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I think some of you know Karim...This is his blog from Lebanon. (pg. 4)
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| girllovingtvibe |
I am happy to hear Karim is going to be coming home....
this is frightening - Thank you Sarah for bringing this blog to our attention. My thoughts and prayers are with the innocent in this country during this time. I have a friend I still have not heard from and have also an update from a girlfriend who lives there. Pretty much the same circumstances and an extremely scary time for them. Specially when this is there only place to live.... |
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| Goashem |
| quote: | Originally posted by raveed
This article is a very good read. Pretty much sums up why the UN isn't interfering in the matter. Its a well known fact that the states has the UN by the balls and I cant beleive its refusing to call for a cease fire until Israel rescues its kidnapped soldiers.
212 lebanese and 29 israelis have been killed and thats a huge difference. So even if lebanon has 20 soldiers hostage and lets say hypothetically kills them, i wonder if the states will call for a cease fire then despite the casualties still being hugely in israels favor :rolleyes:
I used to always support israel in its conflict with lebanon and because Indian relationships with them are very good but they seem to be starting all around them since they became independent.
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casualties are casualties and ranking up the numbers is stupid. just because one side has been worse off doesnt mean that we should focus on stopping only one sides operations.
as to the that israel has been starting, most of it has been started for it by terrorists. just like this recent conflict has been started by hamas and hezbollah not israel.
and i really dont understand the point of the article. whats happening in iraq and lebanon are two different things. |
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| Cosmic Fur |
| quote: | Originally posted by MKpacha
:conf:
why do you say like this. |
Oh come on! Look at the past history of America's involvement in the Middle East. 9 times out of 10 they have been on the side of Israel. You think all this happens by chance? That in every conflict Israel has been involved in, they are the ones who are wronged? Ever since the end of WWII and the massive amounts of Jewish people who immigrated to America as the safehouse, the Jewish influence on America has been very strong. |
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| TJB |
| quote: | Originally posted by Cosmic Fur
lol, it's like the author of that article doens't know that America is run by Jewish people. |
Can he insult anymore people, really.
I think this may have been the dumbest comment you have ever made on these boards.
What makes you think these things, cause I would really love to hear it??
| quote: | Originally posted by Cosmic Fur
Oh come on! Look at the past history of America's involvement in the Middle East. 9 times out of 10 they have been on the side of Israel. You think all this happens by chance? That in every conflict Israel has been involved in, they are the ones who are wronged? Ever since the end of WWII and the massive amounts of Jewish people who immigrated to America as the safehouse, the Jewish influence on America has been very strong. |
nevermind, you have already answered it. |
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| starsearcher |
Actually WWII was an extremely embarrasing episode for the US...when Jewish refugees arrived on American shores, they were sent back to Germany ;)
US did not even enter the war until it was bombed by Japan, not to mention it's primary involvement in Europe only came after they realized that the Soviet Union is advancing so far it could take all of Europe - hence after the cold war started. The only thing they were doing is sending supplies...barely too, Canada even played a bigger role.
Regardless of the fact, it's a silly statement to make, Israel is not run by Jewish people, and the US has very many interests in keeping Israel on it's side (other than military)
Not to mention that in the current conflict it's of US interest that Israel destroys Hesbullah. |
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| StereoPrincess |
I have been also reading Karim\'s blog.
Eventho we really don\'t get along, I am concerned and interested in what is happening with him. |
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| raveed |
| quote: | Originally posted by starsearcher
Regardless of the fact, it's a silly statement to make, Israel is not run by Jewish people, and the US has very many interests in keeping Israel on it's side (other than military)
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That is something that Ive been wanting to know. Besides security, what interests could the US have in Israel.
Its a known fact that Israeli intelligence is the best in the world and a lot of israelis work in the CIA/FBI but if anything, Americas relationship with israel seems to have harmed its realtionship with the oil producing community in the middle east.
After the 1967 war, america pledged its support to israel and most of the middle east went to russia so im keen to know how exactly is this relationship beneficial to american interests. |
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| Cosmic Fur |
Most beautiful quote ever:
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Originally quoted by Ariel Sharon
“Every time we do something, you [Shimon Peres] tell me America will do this and will do that... I want to tell you something very clear: Don’t worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it.”
-Knesset, Tel Aviv, October 3, 2001
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This is a pretty good article (although old, but nothing has changed since then, instead the iad to isreal has been constanly increasing): http://www.washington-report.org/ht...d_to_israel.htm
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Since 1992, the U.S. has offered Israel an additional $2 billion annually in loan guarantees. Congressional researchers have disclosed that between 1974 and 1989, $16.4 billion in U.S. military loans were converted to grants and that this was the understanding from the beginning.
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In addition, there is the more than $1.5 billion in private U.S. funds that go to Israel annually in the form of $1 billion in private tax-deductible donations and $500 million in Israeli bonds. The ability of Americans to make what amounts to tax-deductible contributions to a foreign government, made possible through a number of Jewish charities, does not exist with any other country.
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Total U.S. aid to Israel is approximately one-third of the American foreign-aid budget, even though Israel comprises just .001 percent of the world's population and already has one of the world's higher per capita incomes.
