Yearning like a God in pain... for cedar'd Lebanon

I wonder how John Keats, our early 19th century poet misquoted above, might lyricise about Lebanon today. Thank you to the regular contributors to this blog who've asked me to post something on the Middle East. As I've said to them, I've felt too unwise, ill-informed and out of my depth to do so. I fear being another fool rushing in where angels there are none. Like our leaders, I strongly support Israel's right to exist and defend itself. In fact, it was the wisdom of one of those very leaders in the West, none other than Bush himself, that at last made me believe I might have something useful to say. "You see, the ... thing is what they need to do is to get Syria, to get Hizbullah to stop doing this shit and it's over." Well the thingy I say is, President Bush, you all turn down your air conditioning units over there and stop guzzling so much gas and then we might not be sweltering over here in a world that in every respect seems to be overheating to the point of conflagration and then there might still be cedars in Lebanon , the cedars of God as they are known, in a new Millennium.

Forgive me for tipping over into the language of Revelation there but if all this, plus the weather, doesn't get a religion correspondent going a tad apocalyptic then nothing will. There are lots of stories on the escalating conflict on our Online front page, plus a weblog compiling much comment past and present.

There are so many people to pity and tragedies to mourn that it is difficult to know where to start. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has made a pretty strong intervention in a letter to church leaders in Lebanon. His commination names both Israel and Hezbollah but it seems pretty clear to me which is mainly in his sights, especially when recalling that he voted in favour of disinvestment. In general, though, the fact that he has said something is to be welcomed. The easiest thing for anyone in this situation is to say nothing at all. No-one is going to get it right. None really knows what is right.

Dr Williams condemned Israel and Hezbollah for contributing to a "vicious circle of attack and retaliation" in Lebanon and for bringing "collective suffering" down on innocent civilians on both sides of the border. He said: “The distress felt at the destruction not only of life but also the infrastructure so painstakingly rebuilt after years of conflict will, I know, be acute and reinforce the sense of helplessness at being caught up in a wider regional struggle. My condemnation of this resort to violence is unequivocal.”

Britain's Jewish community has close ties with Israelis living near the  northern border. Many British Jews who have made "aliyah" or emigrated to Israel live in Haifa, just 18 miles from the border and under attack from Hezbollah.

One Manchester academic, historian Irene Lancaster, an expert in Jewish-Christian relations and regular contributor to this blog, is emigrating early in August. She says the advice from some Christian leaders that she should not now go has not changed her mind.

When I asked her about it today, Wedneday, she said: "Les and I decided last year, around the time of his mother’s death in February, that we wanted to make Aliyah to Israel. One of our daughters, Kalela, already lives there, in Tel Aviv, and I had always wanted to emigrate to the northern coast of Israel, as I grew up on the sea in Southport. Les, on the other hand, loves mountains, so when we visited Haifa, for the first time in our lives (other than trips as kids, from which we only remembered the beautiful Bahai Gardens), we were smitten, as Haifa stretches from the sea to the Carmel. I had, frankly, already fallen in love with the idea of Haifa when the dear old AUT chose to try and boycott Haifa University  in April last year.

"We knew Haifa was it. First of all, even though we didn’t know anyone there, we were put up for a week by Stuart and Hasja Palmer (originally from Sunderland and Holland respectively). Stuart recommended us a lawyer, an estate agent, showed us around, opened our bank account with us, took me to the university, where I had arranged to meet people and was generally amazing.

"We thought we had found our dream place, but then spent a break with our daughter in Ein Gedi guest kibbutz situated on the Dead Sea, the other side of the country. There we met someone who we already knew slightly and he urged us to have another look around Haifa. We then spent some time with one of Les’ online students, Dan (an Israeli, originally from the UK), in Bet Shemesh, near Jerusalem when the phone rang out of the blue. It was Miriam, one of the people who Stuart had invited to meet us the previous week in Haifa. She said she had wanted to show us other apartments, especially on her street, Einstein, in the same Ahuza area. So, we went back to Haifa, quite unexpectedly, and found the place we have now chosen, thanks to Miriam.

"Both apartments we looked at, including the one we eventually chose, face the sea, which means Lebanon as well. And we could be hit directly by the Katyushas. We have two balconies looking out onto the sea. There is a room which has been turned into a study, which acts as the shelter in times of bombing and rocket attacks, but it does have a window, which means that I don’t know how safe it would be. Haifa is 18 miles from the Lebanese border, and is a model of interfaith and interethnic integration. Anthony Julius QC wrote to me on my impending Aliyah and said it was his favourite university in the world, not counting Cambridge, his alma mater.

"There has been a lot of concern from people in the Manchester Jewish community. It is unspoken, as war is tragically something Israel is used to, although this one is different in kind in my view. However, no-one has said not to come. Some of my friends who are not Jewish have expressed great concern, including my favourite producer at the BBC, who is himself going to Iraq in the near future. Then there is Christopher from your blog, who rang me today. And various other friends and students from the Anglican Church, as well as the new director of CCJ, David Gifford, who came to see me last Monday. In Israel, Haifans have said we should still come and they will look after us. We are due to stay with a professor and his lecturer wife from Haifa Technion, round the corner from Einstein, until we have access to the apartment, have installed a fan cooler and got a fridge at least. And this had been planned already. I don’t know if they have enough room for us in their own shelter, and will have to play it by ear. Contact with them and the mayor’s office, which has offered to help me purely as an olah when I arrive, has been more sporadic since the Hezbollah attacks. I still intend to go, unless advised otherwise by the Jewish Agency in Manchester (which is supposed to be getting back to me on this question), or if the plane is cancelled.

"Les agrees about this. The fact is that I have committed to becoming an Israeli, have all the signed documentation from a final meeting last Friday. Most Jews now live in Israel, which has overtaken the US as the country with the world’s largest Jewish population, and I feel like an Israeli now. At this time of great trouble for Israel, I think it would be wrong not to come. Naturally I value my life as much as the next person, but at the end of the day, Jews have been under attack in one way or another for over 2000 years, even before the coming of Christianity, and as someone else said, ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself’. Les will be coming with me for three weeks to see that I am settled in and to help with all the paperwork, and he shares my view. I will be speaking on this subject in a final radio broadcast on Radio Manchester on July 30th, on their Sunday Breakfast show at around 8.30 am till 9.00 am.Obviously, if there is a worsening in the situation and I would be in the way as a new immigrant, then I might postpone or stay with friends elsewhere in Israel. Those in Netanya have offered. But we are due to make the final payment on the apartment on August 9th (and in the case of banks not being open, there are, apparently contingency plans) and my shipment is arriving in Einstein St. on August 14th and is already en route. So, if the weather gets considerably cooler in England, now hotter than Haifa, I will not have anything to wear here. Plus my piano and books, family photos and everything else are in this shipment."

Meanwhile, Canon Andrew White of the Foundation for Reconciliation in the Middle  East has sent a moving epistle. Andrew nearly got killed a couple of days ago. Several in his team were killed. He was slightly injured.

"The news of what is going on here in the Middle East has been rather disturbing, and sadly it has all been true. The pain experienced by Israel is real not imaginary. The other day I stood at the hotels lobby in Jerusalem to check out. I know all the staff well at the Mount Zion Hotel. Just as I was giving my credit card there was a loud cry from the receptionist. I asked her what was wrong. She had just seen on the computer screen what had happened in the north of Israel that their soldiers had been killed and kidnapped. Suddenly her reaction brought home to me again the smallness and intimacy of Israel. Amongst the mayhem of the land there is a very real love of the people for each other. An intimacy like no other nation or land or people. For these are the Chosen People. This to the Jew is not just a holy land but the Promised Land.

"We know that G-d is with this people, we know He will never leave them but we also know that they will suffer. Yet in the midst of all of this G-d is there and will not leave them. As Israel does what it has to do for the protection of its people we also know that others suffer. All those caught up in this conflict suffer because of a few evil people.

"The pain in the West Bank and Gaza is so real. People are still going hungry and without medicine. Those who work have now not been paid for five months, yet they continue to serve their people for nothing.

"Philip our man in Gaza is not even allowed to return there but is stuck in Bethlehem. We speak to our friends in Gaza, there suffering is immense yet there is no anger or bitterness. I spoke the other day to Pastor Hanna of the Evangelical Church in Gaza City, his people are beginning to go hungry there is very little food or water and no electricity. His wife is stuck in Jordan, she is having their second child this week but he will not be able to be with her. Yet there was no bitterness or anger in his voice. A simple trust in the Lord his G-d.

