Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 09:51:00 +1000
From: Russell Chapman
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Brin-L)
Subject: Re: Another police station gone
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
<<Interestingly, last night I watched a documentary on Lebanon and the rise of Hezbollah, which focused fairly heavily on events surrounding the marine base bombing and the hostages. The thrust of the show was that the size and passion of Hezbollah and the independent terrorist cells, as well as the anger and support of the people, was largely attributable to Israel's seige of Beirut. The implication was that only a small percentage of the people cared very much about the westerner's influence until the Israeli invasion, but then all the Shi'ites were motivated by the death and destruction in their city.>>
Aren't they/you forgetting something? Like Syrian invasion? But, of course, nobody will talk against Syria, because it's Army is still and Lebanon and people *do* want to stay alive. The original plan was to blast Arafat and go home. I am very sorry it was not followed thrue. :-(
<<I can never hope to understand what motivates Middle Eastern people in their disputes because nothing in my background, culture or experience compares to theirs, but it seems pretty clear that the world has learnt nothing from Lebanon, and will watch Palestine go through the same painful experiences while they search for answers.>>
Here you are mistaken. Palestinians learned from Lebanon that Israel *can* be intimidated and that it will do it's best to keep Arafat alive.
<<I do wonder, however, if perhaps Israel feels that the Palestinian police and leadership are in fact not doing anything to stop the terrorism (possibly aiding it), and so Israel feels they should be punished for their failure to act??>>
Replace "feels" with "knows". Palestinian police helps terrorists. And doesn't make secret of it. I am not looking at this as at "punishment". Terrorists and the ones who send them has no right to live. Only our Army blasts empty buildings. <SHRUG>
Ilana from Israel
