Military historian Victor Davis Hanson has a sobering review of the current situation in the ME and the questionable sympathies of the world press;
The old Arab agenda of recapturing “stolen” land has been superseded by a new Islamist jihad that is as fanatical as it is inhuman. The Islamists care not a whit for ground, but only for the abject destruction of the Jewish state and to finish the Holocaust that they claim did not take place. Few of the pundits now clamoring for “engagement” care to recall that Syria probably murdered Rafik Hariri, or that Iran promises to wipe Israel off the map.
The near criminal indifference of the international community is cause for greater depression still. No one says a thing about horrific Arab racism and anti-Semitism that brazenly offer the world pictures of our secretary of State as a primate and constant hate speech of Jews as apes and pigs. And here at home, a celebrity actor, the staff of a failed congresswoman in Georgia, and a crazed Muslim with a gun in Seattle all shout about the evils of the “Jews” — a good cross-section of just how insidious is the growing anti-Semitism.
The globalized media is absolutely discredited after the coverage of Lebanon. Reuters has destroyed its reputation, gained from 150 years of world reporting, by releasing doctored pictures and tolerating staged photo-ops. Almost all the Western media outlets failed to distinguish Lebanese civilian from military casualties — as if the Hezbollah terrorists they never filmed and never interviewed never died.
Indeed, thanks to the unprofessional reporters abroad, and their disingenuous chiefs back home, the world never saw the killers who sent the rockets nor many of their civilian victims on the ground in Israel. Nor did the reporters apprise their audience of the different landscapes in which they worked: candor in Israel might win loud disagreement; truth in Lebanon meant death. It would be as if Reuters, AP, or the New York Times embedded its reporters within the Waffen SS, beaming daily reports back home about the great morale and noble suffering of the Wehrmacht as it advanced into the snowy Ardenn.
… and near the end gets something wrong;
In an amorphous war of self-induced Western restraint, like the present one, truth and moral clarity are as important as military force. This past month, the world of the fascist jihadist and those who tolerate him was once again on display for civilization to fathom. Even the most timid and prone to appeasement in the West are beginning to see that it is becoming a question of “the Islamists or us.”
In this eleventh hour, that is a sort of progress after all.
Or rather, is proven wrong. Returning from Lebanon after spending a few days as guests of Hezbollah, two Canadian politicians have established themselves as this year’s leading contenders for the Nobel Prize In Bad Judgement,
It would aid the cause of peace if Canada dropped Hezbollah from a list of banned terrorist organizations, according to two Canadian MPs on a fact-finding mission to Lebanon.
When asked if he were in favour of Hezbollah being taken off the terror list, Etobicoke Liberal Borys Wrzesnewskyj said: “Yes, I would be.”
He likened the situation in the Middle East to Northern Ireland, where “if there wasn’t the possibility for London to negotiate with the IRA, you’d still have bombings.”
“Hezbollah has a political wing, they have members of parliament, they have two cabinet ministers,” Wrzesnewskyj said. “You want to encourage politicians in this military organization so that the centre of gravity shifts to them.”
New Democrat Peggy Nash, who represents the Toronto riding of Parkdale-High Park, said her discussions in Lebanon had led her to believe “that it is just not helpful to label them a terrorist organization.”
“If the political parties in Lebanon who may disagree with Hezbollah, and be opposed to them and their philosophy, can figure out a way to work with Hezbollah and try to get along internally, then perhaps we should take a cue from that.”
This was the message that both MPs said they would bring back to their caucuses, and eventually to the House of Commons, when they return to Canada this week.
Unbelievable.
Related – How Islamic Terrorists Manipulate the Media
Also – lots this morning on this at Blogging Tories.
Disgusting Liberal/NDP types. Disgusting.
Wrzesnewskyj And Nash – “Death To Jews”
I am unable to find a citation for this quote. Since it appears to be Make Up Fake Quotes Day:
McMillan: “Ban Back Bacon Now!”
philanthropist: “Stephan Dion Is A Hunk!”
jwp: “Muslim chicks are hot!”
multirec: “There is no God but God, and Muhammed is his prophet!”
Robert J: “I harbour feelings of lust for Kim Jong Il!”
maz2: “I spooned with Alan MacEachen at summer camp!”
Eh? Eh? Am I getting the hang of it?