"Now in Iraq things are worse than ever. People are being slaughtered by their hundreds, there are cries of bring back Saddam even from those who hated him. Here people are afraid to even move. What pain, what suffering what sadness. I read the Bible and it seems more real than ever. It is filled with the stories of suffering. Throughout the ages it has been the same. I am reminded more than ever that we are in a fallen world, nothing is easy but G-d is still G-d. He still surrounds his people with love.

"On Saturday and Sunday I will be speaking from the book of Daniel as I continue my series on the people of G-d in Iraq. This week I will be speaking on Hannaniah, Mishael and Azariah. The original names of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednigo. Three mighty men of G-d who came in the exile from Israel to Iraq. They were not prepared to compromise, they were made to suffer but G-d was with them in the flames. They came out as a witness and glory to Him, who is, and was and is to come.

"As I go around the world I see much of the Western Church showing degrees of triumphalism, everything can be wonderful, everything can be successful everybody can be rich. Yet the people that I live with are suffering, being blown up, going without. Are they any less the people of G-d? No they are not. They often have an even more intense experience of the love and presence of the Father. G-d is working in them and amongst them in a quite incredible way. They may never have like we in the West have and yet they have so much of the Glory of G-d.

"Yesterday I had lunch with two wonderful people. Fay and Saad, they married last year and have a wonderful story. Fay is English and has served G-d in the Middle East for several years. Saad is an Iraqi. Once a Sunni Salafi Terrorist now a follower of Jesus. His story is wonderful but very long. A very abbreviated account is that he met some Christians they gave him a Bible. He read it for 16 hours every day and went to Church for well over a year. Throughout this time he had a very bad back and was in much pain. One day whilst asleep he saw an African man come to him. He told him now was the time to follow Jesus. Then he came over to him in his dream and said if you do not believe this I will touch your back and it will be healed. He came over and touched his back. Saad woke up, he moved around his back was no longer hurting. He believed in Jesus and his back has not hurt since.

"Saad has suffered much. He has been kidnapped, watched people have there head chopped off and been imprisoned even recently. He was about to be deported back to Iraq. Then I was contacted and asked to help. I worked on his case for many many hours, even though I did not know him. Next week he and his wife will return to England. This is in itself a miracle and involved the highest people in Government.

"G-d is still good and still does signs, wonders and miracles but they are not just for those who have. When I saw Saad I saw on him the Glory of G-d. Suddenly I knew why G-d wanted me to help. I had twenty seven requests and eventually even I knew that G-d wanted me to do something. Sometimes it takes us a little time to realise G-d wants us to intervene. We have to realise that G-d calls us to both act and pray. So to those 27 people who contacted me thank you.

"I do not understand what G-d is doing here in the Middle East. I do not know what the outcome will be. I do know though that he has called me here and I know that the “Earth is filled with the Glory of G-d as the waters cover the sea!"

Comments

[Robin Bather]

Go Go Go Israel!! You can do it!!

You have almost reached 1000 civilian dead in Lebanon!!

Push push push before you are stopped by those evil people who want a ceasefire!!

Go Go Go Israel!!

[Robin Bather]

STOP PRESS

The Israeli army has announced the conclusions with regards to their internal confidential investigation into the massacre of 54 Lebanese civilians in Qana:

1 "If we had known that there were civilians in the building we would not have attacked it".

2 Israeli Prime Minister Ehut Olmert will not apologise for the attack.

What a wonderfully profound sincere in depth analysis of the tragedy, produced by a kangeroo court.

Just another whitewash to be added to the other whitewashes after the murders of James Miller, Tom Hurndall, Rachel Corrie, the Sabra & Shatila massacre, the attack on the Lebanese ambulance carrying injured, the UN observers......

It is high time that Olmert and top Israeli generals are tried for war crimes in open court by international judges in the Hague.

[Dr Irene Lancaster]

Words of truth:

http://www.melaniephillips.com/diary/

[Dr Irene Lancaster]

Recent correspondence with Professor Menachem Kellner, Head of Jewish Thought at Haifa University.

From the bottom up.

thanks...
M
At 04:26 PM 8/3/2006 +0100, you wrote:
Just received two copies of the Catholic Tablet, with your thoughts, which I
will bring with me on the 16th-17th (one for you and one for me)
>
>Irene
>
>Dr. Irene Lancaster FRSA
>Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Manchester
>Trustee: Foundation for Reconciliation in the Middle East
>
>http://irenelancaster.typepad.com/my_weblog/
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Prof. Menachem Kellner [mailto:kellner@research.haifa.ac.il]
>Sent: 03 August 2006 17:58
>To: kellner@research.haifa.ac.il
>Subject: 9 Av, lots of rockets
>
>
>Yesterday, erev 9 Av, saw well over 200 rockets all across the North of
>Israel.as most of you know, a man was killed on a kibbutz near
>Nahariyyah and a score of people hurt, most not seriously. Most of the
>firing was in the afternoon and evening - we only had one or two alarms
>during the day at the University, but after we got home, it seemed like
>they came every five minutes. Several times we heard the BOOMs -- those
>rockets landed well north of us, but the acoustics are such that the
>sound
>travels for miles.
>
>Yesterday I sent a package of articles from Jolene on PTSD (=post
>traumatic stress disorder) to Avi in Jerusalem (he is writing a paper
>on the subject). While in the branch post office on campus the clerk, a
>very nice
>lady, kept up her celphone conversation the whole time (remember, this
>is
>Israel!); I learned that her two kids are down South in Ashdod (a few
>miles
>out of Hamas - Kassam range, I add) with her mother, and that her
>husband
>has just been called up for reserve duty... Speaking of PTSD, is there
>some
>term for it without the "p"? - a lot of that going around.
>
>A good friend from the University, my office manager when I was Dean of
>Students, just got back from a wonderful trip to California and was
>welcomed with the news that one of her sons has been called up and is
>on his way to Lebanon. She is, to put it mildly, beside herself.
>
>The radio just announced that two people were killed in the Akko area
>in the rocket barrage of a few minutes ago (it was that alarm that
>aroused me to write this letter).we also apparently lost another
>soldier in Lebanon.
>Appropriate news for the Ninth of Av. Not surprisingly, I have been
>giving
>a lot of thought last night and today to our current war in the context
>of
>the long history of the Jews.
>
>Yesterday, after we got home from the University, I was called by a
>functionary in the Municipality. They want me to chair another session,
>like the one last week, only this time with visiting American Jews on a
>solidarity mission, not more European journalists. While we were
>talking, the sirens went off. When we re-established contact, the poor
>woman was rattled. The Municipality is the nerve-center of Haifa now,
>with the mayor
>rushing off every time a rocket falls in the city to visit the site. For
>us, these attacks are distressing, but we mostly see the effects on TV,
>like you. This poor woman lives it much more directly.
>
>The radio just announced that three people are dead in
>Ma'alot-Tarshiha, the Arab village twinned with the Jewish village of
>Ma'alot.there are apparently 4 dead in Akko. Akko is a city in which
>Jews and Arabs live together as neighbors. I just saw a man interviewed
>on TV from Akko.his brother, nephew and niece were hurt, he does not
>yet know how badly, but the took the trouble to say to the interviewer
>that he has neighbors in his block of flats who are Arabs who rushed to
>him to express concern over his
>relatives. It is that kind of living together which Nasrallah and his
>henchpersons (someday I'll grow up.) are trying to destroy.
>
>I'll probably write again after the fast.
>
>Menachem
>
>Professor Menachem Kellner, Dept. of Jewish History and Thought,
> University of Haifa, Haifa, 31905, Israel
****************************************************************
http://jewish-history.haifa.ac.il/philosophy/staff/mkellner.htm
****************************************************************

[J Pearce]

In the light if recent events at the UN, I would like to retract a statement I posted earlier, in which I referred to the French as "cheese eating surrender monkeys".

From this point on, I will refer to them instead, as "cheese eating political opportunists".

On a lighter note...I'm sure the Israeli's will get along just fine with a French-led UN peacekeeping force. What with France being such good buddies with the USA and all that...

[Robin Bather]

Damn!
Regev, Regev, Regev! How stupid of me.
If that's the only sort of comment that my postings have caused, then I feel sorry for the Lebanese people.

I couldn't open your thread J.Pierce, but thanks for a good well balanced post, although your last paragraph is surprising---can it be possible that anyone is ignorant of the orgy of slaughter in Lebanon?

