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galanter wrote:"Initial kidnapping (civilians)." Newspeak for arresting terrorists who are, in essense, soldiers working out of uniform.

galanter wrote:This didn't start with "the arrests" of two Israeli soldiers. (And as a technical matter it's not an arrest if you cross into someone else's country, and by the way something like 8 Israelis were killed in the process).

galanter wrote:This is the end result of Hezbollah preparing for the next stage of their intended destruction of Israel. It's been years in the making. It's involved the creation of bunkers and other military facilities, and the import of 10,000's of rockets, sponsored by Iran and Syria. (You remember Syria...the country that occupied Lebanon, was finally driven out, and assasinated the PM as they left?)

galanter wrote:Even if you have no sympathy of Israel, the best thing that could happen for Lebanon, not to mention the Palestinians, would be for Hezbollah to be disarmed.

galanter wrote:"Initial kidnapping (civilians)." Newspeak for arresting terrorists who are, in essense, soldiers working out of uniform.

While most civilians with money or transport are leaving the conflict zone, large numbers are trapped by Israeli shelling or because they cannot afford the $1,000 charged by taxi drivers to deliver fuel or drive families to safety.

Israel's government spokesman, Avi Pazner, said Israel has already opened safe corridors across Lebanon for shipments and claimed that Hizbollah guerrillas were blocking them in order to create a humanitarian aid crisis.

'There is no need for a temporary, 72-hour cease-fire because Israel has opened humanitarian corridors to and from and Lebanon,' he told reporters.

'The problem is completely different. It is Hizbollah who is deliberately preventing the transfer of medical aid and of food to the population of southern Lebanon in order to create a humanitarian crisis, which they want to blame Israel for.'

The top UN humanitarian coordinator in Lebanon, Mona Hammam, greeted this claim with incredulity saying convoys so far had encountered 'no problems' from Hizbollah.

Observer journalists travelling in the south of the country also failed to encounter attempts by Hizbollah to prevent the passage of aid. Instead, in conversations with aid agencies and Lebanese officials on the ground it was clear that Israel's continuing attacks on the remaining open routes in and out of the south were preventing the distribution of aid.

Shaista Aziz of Oxfam also echoed complaints that Israeli attacks were preventing the aid effort.

'The Oxfam rapid response team only managed to get in yesterday,' she told The Observer today. 'The reason was lack of security - the bombing. We have still been unable to get our aid workers to the south where they are desperately needed.

'We have to think extremely carefully about where we go and in what vehicles, because the Israelis are attacking vehicles over a certain length.

'It means that only 20 tonnes at a time is getting moved. On the Syrian border the World Food Programme is being forced to unload trucks of aid into smaller vehicles for safety. We need an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and access to the south to be able to assess and deal with this humanitarian disaster.'

steve wrote:

galanter wrote:Even if you have no sympathy of Israel, the best thing that could happen for Lebanon, not to mention the Palestinians, would be for Hezbollah to be disarmed.

I have sympathy for Israel. She is surrounded by people who hate her.

Even if you have no sympathy for the Lebanese, not to mention the (rest of the) Palestinians, the best thing that could happen for them would be for Israel to stop killing them by the hundreds.

Being Killed with Hezbollah Disarmed < Not Being Killed Whether Hezbollah Disarms or Not.

steve wrote:

galanter wrote:"Initial kidnapping (civilians)." Newspeak for arresting terrorists who are, in essense, soldiers working out of uniform.

So, if the Israeli soldiers initially captured by Hezbollah weren't in uniform, and hence only "in essence" soldiers, rather than "in toto" soldiers, you would consider them "arrested" rather than "kidnapped," and this whole thing wouldn't have started? Or do special rules apply to Arabs conducting "arrests?"