CAIR is nothing more than a front group for terrorists and terrorism:
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=21528
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1452674/posts
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=32242
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1443177/posts
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/394
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/532360/posts
Jeff:
Have you ever heard of the names Plato, Aristotle, St. Thomas Aquinas?
No, they’re not comic book characters played by Toby Macguire in the movie, they’re ancient philosophers that took seriously the idea of the just war and preemptive strike.
I know that’s a little above your head. Don’t bother.
When will these morons realize that the threat to our way of life is not Israel.
They are in Lebanon for a photo-op showing those Muslim voters back home how much their hearts bleed for the Lebanese people. Are actually saying that the Schmutzige Juden are criminals.
I wonder if they will go into Israel to visit the towns that were hit with rockets and tell the Israeli’s that it is their fault for being lackeys to the Americans.
They are criticizing Stephen Harper for taking sides, but have no problem doing it themselves. One of them a Bloc MP, Maria Mourani, is originally from Lebanon came to this country and joins a political party dedicated to breaking up the country. What a piece of sh** this b***h is.
Shilling propaganda for the enemy should be considered treason and treason’s punishment should be a long drop from a short rope.
That should go double for people in positions of power (everyone from politicians, journalists, teachers/professors…)
Immigrants who join separatist parties should be separated – in at least two pieces…
The good news is their providing lots of fodder for the Tories in the next election… looks like two easy new seats for the Tories.
“Have you ever heard of the names Plato, Aristotle, St. Thomas Aquinas?”
None of the aforementioned cats could hold a candle to St. Augustine, who pretty much wrote the book on “Just War Doctrine”, such as it is:
“Augustine’s writings helped formulate the theory of the just war. He also advocated the use of force against the Donatists, asking “Why … should not the Church use force in compelling her lost sons to return, if the lost sons compelled others to their destruction?” (The Correction of the Donatists, 22–24)
St. Thomas Aquinas took much from Augustine’s theology while creating his own unique synthesis of Greek and Christian thought after the widespread rediscovery of the work of Aristotle.
…
The Just War Tradition – is a philosophical “method” for determining whether a war can be justified from a moral standpoint and a tradition going back at least to Augustine of Hippo.”
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Just_War_Theory
EBD: “When terrorists threaten reporters and selectively “guide” them through war zones, it unquestionably affects the nature and amount of information the public gets.”
That is true. But don’t act as if media manipulation this some new concept, particularly in times of war. Have you heard of embedded reporters? Do they get to see the whole story, or are they “guided” through war zones? As for fake images and narratives, how about William Randolph Hearst? (Do the words “You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war” mean anything to you?) There is nothing new about any of this. Don’t pretend to be shocked, SHOCKED.
Jwp, beat ya by a minute!
Shame on Boris, Peggy, and Maria. They couldn’t be bother to visit Israel and see the destruction and deaths cause by the blood thirsty Hezbollah fascist terrorists. I guess Israelis lives are worth less than the Hezbollah supporters lives.
What a waste of our tax dollars – being a public relations for Hezbollah thugs.
Boris is back tracking now . . saying he didn’t say Hisbullah should be removed from the Terrorist List.
Lorne Gunter on “Adler Live” says he did – in front of numerous journalists who have him on tape.
Another Liberal Stuck on Stupid
Trying to lie his way out of his stupidity isn’t a smart idea, but he is a Liberal so he comes by that ability naturally.
With reference to Liberals and their support for Hezbollah, Warren Kinsella, as well as others, are posting comments made by a member of the Liberal Party, Thomas Hubert, who is a member of Gerald Kennedy’s leadership bid and also a VP of a youth group of the Liberals. Kinsella is calling for Graham to demand his resignation. On one blog, Thomas wrote:
“One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. At one point, George Washington was considered a terrorist by the powers that be. History will remember Hezbollah as an organization that stood up to the most vile ‘nation’ in human history.”
On Jason Cherniak’s blog, he wrote:
“The Liberal Party is stronger without these violent Zionists in our party. I am glad for them to cease influencing our foreign policy so we are free to promote Canadian values of peace. It amazes me that this community is so absurdly selfish. The only issue that matters to them is the defence of a “state” that survives on the blood of innocent people. Shameful.”
