Hmmm - I do not find the argument - much as I would like to do so - that Bush has let some Israeli genie out of a bottle convincing - the recent raid seems to me to be fairly consistent with Israeli policy over many years. I suspect it is a touch of theatre if Sharon has echoed Bush's words - and an attempt to pre-empt negative American reaction - quite witty, in a darkish way.
Considering the only way he can win in 2004 is with another war....
Who knows, this one may give him the excuse to cancel elections.
dlowan
Bush is giving it legs by not only condoning the raid but to me it seems encouraging it. One can only ask why. Is he looking for an excuse to widen the conflict in the Middle East? That certainly would not coincide with his quest for peace via the road map.
U.S. response to attack muted
Syria on ‘wrong side’ in war on terror, officials say
[]
By Glenn Kessler and Mike Allen
THE WASHINGTON POST
Oct. 6 — The Israeli attack on an alleged terrorist camp inside Syria yesterday helped punctuate a message the Bush administration has been sending to Syria for months-stop supporting terrorist organizations. But analysts said it could also lead to a widening of the Arab-Israeli conflict, thus threatening the administration’s efforts to stabilize Iraq and foster peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/976339.asp
Of course, Israel's enemies are not imaginary.
Bush is not egging Sharon on. Reading the diplo-speak you will even see a bit of a wrist slap.
My read of the diplo-speak goes like this:
The US is not happy about the trans-border attack but IS happy that it wasn't Arafat and that it was an empty camp (read: bluster).
We are happy to defend their right to bluster because we don't want them to do anything stupid.
Roger
Of course, Israel's enemies are not imaginary.
No, they are legion and I do not question Israels right to protect itself in any way it sees fit. I am however surprised by Bush's statements. He as much as said go to it. With the road map in mind I find that courious. Perhaps he has given up on the road map.
Craven
I read it more of a push than a slap.
Well, as long as we are pushing them toward that kind of thing I'm happy.
I don't mind if Isreal wastes bombs in a show of force, I'd mind if they did something rash.
Syria will whine but it could have been a lot worse for them.
Unfortunately -- right now, the major damage being done in our world is not being done by bombs -- but by asinine, counterproductive precedents that will one day surface to haunt us -- and the entire rest of the world, too.
These ill-conceived precedents present a greater danger for society and humanity than bombs or any other ordinance ever will.
Frank Apisa
As long as those precedents you speak up do not end up with the use of ordinance. No sweat. It's the bombs that do the ultimate damage.
It's all a matter of perspective, Au.
I personally fear loss of freedom more than I do loss of life.
I personally worry more about what the miscreants presently in power do to established norms than I do about what they do with our arsenal.
I may be wrong.
We'll see.
But this bunch thinks nothing of trashing long-established ways of doing business between countries -- and I for one, don't see their changes as positive.
In fact, I see them as decidedly negative.
But like I said: We'll see.
Frank Apisa wrote:Unfortunately -- right now, the major damage being done in our world is not being done by bombs -- but by asinine, counterproductive precedents that will one day surface to haunt us -- and the entire rest of the world, too.
These ill-conceived precedents present a greater danger for society and humanity than bombs or any other ordinance ever will.
Do you perhaps mean asinine, il conceived presidents?
hobitbob wrote:Frank Apisa wrote:Unfortunately -- right now, the major damage being done in our world is not being done by bombs -- but by asinine, counterproductive precedents that will one day surface to haunt us -- and the entire rest of the world, too.
These ill-conceived precedents present a greater danger for society and humanity than bombs or any other ordinance ever will.
Do you perhaps mean asinine, il conceived presidents?
Yeah! Now that you mention it -- that too, Bob.
Thanks for suggesting it.
I wonder where Hobitbob got the idea that President Bush has the IQ of a kumquat.
He can't PROVE that. It is just his Opinion.
I can Prove that President Bush has an IQ around 120 which is higher than the average professional person in the United States.
Any person who thinks that a graduate of the Harvard Business School has an IQ of a Kumquat probably has an IQ of a Kumquat himself.
I didn't know people who purport to be scholars could be so stupid as to give opinons which are really nonsensical.
Of course, some people don't know anything about Harvard School of Business since they are mired in the third tier of Academia.
It is always the losers who try to condemn the winners. It is called status envy. People who drive junk cars are green with envy when a person like Bush drives by in a limousine.