[Dr Irene Lancaster]

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/745742.html

[Christopher]

Dear Irene

You may not read this while the fast is on but here goes anyway. I have just read your last post and I thought I'd like to send you a message of solidarity considering your Aliyah is approaching. I am at a loss to know what to think about Israel's response - whether it is proportionate or not but I took on board what JPearce said about Israel fighting for its very existence and as I have said to you before, the only democracy in the Middle East.

I noted what you said about the Fast of Av. I am sorry to
say the only thing I had heard about was a novel called Dancing on Tisha B'Av which I now realise was a provocative title. So I did a google and it came up with this from Rabbi Rosen http:// www.somethingjewish.co.uk/articles/1964_the_fast_of_av.htm

[J Pearce]

"Thanks for all you have done to expose the incredible nastiness still around."

Que? Have you read the material on this thread? Its not all anti-Israeli, you know.

[Dr Irene Lancaster]

Dear me, just as your bloggers are getting really nasty and Robin can't even get the name of the Israeli gov spokesman right, the BBC of all institutions is beginning to wake up to what it is all about and taking it all quite seriously.

Never mind: tomorrow is the Fast of Av, the most mournful day in the Jewish calendar, so I doubt I will be posting. But after that, you will be the final tsaddik on my blog.

They certainly have crawled out of the woodwork - haven't they - in the just under the year that you have been running this blog.

With people like some of your bloggers around, it has never been more essential that Jews had their own little place to call home.

Thanks for all you have done to expose the incredible nastiness still around.

[J Pearce]

I'm afraid I have to take issue with some of your comments, Robin. First of all, I would like to make it clear that I am no fan of Israel or its current military tactics (which appear to be self-defeating). However, there are some things you have said which I would like to respond to:

First of all, the opinions of europeans (such as Spain and France) should be taken with a large pinch of salt. The French in particular are, to borrow a delicious phrase, well-known for being "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" and frankly, would back any intellectual position as long as it was either a) anti-Israeli, b) anti-anglo saxon or c) the cowards way out. They have a restless Muslim immigrant population to keep a lid on (remember that the recent riots in France were mainly confined to the poor Muslim areas), so their opinions are about as relevant as that of Blair.

Second - its not anti-semitic to criticise Israel. In fact, for questioning the basis of its existence, I have been labelled "anti-semitic", so therefore I assume I must be, by definition. However, 1948 was a long time ago and the bottom line is that Israel exists and we have to deal with that here and now. The problem is, the likes of Hezbollah, Hamas, Iran, Syria and a number of other Arab states want to see Israel and its population removed from the map, by any means necessary. This means that Islamic terrorists have no qualms in implementing a MurderDeathKill policy to whoever gets in their way. No quarter given, none expected. This isn't just terrorism we are witnessing from Hezbollah, its genocide through any means. And you can be fully assured, we in the West, in our comfortable homes and cosy, safe secular democracies, are next on the list. I have had a long, hard think about this and I have been forced to conclude that Islam, as it currently exists, is fundamentally incompatible with the western secular/liberal/Christian belief set. I recommend to you a piece in todays Times (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,6-2295231,00.html) arguing along these very lines.

So I'm an Islamophobe as well as an anti-semite. Nice balance, you'll agree.

Thirdly - "Funny for "the middle east's only democracy". ".

I'd just like to mention Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, Belmarsh at this juncture. We have no sticks to beat the Israeli's with over this particular point.

I do agree with your point that atheists can share common moral ground with Christians. After all, our modern secular democracy is historically derived from a conjoined church/state mechanism. I think Dr Lancaster was a bit off on that criticism. And I agree that its out of order for the Israeli's to prevent UN humanitarian convoys to the innocent Lebanese victims of this conflict, however, I'm pretty sure I've seen reports of Hezbollah using said civilians as human shields, corralling them into areas where air strikes are likely despite the fact they are desperate to leave. And who's to say that Hezbollah wouldn't hijack these convoys anyway? It would fit in nicely with their modus operandi.

This isn't an attempt to excuse Israel's actions - no-one except your insane Islamic jihadi fascists wants to see innocent children slaughtered - but it must be remembered that as far as Israel and its population is concerned, this is a life and death struggle. Faced with that situation, I'm not that surprised at Israeli tactics.

As for the alleged Christian silence you mention - I think that most Christians, along with the rest of us, are struggling to comprehend whats happening, let alone form coherent opinions about it.

[Sergeant Raj Joshi, Leicestershire]

Dear Ruth,

I would be greatful if you would post this short comment. Relgion is often an excuse for war and conflict. Is this about territory? Who started this? What started this? I do not condone killing people, but what started these acts from Israel. Israel sits as the only Christian state in the Middle east. And I am afraid that certain elements or interpretations mean that this is Islam against the West. At some stage this must stop. All the money wasted could have been better spent protecting life in the third world. And this is the saddest part of all of this.

[Robin Bather]

Yes Alistair I think you are right that religion is behind much of the conflict in the Middle East--that and oil, and regional control, and the US's desire to control the area, and AIPAC, and Israel's desire to expand, and control of water resources, and Israel being set up on other people's land, and the US's aim of castrating Iran, Syria and Iraq, and Israel's occupation of the West Bank, the Golan Heights, the Shebaa farms, east Jerusalem, and fundamentalist arab terrorism, and fundamentalist Zionists, and evicted arabs, and evicted jews, and, and, and....

Irene's great attempt to whitewash the actions of the Israeli armed forces is diametrically opposed to the majority of the world view including The United Nations (that covers many countries), most of the European Community, the governments of Spain and France, and of course the arab world (although we should see the latter as biased as are the comments of Irene Lancaster being jewish and destined to emigrate to Israel).

The US, and the UK support Israel.

My views are sound although I am sure someone will try play the "anti semite card". It's always a good tactic when someone, anyone, criticises Israeli actions.

Mark Negrev, that wonderfully glib Israeli government spokesperson, just today again described Israel's actions as pinpoint surgical strikes. If they are in fact pinpoint surgical strikes, how, for the life of you, can the deaths of 37 children be accounted for? Were they all members of Hezbollah too?
And the Lebanese ambulance?
And the UN observers?
And the other 500 (or is it 700?) Lebanese civilians?
And James Miller?
And Tom Hurndall?
And Rachel Corrie?
And those in the Sabra & Shatila massacre?
And the Palestinian family on the beach?
And the other Gaza civilians?

Wow!!! If this is surgical pinpoint accuracy I think the my understanding of the words must be wrong.

Funny how two captured Israeli soldiers are being bandied about as the reason for this conflict but nobody talks about the dozens of legally elected Gaza MPs who were kidnapped (yes kidnapped, not captured) and now have been languishing in Israeli jails, with no charges brought against them, and being held excomunicado to their families and international prisoner aid agencies like Amnesty International and Oxfam.
Funny for "the middle east's only democracy". Funny.

It's interesting to hear that permission must be asked of the Israeli government before each and every WFP aid lorry can be driven into southern Lebanon, and that many requests are denied, ignored or take up to 72 hours to be authorised. This whilst the aid agencies are declaring that a disaster is imminent for hundreds of thousands of Lebanese civilians who are now running out of water, food and medical supplies. Sewerage systems are severely damaged and plague is around the corner.

But I degress.

However the facts today are:

1 Israel has today declared that it will expand its area of attack in Lebanon.

2 Almost 1,000,000 Lebanese civilians are displaced.

3 A disaster is in the making. Famine, disease and destruction stalk southern Lebanon.

4 Israel is obstructing the delivery of aid.

PS
As usual Irene Lancaster chooses to misinterpret my words.
I am an atheist and do not profess to hold Christian values although many atheist values are identical to Christian values.

And I still ask:
"Why are the Christians keeping so quiet about the overwhelming death and destruction being wrought by Israeli forces against Lebanese civilians?
Why?
All I have heard are excuses and justifications.
What happened? The cat get your tongue?

[Alistair McBay]

"Access and control of the world's oil supplies are of course a major reason for the US's blind support of Israel"

Karen Armstrong's piece in the Guardian yesterday (31 July) on Bush and the Christian right fundies said this:

"Bush and his administration espouse many of the ideals of the Christian right and rely on its support. American fundamentalists are convinced that the second coming of Christ is at hand; they have developed an end-time scenario of genocidal battles based on a literal reading of Revelation that is absolutely central to their theology. Christ cannot return, however, unless, in fulfilment of biblical prophecy, the Jews are in possession of the Holy Land."

Essentially the same thing was said a couple of weeks ago by Michael Geer in American Thinker:

“The conflagration breaking out around the world like a fever coming to the fore, is religious. It’s not oil, it’s not haves and have-nots, it’s not Marxism versus Capitalism, it’s not Globalists versus independent free thinkers. It’s religion.”