“Despite my own leanings towards the movement for liberation and justice for the people of Palestine and Lebanon, I firmly believe that Canada must remain neutral in all Middle-East disputes. A “pro-Israel” policy is just as bad as a “pro-Palestine/Lebanon/insert Zionist occupied nation of the year” policy. Canada absolutely must not take sides in this dispute and must be a world leader in brokering compromise and peace.”
“I am a “real” Liberal. I am currently VP of Communications for the Young Liberals of Canada in BC. ”
Now, this is only one person, but, he’s very public and very vocal in his views and his being a member of the Liberal Party. His equation of Israel, a legitimate state, with a terrorist group, aligns him with the Trio in Lebanon. And, his assertion that self-defense is an action of ‘the most vile nation’ is – well..he ought to resign.
Cherniak’s blog has some interesting comments, including suggestions that the Liberals are moving to the Islamic community, not for reasons of justice or principle, but as usual, for the only reasons the Liberals do anything – to garner votes, votes, votes.
In the days when even liberals had a measured response.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7_a2wa2dd4
RE: Nash and Wrzesnewskyj….
…Any chance these two also belong to the Flat Earth Society?
:))
Hot off my email a reply from Borys to my complaint
Thank you for your email regarding my self-financed fact-finding mission to the Middle East.
Please find below my statement issued today, August 21, 2006 at 12 noon EDT. I also took the liberty of including my press release issued prior to my departure to the region.
Again, thank you for expressing your views and concerns on the Middle East.
Respectfully,
Borys Wrzesnewskyj, M.P.
Etobicoke Centre
For Immediate Release
August 21, 2006
Statement from Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj
“CanWest News today reported that I support taking Hezbollah off Canada’s list of banned terrorist organizations. This is emphatically wrong. On the contrary, Hezbollah is a terrorist organization and I stated that it must remain on Canada’s list because it has committed war crimes by sending rockets into civilian areas.”
“What I did say, however, is that the legislation surrounding our banned list of terrorist organizations must be evaluated to ensure our role as mediator is not compromised. Currently, the legislation forbids Canada from having any discussions with those on the list, and I believe this is not the way to achieve peace.”
“Canada must be a partner in any efforts by the international community to bring peace and stability to the region, and we can not play that role if we are shackled by this legislation which forbids us from even speaking to those groups on our list. Discussion, negotiation and diplomacy are paramount to a lasting peace.”
– 30 –
For further information:
Borys Wrzesnewskyj, M.P.
Associate Critic for Foreign Affairs
(613) 947-5000
For Immediate Release
August 14, 2006
Parliamentary Fact Finding Mission Initiated by MP Wrzesnewskyj heading off to the Middle East
Ottawa – Etobicoke Centre MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj will be the self-financed Liberal representative on a multi-party fact finding mission initiated by Mr. Wrzesnewskyj to the Middle East from August 15 to August 22, 2006. Mr. Wrzesnewskyj is scheduled to meet with the Foreign Ministers of Egypt, Syria and Lebanon as well as Lebanon’s Parliamentary Speaker and the Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniara. When asked what he hoped to achieve during these meetings Mr. Wrzesnewskyj stated that:
“Besides listening and fact finding, I hope to carry the message that Canada has never been “neutral” in our position on crises in the Middle East. Since the era of Pearson and the Suez Crisis we have always been on the side of patient diplomacy and peaceful resolution and not the simplistic cheerleading of one warring side or another.”
During the parliamentary mission the Members of Parliament will also be meeting with NGO’s and visiting displaced persons camps. Mr. Wrzesnewskyj concluded by talking of the civilian toll of the war:
“The only innocents in this conflict are those civilians and children who have suffered and died. Canada’s role should be to help bring about a future in which every child born in the Middle East, Lebanese, Israeli or Palestinian, can have the same hopes and dreams for the future that a child born in Canada can dream of.”
Mr. Wrzesnewskyj was the first Canadian Member of Parliament to call for a cease fire in the region on July 14th, 2006. Upon returning to Canada, it is envisioned that Mr. Wrzesnewskyj and the other Parliamentarians on this mission will submit a report to Parliament on their findings and how Canada can help be an instrument toward a lasting peace in the Middle East.
– 30 –
For further information:
Borys Wrzesnewskyj, M.P.
Associate Critic for Foreign Affairs
(613) 947-5000
I smell very successful lawsuits against smalldeadanimals – and what is with you ‘piece of satire’ on the post above?