Oct. 9, 2003
Stalking the Maronites
By WALID PHARES
When al-Jazeera reported the October 4 suicide attack against Maxim's restaurant in Haifa, its reporter said "the restaurant is co-owned by an Arab. A number of Arabs were killed in the explosion." At first glance, this is not striking news. It is not the first time Arabs have been killed by istishadis - Islamist suicide bombers. Nor are Israeli Arab casualties particularly remarkable in jihadist operations against Jews. A third of Haifa's population is Arab. Moreover, many pro-Jihad observers have long warned that Muslims and Arabs could become collateral damage in martyrdom strikes. That is what happened, and will continue to happen. This forces al-Jazeera's pundits to find ways of justifying the murders. But the attacked restaurant in southern Haifa was not owned by an "Arab," nor were most of the killed workers "Arabs." And herein lies a deeper story. It turns out that the owner of Maxim's is a Lebanese Christian. George Matar is not an Arab. He is a Maronite from Lebanon whose roots are Aramaic. Many of the workers who were murdered or injured are Lebanese Christian as well. Al-Jazeera - and other Arab media - missed that point, possibly intentionally. For indicating the real ethnic and religious identities of the owners and the workers would open a new chapter in the jihadists' war, both in Israel and in the Middle East. Non Shabbat-observing Haifa Jews eat at various local restaurants. Why would Islamist suicide bombers knowingly target a Lebanese Christian restaurant in Israel, when they could have attacked any culinary establishment? So why did bomber Hanadi Jaradat select this particular eatery? Was she there to kill Jews or Christians, or both? And, how did Abu Charbel - owner George Matar - fall victim to the Islamist war against Israel? INDIVIDUAL CIVILIANS everywhere basically want peace and security, be they Jews, Christians or Muslims. But ideology transforms some of them - like Hanadi Jaradat - into human missiles. We know about the jihadists and their views. But most people know very little about the Christians of Lebanon who have been undone by events in that country. Matar, his family and relatives, including a nephew who died in the blast just several days before his wedding, all came from across the Israel-Lebanon border. A million and a half Lebanese Christians live under Syrian occupation and Hizbullah intimidation. This represents almost half of Lebanon's population. It is the Christian ethnic group which is the older community in Lebanon. Lebanese Maronites are descendants of ancient Aramaics, also known as Phoenicians. As a group, they have resisted the onslaught of the Arab-Islamic conquests for more than 13 centuries. Now, defeated in 1990 after a 15-year war with the PLO, Syria and the Islamists' network, the Christian community has fallen under occupation. In the previous decade, a small number of Christians, along with some Muslims and Druse allied themselves with their Jewish neighbors to the south. In southern Lebanon, they formed an enclave which the world called "Israel's security zone." In May 2000, the Clinton administration and Ehud Barak's government abandoned those "last of the Mohicans" to Hizbullah. More than 6,000 Christian Lebanese crossed the border into Israel in an unprecedented exodus. Ba'athist Syria, Ayatollah Khomeini's Iran and Saudi Wahabi Jihadists claimed victory: The infidels had been driven out of Lebanon. Tomorrow, they hope, the remaining infidels will be driven out of Palestine. Among the thousands of refugees now in the Galilee are men and women who had no other choice but to restart their "infidel" lives south of their homeland. For Matar, that meant opening a restaurant in Haifa. Hizbullah and Palestinian radicals are now stalking Lebanese Christians in exile. Out of Beirut, scores of Khomeinist and pro-Syrian propagandists are calling on the jihadists of the "occupied lands" to strike not only against the Jews, but also against their "agents" who took refuge amongst them. Anti-Maronite hate literature abounds in Syrian-occupied Lebanon, and in cyberworld. Throughout the 1990s jihadists and their allies vilified the Christians of Lebanon. Those living in the south Lebanese security zone were the most abhorred. For they were among the very few Christians who openly allied themselves with the "Zionists." In jihad logic, they were also Zionists, and hence needed be targeted as such. Although many Muslim Arab regional leaders warned against further persecution of Middle East Christians in the wake of September 11, the jihadists to the contrary escalated their war against all "people of the book." The lowest of the people of the book, in the eyes of the intolerant jihadists, are those Lebanese Christians who chose to live in Israel as a free people instead of abiding by Hizbullah's and Syria's diktats in occupied Lebanon. Hence, their fate has merged with Israel's: annihilation by martyrdom operations. The attack on Matar's Maxim restaurant may be understood as a direct result of jihadist intolerance. Middle East jihadists have long chanted "Today Saturday, tomorrow Sunday" - al-yom al sabt wa ghadan al-ahad. This alludes to their war against the Jews first, then followed by the Christians. Thus, in the Haifa operation, the jihadists are showing their impatience. For the soldiers of Osama bin Laden around the world there is only one day from now on: Saturday is Sunday
