News Roundup - 2006-07-14
* The United Nations, where Arab countries go when Israel starts to fire back:
Lebanese Communications Minister Ghazi Al-Aridi told local media outlets Thursday afternoon that the Lebanese government has asked for a ceasefire to immediately end the IDF attacks in its territory. Al-Aridi said his country is interested in an immediate and total ceasefire and will make use of all available channels towards this end. Meanwhile, the Lebanese government has demanded that the UN convene an emergency session to discuss the Israeli offensive. The Katyusha fire on Israel is continuing, as are the Israeli bombardments in Lebanon. As a result of the escalation UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has announced that he is dispatching a three-person delegation to the Middle East in an attempt to ease tensions.
You know why ceasefires don't work? Because the Arab terrorist organizations and militia groups don't obey them. Or rather, they obey them just until they regroup and are ready to try their hands at murders and kidnappings again. And do you know how we know that's true? Because a couple of months ago, Hezbollah launched some rockets at Israeli cities. The IDF immediately went over the top, and threatened to knock out large chunks of infrastructure in Beirut. A ceasefire was immediately offered to Israel and accepted - which held, just until Hezbollah was ready.
* In between considering how best to condemn Israel for defending itself in Lebanon, the Security Council also found time to vote on a resolution condemning Israel for defending itself in the Gaza Strip Bolton vetoed. Obviously.
* We're quite sure that the fact that Hezbollah directly hit Maccabi Hospital with a missile is not something you're going to be able to learn from most news outlets.
* Aww... Laura King is back. We missed Laura King. We haven't seen her on a byline in a while, and she's our favorite! But now she's back to lend her famous dispassionate eye to the situation. Simply going by quotes in her article, it would seem like Israeli opinion is running 2 to 1 against attacking Lebanon. We wonder if she only quotes political sources from Meretz and way left Labor politicians because she's trying to stack the deck, or whether she just doesn't know anyone on the other side of the political spectrum to talk to.
* Charles Krauthammer tries to slowly explain to "gullible and historically ignorant Westerners" that the coordinated Arab violence against Israel can't be about the Occupation: (1) it is mostly coming from areas that aren't occupied, (2) Arab campaigns of war and terrorism began before 1967, and (3) Arab countries and terrorists openly insist that the issue at stake is Israel's very act of coming into existence in 1948. We presume that the answer of diplomatic sophisticates would be to just insist that Israel is at fault with more vehemence, or to insist that he accused them of anti-Semitism and that they're not going to be intimidated by him.
* On the same day that Iran threatens to declare war against Israel, the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France, and Germany reveal a package deal that would give Iran nuclear reactors. That is all.
Lebanese Communications Minister Ghazi Al-Aridi told local media outlets Thursday afternoon that the Lebanese government has asked for a ceasefire to immediately end the IDF attacks in its territory. Al-Aridi said his country is interested in an immediate and total ceasefire and will make use of all available channels towards this end. Meanwhile, the Lebanese government has demanded that the UN convene an emergency session to discuss the Israeli offensive. The Katyusha fire on Israel is continuing, as are the Israeli bombardments in Lebanon. As a result of the escalation UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has announced that he is dispatching a three-person delegation to the Middle East in an attempt to ease tensions.
You know why ceasefires don't work? Because the Arab terrorist organizations and militia groups don't obey them. Or rather, they obey them just until they regroup and are ready to try their hands at murders and kidnappings again. And do you know how we know that's true? Because a couple of months ago, Hezbollah launched some rockets at Israeli cities. The IDF immediately went over the top, and threatened to knock out large chunks of infrastructure in Beirut. A ceasefire was immediately offered to Israel and accepted - which held, just until Hezbollah was ready.
* In between considering how best to condemn Israel for defending itself in Lebanon, the Security Council also found time to vote on a resolution condemning Israel for defending itself in the Gaza Strip Bolton vetoed. Obviously.
* We're quite sure that the fact that Hezbollah directly hit Maccabi Hospital with a missile is not something you're going to be able to learn from most news outlets.
* Aww... Laura King is back. We missed Laura King. We haven't seen her on a byline in a while, and she's our favorite! But now she's back to lend her famous dispassionate eye to the situation. Simply going by quotes in her article, it would seem like Israeli opinion is running 2 to 1 against attacking Lebanon. We wonder if she only quotes political sources from Meretz and way left Labor politicians because she's trying to stack the deck, or whether she just doesn't know anyone on the other side of the political spectrum to talk to.
* Charles Krauthammer tries to slowly explain to "gullible and historically ignorant Westerners" that the coordinated Arab violence against Israel can't be about the Occupation: (1) it is mostly coming from areas that aren't occupied, (2) Arab campaigns of war and terrorism began before 1967, and (3) Arab countries and terrorists openly insist that the issue at stake is Israel's very act of coming into existence in 1948. We presume that the answer of diplomatic sophisticates would be to just insist that Israel is at fault with more vehemence, or to insist that he accused them of anti-Semitism and that they're not going to be intimidated by him.
* On the same day that Iran threatens to declare war against Israel, the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France, and Germany reveal a package deal that would give Iran nuclear reactors. That is all.