What is going on in the liberal party, they are losing it.
The NDP well they never had it so I don’t really get to upset, I just laugh at them.
I have to say it seems like Harper has done it again. I was wondering why he did not let his representive go. Now I see why.
Put the Bloc,NDP and liberals together and just sit back and watch the hypocrcy.
John:
Thanks for the contact information.
I am in Peggy Nash’s riding.
Here is a copy of the e-mail I just sent her:
**********************************************
I am in your constituency of Parkdale-High Park.
You can check:
(name and address provided)
Most of the people I know who voted for you
voted to get the Liberals out.
They would not have voted for you
if they had known you support a Jew-hating terrorist organization.
Now that we know you support Hezbollah
you can be sure I shall do everything in my power
to convince the decent people in my neighbourhood
to vote against you in the next election.
Thanks, jwp. Actually, Wrz’s post is filled with logical and factual errors.
First, the Toronto Star reports that he said:
“Standing at the spot where an Israeli air strike killed several members of a Montreal family last month, Wrzesnewskyj said Israel’s summer offensive against Lebanon was nothing less than “state terrorism.”
“Over 1,200 dead and counting. Over 40,000 apartments and houses flattened. A country’s infrastructure dismembered. You look around here,” said Wrzesnewskyj (Etobicoke Centre). “I believe what’s happened is absolutely criminal.”
He has defined Israel as ‘criminal’ and as a ‘terrorist state’. He has also defined the Hezbollah as ‘a terrorist organization’. So, he equates a terrorist militia of civilians, with its stated mandate to murder civilians and demolish a nation, with a legitimate state with a democratically elected government acting in self-defense against a terrorist group funded and armed by Iran. That’s quite the equation.
Then, he asserts, in his equation of the two, that this means that you can ‘talk and negotiate’. What is there to talk and negotiate with, when dealing with terrorists? Nothing.
Being ‘neutral’ has absolutely nothing to do with being ‘on the side of patient diplomacy’. Indeed, if you are unable to evaluate and judge the principles and truth of a situation, then, a ‘resolution’ will be unfair and a result only of the loudest and most bullying member of the discussion.
By the way – what does ‘self-financed trip’ mean? Does it mean that he paid for the trip out of his salary? Or that the Canadian taxpayer paid for it?
lawsuits – lawsuits -lawsuits -lawsuits – oh the lawyers are gonna love this!!!! (Too bad you won’t post my other 2 posts)!!
I see our lawyer is back, shift to ignore. ET, I believe self financed means on CAIR’s nickel.
“We are all Hezbollah now”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-525-2309812-525,00.html
Found at Arts and Letters.
The CBC online report states that Wrzesnewskyj and Nash both recommended that Hebollah be removed from the list of terrorist organizations.
“The Lebanese-based militant group Hezbollah should be removed from Canada’s list of banned terrorist organizations, two Canadian MPs say.
Boris Wrzesnewskyj and Peggy Nash made the comments Sunday during a fact-finding mission to southern Lebanon as Israeli troops continue to withdraw from the region following 34 days of conflict.
Wrzesnewskyj, a Liberal MP from Toronto, says the visit has shown him how integrated Hezbollah is into Lebanese society. In the interest of peace, he said Canada should reconsider its 2002 decision to place the group on its list of banned terrorist groups.
“Hezbollah has a political wing, they have members of parliament, two [cabinet] ministers,” said Wrzesnewskyj.
“You want to encourage the politicians of this military organization, you want to encourage the political wing, so that the centre of gravity shifts to them.”
Wrzesnewskyj says he plans to deliver a report recommending the Liberal caucus support reversing the ban.”
So, his email is denying the MSM report. That’s quite plausible; we all know that the MSM isn’t reliable, but, he and Nash will both have to clarify their statements.
As for ‘self-financed trip’, that doesn’t mean, in my inadequate understanding, financed by CAIR or by any other mode than The Self. That’s what the term ‘self’ means. The Self. So, if, as is probably the case, the trip was indeed financed by CAIR and not out of Wrz’s own pocket, then he is deliberately and openly misleading the public.
