Mike wrote: Question: What made these people in Lebanon decide > to launch suicide attacks? Whim? Folly? High spirits? Or perhaps a reaction to > earlier events? Maybe we should look at these events before making such a > statement. Perhaps a good place to look for anti-Islam acts is the career of > Ariel Sharon, a veteran of over 50 years of atrocities against the Palestine > people. Yes, The same Ariel Sharon who George Bush calls 'a man of peace'. > Check the records, it's all there. As a journalist you must know this. >
First, let me wish a warm welcome to Sarah who recently joined the list. She appears to have a broader historical culture than a great number of journalists, at least the french ones I read. So, she made a blunder about Islam vs human rights. Well who doesn't? FYI, Senegal is a muslim country where, according to a Senegalese friend, there are no human rights violation and women are rising up the social ladder. The only drawback is of course excision which is hard to eradicate. Regarding Mike's comment: we had this discussion before, and we'll probably have it again. Just like Azeem and Sarah, I'm leaving for vacation tomorrow so I'll make it short. Mike, I assume (I could be wrong) you're referring to Lebanese attacks after Israel invaded Lebanon. Then I will use the same argument you're using: what prompted Israel to invade Lebanon? Whim? Folly? Or perhaps it's the same leftist theory that Israel wants to invade and annex the entire area? Well no matter how long this lie is being repeated in the media worldwide, I cannot understand how a tiny country of 5 million jews that control 1% of the middle east area would even dream of winning a war against 200 million surrounding arabs? One would have to be crazy to even think of engaging in such an aggression. Simply put, Israel is trying to survive, not expand. Territorial encroachments are for security reasons (eg Kibboutz in northern Israel being shelled daily). Your 2nd point is about Sharon. Again, there is a tendency to put all the blame on him. The issue for me isn't Sharon. The issue is that arabs wanted the entire area for themselves from day minus 1: arab armies attacked Israel as it was a few hours old in 1948. Sharon didn't start the 2nd intifada all by himself. In fact it started before him and was a premedidated and planned action. Sharon was elected as a result of the intifada, not as a cause. Going back in history: there were suicide bombings after Oslo too, in fact terrorists attacks against jews have never stopped regardless of who was Israel's pm and whatever the concessions he's made. Who can explain to me why the arabs were getting ready to attack Israel in 67 when Jerusalem and the so-called "occupied territories" were Jordanian? What were they trying to free up then? No, the rhetoric has changed over the decades, it has become more clever, but the same hate still prevails. Merry X-mas to all and see ya next year. Laurent