You may indeed be right about oil, Robin, but don't try to tell me it's not our old friend religion that's right at the root of Bush's campaign.

[Dr Irene Lancaster]

And another.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2006/07/31/VI2006073100369.html?referrer=emaillink

[Dr Irene Lancaster]

And another article in the same vein.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,,19955774-5007220,00.html

[Dr Irene Lancaster]

For those advocating so-called 'Christian' values, may I suggest that you read the article below very very carefully.

As the evidence for it comes from a Christian area of eastern Beirut.

Or are some Christians more equal than others?

Hezbollah's Human Shields
The Washington Times
TODAY'S EDITORIAL
July 31, 2006
Israel is being vilified by opportunistic politicians and the international media over the air strike that killed 56 persons early yesterday in the Lebanese village of Qana. In the rush to blame Israel, a number of relevant facts are ignored: 1) the sad fact of the matter is that, no matter how much is done to minimize the risk to civilians, civilians inevitably die in wars; 2) Israel has placed its soldiers at risk in order to minimize civilian casualties in Lebanon, while Hezbollah, in flagrant violation of international law, including the Geneva Conventions, deliberately behaves in ways to maximize harm to Israeli and Lebanese civilians; 3) in Qana there were indisputable military targets, including locations from which Hezbollah has been firing rockets into Israel; 4) pending the outcome of an investigation, there is no way to tell whether all of those killed in the airstrike were "civilians," as Israel's critics confidently tell us, or whether the dead were actually a mix of combatants and noncombatants.

Senior Israeli officials said yesterday that Hezbollah rocket launchers were concealed in civilian buildings in the village, from which 150 rockets were fired over the past 20 days. They showed reporters video footage of rocket launchers being driven into Qana, from whence rockets were fired at northern Israeli towns, including Kiryat Shemona, Afula and Ma'alot. Israel targeted the building hit early yesterday because intelligence reports indicated that Hezbollah operatives were inside, along with Katyusha rockets and launchers. Typically Hezbollah fighters fire rockets at Israeli targets and then dart into nearby buildings.

Indeed, as it has repeatedly done in the course of the 19-day-old military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces have relinquished the element of surprise by dropping leaflets on Qana and many other Lebanese towns telling residents that they should leave the area because the IDF is preparing to conduct military operations against Hezbollah. Just as Israel tries to move Lebanese civilians out of the line of fire, Hezbollah does its best to put them in danger and peril. In a dispatch published yesterday in Australia, the Sydney Sunday Herald Sun demonstrates just how Hezbollah wages war.

The photographs, from a Christian area of eastern Beirut called Wadi Chahrour, were smuggled out of Lebanon. One photograph depicts a fighter with an AK-47 rifle guarding "no-go" zones after an Israeli attack, and another with a group of men and youths preparing to fire an anti-aircraft gun in an apartment block, with sheets hanging out to dry on a balcony. Another shows the remnants of a Hezbollah Katyusha rocket in the middle of a residential block destroyed in an Israeli airstrike. An Australian was standing just down the street when the block was obliterated. "Hezbollah came in to launch their rockets, then within minutes the area was blasted by Israeli jets," he said. "Until the Hezbollah fighters arrived, it had not been touched by the Israelis. Then, it was totally devastated...It was carnage. Two innocent people died in that incident, but it was so lucky it was not more." (The pictures are posted online at www.news.com.au/heraldsun.)

Hezbollah's treatment of both Israeli and Lebanese civilians violates international law. Article 51 of the Additional Protocol to the Geneva Convention states that: "The civilian population as such, as well as individual civilians, shall not be the subject of attack." Moreover, by using Lebanese civilians as human shields, Hezbollah appears to be violating Article 58 of Protocol 1, which requires parties to a conflict to "Avoid locating military objectives within or near densely populated areas." Article 28 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: "The presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations."

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan falsely accuses Israel of deliberately attacking members of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), even as Hezbollah repeatedly targets U.N. peacekeepers. Last Monday, an Internet site called Little Green Footballs notes that the United Nations issued a press release reporting that an unarmed U.N. observer was critically wounded by small arms fire originating from a position controlled by Hezbollah. He was airlifted to an Israeli hospital for treatment. The following day, Hezbollah opened fire on a U.N. convoy, forcing it to turn back. On Friday, U.N. forces issued a press release reporting that "Hezbollah fired from the vicinity of five U.N. positions" in southern Lebanon, and that the number of troops in a Ghanaian battalion of the U.N. is "somewhat reduced" due to Hezbollah firing from near the U.N. positions, which provokes retaliatory shelling from the Israeli side.

In sum, Hezbollah -- along with its enablers in Tehran and Damascus -- bears full responsibility for the carnage in both Israel and Lebanon.

[Dr Irene Lancaster]

I met the father and father-in-law of one of the kidnapped Israeli soldiers in Manchester yesterday and they told us a great deal about the situation in Israel and Lebanon. I think they may even know a bit more than Robin.

They were thrilled that I am moving to Israel and will be living 7 miles from their home town of Nahariyah. They did tell me however that Udi's house has been completely destroyed by Katyushas.

But we exchanged addresses and I shall be visiting them, home or no home.

By the way, Udi is a 31-year old reservist and was on his final day of call-up duty when he was kidnapped on the Israeli side of the border in a carefully planned and executed, murderous attack.

I could have postponed for longer before going out there but have decided not to.

The equivalent of 20 million British have fled northern Israel, one third of the whole country.

My radio thought was commissioned two months ago.

I asked the BBC if they wanted me to change my Thought, but they said 'No'.

More and more Jews are moving to Israel from Europe and not one of us due to fly out later this month has cancelled our trip.

I receive daily reports from many people on the ground in both Lebanon and Israel, all of which tell the real truth about Hezbollah and their use of human shields.

Robin has told us that he is not a Christian, or any other religion. In fact, I remember him having a go at the Catholic church when he first started out on this blog.

This blog is called 'Articles of Faith' and is not just about Christianity. But a huge proportion of people affected by Hezbollah Katyushas daily are the Christians of Haifa and Galilee, two of whose children were brutally burned to death by a rocket attack on Nazareth in the last two or three weeks.

Why is Robin more concerned about Christians in an Arab country, two of whose cabinet ministers belong to Hezbollah, than about Christians in Israel?

And as the atheist he so proudly is, why suddenly so interested in Christian values at all? The same ones he roundly condemns in other postings.

Could those be the same Christian values, I wonder, which allowed the Holocaust to happen and in many cases perpetrated it (I think of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, for instance, where Christians murdered up to 96% of the Jewish populations). Which Christian values are you talking about, Robin?

And have you suddenly converted?

[Robin Bather]

I make absolutely no apology for the length of this posting.

Today 31st July 2006 is a Day of Mourning for the 37 Lebanese children and 20 or more Lebanese adults who were blown to pieces by an Israeli bomb just yesterday.

The first spark was the capturing (not kidnapping) of two Israeli army soldiers on active service; an act designed to obtain a bargaining chip for the hundreds of Lebanese who have been held in Israeli prisons since the 1980s when Israel once more occupied Lebanon. The Lebanese have not been tried nor are they permitted visits from International agencies like Oxfam or Amnesty International.
The capture of the soldiers was seen as a convenient reason by Israel to launch a huge barrage of F-16 fighter jets over southern Lebanon dropping banned weapons such as "daisycutters" and white phosphorus bombs, combined with the firing of over 30,000 high explosive shells into civilian areas. The rain of largely ineffective Hezbollah rockets on northern Israel followed, and Israel quickly escalated a full scale war. Only when international condemnation of Israel's blasting of civilian areas took place, did Israel declare that all inhabitants of southern Lebanon should leave their homes---or else.
Unfortunately the mass evacuation was only possible for some people who had access to vehicles and who found undamaged roads. Remember that one of the first major bombing acts of the Israeli airforce was to destroy most of the exit roads and bridges linking southern Lebanon with the north and with other escape routes to the east to prevent the movement of the two captured Israeli soldiers outside of the area.
So with just the tiniest amount of common sense we can see that excape was not only impossible but impractical for many many Lebanese civilians. This simply deduction seems not to have occured to the Israeli High Command for an outright war was launched against southern Lebanon using 500lb bunker busting bombs which have killed large numbers of civilians.
The trite excuse that "we told them to get out of the area therefore they deserve everthing we can throw at them" will go down in the anals of infamous war crimes.