He has defined Israel as ‘criminal’ and as a ‘terrorist state’
I’m not going to read Mr. W’s mind here, but that in itself is a logical error. He said “I believe what’s happened is absolutely criminal.” Well, you could say that for pedophile sex offenders to walk the streets in Canada is “absolutely criminal” without defining Canada itself as criminal. Similarly, describing what he considers a single act of state terrorism doesn’t define Israel as a terrorist nation – that its raison d’etre is to terrorize, like Hezbollah for example. (You eat one foot and they call you a cannibal.) Isn’t it the Christian thing to hate the sin but love the sinner? It is reasonable to argue that he can criticize what he considers a criminal action without condemneing the nation as a whole as terrorist or criminal. Whether he had that in his own mind or not, neither of us can say for sure.
So, Borys got caught up in the flush of it all…
Matthew Fisher, the columnist quoting Borys, for both the Montreal Gazette and the Ottawa Citizen, clearly understood what was said.
He directly asked him “if he was in favor of Hezbollah being taken off the terror list.”
Borys said: “Yes, I would be.”
Did Bill Graham catch up to him on this arranged travel package with the spokesmen for Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon?
As an aside, I think it was the NCCAR, National Council on Canada-Arab Relations, that arranged this visitation for the Canadian MPs.
Israel was not on the itinerary, not surprisingly.
Kinsella has more on the Liberal Thomas Hubert, who is a young Liberal Executive member and on Gerald Kennedy’s team. Hubert’s web postings have similarities to Wrzesnewskyj and Nash. I’ve posted them above.
Now, Scott Brison is calling for Hubert’s resignation. I’m cynical and consider it’s ‘all about votes’, not principles. I haven’t noticed that Brison is ‘big on principles’ (wasn’t he involved in the financial leak?).
But none of this is making the Liberal Party look good. Oh, and Brison’s statement asserts that the ‘Liberal Party is a party of tolerance, multiculturalism and understanding”. Heh. Remember those election ads?
Claudia Rosett::Annan jets off for a Nasrallah crowning?
“Brace yourself. In the United Nations-brokered farce known as the “cessation of hostilities in Lebanon,” we may now be heading for the moment in which Secretary-General Kofi Annan jets to Beirut to crown as the heirs of Lebanon the hijackers of the Cedar Revolution — the terrorists of Hezbollah.
Not that the U.N. has exactly expressed it that way. Annan’s office as of Friday afternoon would confirm only that Annan “will likely go to the region in the weeks ahead.” Israeli radio has been reporting that Annan will begin a Middle East tour on Monday in Lebanon, and go from there — in what order is not clear — to Israel, Syria, and Iran.
newsbeat1.com
You are right bean,
I am writing to these two and demanding to know the nature of the funding for this trip.
TDH is frothing at his qwerty; tolerant, those Libs are, diverse in their opinions, too. Pretzels are in at the Libbish blogs.
Borys is borscht.
Hubert just joined the Libs in May….LOL….from the NDP…..RFLMOSAO…
Waiting for Billy Graham to clarify the nuance is killing. Graham will say: Eating crow leaves a foul taste in my mouth. …-
August 21, 2006 – The abhorrent views of Young Liberal executive member Thomas Hubert, which have now received national attention as a result of my friend Warren Kinsella, have left a bad taste in my mouth, and in the mouths of many others, both in and outside of the Liberal party.
I just got off the phone with Mr. Hubert (published on his website, he can be reached at (604) 805-0552), where he apologized for how his comments were interpreted. He also said that he is about to resign from his post on the BC Young Liberal executive, as he was trying to get adjusted to the “kind of language” that was appropriate for the Liberal party (he just joined up from the NDP in May). Sorry, but these kinds of comments:
“One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. At one point, George Washington was considered a terrorist by the powers that be. History will remember Hezbollah as an organization that stood up to the most vile ‘nation’ in human history.”
“The Liberal Party is stronger without these violent Zionists in our party. I am glad for them to cease influencing our foreign policy so we are free to promote Canadian values of peace. It amazes me that this community is so absurdly selfish. The only issue that matters to them is the defence of a “state” that survives on the blood of innocent people. Shameful.”
are unacceptable regardless of what party you are a member of.
First there’s Borys Wrzesnewskyj, now there’s this guy, and of course there is the virile anti-semite Andrew Telegdi – all Gerard Kennedy supporters. Where is the Coco Lefoka, Kennedy’s national youth co-chair and the president of the Young Liberals here in BC, on this issue? More importantly, where is Gerard Kennedy?
