War In The Middle East

[Arpa]

Arpa jan, with all the best intention your post could not have been more wrong. President Lahoud’s stance and loyalty (feudalism never dies in Lebanon).

======

Now for the name Lahoud. It comes from Lahd which means grave or a tomb. Lahoud is the plural for Lahd and also signifies the profession of grave digging (how appropriate for his post). As in blacksmith or taylor, somewhere in his ancestry there must have been someone who was in the profession of burying people

Thank you Zareh for the etymology.

I have forgotten most of my Arabic/Aramaic.

You may have also forgotten that my middle name is Exaggerat-ian.

Ye. I do exaggerate.

Yet, if Lebanon must last as a country, not a Maronite/Catholic/Christian enclave (Where is that idiot known as poop Pope? Is he done counting his beads?), it is time that they realize, as Emile has, that they are a minority and that their survival hangs on a thin thread of coalition and coexistence, unless they succumb and relent to Lebanon being a suburb of Damascus or TelAviv.

[Dave]

14 Israeli troops have been killed in Lebanon

 

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/stor...me=&no_ads=

 

btw Where is Sassun??

[Arpa]

14 Israeli troops have been killed in Lebanon

 

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/stor...me=&no_ads=

 

btw Where is Sassun??

Taros@ mnatsogh hrya shnerin.

Whoever told them Palestine was their "homeland"? Yeah, yeah! I know. The likes of Djrak and his disciples, Seb et al will give us Chapter and Verse. How about Berlin, Warsaw and Brabidjan ? (look it up).

http://www.fjc.ru/communities/default.asp?AID=84435

Yes. Indeed. Where is Sassun?

Edited July 26, 2006 by Arpa

[skhara]

Three cheers for the Lebanese president Emile Lahoud.

Could it be his Armenian connection? His wife is of Armenian descent.

WE just heard him declining to criticize Hezbollah. And for that reason he has been excluded from the metting in Rome.

He should be praised for his stance, despite much pressure, in not condemning and criticizing the Hezbollah and its chairman. As much as we may lament the fact that Lebanon is not a majority Christian country anymore, the likes of Lahoud may have matured enough to realize, no matter what creed or party, they are all Lebanese and have Lebanon’s welfare in mind.

Apris Emile Lahoudian! Even if Lahoud may be a variation of El-Yahud.

 

 

Declining to critisize? He opennly and in front of everyone supports them. Calls them an "integral part of Lebanese defenses". Good for him!

[Verginne]

14 Israeli troops have been killed in Lebanon

 

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/stor...me=&no_ads=

 

btw Where is Sassun??

 

 

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Well he was here last night. Hopefully when the israeli savages were knocking out the phone lines and electricity, his was still working. Let's hope Sassun comes to give us the latest news.

[hovan]

hello cousins,

i am new to this site and find it very interesting to get a non american slant as to whats going on. i just heard that nato will send in turkish peace keeping forces into the area. how soon do you think it will be until they find some excuse to start killing christians in beruit. or better still how long before night patrols of turks are found dead in the streets. kind of like pouring gasoline on the fire . i would like to hear more from our cousins in beruit....funny thing..when i go to work and try to explain their position people think i am "terrorist" sypathetic...hovan

[Arpa]

hello cousins,

i am new to this site and find it very interesting to get a non american slant as to whats going on. i just heard that nato will send in turkish peace keeping forces into the area. how soon do you think it will be until they find some excuse to start killing christians in beruit. or better still how long before night patrols of turks are found dead in the streets. kind of like pouring gasoline on the fire . i would like to hear more from our cousins in beruit....funny thing..when i go to work and try to explain their position people think i am "terrorist" sypathetic...hovan

You don’t mean Turkish troops will be stationed in Nor Marash, Nor Hajin and in Bourj Hammoud in general??!!

Boy! Did Israel ever miscalculate this one.

I guess they are still tipsy from those heady days some 40 years ago.