However what we are seeing in a broader context is the global expansion of a Greater American Empire where Israel is acting out the part of a vassal state. The US now has soldiers in over 100 countries worldwide and without the counterbalance of the USSR now seems to have a free hand to expand in all areas with the willing help of subservient countries like Israel and Great Britain to name just two. Access and control of the world's oil supplies are of course a major reason for the US's blind support of Israel in a volatile area of huge oil supplies.
Jewish lobbying, financing and influence in Washington is actively throwing petrol on the flames by egging on the US to attack Iran and eliminate any possibility of that country aquiring nuclear weapons whilst conveniently ignoring Israel's undeclared and uninspected nuclear weapons together with their biological and chemical weapon stockpile.

Strangely for a blog supposedly dedicated to Christian values we have heard almost no comment on the innocents in Lebanon whilst much is made of the few Israeli casualties and much more is made of heartwarming personal tales of emigration to Haifa.
I also wish the warring would stop but whilst the only worldpower continues to cruelly procrastinate whilst civilians are being slaughtered by Israel in what appears to be an urgent desire to kill as many Lebanese as possible before world opinion demands a ceasefire, the cynics among us can only wonder why the Christians are silent.

Their silence is deafening whilst warm blood seeps into the earth of Lebanon.

[Dr Irene Lancaster]

Radio Manchester Thought for the Week, Sunday July 30th
Dr. Irene Lancaster FRSA
Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Manchester
Foundation for Reconciliation in the Middle East

OUR OWN LITTLE CORNER ON EARTH

Shakespeare said: ‘All the World’s a Stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances.’
I feel a bit like that. For very soon, I’ll be leaving this country, which gave my parents a haven after the Holocaust, in order to emigrate to
Haifa in Northern Israel. Yes, that same Haifa that you will have heard about in the news.

Why emigrate? Because, for many Jews there’s always been a pull towards Israel. From a religious perspective, if you are able to
emigrate to Israel (known in Hebrew, as Aliyah, or ascent), you should. But in the past, there were mainly two groups of people who did so: the very young, just embarking on adult life, and the retired, who wanted to enjoy their last years in the Promised Land.

But, increasingly, the in-between groups are also packing up and leaving. Just last Tuesday, for instance, 650 French people of all ages arrived in Israel.. And in August, similar groups will be arriving from Britain, Canada and the United States.

From our own synagogue here in Manchester, last year maybe two or three families emigrated to Israel. This year, it’s more like ten,
including some in their prime, who say they want a better life for their children.

But why am I going, when my own children have grown up and flown the nest. I like it here in Manchester, love English weather (when it
isn’t too hot) and my husband is having to stay in Britain at the moment, which will be the greatest sacrifice of all.

Let me try and explain. In the Bible, God says to Abraham, Lech lecha. Which mean, Get out of your land; from your father’s house, to the
land that I will show you.

But the Hebrew Lech lecha actually means ‘Go into yourself, for your own benefit, for your own good’. Whatever things seem like, in the long run the right thing to do is to live in Israel.

And later on, in the Book of Exodus, when Moses is trying to drag the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land, the
children of Israel complain that they will miss the flesh pots of Egypt. So God gave the children of Israel special food, called manna from
heaven instead.

And later on, in the Book of Numbers, the same children of Israel weep as they remember the meat, the fish that doesn’t cost a penny, the
cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic, that was their normal fare in Egypt. (And one of my favourite meals, as it happens). And
then, once again, manna comes to their rescue on their desert voyage. We take this to mean that comforts are in the eye of the beholder and it is easy to be enticed by luxury when there is still real work to do.

So, let us all hope and pray that soon, very soon, the destruction and devastation will end. And that the missiles raining down at the moment will cease and life will slowly get back to normal again.

From a personal point of view, it is of great comfort to realise that so many people who are not Jewish but Christian have written to me, knowing that I am leaving, and asked me to reconsider and stay here at the moment. Even more remarkable are the one or two journalists, hard-0nosed and used to reporting from war zones and to risking their own lives, daily, who have taken the rouble to urge me to put my own safety first. And they have done this tactfully, using the great British tools of irony and understatement, two traists that I shall definitely miss once I’m gone.

But then, on the other hand, there have been all the Israeli voices urging me to come nevertheless and telling me that they will look after me.

But on Thursday night, I spoke to my friend, Yoline, who works in the office of the Mayor of Hifa. And she has moved further south, out of the immediate danger zone. And she had reflected on the situation and concluded that at the moment it would be better to remain in Britain for a couple of weeks and try to raise funds for those whose lives, homes and businesses have been ruined in the past two and a half weeks.

So, I’ve taken her advice and I know that all my non-Jewish friends are relieved and probably the Jewish ones too.

But I hope that this will be only a temporary respite. And to all those I have known for over fifty years, whatever your religion, race, or ethnic background, I would say the following. Please come and visit my little corner of Israel when the war is over. For I still firmly believe that Jewish values stand for something and that we can rebuild this area once again and maike it safe for everyone from the world to visit.

For, as my Israeli friend, Dory, has put it:

‘The reason I am in Israel is because I feel I have to place and cement my little brick in the construction of this country. For it to be a refuge
for Jews in bad times, but also so that we have our little corner on earth.’

And I don’t think anyone can put it better than that.

[Dr Irene Lancaster]

Thanks to all those from the blog who have written to me privately to wish me well.

In fact, my husband will be staying in the UK at present, but coming over to Haifa as often as possible.

I broadcast my 'Thought for the Week' on radio yesterday, entitled 'Our Little Corner on Earth'.

If Ruth allows, I will post it subsequently.

What I found amazing was the real concern of BBC staff from different programmes who I met yesterday before, during and after the broadcast, who expressed their understanding of the full situation.

Never thought I would be able to say that about the BBC.

Later at a press conference at Manchester Town Hall, I met the father and father-in-law of one of the kidnapped Israeli soldiers. They were incredibly happy that I was emigrating to Haifa, just 8 miles from Nahariya, where they live.

And have issued me an open invitation. Their house has been struck by Katyusha rockets.

I also spoke to a young journalist from the Guardian at this press conference and said I was emigrating to Haifa. She kept asking me when I was coming back.

It is quite obvious to me that many in the media cannot believe that ordinary, English people would want to make their home in Israel and to become Israeli.

Not surprising, when one sees some of the postings on this weblog, let alone listens to most of our broadcast media.

Which made the meeting with BBC staff particularly poignant.

The mayor of Haifa's office has asked me to try and raise some money here in the UK to help rebuild the north of the country. So I am trying to do that in the 2 weeks or so remaining to me here.

I hope some of Ruth's bloggers will visit Haifa after the war.

IRene

[Robin Bather]

Today 30 July 2006 an Israeli bomb killed 37 Lebanese children.

1 Lebanese child killed.
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed
Another Lebanese child killed

Today 30 July 2006 an Israeli bomb killed 37 Lebanese children.

"Today will live in infamy".
Franklin D.Roosevelt

[Simon Ferguson]

I just wanted to post my best wishes to Dr Lancaster & husband as they make Aliyah, and trust that they will indeed know shalom as they make home in the land of Promise.

Simon Ferguson

[Robin Bather]

"malicious acts cannot and will not lead to any change in boundaries"
Sergeant Raj Joshi

Oh yes they can Raj.
Just look at Israel's borders in 1948 when that state was granted land by the UN, and then compare Israel's present borders.
Do you see any difference?
Israel's land area has expanded hugely.

Israel followed (and still follows) a policy of "grab every hill and village" (the infamous war cry of the Israelis in the early days).

Israel's has greedily conquered and illegally occupies the West Bank, the Golan Heights, the Shebaa Farms, east Jerusalem and the valleys to the east of Jerusalem. For many years Israel occupied Gaza and now is taking over southern Lebanon.

Apart from getting more land, one of Israel's obvious objectives is to control the water resources of the area. Have you ever noticed how the arab areas are miserable yellow and dusty, whilst the Israeli settlements are lush with ferns, trees and swimming pools? It is not a mere coincidence Raj, nor is it that arabs don't like green areas.
It is that Israel has taken control of the subsoil water resources in the West Bank where the main aquifers are to be found and pumps off the lion's share of the water to Israel proper.
Now Israel has declared that its intention is to occupy Lebanon up to the Litani River. This shows another example of wanting to get its hands on more water resources.
Water is a important part of the conflict in the Middle East and Israel knows it well.