Fools and Useless Idiots go to Lebanon, a Farce, starring Peggy Nash and Borys Wrzesnewskyj. Anyone watching this Farce will understand why we need more than a majority Conservative government, never has it been more clear.
Borys W…hatever is flip-flopping all over the place on this one.
He was pretty unequivocal on CBC last night when he called for an end to all terrorism, including “state terrorism”. Pretty clear who he was pointing the finger at there.
And from reading the print interviews this morning, it’s clearly not a case of “being misquoted” or another excuse. He was asked point blank about it and said he would support removing Hezbollah from the list.
Although, should we be surprised from this kind of action from Liberals? Remember Tony Valeri? Yes, he too met with Hezbollah on a similar junket AT HIS PERSONAL REQUEST and after Hezbollah had been put on the list by Chretch.
OOPS! It should read “why we need more than EVER a Conservative majority”……
Kate I hope Borys sues your @$$ off.
KC and the Sunshine band. Spreading the gospel.
Don’t worry, Liz. We’ll get that majority as soon as Wally O’Dell gets the balloting contract.
At the top of this post, the writer of this post said:
Wrzesnewskyj And Nash – “Death To Jews”
It is the quotation marks (without citation) that will be the determining factor – rather than using single (‘) quote marks around the FALSE statement that neither Wrzesnewskyj and Nash actually ever said.
In litigation against the owner of this site, that should be worth at least …hmmm…. say about a quarter million dollars – here’s hoping!!
Wasn’t it the Liberals and NDP who set their hair on fire when Harper went to speak, to a business group in another country, and gave the government of the day poor marks regarding an international conflict?
Now here we have the Borys and Peggy duo, doing exactly that…slagging the Canadian government in not one, but several foreign countries.
There is a word for that, I believe…
All Wrzesnewskyj and Nash were doing was reflecting the sentiment in this Israeli editorial:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/753073.html
The following article appeared in Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper this date – August 21, 2006:
?In the 1960s, when a computer in the home, a telephone in the pocket, and a television satellite in orbit were the outlandish stuff of cartoon fantasy, defense industries in the United States were hard at work preparing for the electronic battlefield of the 21st Century.
Sure enough, the real electronic battlefield of the 21st Century would prove to be the collective subconscious: the war for public opinion fought live via cell phones and satellite television and home computers – even when home is a camel-hair Bedouin tent.
The Lebanon war just past was a new model of warfare, just as the Hezbollah/Hamas model is a new model of governance.
The war was one of the first in history in which both sides began the war by concentrating their fire on the enemy’s home front.
It was the first in history in which a force of irregulars fired thousands and thousands of surface-to-surface missiles into civilian areas deep within a sovereign nation, as many as 250 a day.
Predictably, in the electronic struggle for hearts and minds, there is no overlap between the way Hezbollah is pictured in Israel and in the Muslim world.
In Israeli media, even in ostensibly left-leaning outlets, Hezbollah men are with rare exceptions referred to as M’chablim, or terrorists. Hezbollah and Hamas are routinely described as Islamic terrorist organizations bent on Israel’s destruction, just as they always have been – and which the Knee-Jerk Right insists they always must be.
In much of the foreign media – in particular among the acrobatic apologists of the Lawrence of Arabia Left – Hezbollah is identified variously as a guerrilla organization, a group of farmer-by-day resistance fighters, a political party and coalition partner in the ruling Lebanese cabinet, or a vast and vital social welfare network for the poorest of Lebanon’s citizens.
All of this is true, and the terrorism as well. That is precisely the problem with the facile label. Hezbollah is all of these at once, and thus, no single one of these labels is accurate.
We don’t know what to call them, because we don’t really know what they are.
Because we dismissed them as terrorists, we didn’t know how to fight them.
And because we didn’t know how to fight them, we used sledgehammers instead of scalpels in areas where hundreds of thousands of Lebanese civilians lived.
And because we so entirely dismissed them, we helped Al Jazeera and much of the caricature-driven media of the cable-satellite West, transform them from killers to giant-killers.
This is the new model, the agent of the truly New Middle East, so new that we don’t even have a workable name for it.
Just as Israel would do well to look with fresh eyes and new candor at itself in the light of the war, we would do well to try to divine what this creature called Hezbollah really is.