Look up the Six Day War and see for yourselves.

Six Day War? How about Six Hundred Year War?

And look what this idiot is talking about that “Israel should invade Syria”.

Who said “history repeats itself”?

Just like when Abraham came from wherever the hell, prevailed for a while, then Moshe cam from wherever the hell (Berlin) and prevailed for a while. And now.

And please! Don’t ever compare and equate our history and destiny with theirs’. We did not come from anywhere, we have always been there and will be long after all those others that came from hell go back to where they came from.

http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=w060717&s=oren071706

Nearly 40 years ago, Israel and the Arab world fought a war that altered the course of Middle Eastern history. Now, as the region teeters on the brink of a new and potentially more violent cataclysm, it is important to revisit the lessons of the Six Day War, a conflict that few Middle Eastern countries wanted and none foresaw.

By 1967, ten years after the Sinai Campaign, the Arab-Israeli dispute had settled into an uneasy status quo. The radical Egyptian regime of Gamal Abdel Nasser still proclaimed its commitment to liberating Palestine and throwing the Jews into the sea, as did its conservative rivals in Jordan and Saudi Arabia, but none of these states made any attempt to renew hostilities. On the contrary, Egypt remained quiescent behind the U.N. peacekeeping forces deployed in Sinai, Gaza, and the Straits of Tiran since 1957. Jordan maintained secret contacts with the Israelis. Israel, for its part, had long learned to ignore bellicose Arab rhetoric and to seek backdoor channels to even the most vituperative Arab rulers. As late as April 1967, officials at Israel's foreign ministry were speculating whether Nasser might be a viable partner for a peace process.

But one Arab state did not want peace. Syria, then as now under the rule of the belligerent Baath Party, wanted war. Having tried and failed in 1964 to divert the Jordan River before it crossed the Israeli border--IDF jets and artillery blasted the dams--the Syrians began supporting a little-known Palestinian guerrilla group called Al Fatah under the leadership of Yasir Arafat. Using Lebanon as its principal base, Al Fatah commenced operations against Israel in 1965 and rapidly escalated its attacks. Finally, at the end of 1966, Israeli officials felt compelled to retaliate. But, fearing the repercussions of attacking Soviet-backed Syria, they decided to strike at an Al Fatah stronghold in the Jordanian-controlled West Bank.

 

The raid unfortunately led to a firefight between IDF and Jordanian troops, and to Jordanian claims that Nasser had not done enough to protect the West Bank Palestinians. Desperate to restore his reputation, Nasser exploited a spurious Soviet report of Israeli war plans to evict U.N. peacekeepers. He closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, concentrated 100,000 of his troops along the Israeli border, and forged anti-Israeli pacts with Syria and Jordan. The Arab world rejoiced at the prospect of annihilating Israel, and even the Soviets, eager to find some means of distracting American attention from Vietnam, were pleased. Israeli leaders had no choice but to determine when and where to strike preemptively.

And so, suddenly and unexpectedly, a regional war erupted that the principal combatants--Israel, Egypt, and Jordan--neither desired nor anticipated. The lesson: Local conflicts in the Middle East can quickly spin out of control and spiral into a regional conflagration.

The lesson is especially pertinent to the current crisis. Then, as now, the Syrians have goaded a terrorist organization, Hezbollah, to launch raids against Israel from Lebanon. Then, as now, the rapid rise of terrorist attacks has forced Israel to mount reprisals. If the Soviets in 1967 wanted to divert America's attention from Vietnam, the Iranians--Syria's current sponsors--want to divert American attention from their nuclear-arms program. And once again Israel must decide when to strike back and against whom.