[Sergeant Raj Joshi, Leicestershire]

I am lost a little.... Surely Jewish people have a right to the state of Israel. In this modern world, boundary malicious acts cannot and will not lead to any change in boundaries. Therefore war is futile and a waste of money. Why is there this hatred of Israel? Dr Lancaster just to let you know I had an appointment to see my Deputy Chief not about this blog but about my views on racism, etc., and my writings, and I cancelled it. He duly advised my Inspector that he could see whomever he wanted to see and whenever he wanted to see. However, I feel I have genuine views and I am giving it some time, but I am not going to see him yet. I think he is a good man, but he does not understand my language. Does Dr Lancaster have to leave Ruth?

[Robin Bather]

All wars are ugly and bloody causing heartbreak and pain to countless numbers of civilians and soldiers.

However when war is waged by a highly trained, well armed country which enjoys almost limitless cash donations and military aid from a superpower, upon a weak country that only has a small illtrained 3rd rate army, the horrible offense seems so much worse until words fail to describe the butchery.
On one hand the United States is urgently shipping yet more satellite guided rockets to Israel, and at the same time Condoleeza Rice declares that the time is still not ripe for a ceasefire---I suppose much more Lebanese civilian blood must be spilt before the Israeli and US hawks are satisfied and can sleep well at night knowing that they have done a job well done.

We have seen Israeli children gleefully writing hate messages on stacks of high explosive shells that are trained on civilian areas. We have seen a young Lebanese man with both legs blown off at the groin. We have seen a well marked Lebanese ambulance targeted and blown up by a F-16 fighter's "smart" bomb. We have seen a well marked UN Observation post blown up by an Israeli missile killing all occupants. I am amazed that these supposedly pinpoint precision bombs and missiles can make such mistakes....or were they mistakes?
Then we have the aptly named "Daisycutters"---US made, Israeli anti personnel bombs that explode and send thousands of tiny white hot pieces of shrapnel in all directions. They are not designed for destroying buildings, but they are wickedly efficient at mowing down human beings in densely populated areas.
The capture of two Israeli soldiers was the excuse for starting a major war designed to utterly smash and destroy densely populated civilian areas with complete disregard for the obviously disproportionate amount of deaths caused. Lame excuses about not wanting to hurt Lebanese civilians fall upon deaf ears when any sensible person could foresee the consequences of the Israeli actions.
Such overwhelming offense is quite rightly termed a war crime by the UN, but when has Israel respected the UN?

The Pope, the Secretary General of the UN, the French and Spanish governments, many EU countries and much of Latin America have all severely criticised the Isaeli actions as being out of proportion and illegal apart from being immoral.
Israel's ugly face has turned repulsive to most of us.

[Dr Irene Lancaster]

News just in.

Irene

Amidst War, 650 French Jews Move to Israel in One Day
By Ezra HaLevi

Despite the Re-Engagement War, 650 French Jews arrived on Aliyah (immigrating to Israel) Tuesday - the largest number to arrive in a single day since 1971.

The new immigrants arrived on two chartered Israir flights, one with 500 passengers from Paris and the other with 150 Jews from Marseille. They arrive in Ben Gurion Airport Tuesday afternoon and were greeted by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

The immigrants have received logistical assistance from AMI - the French Aliyah organization, similar to its North American (and British) counterpart Nefesh b'Nefesh.

Similar to the lavish ceremonies organized by Nefesh b'Nefesh, the French arrivals were greeted with refreshments and a large stage set up at the airport, with hundreds of friends, relatives and Aliyah enthusiasts on hand to greet them.

AMI reports that many of the new immigrants will be moving to northern Israel, and like the planeload of North Americans that arrived last week, refused to postpone their plans due to the two-front war that has two million Israelis living in bomb shelters and temporary quarters.

Recent polls have shown that more half of young French Jews do not see themselves staying in France in the future.

[James]

So sad, Irene, to hear, but very believeable.

When one is willing to blow up innocent children on purpose (ones own and others) - as the Islamofanatics are - one has become a beast.

James

[Dr Irene Lancaster]

LETTER FROM a French friend in HAIFA

My dear Irene

We had a very hard day to day with more that 15 alerts and it is only 15.00 in the afternoon!.

I was very "touchee" by your blog, we will have, be'ezrat hashem, a long work together to the contribution of Israel and Haifa, you will see.

I leave now with my family to Natanya to my parents' house. There I will try to work by mobilizing resources from the french Jewish community to support families here.

In Haifa I can not concentrate myself
You can call me there, if you want.
I have no internet there

Love

Yoline

[Dr Irene Lancaster]

Just received this:

The following is an extract from a weblog called Live from an Israeli Bunker. It is being kept by a 17 year old Israeli boy in Haifa:-

"Information is coming in that Hezbollah is firing on Lebanese citizens who are trying to flee their towns after being warned by the IDF to leave the area. They want to go, and Hezbollah is now literally using them as a human shield. Some of them have actually been calling friends and family here stating this!"

I emailed the above to the BBC "Have Your Say" Website debate on the crisis but they didn't print it.

Shortly afterwards a contributor to this weblog posted the following confirmation:-

"I can confirm this report also. A Lebanese friend has told me that family members are trapped in a village close to the border and are being prevented from leaving by Hizbollah fighters who are setting up rocket positions around the village. Her uncles' words were 'we are waiting for death'. They are terrified of retaliatory Israeli strikes, but can do nothing when threatened by armed guerillas."

I again forwarded the original posting and the confirmation as a possible news story, but they still didn't print it.

If you wish to check this weblog you will find it at:-hhtp://israelibunker.blogspot.com/

[Dr Irene Lancaster]

http://www.conceptwizard.com/n-israel.html

The latest from Lebanon.

[Robin Bather]

This true story is especially for James (I feel I know you so closely, may I call you Jimmy?).
In a few days it will be my wife's birthday so this morning I went with my wife and children to the local mall. I knew that she wanted a piece of jewelery so we visited several jewelery shops and the assistant was showing my wife various bracelets. There was a solid gold bracelet but it had a label "Made in Israel" so I immediately said I would not buy anything made in that country due to the war crimes that they are committing in Lebanon. She looked askance and I think she does't keep up much with international news, however another customer chimed in and said "Well done, we must all take firm action like that".
We bought another lovely gold bracelet made in Mexico and I felt I had done my little bit for the day.
The EU imports much fruit, vegetables and wine from Israel and I trust others will question where it comes from and tell the store manager "We don't buy anything made in Israel".
A firm boycott of Israeli goods will hurt them where it most hurts, in their wallets.

I hope you liked it James. Go on! Tell me I'm anti Semitic.
Have a nice day.

PS
James, please feel free to call me Rob.

[Christopher]

" for the time being Israel wins every war but will this always be the case?"

Robin, it will be as long as America supports Israel and this is unlikely to change as long as 50% of Republicans believe in End-Time theology, which according to a BBC programme this weekend, they do. It isn't so much American Jewish support as Christian Zionism, believing that Christ will only come again when the Jews are fully back in the Promised Land behind the borders as originally defined in the Bible, that keeps America behind Israel every step of the way. Given this eschaton there is no way the neo-Cons would allow Israel to move to another geographical location even if they wanted to because that would put off the Rapture indefinitely.

[James]

"As another poster mentioned, for the time being Israel wins every war but will this always be the case?"

---

Yes.

The terrorist Islamic jihadists are turning the world against them - as they murder innocents in Britain, Spain, Kenya, India, Bali (Australians), Argentina, the Philippines, the US, Russia, etc. etc.

This will all end when they go too far (just as Hezbollah did with Israel), and get far more than what they were expecting.

Israel and the US have the ability to blow to smithereens any country in the world.

If the terrorists go nuclear or biological (which they will [because they cannot stop themselves]), the response will be devastating - and final.

James

[Robin Bather]

A simple observation of the area of Israel in 2006 compared to its area in 1948 shows the falsity of the arguement that Israel just wants to live in peace with its neighbours.
The West Bank, east Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, the Shebaa farms area and now it would seen Lebanon.
Many are the excuses and perhaps valid reasons for the occupation of these areas but what we are seeing is the impossibility of a viable Israeli state in the present area.
If it were not for US foreign aid and vast military aid Israel would shrivel and die--it is simply not a viable entity.
Mormons and others have found a home in the US and have thrived in an environment which in the fullness of time accepts foreigners although initially the rejection is violent, as in the case of blacks and hispanics etc.
Like it or not 2 billion arabs and Muslims are strongly against Israel being set up in the area where it is. They deny its very existence.
This is not giving in to the enemy or appeasement but common sense.
Pragmatically, what is to be done about these people who feel Israel does not belong where it was set up in 1948?
Are they all to be killed or do we still think the war of "hearts and minds" can we won? Cuba, Irak and Afganistan show that it is innocent to believe in this idea.