It is the world’s best-armed and most dangerous NGO, a relief agency that does everything it can to kill maximum numbers of innocents across the border. It is the Corleone model of humanitarian aid work, winning gratitude and fealty with family packs of $12,000 in freshly wrapped currency.
It is our enemy. We don’t know how to fight it. Not yet.
Does it want to destroy Israel? Of course it does. Did its rockets kill Israelis civilians indiscriminately, among them Arab citizens of the state? Did its apologists insists that the targets of its 3,700 rockets were really army bases? Of course they did.
Is it a terrorist organization? No. Not because it doesn’t engage in terror, but because its real power in the world of radical Islam, Israel-hate and America-hate, comes from this new model of the Islamic super-state.
For the first time since Islam lost Spain, radical Islamists have begun to believe that the caliphate can be restored, that the empire of Allah can overcome and eventually supplant the West.
And we are helping them. By dismissing them as terrorists, and by playing directly into their hands, by undermining governments, like that of Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, that actually want to see peace come between our peoples, before radical Islam rings down a curtain on all of us.
If the Israeli and Jewish fossil right are to be believed, all this talk about peace is self-destructive. All that matters is to hang onto all the land we have, and blast away at everything that moves across the border. To Finish the Job.
If the right are to be believed, all the Arabs want to see Israel dead, and despotic Islamic regimes reign supreme. If the fossil right is to be believed, then, there’s no hope for any of us. If what we are facing 200 million terrorists, as the fossil right would have us believe, there’s no hope for the right, either.
There is another possibility, of course. That is, that something about terrorists changes over time when they actually are faced with the real challenges of governance. When they are faced with actual constituents, with diverse needs and diverse belief systems, and little real taste for the iron fist and the religion of rifles and explosives.
It is too convenient for many of us, rightists here and abroad, to dismiss the Arabs as terrorists and terrorist sympathizers.
It is too convenient for many of us to decide that nothing changes, that they will all hate us until we are dead and/or gone.
The challenge now is to find the strength to believe that we, in fact, have a future with the people who live across the line.
The challenge we face is to respect our enemies enough to know how to hang onto what is ours. To be strong enough to fight them when they come to kill us. But to be strong enough, as well, to remain open to those who want to find a way to live and let us live as well.
In the end, the Lebanese people no more want a Hezbollah state than we want a Kahane state. The Lebanese people are not terrorists.
The label terrorist is much too simple. We love to use it, but it can blind us to the complexities of reality, and the fact that things, and even those we label terrorists, can change over time.
Think, for one brief moment, about Menachem Begin.”
Bradley Burston
Haaretz
The looney moonbats from the Libberish Party are now called stalkers.
Note: Rahim Jaffer is a Muslim.
Here is the real face of the Liberal Party:
The Liberal Party is a party of racist rednecks. …-
Grit paparrazi stalking Tory MPs
Mike De Souza, CanWest News Service
Published: Sunday, August 20, 2006
OTTAWA — A war of words has erupted between the federal Liberal party youth wing and some backbench Tory MPs over a candid-camera contest launched last week.
The young Liberals say they are looking for recent pictures of Conservative MPs who are rarely seen in public because they have a history of stirring up controversy that could embarrass their party.
“As much as (Prime Minister) Stephen Harper may try to keep these guys in the back, it’s important that Canadians know that this is the real face of the Conservative party,” said Richard Diamond, president of the Young Liberals of Canada.
The Liberals will give an iPod as a prize for the person who can offer the best picture of one of the seven Conservative MPs on their list — Rob Anders, Cheryl Gallant, Rahim Jaffer, Collin Mayes, Bob Mills, Pierre Poilievre, and David Sweet. The contest runs until Sept. 4. …-
http://www.paulding.net/bin/url.cgi/13382.4
Your lying liberano ass is showing there leftpig!
It looks like propaganda,
smells like propaganda,
it usually is ….
These liberal/socialists are truly scary – their hidden agenda is coming out and boy, what an agenda it is. Go PMSH!
Good grief, Leftdog, you are reaching to the moon and back, to try to convince that terror is not involved!
Just not believable.
Hezbollah’s Nasrallah has gleefully promised that they plan on wiping Israel off the face of the planet, and they are fully backed by Iran and Syria.
3w unb.ca/web/bruns/9900/issue14/intnews/israel.
