If some of my response below seems abusive, forgive me. I'm just matching your tone.
You may want to check your facts again, heck, why not have a look at a few quotes from the morons in hisbulla who kicked the whole event off because even they realise they f7cked up when they antagonised Israel in to attacking them.
Israel's stated objectives, before the invasion, were to rescue the two kidnapped soldiers, and to militarily cripple Hezbollah. They achieved neither. Defeat.
What they did do was kill somewhere between 250 (if you believe Hezbollah) and 600 (if you believe the IDF) guerillas, and destroy a lot of civillian infrastructure. This inconveniences Hezbollah, badly hurts a lot of south Lebanese civillians, and makes the IDF look like brutes to most of the world.
The IDF took considerable losses, considering the technological disparity. More than 50 soldiers dead, more than 10 tanks destroyed. That was in just that short engagement. The post I replied to implied that Israel could conquer the whole region if they were so inclined. No way. Not with that rate of attrition.
Maybe open your eyes because not everyone sees hisbulla as being the best thing since sliced bread...people do realise the sh1t these morons have created at the expense of your average lebanese, because lets face it if hisbulla REALLY was interested in the welfare of the lebanese they wouldnt be antagonising and carrying out terrorists attacks would they?
I am not a Hezbollah or Israel supporter. I don't doubt that Hezbollah provoked the whole thing for selfish reasons. Even the Hezbollah leader has admitted he made a big mistake.
Oh for f8cks sake...what ethnic clensing? IF these mythical people were being "ethnically" cleaned then why are they still in Gaza? Why do they still have large tracks of land around Jewish settlements?
The ethnic cleansing referred to by almost every Israeli prime minister ever. My first google search turned up
http://www.monabaker.com/quotes.htm and it would be easy to find many, many more examples. Googling for Israeli PM quotes is the fastest way to convince yourself that ethnic cleansing has taken place.
What ethnic cleansing, indeed.
The Israelis have the stomach for it. The soft ones are those who live outside of Israel and refuse to see the reality of the situation but instead blame Israel for every ill under the sun
They have the stomach for it now. My opinion is that this could change in the future. Just an opinion, though.
Wont change, then again Israel already has Muslim members of Parliament who take an active role in the running of the Government. Cant say the same about any "Arabic" government can you?
The percentage of the population that is Jewish has been slowly but steadily declining pretty much since the founding of the state. The change will barely be noticed over a 5 year period, but over 50 years, it will be huge. Unless the Jewish birthrate turns around, or they expel non-Jews, maths tells us that eventually Jews will be a minority in Israel. That's not including the occupied territories.
Wont happen because both Iran and Syria know what would happen if they passed on new technology that could change the political landscape of the area.
Both Iran and Syria are still funneling weapons to Hezbollah. Some of the rockets Hezbollah fired in 2006 were Iranian designs. They've been doing it for decades. So, whatever was going to happen, already has.
Hisbulla, hamas and all the other muslim terrorist groups rely on the world political situation staying the same (ie. anti-Israel) because if the worlds political opinion changed to one of support for Israel I can guarantee you that the "palestinian" problem would go away over night.
The US is backing Israel for whatever reason (there's one for CT's). US support is what makes or breaks Israel on the world political stage. I see two possible changes that would alter Israel's political fortunes. One, the US decides Israel is no longer useful and withdraws it's support. Two, US power declines to the point where their support is no big deal.
Bullsh1t, show me where the Israeli Government has openly declared they will destroy countries? Show me where the Israeli Government has declared they want to rule the middle east?
Who said anything about destroying? Have a look at what some of the Israeli leaders have said throughout history. It mostly revolves around the "necessity" of kicking Arabs out of the lands they want to claim for themselves. Some of them were honest, greedy bastards, who talk about expelling Arabs 'cos they're taking up prime real estate. Some were religous nutcases who honestly believe God told them to take Arab lands.
Come on...and Im not talking about crackpots...Im talking about the Government? Show me ANYTHING similar to that moron in Iran who talks daily of wiping Israel off the face of the planet.
Once again, google for some quotes by Israeli leaders. You don't need to go beyond Ben-Gurion to get some real cold-blooded doozies, but every Israeli leader has said some pretty callous things about Arabs.
As long as there are people in the Arab world who see benefit in having an unstable middle east this will never happen.
The Palestinian problem could be over tomorrow if the arab world stopped supporting terrorism. The problem could go away if palestinians stopped detonating in public places. The Palestinians have so much more to gain economically, socially, culturally if they put down their arms and became friends with Israel, its as simple as that.
But as long as there are people in Tehran and co, who benefit from instability AND sponsoring terrorism around the world then this wont change.
Ah, the good old blame game... not something I really want to venture into. Nobody has clean hands in the middle east, you can cherry-pick your history to paint anyone as villain or victim. If only X did what Y wants them to do the whole problem would be solved... wow, that's some real insight you've got there.
BTW, it always amuses me when people talk about the historical right Palestinians have to those areas of Israel they now live in...but when you consider it was the Romans that established Palestinia and that the palestinians then have absolutely no ties to the palestinians today.
It nauseates me when people feel the need to go that far back in history to determine who has a rightful claim to the place. Living there for more than a generation or two is claim enough.
And lets not forget the role Egypt, Syria, Jordan have played in using the Palestinians as their political play thing over the years.
Hardly needs mentioning. Everyone tramples over the poor bastards for their own ends, is it any wonder they're resorting to desperate tactics?
Anyway, just had to knock down the notion that Israel could possibly conquer the middle east, since they haven't even managed to grab all of Palestine yet. I don't want to spend too much time educating jingoists, however. They have trouble absorbing facts they don't want to hear.
Now, to get back to conspiracy theories, and I hope this is the only bit that gets replies: I think the high level of US support for Israel is contrary to America's best interests... so why do they do it?