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Since 1949 the U.S. has given Israel a total of $83.205 billion. The interest costs borne by U.S. tax payers on behalf of Israel are $49.937 billion, thus making the total amount of aid given to Israel since 1949 $133.132 billion. This may mean that U.S. government has given more federal aid to the average Israeli citizen in a given year than it has given to the average American citizen.
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U.S. government officials argue that this money is necessary for "moral" reasons-some even say that Israel is a "democracy battling for its very survival." If that were the real reason, however, aid should have been highest during Israel's early years, and would have declined as Israel grew stronger. Yet "the pattern…has been just the opposite." According to Zunes, "99 percent of all U.S. aid to Israel took place after the June 1967 war, when Israel found itself more powerful than any combination of Arab armies…."
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Recently Americans have begun to read and hear that "Israel receives $3 billion in annual U.S. foreign aid." That's true. But it's still a lie. The problem is that in fiscal 1997 alone, Israel received from a variety of other U.S. federal budgets at least $525.8 million above and beyond its $3 billion from the foreign aid budget, and yet another $2 billion in federal loan guarantees. So the complete total of U.S. grants and loan guarantees to Israel for fiscal 1997 was $5,525,800,000.
One can truthfully blame the mainstream media for never digging out these figures for themselves, because none ever have. They were compiled by the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. But the mainstream media certainly are not alone. Although Congress authorizes America's foreign aid total, the fact that more than a third of it goes to a country smaller in both area and population than Hong Kong probably never has been mentioned on the floor of the Senate or House. Yet it's been going on for more than a generation.
Probably the only members of Congress who even suspect the full total of U.S. funds received by Israel each year are the privileged few committee members who actually mark it up. And almost all members of the concerned committees are Jewish, have taken huge campaign donations orchestrated by Israel's Washington, DC lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), or both. These congressional committee members are paid to act, not talk. So they do and they don't.
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The lobby that Israel and its supporters have built in the United States to make all this aid happen, and to ban discussion of it from the national dialogue, goes far beyond AIPAC, with its $15 million budget, its 150 employees, and its five or six registered lobbyists who manage to visit every member of Congress individually once or twice a year.
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Staunch American support for Israel is nothing new. In February 2005, Gallup reported similarly lopsided findings -- 69 percent of the public viewed Israel favorably, 25 percent unfavorably. In 2004, when Israel was being denounced in Europe and the United Nations for its assassination of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the leader of Hamas, 61 percent of Americans said Israel was justified in killing him. In 2002, when a CBS News poll asked whether Israel's actions against Yasser Arafat and his forces were equivalent to US actions against Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, 59 percent agreed that they were.
In short, solidarity with Israel is an abiding feature of American public opinion. Because the American people are pro-Israel, the American government is pro-Israel. And because Americans so strongly support Israel in its conflict with the Arabs, American policy in the Middle East is committed to Israel's defense.
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Source: http://www.boston.com/news/world/mi...side_of_israel/
Make your own conclusions as to why relationship between Israel and America is as tight as it is. |
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| zokissima |
| quote: | +1
The comment's that I read from Misanthrope honestly make me wonder. Like this poor country is being completely destroyed and yet she claims we shouldn't be overly sensitive. If anything the entire world is being far too lax about the situation. It's unbelieveable that no the UN or other country has stepped in and done something.
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TO be honest, you seem like you have absolutely NO idea what is going on. And that seems to be the case with most of the posts in this thread. MIddle-eastern relations with the Western world have been...quote complicated...to say the least, for the past 50 years, and yet people come in and make a 10 second summation about something they know nothing about, then comment on the lack of understanding on someone else's part.
We should all just wish him well. If only half of you knew what it felt like to see bombs and buildings falling in front of your face. |
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| raveed |
| quote: | Originally posted by zokissima
TO be honest, you seem like you have absolutely NO idea what is going on. And that seems to be the case with most of the posts in this thread. MIddle-eastern relations with the Western world have been...quote complicated...to say the least, for the past 50 years, and yet people come in and make a 10 second summation about something they know nothing about, then comment on the lack of understanding on someone else's part.
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I was in Kashmir during 1989 when the insurgency started and although I didnt see much as i was young at the time, i remember my maid telling me stories about what was going on outside and we had to flee the very next day and I saw the carnage that one day of gun fighting had caused. Not to say that this remotely compares to whats happening in lebanon right now but I can imagine what karim's going through and I wish him and his family well in getting back to safety. |
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| Orko |
| quote: | Originally posted by Goashem
and i really dont understand the point of the article. whats happening in iraq and lebanon are two different things. |
I just think the sense of 'proportionality' is what matters.
Yes, they are two different conflicts, but its the attention that throws some people off. The fact that so much attention is given to this particular conflict, but people just gloss over other places like Iraq, or Sudan.
Maybe its because of family, political, and/or economic ties that more 'importance' is being given to the conflict in the Middle East.
If a life is a life, then why are we not hearing more about Africa? There are probably more deaths/day in Africa than any other area in the world, yet politicians are not jumping at the same rate. |
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| Cribby |
| quote: | Originally posted by preppie chick
For those who care, I spoke with Katy today and Karim is safe out of Lebanon and should be home on sunday. |
Wow...That's good news. I honestly had no idea about any of this...that's quite a long read but I'll be sure to check it out on my spare time. |
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