Back in 1966, Israel recoiled from attacking Syria and instead raided Jordan, inadvertently setting off a concatenation of events culminating in war. Israel is once again refraining from an entanglement with Hezbollah's Syrian sponsors, perhaps because it fears a clash with Iran. And just as Israel's failure to punish the patron of terror in 1967 ultimately triggered a far greater crisis, so too today, by hesitating to retaliate against Syria, Israel risks turning what began as a border skirmish into a potentially more devastating confrontation. Israel may hammer Lebanon into submission and it may deal Hezbollah a crushing blow, but as long as Syria remains hors de combat there is no way that Israel can effect a permanent change in Lebanon's political labyrinth and ensure an enduring ceasefire in the north. On the contrary, convinced that Israel is unwilling to confront them, the Syrians may continue to escalate tensions, pressing them toward the crisis point. The result could be an all-out war with Syria as well as Iran and severe political upheaval in Jordan, Egypt, and the Gulf.

The answer lies in delivering an unequivocal blow to Syrian ground forces deployed near the Lebanese border. By eliminating 500 Syrian tanks--tanks that Syrian President Bashar Al Assad needs to preserve his regime--Israel could signal its refusal to return to the status quo in Lebanon. Supporting Hezbollah carries a prohibitive price, the action would say. Of course, Syria could respond with missile attacks against Israeli cities, but given the dilapidated state of Syria's army, the chances are greater that Assad will simply internalize the message. Presented with a choice between saving Hezbollah and staying alive, Syria's dictator will probably choose the latter. And the message of Israel's determination will also be received in Tehran.

Any course of military action carries risks, especially in the unpredictable Middle East. But if the past is any guide, and if the Six Day War presents a paradigm of an unwanted war that might have been averted with an early, well-placed strike at Syria, then Israel's current strategy in Lebanon deserves to be rethought. If Syria escapes unscathed and Iran undeterred, Israel will remain insecure.

Michael B. Oren is a senior fellow at The Shalem Center in Jerusalem and the author most recently of Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East (Oxford University Press).

[Dave]

Iranian Volunteers Set Off for Lebanon

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6072601365.html

 

The down side of this is that they will probably not be allowed to pass through the Turkish border.

[hovan]

i know the syrian border and turkish borders have u.s. special forces there. my sons friend is stationed somewhere around there. they want to secure the border to make sure turks dont go over the border to go after kurds and to stop any terrorist traffic in that area.

[Verginne]

hello cousins,

i am new to this site and find it very interesting to get a non american slant as to whats going on. i just heard that nato will send in turkish peace keeping forces into the area. how soon do you think it will be until they find some excuse to start killing christians in beruit. or better still how long before night patrols of turks are found dead in the streets. kind of like pouring gasoline on the fire . i would like to hear more from our cousins in beruit....funny thing..when i go to work and try to explain their position people think i am "terrorist" sypathetic...hovan

 

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

I don't see how there can be any justification whatsoever for sending turks into Lebanon. After all, turks are allies of israel. Does that make sense? They can't even run their own stinking country either.

[Arpa]

What is going on may be one of the best illustrations of the saying; “Winning the battle(s) and losing the war“. When even such softies as the UN ‘s Anan becomes indignant and can’t hide his anger.

And just like their very existence is based on mythology that they themselves created, the myth of being invincible is fast catching up with them. Brings to mind another adage: “Growing too big for one’s britches”. They may yet learn the consequences of overconfidence, and the outcome of “us, the sophisticated vs those nomadic peasants.

This may serve as a good lesson of history for Mr. GWB and Ms. Rice who seem to know no more history than that in that Book. They may now understand how the relatives of the insurgents in Lebanon had an empire from the Arabian Gulf to the Gibraltar and beyond, and still have an empire bigger than many.

Edited July 27, 2006 by Arpa

[Sassun]

14 Israeli troops have been killed in Lebanon

 

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/stor...me=&no_ads=

 

btw Where is Sassun??

I'm here... sorry, I was a bit busy, and having issues posting here w/ my internet, so I have to get on dial-up every time I have to post, which is getting a tad bit annoying.

 

Yesterday jets were flying very low over the Matn region where I live...