“There is no solution to the conflict in this region except with the disappearance of Israel,” he told the crowd. “Peace settlements will not change reality, which is that Israel is the enemy and that it will never be a neighbor or a nation.”
And now, some peculiarly-motivated Canadian Liberal, and NDP MPs now show remarkable, and distasteful alignments, as they rush to the side of the Hezbollah.
The Hezbollah is not a “NGO” nor is it a “relief agency”.
They hand out money as payment to their people to put up with them, and their needs, until ‘the job’ is done.
Who is going to turn it down if their house is gone, or business? Those who are willing, or desperate, or believers in the cause.
They need to eat, and have cover again, and their real government of Lebanon is not effective.
It has been hamstrung by the Hezbollah, all out of proportion to its 2 elected members, because of the outside influences of Syria and Iran, (and threats, no doubt).
By definition, the Hezbollah cannot be a NGO with elected members of the government involved, unless you are trying to say that the political and military,(ahem terrorist) functions are NOT one and the same, as Borys W. did!
And by definition, a true relief agency does not kill people, even those it sees as the enemy, as part of its work.
And while this writer thinks that “things, and even those we label terrorists, can change over time.”, what could it possibly mean, if the nation and people of Israel have been destroyed?
I guess we shouldn’t be surprised to see the word, ‘terrorist’ be too strong for the left’s tender ears.
Good grief, Leftdog, you are reaching to the moon and back, to try to convince that terror is not involved!
“All of this is true, and the terrorism as well.”
Nice attempt at a strawman. Better luck next time.
Fear of hezbollah stalks/”eats” Kofi’s UN Farce …-
UN Peacekeepers Spring Into Action, Open Gates for Hizballah
Hizbollah pushes past guards in show of force. (Hat tip: Ethel.)
Hizbollah mourners on a funeral parade shoved aside anti-tank barriers at a United Nations base in Lebanon yesterday in a demonstration of their new political strength.
The party had been told it would be allowed to bury three “martyrs” at the Naqoura town cemetery inside the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) compound, but only if there was no flag-waving or political sloganising.
When the chanting procession, several hundred strong, reached the gates, it found the way barred by cruci-form steel tank traps. Mourners argued with the French guards, but failed to gain entry.
A mob of young men then dragged the barriers away and the UN opened the gates. “They will eat us alive,” said a middle-aged official as the throng surged in.
Indeed they will. …-
LGF
this from Eugene Robinson at washingtonpost.com:
“According to the Iraqi government, 3,438 civilians were killed in July, making it the bloodiest month since the invasion. The president was asked yesterday whether the failure of the U.S.-backed “unity” government to stem the orgy of sectarian carnage disappoints him, and he said that no, it didn’t. How, I wonder, is that possible? Does he believe it would be a sign of weakness to admit that the flowering of democracy in Iraq isn’t going exactly as planned? Does he believe saying everything’s just fine will make it so? Is he in denial? Or do 3,438 deaths really just roll off his back after he’s had his workout and a nice bike ride?”
the very sad and simple fact is dubya is a mass murderer in the interests of big oil.
and the rightist continue to sling mud and personal insult at ‘moi’ for pointing this out.
rightists hate ALL leftists; I only hate ONE rightist, and that would be g dubya the mass murderer ‘war president’.
over 3,000 DEAD civilians in just one month. ‘free to be dead’ eh?
You lefties must really get bent out of shape over the “quotes” that regularly appear at Canadian Cynic and attributed to me and any number of others.
Now, make haste! See to it CC’s roundly taken to task over the deceptive practice of paraphrasing others! And don’t come back until you’ve got something really juicy to show us.
Reminds me of Colleen “Baghdad” Beaumier’s trip to Iraq a few years ago where she met “his excellency” Tariq Aziz. Useful idiots indeed.
What is it about pols from the GTA. Why is it so many of the stupidest politicians I’ve ever seen anywhere come from this particular piece of real estate. Is it the need to pander to so many so many immigrants from non-western countries to the city, who often bring with a certain level of hostility to the west, that causes politicians to engage in such absurd levels of moral relativism.
Or is it something in the Lake Ontario water.
I don’t think it’s the water because I also drink it and it’s had no effect on me. Now please excuse me for a moment while I play chess with my cat.
Hmmm a little point about your statistics there Robert….The 3000+ deaths this month are the result of Muslims killing other Muslims.
Oh ya, almost forgot, dumb ass!