Hypocrisy in action....

Check this article out.
I have serious issues with the following:

"While the United Nations says that Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon is complete and that the Shebaa Farms is Israeli-occupied Syrian land, Lebanon and Syria insist that the area is still occupied Lebanese soil."

So where was the ranting and raving, the killing or kidnapping of the occupiers (The Syrians) ????

This is too damn funny

Read the 1st comment. Talk about a gut buster!

Did Terje Roed-Larsen actually say this?

Naharent has Roed-Larsen quoted as saying:

The international community will not allow Israel to invade Lebanon again, nor is Israel willing to repeat the "costly" experience. But Hizbullah "provocations" along the border, could draw "devastating military strikes," according to U.N. envoy Terje Roed-Larsen.The Norwegian diplomat, who is overseeing the implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559, lashed out at both south Lebanon antagonists – Israel and Hizbullah - in a Nov. 21 debate at Harvard University in Boston. An Nahar carried excerpts of his remarks in its Sunday edition.Referring to last week's clashes in the south, Roed-Larsen said: "I cannot describe what happened as an act of resistance, because there's nothing to resist. Hizbullah's actions were provocative and exposed the Lebanese population to danger."Could Israel re-invade? He was asked."The occupation of Lebanon was costly, and the international community will not allow a repetition of this experience," Roed-Larsen answered. "But Israel could deal a devastating military blow to Lebanon, not by invading it, but by mounting intensive air strikes."


But I am unable to find another source for this

Hey Lebanon, Russia just stabbed you in the back

If this is true, remember that Russia just hurt your chances for getting the truth out of Syria.

Why can the Middle Eastern Editorialists not see the real issue

This just drives me nuts. Everything has to be shrouded by the evil intentions of the 'Zionists' or the 'hidious Sharon'.

The issue this time? Hizbullah, Shaba'a Farms and Israel (again.)

Background:
The Shaba'a Farms are recognized by the UN as Syrian. (Israel captured the disputed portion in the 1967 war.)
Lebanon claims it, Syria agrees. Both parties claim Syria gave the territory to Lebanon in 1951. But the UN for some reason does not fully agree with this. (Keep in mind Syria believes that Lebanon IS Syrian territory, that the British and French conspired to divide up Greater Syria)

The two parties can resolve this easily, by providing documentation to prove it is Lebanese, and if that can't be found a new treaty could be written up to give ownership to Lebanon. Why do they not do this? If the disbuted portion is Lebanese, then the Syrians were an occupation force prior to the 1967 war.

Israel started the 22 year occupation of Lebanon in the early 1980's because the PLO was there, and using Lebanon as a base to launch their terrorist attacks. (There were prior invasions, but Israel left.) The PLO's presence in Lebanon was a destabilizing factor. After expelling the PLO from Lebanon, Israel continued to occupy southern Lebanon, to create a buffer zone. This buffer zone was to keep attacks from being launched into northern Israel (where civilians lived.)

Hizbullah forced Israel to leave Lebanon after 22 years of occupation. (Israel grew tired of the continous loss of soldiers killed by members of Hizbullah.) After leaving Lebanon, the UN agreed that Israel withdrew to the International border (not Syrian territory, just Lebanese.)

Hizbullah claims to be a party of resistance. Resistance to what? Part of Hizbullah's manifesto is ' "Islamic resistance units" are fighting "for the liberation of the occupied territories and the ejection of the aggressive Israeli forces" ' Israel is out of Lebanon. Hizbullah did not fight the occupation by Syria. Was Syrian occupation OK? Was it OK for Lebanese citizens to just dissapear into Syrian controlled jails?

So why does this article "The Missiles 'Dialogue' in Shebaa" have to shroud the issue of Hizbullah's retaining their weapons, in violation of UN Security Council resolution 1559, in terms of resistance and Sharon needing a war to be re-elected?

Hizbullah is not resisting Israeli occupation, nor unjustified Israeli aggression. If Hizbullah were to stop their unjustfied aggression against Israel, then Israel would not violate Lebanese territory. Israeli spys know that Hizbullah is plotting to attack Israel, and thus provokes Israel to send overflights for reconnaissance. Maybe they just do not want to give up their weapons, and want to create the illusion of resistance (to the niave) by stroking the flames
of war.

