa at Beirut Spring put it plainly: “Expect the fight for Beirut to begin in earnest later with the distinct trademark of an occupied population: Hit and run.”

Even if Hezbollah does withdraw and real calm prevails in the near term, Lebanon has crossed a threshold from which there likely will be no recovery. Quiet may resume, but it will be the quiet of cold war rather than peace.

Hezbollah has always said its weapons were pointed only at Israel, though many knew better. Hezbollah even brags (although it’s not true) that they did not turn their weapons against Lebanese during the last civil war. Both of these lies have now been exposed before the whole world.

There may be lulls in the violence, but there will be no real peace in Lebanon until Hezbollah is disarmed or destroyed.