WHAT ABOUT ISREAL'S DEFIANCE OF UN RESOLUTIONS

[Mission911]

You hear about Iran and Syria’s resistance to UN resolution and sanction against them and you never hear about any sanctions against Israel. I don’t know why any Muslim countries are even a member of UN when all its resolutions in favor of Muslim countries and its people are vetoed by US.

Its also amazing to see how US exploits its power to manipulate the world and exploits its media to capture the mind of its people. US citizens, talking about human, animal and even plants have rights, BUT seems blindfolded when it comes to international atrocities and human slaughter by their own government and foreign policies.

It's time to change the UN Secretary-General. It's time to give sanctions to Israel if it does not stop violating UN Resolutions one after the other.

Now that would be quite impossible given the fact that Israel is under the protection of the US.

The Moderates and the Pacifists in the Israeli Society should take a more active role in Politics to stop the Zionists from doing what they want - killing civilians all over the world.

To Zionist Israel: Stop the Killings! Stop the Carnage!

To the UN: Shut Up for one second and do something concrete.

With this war crimes caused by Israel in Lebnon, I can see The UN will pass another resolution ( as there is no point of calling for a ceasefire now as they have achieved in create hell in Lebanon) and nothing will happen because the UN likes to play lip service from a comfortable distance.

Instead I ask the question - why don't the neighbouring Arab countries like Syria and Jordan and Egypt come in defence of Lebanon? It's because they too like to merely pay lip service from a comfortable distance.

If they truly cared about Lebanon and Hezbolah they'd issue Israel an ultimatum - first a boycott and then military support.

[Pincher]

Your post raises many important questions, probably too many to give an opinion on in a single reply so I'll cover each of your points briefly:

i) To the best of my knowledge there are no UN sanctions currently in force against either Iran or Syria (although both have been threatened with them because of the former's nuclear programme and the implication of the latter in the murder of Lebanese politican, Rafik Hariri).

ii) US broadcast media (virtually all of which is in private hands) could be characterised as right wing. Print media is more liberal with the New York Times and Time Magazine the most recognizeable standard bearers of alternative opinion. Both US liberals and conservatives are pro Israel partly due to the US east coast Jewish lobby and partly due to Israels' strategic role in countering Franco/Russo/Sino influence in the Middle East.

It is worth noting that UK broadcast media, much of which is in public hands, is internationally perceived as Arabist. C4 is regarded as so stridently pro Arab it has been dubbed 'Judophobic' by some observers. This stance reflects majority opinion in the Foreign Office which regards pro Israeli sentiment as an impediment to good relations with Saudi Arabia (a relationship once described as 'guns for oil').

iii) Which atrocities are you refering to? Until the recent elections the worst conflict since WWII rarely got a mention in UK media (The Congo - over four million dead). Darfur, where the death toll will reach six figures by the end of the year has largely disappeared from our screens. Zimbabwe too (750,000 MDC supporters bulldozed out of their homes & livelihoods and dying in their thousands of hunger and disease in camps and in the bush). The offical civilian body count in the Lebanese conflict at the time of writing (around 1,000) is low by comparison.

One must ask oneself why is it that Israel commands bylines and headlines day after day, night after night? Why does Israel's actions regularly bring tens of thousands of protesters out on to the streets? And why didn't the Rwandan genocide (where 800,000 were massacred in six weeks), for which France and Belgium bear a heavy responsibility, inspire a single indigenously organised demonstration in the UK?

Have you ever considered that 'alternative' political values are not necessarily innately more 'just' or 'worthy' than mainstream ones, and that popular liberal causes are often promoted (at the expense of others)by secretive, elite, corrupt forces?

iv) Almost all of the 66 (95 if you include those vetoed by the US) UN resolutions flouted by Israel were condemnations for past 'one-off' incursions and attacks on her neighbours (which she would regard as 'justifiable self defence'). The most significant ones outstanding are 194 (the right of Palestinians to return to lands occupied before the creation of the State of Israel) which Israel rejects (this maybe a non-binding resolution but don't take my word on it) and 242 (withdrawal from all Arab territories occupied since 1967) which Israel (with significant reservations) acknowledges. Such territories include:

Sinai (handed back to Egypt)
West Bank (now the 'Palestinian Authority' - has a limited amount of self rule but Israel maintains strong security presence)
Gaza (withdrew and formally handed over to PA earlier this year but reoccupied militarily)
The Golan (has indicated will hand back to Syria once Israel's borders are recognised and secure)