The huge goodwill that Americans enjoyed after WWII has been frittered away by propping up and supporting a country even when it has been in the wrong. This blind support has caused rejection and criticm from most of the EU and such middle of the road countries like Spain and France.
(Unfortunately the UK is portrayed as the US's lapdog, willing to except all its policies--and worldwide the UK has been ridiculed for this subservient approach).
The Israel Experiment has been a disaster leading to untold deaths since its inception. The fact that extremist regimes like Iran have espoused the idea that Israel would be better in another area does not invalidate the arguement. In fact it makes perfect sense.
As another poster mentioned, for the time being Israel wins every war but will this always be the case?

[Fran]

"What is however impossible in the long run is that Israel should survive by brute force alone."

Quite right, Mr O'Connell. But what so many people seem to miss is that it is not the borders of Israel, but her very existence to which her neighbours have objected. Some now seem to accept her existence. Sadly, that acceptance was largely secured by the IDF demonstrating that Israel was not about to admit defeat in the face of military invasion.

However, other neighbours will not accept that Israel has a right to exist at all. This stems not from border disputes, for Jews, who have lived in this part of the world for 3,000 years or so, were attacked and their villages pillaged years before the State of Israel existed.

Neither is it lack of space for a homeland. Transjordan was created as a state for the Arabs of Palestine and no Jew was permitted to settle there. Indeed a Palestinian State on the disputed territories was accepted by Israel and would have been possible any time between the ending of the British Mandate in 1948 and 1967 and again in 2000. But there were no takers. Why not?

The reasons stem from a religious ideology which cannot accept that any land once ruled by Muslims should ever be in the control of any other religious group. The existence of the Jewish State is anathema to people such as Hizbollah, Hamas and President Ahmedinajad of Iran who embrace this ideology.

So the question is not "Should Israel use 'brute force' or peaceful negotiation with her neighbours?" Instead the question is "Are Israel's neighbours and the rest of the world obliged to accept the UN mandated right of Jews to have nation state on their ancient homeland?"

Sadly, for Syria, Iran and their agents, the answer is a shriek of "No!"

It is with them, and people who think like them, that the problems in the Middle East really lie.

[James O'Connell]

It is understandable in the present situation of conflict that arguments revolve around culpability and proportionality. These arguments have their place. But we will have gained little if we don't manage to place the conflict in a wider perspective.

Some may consider Israel a mistake, and others see it as a crime, and others again as a safeguard for a people who have been greatly threatened over the centuries. It may also be the start of the migration of peoples that is making an impact on our world.

What is however impossible in the long run is that Israel should survive by brute force alone. Population numbers, location, hatred of dispossession, and
time in the shape of the gradual modernisation of the Middle East are all against Israel. Military hardware and the presently firm but ultimately uncertain support of the United States may provide some time. But Israel’s future must depend on symbiosis with the Palestinians – and that means a return to something like the 1967 boundaries. Some Arabs and Muslims – and some Israelis - will oppose that settlement but they can be marginalized, and many even won over. My knowledge of Palestinians suggests that most are willing to support that kind of settlement.

Once the future of Palestinians is bound up positively with Israelis, other Arabs are going to have to revise their policies and ideas. I can’t see any other way of disarming hatred or removing the anomaly that the
present Israeli state – the last area to which Westerners, though not only Westerners, have migrated – represents in the Middle East. But in a common interdependency the Palestinians can begin to find a human future; and Israeli Jews can have a basic fear of destruction removed.

James O’Connell

[Fran]

"There is no way of solving the problem of the existence of Israel in the heart of an arab area.
If the United States so much loves this people, why not set up Israel within the US? Yes, why not?
The US would make huge savings and would be happy to have the Israelis close at hand. The Muslims, arabs and others would be happy."

So what can be said of your posting, Mr Bather? If Simon MacIlwaine only sees what he wants to see, then it's pretty clear from your comment above that the same can be said for you.

Mr MacIlwaine represents the views of Anglicans for Israel, a peaceful advocacy organisation, whilst your view reflects that of President Ahmedinajad of Iran and various terrorist organisations.

Choose your bedfellows with care. You may have to live with them.

[Denis MacEoin]

Robin Blather's coment dismays me for many reasons, above all the total absence of a real moral sense about what is happening and what has happened in the past. He says, corectly, that the situation in th Middle East is 'more complex' than a simple 'good Israelis' v. 'evil Arabs' conflict, and he is perfectly right. But as a Christian he should know that morality often boils down to a decision to choose good over evil, despite the complexity. When I was a magistrate, I sent people to prison despite knowing the complexities of their cases (which we always looked at in great detail) because they had been found guilty of certain crimes. A serial killer may have had a difficult childhood and a hard life, but those complexities should not prevent good people from locking him away for life. I know as well as anyone and more than most that the Middle East is complex; but I also know that there is a fundamental wrongness, a distortion of true morality when one side in a conflict wishes the wholesale destruction of its foe, kills innocent civilians indiscriminately, and states openly that negotiations and peace-making are 'a waste of time' and that only war will solve their problems. That is so much more the case when that foe has been hated and persecuted for centuries, has been established legally, has done everything in its power to sue for peace, and has openly and repeatedly said that it is willing to make concessions for the sake of peace and lasting security. I do not doubt that many decent Germans died in the Second World War; but I know that, if Britain and the US had not fought back hard, we might be living under a Nazi regime today. When Robin says the establishment of Israel is a 'mistake', what does he mean by that? If I purchase land and receive legal approval to live on it, and my neighbours (who hate me because I'm a Protestant or Catholic or Jew) decide to burn down my house and kill me and my family, have I not the right to fight back and fight back hard? Here, of course, the police would step in before it got that far; but there is no policeman in Israel, and there never has been. Robin is very out of date in his understanding of Middle East history if he thinks the Jews expelled 700,000 Arabs in 1948. Most of the Arabs who lecft did so on orders from the Arab military, who naively thought they would march across the new country and kill every last Jew who had settled there. It's not that simple, of course, but does that mean we should offer succour to a people who had sided with the Nazis and embarked soon after the war on another attempt at genocide? Should Israel be established in the US? Possibly, if you're a Mormon, but not if you're a Jew. I have a deep attachment to Ireland, but I know it doesn't come close to what Jews feel about the Holy Land. A Christian should not only understand that, but have related feelings of his own about the place. Had Christians been expelled from the Holy Land and spent some 2000 years wandering from place to place, killed, raped, burned, and treated as second-class citizens everywhere, then lost 6 million in a Holocaust, might they not yearn to return to the scenes of Christ's life and death as much as the Jews want to be at the heart of their faith. Throughout the world, there are countries that have come to terms with adjustments in land and population after WWII. Today, Europe is at peace. Only mad Germans want to bring back the Reich or re-conquer the Sudatenland. The Arabs persist in wanting to destroy Israel because it is land that they conquered and that they want back because it was once Islamic land, and nothing can be allowed to get in the way of Muslim rights. Israel was not a 'mistake'. The mistake was for the Arabs to have devoted themselves to war and terror, rather than to building safe, prosperous countries and living, as the rest of us try to do, at peace with their neighbours.

[Dr Irene Lancaster]

Dear Robin

You were so nice about me when I started my blog that I thought you might even respect me - at least that is what you said at the time.

Please rest assured that I advise plenty of organisations, including various churches and the BBC. This does not mean, unfortunately, that I run them, nor even that they choose to take my advice all the time.

Still less does it mean that I am now ABC, Pope or BBC DG.

As for Ruth, I have advised her solely in my professional capacity as an expert on Christian-Jewish relations, Church history and Christian theology.

This does not mean that we are buddies, any more than you and I are, or than you and James are for that matter.

Nor does it necessarily mean that we agree on all matters. I have also advised other journalists on various papers.

There are close links between the Jewish community of Britain and Israel - and Haifa is renowned for its excellent interfaith and inter-ethnic relations.

Thank you for encouraging me to settle in the USA, but I have already made my choice. God willing, one day you will be able to visit us in Haifa (only idiots like me are going there whilst it is at war).

And maybe, who knows, you and others like you, might even change your minds about it.

[James]

The Lebanese chose to harbor within their midst, and to give succor and respectability to, a band of the most vicious and depraved terrorists in the world (Hezbollah) - whose stated goal is to massacre Jews and to destroy Israel.