 

HezbAllah seems to be getting close to re-capturing the tiny village called Maroun al-Ras which the Israelis could capture only after 4-5 days of heavy fighting, many casualties, and 3-4 days of Israeli media lies claiming that they captured Maroun al-Ras from day 1.

[skhara]

IDF say world backs offensive and everyone is south Lebanon is a "terrorist".

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5219360.stm

[Z'areh]

hello cousins,

i am new to this site and find it very interesting to get a non american slant as to whats going on. i just heard that nato will send in turkish peace keeping forces into the area. how soon do you think it will be until they find some excuse to start killing christians in beruit. or better still how long before night patrols of turks are found dead in the streets. kind of like pouring gasoline on the fire . i would like to hear more from our cousins in beruit....funny thing..when i go to work and try to explain their position people think i am "terrorist" sypathetic...hovan

 

 

Israel welcomed the idea of NATO forces coming in to "secure" the area. They didn't want any UN involvement, which is why they attacked and killed UN observers. From the above mentioned BBC site we see the immediate result of such an attack that Israel wished:

 

BBC: [Following the deaths of four UN observers in an Israeli air strike, Australia has withdrawn 12 UN peacekeepers, describing the prospect of sending an international force to Lebanon right now as a "suicide mission"]

 

So this will buy them time to continue to destroy Lebanon.

 

Turkey, which Israel would wish to see in South Lebanon, is caught in a dilemma. They would love to play a role in such an internationally visible theatre, but they have to reconcile with their internal Islamist forces that are openly anti-Israeli policies in Lebanon. That is why we read in Turkish Daily News that Turkey prefers to serve under the UN blue helmets, no doubt feeling that would be politically safer option. But we know what Israel thinks about the UN.

 

At this point Lebanon might accept the NATO option, because destruction must stop immediately, but Lebanon should insist only accepting German divisions to come and install themselves in the South, and then see the Israelis squirm and explain to their people how their act has brought German troops facing the sons of Holocaust survivors. Israel then would refuse NATO troops.

 

Europe has proven politically inept as far as countering US wishes are concerned. So soon we will see even the NATO option fizzle out. At the end of the day Israel wants no foreign presence in Lebanon so that they can go on with their genocidal destruction of Lebanon.

 

We have yet to see any Lebanese army units doing their “constitutional obligations” in defending the Motherland. Prime Minister Seniora claims the Lebanese Army is ready. Sure.

[hovan]

as a 3rd generation armenian american i'm trying to get a perspective on whats going on in lebanon, perhaps those of you there can tell me a few things. 1st: geographicly where is the christian section located in beirut, north,south etc. are the armenians supporters of the moslems or are they simply outraged that their country is being invaded by the jews. do you trust the moslems. you have to understand that in america our media is mostly owned by jews and librals so we only get one sympathetic jewish view point. however, we also understand the radical moslem religion and their ultimate agenda.

[Verginne]

Lebanon arrests 40 'Israel spies'

 

From correspondents in Beirut

 

July 27, 2006 03:38am

 

LEBANESE military intelligence and Hezbollah have arrested around 40 people, mainly in and around Beirut, on suspicion of spying for Israel, a security service source said.

 

Thirty-five people were arrested in Beirut and its southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold before being heavily bombarded in the Israeli offensive, the source said.

 

Five Lebanese were arrested in the eastern Bekaa valley, also a stronghold of the militant group, while four others are on the run.

 

 

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/st...5005961,00.html

[Sassun]

hovan-

 

i will not answer your questions because this conflict is not a jew-muslim (religious) conflict. you claim you all understand the radical muslim agenda when this has nothing to do with that, nor in fact with Bush's and israel's favourite word, "terrorism".

[Z'areh]

hovan-

 

i will not answer your questions because this conflict is not a jew-muslim (religious) conflict. you claim you all understand the radical muslim agenda when this has nothing to do with that, nor in fact with Bush's and israel's favourite word, "terrorism".

