There are diplomatic discussions underway concerning a possible NATO-led force acting as a buffer between Israel and Lebanon. This is a positive move, but it also speaks to Israel's well-founded mistrust of the United Nations. You may not be aware of this, but there are/were UN troops on the Lebanese-Israeli border; I'm not sure of their mission, but if Hezzbolah was able to fire rockets across the border into Israel with impunity, they were not doing their job.
As the UN grows more and more impotent, I believe it will fall to the countries of NATO to keep the peace in many parts of the world. After all, have UN peacekeeping forces ever really prevented a war or genocide? Most of the time, peacekeepers are sent in after the fighting is over and are pulled out if fighting resumes. This being the case, why are they there in the first place? Maybe it's to give the UN a reason for its continued existence.
Speaking of Israel, the once-reserved media response is now beginning to carry the first stories about what will become front page news in a few days: the "humanitarian crisis" in Lebanon. Expect cries of anguish to be heard from all the usual talking heads this week about refugees streaming from the southern part of the country.
Maybe my memory is shaky, but I don't seem to remember these sames cries of anguish being heard when terrorists in Lebanon and Gaza fired rockets into Israeli towns day after day for years. Does a "humanitarian crisis" have to be large and sudden in order to matter? Or, as I believe, do the media here and abroad see the Palestinians in Gaza and Hezzbolah in Lebanon as freedom fighters whose actions are justified?
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You're right on how the media sees things. If it's some terrorist and/or extremist killing people - AND - if they happen to be Muslim, then they are freedom fighters. If it's Israel trying to defend their borders from all of the aforementioned "freedom fighters" - then they are being aggressive, unfair and oppressive. Never mind that the rest of the Arab/Muslim world OWNS the rest of the middle east. But, as usual, the media here refuses to see what the real issue is: that the Muslims have always and will always contend Israel just because it exists. Every terrorist organization (like the PLO) has it in their charter. Of course, that isn't politically correct and the media in the US won't point it out, but it's there and true. Not sure there is anything that we can do to change that.
Posted by: Phillip at July 24, 2006 12:20 PM