Now - they (the Lebanese) are finding out that the Israelis won't tolerate that. No person (or country) in their (its) right mind would.

The Lebanese and the Israelis can get along fine if Lebanon stops supporting fanatical Islamic terrorists. Until then, it will be war.

Israel is forcing Lebanon to choose. Sadly, Lebanon was incapable of doing so of its own accord.

James

[Robin Bather]

I apologise for the length of this posting Ruth.
I was one of those who asked Ruth to write about the tragedy in Lebanon but I am disappointed by your report; it is not one of your best.
It seems your report is about your friend's emigration, cedar forests and a reformed terrorist, instead of what I had hoped for....a soul searching article about the very real slaughter of people that is taking place daily, while the US deliberately procrastinates and the UK says nothing.
Dr. Williams attempts feebly to sit one the fence and plead for both sides in the conflict.
Many sins can be laid at the doorstep of president Bush but I don't believe the disappearance of the Lebanese cedar forests can be added to them.

What can said about Simon McIlane's posting? He is after all a fellow member of Anglicans for Israel and only sees what he wants to see--an innocent peaceloving country attacked by evil terrorists, however I would suggest that the truth is much more complex.

The status quo seemed to have been upset by the capture of two Israeli soldiers and then began the rain of rockets on Israel and the disproportionate response of the Israel army, air force and navy with complete disregard for the wholesale slaughter of Lebanese innocents.
However the status quo was an ugly case of a belligerant country occupying much land of its neighbours, itching to use the vast supplies of modern arms on its neighbours. A country which was born by a well meaning mistake, set down on land where many farmers of differing religions dwelt. A country run by people who expelled these 700,000 people (yes, seven hundred thousand, although they would have us believe it was unoccupied territory). This was the start of many evils committed by both sides, but the original sin of taking the land of others sowed the seeds of hell.
Israel is propped up by vast sums of US foreign aid together with an equal sum in military hardware and is generally regarded as an interloper in an area where it is not wanted. Like it or not, its very right to exist is generally not accepted by many countries in the region--countries that will not easily change their minds, if at all.
There is no way of solving the problem of the existence of Israel in the heart of an arab area.
If the United States so much loves this people, why not set up Israel within the US? Yes, why not?
The US would make huge savings and would be happy to have the Israelis close at hand. The Muslims, arabs and others would be happy.

Meanwhile my heart goes out to the Lebanese people. They don't deserve this ill treatment by Israel.

[Julia]

Does anyone recall the Zionists' claim to Eritz Israel, a Promised Land that includes Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt? Lebanon was indeed occupied by Israel; is it any wonder that Arabs keep a nervous eye on that border? Now that they're moving ground troops in, this is looking like a full-scale invasion. ++Rowan is correct; it is very much disproportionate.

Sure, Israel has the right to defend itself but it does not have the right to purposely provoke large-scale war to achieve its ends. And I believe that is exactly what Israel is doing. A once-and-for-all, Israel-and-the-West-versus-the-axis-of-evil War. Perhaps Armageddon. Israel is trying to draw Syria and Iran into the conflict with the expectation that America will have its back.

Does Israel realize that this is a big election year and Americans are jaded and weary of the Middle East? Any politician who committed troops, money, anything, to Israel's campaign would have his or her head on a platter.

All Israel is doing now is rallying support for Hezbollah as already enraged Muslim Arabs watch Lebanese civilians die and flee. They may cut off one segment of Hezbollah but it will regenerate and reconfigure with the assistance of other terrorist groups.

[Andrew Smith]

"In 1996, a group of pro-Israeli Americans – including Richard Perle, James Colbert, Charles Fairbanks Jr., Douglas Feith, Robert Loewenberg, David Wurmser, and Meyrav Wurmser – prepared a policy statement for then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that proposed a strategy of regime change as the only solution for Israel's growing encirclement and isolation. The main problem, they averred in "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm," was Syria, and the troublesome border with Lebanon:

'Syria challenges Israel on Lebanese soil. An effective approach, and one with which American can sympathize, would be if Israel seized the strategic initiative along its northern borders by engaging Hizballah, Syria, and Iran, as the principal agents of aggression in Lebanon.'

But this could occur only if Iraq was taken out first:

'Israel can shape its strategic environment, in cooperation with Turkey and Jordan, by weakening, containing, and even rolling back Syria. This effort can focus on removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq — an important Israeli strategic objective in its own right — as a means of foiling Syria's regional ambitions.'

With Saddam out of the way, the second phase of the "Clean Break" scenario is unfolding before our eyes. And the propaganda war is going just as well as the military aspect of the campaign: the Israelis are no fools. They realize they can't proceed without the tacit complicity of the U.S. and the Europeans, who must be made to look the other way as the IDF commits war crimes on the ground. Under the pretext of avenging the "kidnapping" of one of their soldiers – and, more recently, two more – they have unleashed a military assault planned well in advance of the allegedly precipitating incidents.

This is surely one of the most threadbare excuses for a war ever uttered. One wonders how Israel's spokesmen can say it with a straight face. Soldiers in wartime are captured, not "kidnapped." If Hezbollah has "kidnapped" those two Israeli soldiers, then how do we describe the jailing of thousands of Palestinians, including hundreds of women and children, on the basis of their alleged sympathy for Hamas – now the democratically elected government of Palestine?"

--J. Raimondo, "Israel Crosses the Line"

[jim n dallas]

how do i sign in to join the discussion?

(just as you have done, sorry to all that I am late posting yesterday's comments, was working out of london all day without access to a computer. rg)

[Simon Watney]

At a time when large sections of the former center-ground and left of British politics are frankly flirting with fascism it seems most ill-advised of the Archbishop of Canterbury to issue statements which can all too easily be interpreted as being more sympathetic to the cause of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism than to the surivival and defence of the state of Israel. It is, to say the least, regrettable that he appears to be consistently more happy making ill-judged interventions into complex foreign affairs than in combatting bigotry within the church which looks to him in vain for leadership.

[Gila]

Quite honestly, I admire both your spicy-sweet candour, Ruth and Irene's resolve to come on Aliyah [there are actually many others arriving just now, but I know Irene personally].

There is no elegant way to say that no-one is reporting tens of thousands of Israelis fleeing their homes and that these rockets (described in Sratfor and other specialist websites) are reaching further and further into Israel.

So we (yes, I am an expat Brit and Israeli) are just supposed to let this happen, are we?!! While no-one does anything about it? And trying to take out the rocket launchers and weapons' bunkers inside Lebanon by air is "disproportionate", is it? Obviously only in certain people's books because and since it concerns Israel and Israelis. I can give that another name.

[Denis MacEoin]

Simon Perry above would do well to read this letter that was published in yesterday's Guardian. It shows how unbalanced his parallel with Ireland and the IRA really is:

'Glyn Hale asks if there would be peace in Ireland today if Britain had attacked Ireland's civilian population in pursuit of the IRA (Letters, July 17). The answer is that Britain might have bombed southern Ireland - and we would have urged the government on if the IRA had two Irish cabinet ministers, were launching attacks from within an unpoliced infrastucture, and if the Irish government had refused to comply with UN resolutions asking it to dismantle the IRA.

'The Irish government did not tolerate the IRA within its borders but cooperated with the British in the pursuit of them - actually giving up its claim to British territory and amending its own constitution. Indeed, Hale might like to reflect on the how different things would be if Lebanon, Syria and Palestine were like Ireland.
Tony Smith
London'

[Tom Allen]

Mark
I must assume that RW has been briefed accurately on what happened. There was as I read press accounts a small incursion (12 July) into Israeli territory which resulted into 8 deaths and 2 soldiers being captured (and I wholly condemn that attack) Israel then launched large scale attacks on Lebanon (see press reports for 13th July), then and only then Hizbollah responded with rocket attacks. I think it is the second stage by Israel which is being described as disproportionate by wide sections of the international community. The Eire/Ulster analogy suggested by Simon in the 1980s is instructive - IRA (Eire citizens) bombed British territory in the North - did Britain bomb Dublin - cut all the road links - close Dublin airport - believe that such small bomb acts were in themselves a threat to our very future? Surely Israels long-term security is dependent on strong democratic states around it who are able to resist terrorists in their midst - what Israel seems to have done is once again inhibit any real chance of that happening in Lebanon and created a new generation of martyrs who will be lauded from Bradford to Bagdad. Tragically it is a spectacular own goal which has inhibbted any chance of international support for its real security.

[James]

Rowan Williams is the anti-Charles Martel.

James