If Hizbullah wants its members released from Israeli jails, then Hizbullah will have to do the unthinkable - end the war with Israel. Countries do not have to exchange prisoners of war until the war is over.

In my opinion it is time that the Middle Eastern journalists start reporting the truth; stop the endless blaming of all the problems facing the Middle East on US and Israel. Lebanon's problems are not with Israel but with Syrian and Iranian meddling.

By this threat, Israel now has the right to kidnap Hizbullah members

Lebanese Prime Minister Faud Saniora demanded the return of the bodies of Hizbullah members who launched an unprovoked attack on Israel.

Another Lebanese Cabinet minister repeated the demand and warned that Hizullah might try the kidnapping stunt again. Of course who Hizbullah kidnaps would in all likelyhood be killed.

Mohammed Jawad Khalife (Lebanese Health Minister / member of Amal party) says the bodies must be handed over in order to avoid an escalation. Excuse me? Who caused the escalation in the first place?

The UN agrees that Israel has departed Lebanese soil. The Shaba'a Farms that Lebanon claims are officially recognized by the UN to be part of the Golan Heights, and therefore part of Syria. Lebanon can not produce documentation proving the land is Lebanese. An easy resolution to this is for Syria and Lebanon to sign new documentation granting the land to Lebanon. Why don't they do this? Hizbullah claims to be a resistance organization against occupation, and now uses the Shaba'a Farms as an excuse.

Why didn't Hizullah resist Syria's occupation of Lebanon? Israel is out of Lebanon, that is a fact. And until Syria and Lebanon resolve their borders (can you believe this is still an issue?!?!?) - the land is Syrian.

Condemning Jordan's Suicide attacks

Now how the hell can this be right? The Holy Koran bans suicide and the killing of believers; so it is OK to kill non-believers?

I'm sorry, this God can not be the same God that Christians and Jews believe in.

Are the Lebanese tiring of Hizbullah's antics?

Considering the party is armed to the teeth, I wonder how many Lebanese are truely tired of Hizbullah's actions, and willing to state it.

Latest thing I read was a Lebanese sociologist asking if Hizbullah operates under a double standard (on Haaretz website, since I can't read the original in Arabic)
The author is Dalal al-Bizri, who is living in Egypt. (Is it not safe to write articles like this when living in Lebanon?)

The double standard she refers to Hizbullah's critisism of the US support for Israel, whereas Iran supports Hizbullah:

"Is there any political party in Lebanon about which it can be said that, were it not for the support of the United States or Israel, it would not be able to exist?"

I think Iran's support is much more important than Syria's.

And with this Iranian support (remember the 10,000 missles in Hizbullah's hands), the legitimate government of Lebanon is not allowed to assume its rightful role. And why is that?

Hoopla on Syria's innocence regarding the border with Iraq and the terrorists crossing it

Over at Mr. Landis page I noticed an interesting highlight of a particular word in a quote:

"The United States had no evidence that Syria was involved in the infiltration of the insurgents in Irag" - attributed to Lt. Gen. Walter E. Buchannan III, commander of the 9th U.S. Air Force.

Mr. Landis is continuing his quest to spare Syria from any punishment.

I read this, and the first thing that came to mind is: "Last I checked, Syria is a police state"
So either it is an inefficient Police State (not likely) or that Syrian Intelligence Officials are looking the other way.

Why is Yahoo showing this picture for this story?

The story is about a Palestinian teenager killed by Palestinians. Israel is not even involved.
Couldn't they find some picture related to the incident instead?

News story from Yahoo

Hizbullah's brazen stunt

This could be why (as I posted earlier in the Syria Roundup) Israel was conducting aggressive overflights of Lebanon:

Nasrallah's Kidnap Plan Boomerangs

Israel was ready for this stunt, and made Hizbullah pay for it.

Seems like Nasrallah is acting like Syria's stooge. If he wants his people and/or bodies back, he is going to have to wait till the organization signs a peace agreement with Israel (not going to happen if you ask me.) Maybe someone should explain to him that in a war, prisoners are not exchanged until AFTER the war is over.

