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Add to NewsvineWell, this is depressing as hell. A man who made an Israeli child watch him murder her father, and then killed the child, has returned to a hero's welcome in Lebanon, which is now effectively ruled by Hezbollah. Excerpt:
The government declared a national day of celebration, closing all government offices and banks, and many private businesses closed as well. The president, the prime minister and others tried to present the swap as a triumph for Lebanon, not just Hezbollah, which is considered a terrorist group by the United States. But there was no disguising the fact that, in the eyes of its followers and many others, Hezbollah had scored a historic victory.Sheik Nasrallah had ordered the kidnapping of the two Israelis with the express purpose of using them as bargaining chips to free all Lebanese from Israeli jails.
[snip]
"The result is that Hezbollah emerges as a force in Lebanon that can deliver," Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, a political analyst in Lebanon and an expert on Hezbollah, wrote on the openDemocracy Web site. "Thereby perpetuating an important political dynamic -- of the nonstate actor which functions as the de facto state versus the state nonactor which merely enjoys the status of the de jure state."
[snip]
"Nasrallah and Hezbollah are divine," said Marwa Moussa, 24, as she waited hours in the thick heat of the summer for the celebration to begin. "They can achieve what no one else can."
What lovely people. Well and truly.
In other news from the Dept. of Islamist Barbarians and Psychotics, Assud the Jew-Hating Bunny is threatened on a Hamas kids' TV show with having his hand chopped off for stealing. A child viewer phones in to vote for snicker-snacking the hare's digits, etc.
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quote: "In the abstract, Judaism is as nasty as Islam. The only thoroughly evil religious texts are the Koran and the Torah - read the New Testament, Vedas, Gita, Tipitaka, Granth Sahib, or whatever - there's nothing to compare."
Well, "good" and "evil" are religious concepts to begin with. It's just flat out superstitious to believe in "good" and "evil" if one isn't a religious person. And from what I gather, you aren't. This of course means your criticism of the Torah doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
rr
Posted by: rr | July 17, 2008 10:41 PM
Up until fairly recently, I have appreciated Israel as the only free democracy in the middle east, yet been very critical of many of their actions. However, this episode has turned me into a 100% supporter of Israel. I don't care if they bomb the crap out of these freaking people and kill man, woman and child, to be perfectly frank. The monsters are getting back well fed, well cared for soldiers and a murderer to boot. These men have been given medical care, exercise, proper nutrition, reading materials, visits from the red cross, etc., etc, etc. The Israelis are getting back bags of bones and a pitifully incomplete dossier on a long lost soldier. A well cared for child murderer for the bones of soldiers doing their duty. Not to mention that it's a pretty good bet that they tortured the Israeli soldiers before murdering them. But we should worry about the suffering of people who have no human decency towards their enemies, their women or their country men who think differently than themselves. From this point forward, Israel has my complete support for whatever they do. I only feel badly that they are the ones who have to deal with such monsters. If other free, liberal democracies were forced to deal so closely with these monsters, no doubt there would be many fewer peace activists.
Posted by: me | July 17, 2008 11:54 PM
Yes, the released terrorist Kuntar is a Lebanese Druze (many Israeli Druze are enthusiastic soldiers in the Israeli Army). And Hizbullah comes out of the same world view, in words and deeds, as our friends and allies in Iraq (the Dawa Party of Prime Minister Al-Maliki). In fact, the spiritual leader of Hizbullah was for many years a spiritual leader for Dawa - the Lebanese Ayatullah Hussein Fadlallah, who spent many years in the Iraqi holy city of Najaf.
There are plenty of monsters on every side in the Middle East, including the Israelis, with Lebanese children being killed and maimed until now by the hundreds of thousands of Israeli cluster bombs dropped over towns and villages two years ago. Of course, some of those were made in the USA and illegally used against civilians.
They are all brutal. Since the Israelis have F-16s and advanced weaponry, it is far easier for them to kill their targets "cleanly" from afar, which makes them (and their amen corner in the US) feel so much better about their purity of arms and good will. The weaker side - the Arabs - was largely artisanal in its violence until recently: a knife, stones, suicide bombers, etc. Of course, the Iranians have really equipped Hizbullah with a lot of better weaponry and equipment.
And even though all sides are brutes and killers in the Middle East, only one country gets carte blanche from the White House and Capitol Hill.
Posted by: Manfred Arcane | July 18, 2008 5:40 AM
Ossicle: If you act as Israel has acted, the skulls of some of your citizens are going to get crushed. If they didn't want that to happen, they should've withdrawn to their proper borders decades ago. In my view (and the view of many other people), their occupation is as barbaric and psychotic as anything their adversaries have done.
Ossicle, you're entitled to any view you wish to hold, but it would seem to me that if you want some insight on the "proper borders" theory, there would be two major points of reference:
1) Israel from 1948 to 1967, during which time I assume you agree that Israel was defined and occupied territory within only its proper borders (please correct me if I have misunderstood your point); and
2) the offer made in 2000 by Ehud Barak to Yassir Arafat, the career terrorist, that Israel should cease to occupy the West Bank, Gaza, and even withdraw from large sections of East Jerusalem - essentially, giving the Palestinians a state in every bit of territory onto which they had officially laid claim.
During the first nineteen years of Israel's existence, it was frequently and viciously attacked and threatened by its Arab neighbours.
After the Camp David meetings in 2000, when Yassir Arafat had everything he had ever asked for and more than he could have hoped for, he went home and incited his people to the second intifadeh.
The problem, from the Arab point of view and the Muslim point of view, is not Israel's "proper borders" and its occupation of territory outside the pre-1967 borders. The problem is Israel itself. Do you seriously think that Samir Kuntar and other murderers are motivated out of indignation at Israel's seizure of territory outside their "proper borders" during a war? These killers and the disgusting people that support them are motivated by the desire to destroy Israel in its entirety and to kill Jews.
It really is that simple, and the talk of depression, barbarism and psychosis is only poppycock if you are wracked with equivocation. The truth is there for all to see.
Posted by: Jeff Sullivan | July 18, 2008 9:14 AM
It's a trend!
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/021879.php#comments
Posted by: Lynn | July 20, 2008 10:12 PM
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