Wednesday, July 26, 2006

No agreement on Lebanon ceasefire in Rome conference


Israeli children hiding in a shelter during Hezbolah rocket attacks, Kiryat Shimona


As the fighting in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah goes on representatives from 15 nations convened in Rome to discuss the crisis and draft potential solutions.

The conference mood was diplomatically reported as `difficult'...diplospeak for a major shouting match. No concensus or decisions were made on ceasefire proposals or the deployment of a multi-national peacekeeping force to the Israel-Lebanon border to ensure the disarmament of Hizbullah.

Not exactly surprising, especially given the antipathy against Israel by some of the participants and the sympathy for Hezbollah by the Lebanese government.

During the meeting, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora made the usual dramatic appeal to stop the killing as soon as possible. “In the past 15 days we are being bombarded daily. Dozens of civilians are being hurt. Lebanon is being torn to shreds,” he said.

I guess that's what happens in a war when you enable and support one of the participants.

It's actually pretty simple. Israel is not going to stop its offensive unless the threat of Hezbollah is eliminated and its hostages are returned. Anything short of that is a waste of time for all concerned.

Iran and Syria were not invited to the conference.

3 comments:

russelllindsey said...

First off, thank you for the great service you are doing for those who truly understand what is going on in the Middle East, and in the world. I'm afraid that if the US doesn't become united soon, we will be next.

Now please bare with me for a minute. Over the last few weeks, I've been monitoring the "new" Netscape for some time. What was once a fairly balanced news reporting site has become a hub of the absolutely slanderous blogging on the left.

In the comments, people have called for the deaths of Condi Rice, Pres. Bush, and Anne Coulter - among other things. There is a lot of pro-Hizballah retoric.

People certainly have the right to express these views in this forum. However, what truly bothers me is not only the blazen bias on the part of Netscape, but the lack of people sharing a different viewpoint - in essence a response to the Bush-bashing fest in the comments. There are a few people who are reasonably sharing the other perspective, but not many.

I'm planning to bring it to my readers' attention.

Sadly, going to the site is like watching a train wreck. It is only serving to further the gulf between liberals and conservatives in the US - at a time when we desparately need to recognize what we are up against and come together - NO MATTER WHO IS PRESIDENT. From my perspective, it is a matter of survival

I would greatly appreciate it if you could bring it to the attention of your readers and other bloggers you know.

Thank you,

Lindsey

Freedom Fighter said...

Hi Lindsey,
Nice to see you. Pull up a chair and relax.

First off,let me say that unity among Americans is a lot closer than you think, IMO. Part of the problem is that President Bush let the country go back to sleep after 9/11. But as events continmue to ratchet up, people are beginning to realize what is going on and take sides.

Iran's continued progress towards nuclear weapons and the war between Israel and Hezbollah are two threshold moments that are helping sort this out.

Should there be another attack on America, it will only accelerate this.

I'm not familiar with netscape, but it apears to be becoming another outpost for the Angry Left, if what you say is correct. Like Daily Kos, it services a certain - uh- clientle, buit by no means a majority.

Sometimes it's simply a business decision. Air America has a miniscule rating, but even that amount to enough of an audience of consumers to make it worthwhile moneywise!

In any event, I have found that there is little payoff in trying to convince these people of anything or most of the time even indulging in legitimate debate..because they usually won't.

Most of them gave up the luxery of independent thought a long time ago.

I concentrate on informing myself from what I consider to be legitimate sources and doing the best writing I can...

Take care!

FF

russelllindsey said...

Freedom Fighter -

You are correct with regards to the site being taken over by the Angry Left - and that all the hate-mongering that is currently going on there does not deserve a response.

Unfortunately, it was really getting to me today. I have a feeling that there is a lot of sock puppeting going on there. It is like a car crash or a train wreck - it is hard to pull away.

Anyway, thanks again for your wonderful coverage. I absolutely hope that you are correct in your assessment that the US is coming together as we did in World War II. For all intensive purposes, I consider what is going on in Israel and Lebanon the beginning in WWIII. I agree with your assessment that Iran has something planned for August. I think things are going to get interesting very soon.

A faithful reader,

Lindsey