This should be no surprise, the UN (un)Security Council failed to agree on how to condemn the violence. Like that would have any affect anyway. Algeria and the US couldn't agree. Now why would that be? Algeria did not want to lay the blame on Hizbullah. Excuse me? It is easy to see how this started, but you have to look at reality straight in the face. If you can not look at reality, then it is easy to see how this is ALL Israel's fault.

France wanted to condemn the military exchanges started by Hizbullah AND condemn Israel for violating Lebanon's airspace.

So let's put this in a different light. Suppose that Israel allowed terrorists to operate from their soil, and those terrorists blew up bombs in neighboring countries. Now how do you think that Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan would respond? Not exactly the same way that the world expects Israel to respond.

[Update] Naharent is reporting that Hizbullah is claiming Israel started this:

The UN peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL squarely blamed Hizbullah for igniting the new wave of hostilities. But Hizbullah parliament member Ali Ammar said Party of God fighters went into action when an Israeli mechanized patrol penetrated the Blue Line shortly before sundown Monday. Ammar also denied that Hizbullah motorcyclists had stormed across the Border on hostage-taking forays into Jewish settlements.

FLASH: 8 high ranking al Qaeda leaders killed?

Anyone have any other info on this possibility?
I am checking myself too.

The AP is carrying the story too - possibly Al Zarqawi has met his maker (and now visiting the gates of hell) Maybe he can have a picture of 72 virgins?

[UPDATE] Damn the American administration does not believe Al Zarqawi was among them.

Holy Crap I can't believe I actually read this

check this out, it is amazing!

Syria Round Up

Catching up on my news reading today. (I'm new to this posting my own blog, and spent a considerable amount of the day checking out features in the templates)

We have some considerable movements / blusters and/or threats happening related to the Mehlis investigation into the horrible assination of former PM Hariri of Lebanon.

Syria's leader Bashar delivered a scathing speech on Thursday.
Anton from Across The Bay has a great post describing this as Opting for Brinkmanship

My feelings are that Bashar has his back to the wall and will resort to violence (via his proxies)
Could that be why Israel is conducting aggressive overflights over Lebanon? (My gut feeling is Israel is sending a strong message to Hizbullah - "don't try to deflect attention from Bashar by attacking us")

Apparently Mr. Mehlis believes he does not need to negotiate with Bashar on the location where the interviews of the 6 Syrians he demands. (My reading of UN Security Console Resolution 1636 leads me to agree with Mr. Mehlis)

The following quote from The Daily Star is very interesting:

On the other hand, contacts between Damascus and some Arab leaders, including a phone call between Assad and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Wednesday and a subsequent call between Mubarak and Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdel-Aziz, have revealed that concerned Arab countries are not willing to relay Syrian demands to superpowers.

I sure would be interested in knowing what those demands are, and why they weren't relayed.

Anyone read any speculations as to possible links to the bombings in Jordan and Syria upping the tensions?

I suggest reading the Nov. 12th post on Across the Bay, it has more info.

[Update]
Found an english translation of Bashir's speech

When will it ever change?

I have a dream, that I can walk among the world and make people see reality. It would be a very uplifting experience to get the people's of the Middle East to stop blaming EVERYTHING on Israel or the United States.

Now Israel is to be blamed for the bombings in Jordan


The article quotes a Jordanian political analyst, Rami Khoury, who laments on the grief Israel has bestowed upon the Arabs. Not mentioned is the grief some Arabs have bestowed upon other religions and civilizations. Perpetual victimhood, while in all reality they have a history of military conquests and occupation too. It is colonization if it is the Europeans, but not if it is the Arabs.

hypocrisy

[ Updated to remove explict link to NYTimes - now embeded. FireFox does not wrap links)

It is about time GWB starts calling the left on their lies

Good morning.
I don't know about what the majority of people are feeling, but I certainly am getting tired about polititians re-writing history. When I was in school I studied Russian history. I remember reading about how the Russians would edit photographs to remove people who no longer were 'good people', and these new photographs were sent out to the Russian citizens (who owned their encylopedia.) The citizens were instructed to remove their existing photograph and replace with the edited version.

It astonished me that the authorities believed this would work.
Now we have American polititions doing almost the equilivent, and it sickens me.

I agree with bloggledgook that it still won't change anyones perceptions:
http://www.bloggledygook.com/bloggledygook/

The WashingtonPost carried the speach