 

 

 

I agree with you Sassun, the religious aspect is mere "colouring" of the problem. Bush, caught eating with his

mouth open and talking at the same time to Blair [i guess no one taught him to eat with his mouth shut, and not to talk while eating], says that the root causes must be addressed, unfortunately Bush's root causes is not the solving of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but the elimination of the obstacles that would prevent Israel to do as they wish in the region.

 

As we read in the Guardian newspaper "the abominable presidency of Bush" is the root cause of this conflict.

 

Israel made sure to exploit the last leg of Bush's presidency to embark on ethnic cleansing of South Lebanon, knowing full well that the lies and the propaganda put in place by the neocons surrounding Bush might not be as affective with the next US president.

 

Sassun, what can you tell about the Armenian regions in Beirut, and how is life coping in Bourj-Hammoud. I read in Aztag that Armenian schools are transformed into shelters for people from the South.

 

How are things in general?

 

thanks.

[hovan]

i asked a simple question and got a rude remark. are you all that way? i asked for your view point and all i got was i'm not going to answer you.

if its not a religious war than why do we allways here these rag heads saying we need to kill jews and christians. oh, i'm sorry was i rude to call them rag heads...sorry. or would you rather hear...we should just nuke em all and take thier oil...if you would like to hear more rudeness let me know..i'm sure i can fill your little black hearts with more of the same..however, if there is anyone out there that is intellegent enough to help me understand your point of view..by all means please respond..

[annannimusss]

Hovan I will answer your questions for you.The Israeli's are a Country that has commited Genocide on innocent people,they continue to Occupy the West Bank and Gaza(there in and out of there),Shebba Farms-Lebanese,Golan Heights-Syria.

 

My point of view is that Israel has started all this major escalation in Palestine,and in Lebanon-Hizbullah started it.

 

First we will go to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which has gone out of control.You may think that it started when the Palestinians kidnapped a Israeli soldier,but this is not true.It started about a month and a half ago when 9 innocent people died on a Beach in Gaza.And Israel was denying that they did anything wrong.Hamas said what the hell,then a few days later there was a "Missfire" from an Israeli Helicopter that killed or injured a 10 People or five people eating dinner at home.Then the next day there is another "Missfire" and more innocent people get hurt.And Hamas had got fed up and said enough,so they kidnapped a Soldier and a civilian.They later killed the Civilian,but I am not sure if Hamas kidnapped the Civilian or not,Iwill look into it.

 

And all this was done why,in my opinion,because Mahoud Abass President of the Palestinian Territories was going to force a Referendum on Hamas which Hamas later accepted to hold,and it would recognize the State of Israel.But when the Israelis saw the Palestinians coming together they new they had to F*** up the situation.

 

And the Lebanon thing,Hezbollah is wrong for what they did,but the Israeli response is far to Heavy handed killing over 400 innocent people and over 1,300 injured.So please have some compassion for your fellow man.The Israelis are also bombing Christian-Sunni Cities and cities with no Shite Muslims.What is the point of this,it is collective punishment.

[Arpa]

You don’t mean Turkish troops will be stationed in Nor Marash, Nor Hajin and in Bourj Hammoud in general??!!

Boy! Did Israel ever miscalculate this one.

I guess they are still tipsy from those heady days some 40 years ago.

=====

Look up the Six Day War and see for yourselves.of Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East (Oxford University Press).[/i]

Miscalculation?

Read the Time Magazine’s special issue on the subject.

Quick, before it is taken off the air.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/...18051-3,00.html

Don’t forget to turn this on to see Alexandra Avakian’s photography.

http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/2006/inside_hizballah/

Her are some excerpts;

What Was He Thinking?

In other words, the escalating war is a result of two sets of miscalculations. Each side underestimated the other's fierceness and willingness to fight. So now the Israelis are stuck with a war on a scale they didn't plan for, and without an exit strategy. Hizballah is in a similar bind. At first, the Israelis spoke vaguely about the need to degrade Hizballah before ending their campaign.

