Israel has started a period of cessation of fighting today and Hezbollah attacked again regardless…
I am going to be generous and assume that communications have not reached Hezbollah’s forces yet. If not, then they are asking for airstrikes to restart and any sympathy I had (which I had in abundance, believe me), will evaporate into further dislike for the murdering terrorists that Lebanon harbours and aids (providing transit for Iranian missiles for instance).
Posted In: News and Politics
July 31st, 2006 at 9:43 am
It’s not a ceasefire, Hezbollah aren’t involved in discussions because Israel is only interested in blowing people up, not talking. Israel has decided to give it a rest for 48 hours after receiving almost universal condemnation for blowing up nearly 60 civillians in one go yesterday. Even Traitor Blair didn’t try and spin it in Israel’s favour. Hezbollah is wrong but this shouldn’t be reported as a ceasefire when it isn’t.
July 31st, 2006 at 9:48 am
Israel were attacked to start with, regardless of whether they went over the top, we should welcome a pause in the fighting even if it is unilateral. If Hezbollah continue to fight then there will be no ceasefire… or it will be more delayed than is necessary.
Simply, Hezbollah want this fight, and Israel tried the brute-force solution and have found it doesn’t work.
July 31st, 2006 at 11:17 am
Yeah but Israel haven’t said “ok, we’ll stop blowing up women and children if you stop firing rockets into Israel”. They’ve just stopped for 48 hours, it’s not even a long term solution. They probably need the 48 hours to move in undercover operatives or transport those spangly new American bombs they’ve just been given. Maybe if it was more of a permanent “ceasefire” Hezbollah would take part in it?
July 31st, 2006 at 12:09 pm
Ultimately it seems a very charitable move for Israel to stop at all given that Hezbollah started the attack by kidnapping their soldiers and given that those soldiers have still not been returned.
July 31st, 2006 at 1:17 pm
Looks like Hezbollah aren’t the only ones.
July 31st, 2006 at 2:42 pm
That may be the first non-biased Independent article I’ve read on the crisis…
July 31st, 2006 at 3:29 pm
There should be an interesting unbiased program on Channel 4 tonight called Judah and Mohammad at 8pm. It’s about two children from both sides of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict.
July 31st, 2006 at 3:37 pm
“Shortly after Israel announced it was suspending air strikes, Israeli war planes struck at several targets, killing three Lebanese soldiers in a car near the southern city of Tyre.”
BBC News
July 31st, 2006 at 5:59 pm
Thanks John
That last piece of news, along with something else I just watched has managed to flip me!
Israel are now using “targetted strikes” implying that its previous tactic was indiscriminate bombing. Israel declares a period of cessation of bombing and then goes against that before Hezbollah fires a missile within that 48 hour period.
It makes one ask the question, was Israel relishing an opportunity to claim “they started it”? This is no longer self-defence — it is now cynical. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want Hezbollah to win, but I do want Israel to stop and allow UN peace-makers to take over as soon as practicable.