Posted on 08/24/2006 12:02:50 PM PDT by veronica
The most recent conflict taking place in southern Lebanon and in Israel is not a war between two Middle Eastern nations. It is a frustrating war between Israel and a terrorist organization that infiltrated throughout Lebanon beginning in 1982, led by Sheik Ibrahim al-Amin. It is also the same war that our nation is fighting in Iraq, and that the Western world is fighting as a whole: a war against Islamic extremism and terrorism.
Hezbollah, although formed in 1982, officially began its terrorist campaign against Israel in 1985. While Hezbollah supporters believe that the terrorist group arose to protect Lebanon from Israeli "occupation," the group has actually proven to be a sort of incurable cancer threatening the Lebanese people.
One of the reasons for Israel even entering Lebanon in the 1980s was because of an attempted assassination of Shlomo Argov, Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom, by terrorists in the Palestinian Liberation Organization from within Lebanon.
Just as Israel's neighbors started this war, they instigated the previous one, too.
With one of Hezbollah's foundational goals the destruction of Israel, the group aimed to turn Lebanon into an Iranian-style Islamic state, and to institute an Islamic revolution within the nation.
In 1992, the current leader of Hezbollah, Sheik Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah stated that in Israel, "there is no difference between a soldier and a civilian, for they are all invaders, occupiers and usurpers of the land."
Basically, Hezbollah believes any Israeli death, be it a soldier, a nurse or a baby, to be legitimate. Hezbollah is also the group behind countless homicide bombings in Israel ever since the group's creation.
Even though Hezbollah terrorists initiated this war by capturing Israeli soldiers, and although Hezbollah is considered to be a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the Netherlands, many people still think Israel is at fault. Since Israel has one of the strongest, most skilled armies in the world, and because audiences around the world see painful photographs of injured people in Lebanon, it is easy to feel angry at the Israeli army or at war in general.
Even more disturbing, however, are the tactics that Hezbollah uses against its own civilians to create their image.
While I am saddened by the photographs that I have recently seen on the front pages of newspapers depicting destroyed buildings and crying Lebanese women, I do not judge this situation based on what I see. Instead, I read beyond the pictures, which is essential to really understand the situation. To judge Israel based on the pictures is what Hezbollah wants: to leave a skewed impression of the real state of affairs.
A major concept necessary to grasping Hezbollah's strategies is that its terrorists dress, look and pose in pictures like civilians. It's quite possible that many of the men photographed in front-page pictures assessing the damage of a destroyed town in Lebanon are in fact members of Hezbollah, or have assisted the group.
Furthermore, they purposefully launched rockets into Israel from within towns so that when Israel retaliates in an attempt to destroy the terrorist group, Israel looks like a ruthless nation, which is the opposite of what it is. Israel, like any nation has the option of doing, defended itself against a cruel and unprovoked attack.
War is messy and horrible no matter what.
Unfortunately, war is necessary against this kind of enemy - a category that includes Hezbollah as equally as it does al-Qaida.
Just as war ended Nazism as a threat to our nation, Israel has been with us in the same fight against terrorism.
Hezbollah's attempt to conceal its face by manipulating the media should not deter us from our goal.
An article like this actually came from a student newspaper?!
Wonders never cease - do they?!
That woman is a great American!
And kudos to the newspaper for printing her. Are the demonstrations protesting her suppression of poor Muslim freedom-fighters under way yet or have those good folk not yet arisen for the day?
All that she wrote is true, so I'm surprised that a college newspaper would publish it!
"Just as war ended Nazism as a threat to our nation, Israel has been with us in the same fight against terrorism."
And just as with our late entry into the war against Nazism, we are coming to this fight late as well. Israel has been fighting this war for far longer than anyone in the West will even admit. It is time to stop pretending the Islamo-facists are not a world-wide threat and take a real fight to them before it is too late.
I highly recommend this thread for related viewing
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1688981/posts
The Red Cross Ambulance Incident(mustread-Zombietime deconstructs Hezbo fauxtography)
Me too.
What's equally surprising is that a college newspaper published it and there's not a single f-word in it!!!
another great work-product from the Hezbollah PR department details
their sinking of an Australian ship:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1689398/posts
(fauxtography, of course, by virtue of mis-captioning)
Hizballah was formed to resist Israeli occupation in southern Lebanon in the early 1980s.
Their reason for being was to attempt to expel the IDF from Lebanon.
What they do now (post 2000 Israeli withdrawal) is independent of their rationale for existence.
You'd be surprised. I used to write weekly for my paper at Cal State Long Beach and they printed my article every week. Conservative pieces get a lot of buzz and readership increases.
I remember the one article I wrote supporting Prop. 22 (banning interstate gay marriage in California) under a psudeonym) and sweating bullets as my Literary Criticism professor tyraded against my column in his class without knowing it was me. I fully expected to get an F in his class if he ever found out.
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