What Was He Thinking? Israel's Olmert may have misjudged Hizballah, but he's digging in for a fight. The outcome will determine both his future and the prospects for Middle East peace.

Do read, contrary to the prevailing wisdom of Iranian backed Hisbollah, what the average Persian has to say about their Arab neighbors vs their domestic interests and concerns.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/...1218048,00.html

Iranians like Heydari believe that their country, ethnically and linguistically Persian, should stay out of the Arabs' fight with Israel and focus on improving living standards at home. "I don't think it's right to support them when our own people are hungry," says Mohammad Reza Afshari, 23, a mechanic who works two jobs yet still cannot afford to move out or attend college. The shop where he works abuts a vast mural depicting a female suicide bomber with a baby in her arms, accompanied....

All we need now is another "miscaclculation" by those clowns of the Israelis known as turks to try and "keep the peace" in Lebanon.

Edited July 29, 2006 by Arpa

[Arpa]

You don’t mean Turkish troops will be stationed in Nor Marash, Nor Hajin and in Bourj Hammoud in general??!!

Boy! Did Israel ever miscalculate this one.

I guess they are still tipsy from those heady days some 40 years ago.

Look up the Six Day War and see for yourselves.

Six Day War? How about Six Hundred Year War?

And look what this idiot is talking about that “Israel should invade Syria”.

Who said “history repeats itself”?

Just like when Abraham came from wherever the hell, prevailed for a while, then Moshe cam from wherever the hell (Berlin) and prevailed for a while. And now.

And please! Don’t ever compare and equate our history and destiny with theirs’. We did not come from anywhere, we have always been there and will be long after all those others that came from hell go back to where they came from.

http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=w060717&s=oren071706

Nearly 40 years ago, Israel and the Arab world fought a war that altered the course of Middle Eastern history. Now, as the region teeters on the brink of a new and potentially more violent cataclysm, it is important to revisit the lessons of the Six Day War, a conflict that few Middle Eastern countries wanted and none foresaw.

By 1967, ten years after the Sinai Campaign, the Arab-Israeli dispute had settled into an uneasy status quo. The radical Egyptian regime of Gamal Abdel Nasser still proclaimed its commitment to liberating Palestine and throwing the Jews into the sea, as did its conservative rivals in Jordan and Saudi Arabia, but none of these states made any attempt to renew hostilities. On the contrary, Egypt remained quiescent behind the U.N. peacekeeping forces deployed in Sinai, Gaza, and the Straits of Tiran since 1957. Jordan maintained secret contacts with the Israelis. Israel, for its part, had long learned to ignore bellicose Arab rhetoric and to seek backdoor channels to even the most vituperative Arab rulers. As late as April 1967, officials at Israel's foreign ministry were speculating whether Nasser might be a viable partner for a peace process.

But one Arab state did not want peace. Syria, then as now under the rule of the belligerent Baath Party, wanted war. Having tried and failed in 1964 to divert the Jordan River before it crossed the Israeli border--IDF jets and artillery blasted the dams--the Syrians began supporting a little-known Palestinian guerrilla group called Al Fatah under the leadership of Yasir Arafat. Using Lebanon as its principal base, Al Fatah commenced operations against Israel in 1965 and rapidly escalated its attacks. Finally, at the end of 1966, Israeli officials felt compelled to retaliate. But, fearing the repercussions of attacking Soviet-backed Syria, they decided to strike at an Al Fatah stronghold in the Jordanian-controlled West Bank.

 

The raid unfortunately led to a firefight between IDF and Jordanian troops, and to Jordanian claims that Nasser had not done enough to protect the West Bank Palestinians. Desperate to restore his reputation, Nasser exploited a spurious Soviet report of Israeli war plans to evict U.N. peacekeepers. He closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, concentrated 100,000 of his troops along the Israeli border, and forged anti-Israeli pacts with Syria and Jordan. The Arab world rejoiced at the prospect of annihilating Israel, and even the Soviets, eager to find some means of distracting American attention from Vietnam, were pleased. Israeli leaders had no choice but to determine when and where to strike preemptively.