Arabs regard other issues as bound up in 242. Particularly, the future status of Jerusalem as capital of an independent Palestinian state (Israel resists this as it sees Jerusalem as central to its own idea of nationhood), the continued occupation and construction of Jewish settlements in the PA, the return of the Shaaba farms to Lebanon (Israel currently regards this area as Syrian) and, most recently, the loss of PA territory to Israel proper as a result of the construction of the security wall (amongst other things it may have been routed to secure access to water, the denial of which, by Jordan, was one of the underlying causes of the 1967 conflict)

Israel's concerns with its neighbours centre around the non implementation of UN resolution 1559 by Lebanon (the disarming of Hezbollah) and the non-recognition of the State of Israel's 'right to exist' (UN Resolution 181 - 'The Creation of the State of Israel') by the PA ruling party, Hamas (and other Palestinian organisations), by Syria's ruling elite, the Alawite faction, (which regards Israel, Lebanon and Jordan as part of 'Greater Syria') and the stated aim of the Guardian Council of Iran to destroy The State of Israel.

v) It is no secret that Israel is an albatross around the neck of the US, a problem it wishes to be rid off (Israel is a permanent drain on the US economy, offering little in return) but cannot abandon, the root cause of its global difficulties (exploited by virtually evey non English speaking country) and one which could well prove to be the ultimate cause of its own downfall.

Remember too that the Arab/Islamist states have their own super power backers (notably France, Russia and China) who have done little to encourage these regimes to open up, reform and improve the economic well being of their citizens. China's indirect sponsorship of Irans nuclear programme is particualrly concerning. It also supplies increasingly sophisticated weaponry to Hezbollah via Iran and Syria.

vi) Liberals in Israel has been very vociferous in their oppostion to the war in Lebanon. In fact, the first anti war demonstrations in the Middle East took place in Tel Aviv (it will be interesting to see how much of this liberal feeling persists if the city ever comes within range of Hezbollah's rockets).

So far there have been no reported anti Israeli demonstrations in 'non combatant' Arab League neighbours which both raises a question mark over the nature of spontaneous protest in these countries and indicates a certain antipathy towards Hezbollah (an organisation openly disliked by Iranian liberals).

vii) What are the other theatres where Israeli forces are deployed?

viii) Whilst Zionism is still evident on the periphery (particularly in settler communities and amongst the various Orthodox sects) its influence on mainstream Israeli opinion is waning (the forced evictions of settlers in Gaza might not have been possible a decade ago). Providing borders can be secured a majority backs 'The Road Map' and 'Land for Peace.'

ix) Theft, rape and murder are against the law in any society but the law doesn't prevent these crimes being committed. Similarly, wars violate international law and UN resolutions but they still flare up. This particular conflict will stop when the combatants want it to stop (when it ceases to be of propaganda value to Syria and Iran and/or when Israel either achieves its military objectives or domestic opinion turns against it).

x) Lebanon is an independent state in name only. In reality it is a dominion of Syria. The Lebanese President, Emile Lehoud, was effectively imposed by Syria's President, Bashir Assad (it was Rafik Hariri's opposition to Lehoud's unconstitutional third term - rubber-stamped by Assad on the grounds that Lehoud was his personal representative there - that almost certainly cost him his life). The south of the country has effectively been leased to Iran by Syria.

This political reality and a deep detestation of Shia fundamentalism by largely secular leaderships in Egypt and Jordan (whose populations are mainly Sunni) propels them to a semi-offical public neutrality on the current conflict (in private they almost certainly support Israel but wish it would show more restraint).

Syria's army and airforce (consisting largely of 60's and 70's hardware) would be no match for the IDF. Damascus would be levelled within days from the air and from the Golan (thus showing up the true surgical nature of current Israeli air strikes in Lebanon).

xi) An Arab boycott would be ineffectual as Israel has very little trade with its neighbours.

xii) Israel easily defeated the combined conventional forces of its neighbours both in '67 and '73 (which partly explains why Egypt and Jordan sought their own separate peace with Israel) and would probably overcome them even more comprehensively now (the IDF is probably the second best equipped army in the world).

And remember, if Israel had to face a significant force drawn from every state in the Middle East it is the only country in the region that possesses the nuclear option...

for now.