From Wikipedia:
In August, Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin was re-elected, and in September, Begin and his defense minister Ariel Sharon began to lay plans for a second invasion of Lebanon for the purpose of driving out the PLO. Sharon's intention was to "destroy the PLO military infrastructure and, if possible, the PLO leadership itself; this would mean attacking West Beirut, where the PLO headquarters and command bunkers were located" (Smith, op. cit., p. 377).Now:
In March, Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert was elected, and in July, Olmert and his defense minister Amir Peretz began to lay plans for a third invasion of Lebanon for the purpose of driving out Hezbollah. Peretz's intention was to destroy the Hezbollah military infrastructure and, if possible, the Hezbollah leadership itself; this would mean attacking South Beirut, where the Hezbollah headquarters and command bunkers were located.
Is there an ounce of real political imagination left in the world?
Is there a leader who knows how to write a joke, and not by accident?
What did Dylan sing? “The sun’s not yellow, it’s chicken.”
And around it goes, around and around and around.
Stay safe.
Peace.
I simply don’t understand why grown people can’t understand that you can’t “avenge” a death or attack. Sure, you can defend your territory and perhaps drive back invaders, but you can never avenge anything - the dead and injured are still dead and injured. Has no one in Israel heard that you can bomb the world to pieces, but you can’t bomb it into peace?
Everything in the middle East smacks of the logic that says “my neighbor has a gun, he might possibly shoot me or my dog, therefore, I need to kill my neighbor before he does harm to me.” Sensible people would see that is a totally insane view of the world; and yet people who purport (and are purported) to be sensible behave in exactly this insane fashion.
The demons are in the Israelis and the Palestinians, and the other Arabs in the area. No one can ever be safe from the demons, because they all carry the demons around with them.
Everyone in the area needs to stop avenging and start defending, only if necessary as defined in the Geneva Conventions. Then the people on both sides needs to drop the anger and hatred and see people as people, not demons or infidels.
I wish peace for everyone.
Sally