And so, suddenly and unexpectedly, a regional war erupted that the principal combatants--Israel, Egypt, and Jordan--neither desired nor anticipated. The lesson: Local conflicts in the Middle East can quickly spin out of control and spiral into a regional conflagration.

The lesson is especially pertinent to the current crisis. Then, as now, the Syrians have goaded a terrorist organization, Hezbollah, to launch raids against Israel from Lebanon. Then, as now, the rapid rise of terrorist attacks has forced Israel to mount reprisals. If the Soviets in 1967 wanted to divert America's attention from Vietnam, the Iranians--Syria's current sponsors--want to divert American attention from their nuclear-arms program. And once again Israel must decide when to strike back and against whom.

Back in 1966, Israel recoiled from attacking Syria and instead raided Jordan, inadvertently setting off a concatenation of events culminating in war. Israel is once again refraining from an entanglement with Hezbollah's Syrian sponsors, perhaps because it fears a clash with Iran. And just as Israel's failure to punish the patron of terror in 1967 ultimately triggered a far greater crisis, so too today, by hesitating to retaliate against Syria, Israel risks turning what began as a border skirmish into a potentially more devastating confrontation. Israel may hammer Lebanon into submission and it may deal Hezbollah a crushing blow, but as long as Syria remains hors de combat there is no way that Israel can effect a permanent change in Lebanon's political labyrinth and ensure an enduring ceasefire in the north. On the contrary, convinced that Israel is unwilling to confront them, the Syrians may continue to escalate tensions, pressing them toward the crisis point. The result could be an all-out war with Syria as well as Iran and severe political upheaval in Jordan, Egypt, and the Gulf.

The answer lies in delivering an unequivocal blow to Syrian ground forces deployed near the Lebanese border. By eliminating 500 Syrian tanks--tanks that Syrian President Bashar Al Assad needs to preserve his regime--Israel could signal its refusal to return to the status quo in Lebanon. Supporting Hezbollah carries a prohibitive price, the action would say. Of course, Syria could respond with missile attacks against Israeli cities, but given the dilapidated state of Syria's army, the chances are greater that Assad will simply internalize the message. Presented with a choice between saving Hezbollah and staying alive, Syria's dictator will probably choose the latter. And the message of Israel's determination will also be received in Tehran.

Any course of military action carries risks, especially in the unpredictable Middle East. But if the past is any guide, and if the Six Day War presents a paradigm of an unwanted war that might have been averted with an early, well-placed strike at Syria, then Israel's current strategy in Lebanon deserves to be rethought. If Syria escapes unscathed and Iran undeterred, Israel will remain insecure.

Michael B. Oren is a senior fellow at The Shalem Center in Jerusalem and the author most recently of Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East (Oxford University Press).

All we need now is one more miscalculation by those clowns of the Israelis known as Turks and have them try keep the peace in Lebanon.

[hovan]

thank you my friend, your response was very clear and not very different from what my opinion is. no one wants this war, every country you have epople who listen to only one view point and make up their minds based on what the government tells them or what their religious leaders tell them. i want to hear both sides so ican make up my own mind. because i am an american armenian doesnt make me any less of an armenian than anyone else on this site or in the east. however to blindly believe in what others say is just stupid. my support to all armenians in this crazy world. cut off one arm i bleed red,white and blue,

cut off the other and i bleed red, blue and orange..thank you cousin...

[Dave]

That salute isn't exclusively Nazi. Romans, and even Americans used to do the salute.

 

Look at these American kids:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/1892_Pledge_of_Allegiance2.jpg

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellamy_salute

[hovan]

ahhhhh good ole nazism. them good ole days when jews, gays and the mentally defective were eliminated for the good of society...have you ever seen the armenian aryan site? interesting....veryyyyyy interesting.