General Middle East Update

[plural]

I've spent the last four hours reading various news reports, blogs and whatnot talking about the current crisis in the Middle East, and have decided to share a number of them. I'll add the advance caveat, that while I consider each of these to have some important implications, I'm providing these primarily as food for thought as opposed to certifiable fact.

I happen to believe that further inquiry is necessary into many of the events discussed below before we can truly understand these events in a complete and truthful manner.

without further ado:

I asked him what he would've thought, if a Hezbollah rocket had attacked a building in Israel, killing 55 civilians, of which 30 were children. He responded immediately "I would've thought it was great! Asan!".

An Egyptian blogger asks Some slightly uncomfortable questions

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'Hizbullah has placed rocket launcher on building's roof and brought invalid children inside in bid to provoke Israeli response.'

The Lebanese web site LIBANOSCOPIE reported that Hizbullah has masterminded a plan that would result in the killing of innocents in the Qana village, in a bid to foil Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's "Seven Points Plan", which calls for deployment of the Lebanese army in southern Lebanon and the disarming of Hizbullah.

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"In the region there is of course a country such as Iran - a great country, a great people and a great civilization which is respected and which plays a stabilizing role in the region," he told a news conference.

The French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy meets with Iranian counterpart in Beirut. from Ha'artz.com

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While the world debates about responsibility for Lebanese civilian casualties, Hezbollah takes unequivocal pride in its responsibility for causing Israeli civilians casualties. Indeed, Hezbollah celebrates its attacks on civilians as restoring "honor". Hezbollah TV, Al Manar, continues to broadcast video clips glorifying Hezbollah attacks on Israeli cities. Scenes showing Israeli civilians being rushed to the Hospitals are accompanied by the words:

"Resist! Explode! Shake! Destroy! Your weapon restores my country's honor."

Palestinian Media Watch releases video clips shown on Hezbollah controlled Al-Manar TV

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Islamic United Nations representatives blocked an attempt to have the world body condemn killing in the name of religion.

This is an article from 2005 which was brought to my attention: Muslim Nations Throttle U.N. terror resolutions

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The Sbarro section of the exhibit was replete with body parts and pizza slices strewn across the room. The walls were painted red to represent spattered blood. Another part of the exhibit glorified the "martyrs" who carry out suicide operations shown with a Koran and Kalishnikov in hand.

Al Najah University celebrates the Sbarro pizza attack

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In a survey of 5,000 Europeans in ten countries, people who believed that the Israeli soldiers "intentionally target Palestinian civilians," and that "Palestinian suicide bombers who target Israeli civilians" are justified, also believed that "Jews don’t care what happens to anyone but their own kind," "Jews have a lot of irritating faults," and "Jews are more willing than others to use shady practices to get what they want."

Diana Muir writes an article titled:Anti-Semetism and Anti-Zionism: The Link in which she examines anti-semetic remarks made by a number of European political elites. The quote above is from a study published in the Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 50 No. 4, August 2006, pp. 548-561 Available in PDF form from Yale University's Website

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Kill A Jew - Go To Heaven. "It was always my wish to turn my body into deadly shrapnel against the Zionists and to knock on Heaven’s doors with the skulls of Zionists."

A Study by Palestinian Media Watch which examines two primary questions:

Why a Palestinian would believe that the Murders of Israelis and/or Jews is something that Islam values and demands;
Whether this is being taught by fringe groups in the Palestinian Authority (PA) or represents official PA ideology.

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"One aerial bomb impacted in the vicinity of a UN Position in the area of Alma Ash Shab yesterday morning, causing damage to the parameter wall. It was reported that Hezbollah fired rockets from the vicinity of this UNIFIL position prior to the aerial bombardment. Hezbollah also fired small arms fire from the vicinity of the same position. They also fired rockets from the vicinity of two UNIFIL positions in area of Tibnin and At Tiri in the central sector. There was one more incident of firing from the Israeli side close to UNIFIL position in the area of Mays al Jabal, when 10 tank rounds impacted 100 meters from the UN position. UNIFIL strongly protested all these incidents to the Israeli and Lebanese authorities respectively.

Guess what I found? The daily status reports/press releases from UNIFIL makes for some interesting reading.

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While Islamic nations are trying to get the UN to outlaw criticism of Islam on an international basis, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan assures Americans that the plan of leaving the UN in charge of the Internet is nothing to worry about, it is only to make the Internet more efficient. "One mistaken notion is that the United Nations wants to ‘take over,’ police or otherwise control the Internet. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The United Nations wants only to ensure the Internet’s global reach," according to Annan.

An article which discusses the influence of Islamic as well as non-democratic countries in the UN: Farewell to the United Nations?