Reply #42: ***PERMALINK FOR THIS JUAN COLE POST*** and more LINKS:

[Nothing Without Hope]

http://www.juancole.com/2006/07/israel-kills-57-in-lebanon-arbour.html

(The link in the OP is to his entire blog)

There's much more in this post, and indeed every day this extremely knowledgable and insightful expert adds valuable comments and reports, many of which are overlooked or deliberately ignored in the US corporate media.

I am heartsick not only at what is happening but also at how the US congress is baying with excitement and bloodlust over it, many Dems such as Harry Reid along with the GOPs. Read the Senate Resolution, which calls for immediate sanctions on Iran and Syria and blames the government of Lebanon - and gives Israel open season to do whatever the hell it wants:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1674185
ACTION ALERT: Oppose House Resolution Supporting Israel's Attacks!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1674661
SENATE RESOLUTION calling for Iran, Syria SANCTIONS & supporting Israel

Only a courageous few are daring to buck this "If Israel wants to destroy a country and kill & starve its civilians, it's WONDERFUL!!!" echo chamber. Dennis Kucinich is one of them:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2730810

Even here at DU a high proportion of posters on the Lebanon attacks blindly support Israel's thuggish, murderous tactics. Yes, Israel has the right to defend itself. But NO state, not the US and not Israel, has the right to destroy another and target civilians. In fact, what Israel is doing is ILLEGAL UNDER US LAW:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1668742
thread title: "Israel Violates Law on U.S. Weapons in Mideast"

Finally, there is no way that these attacks will increase Israel's long-range security. Hezbollah originated largely because of fear and resentment of Israel's past actions: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4314423.stm What horrors of terrorism will THESE murderous attacks spawn?

Israel's government assumes that they can do anything they please because the US government, wrapped up by the lobbyists, will always come to the rescue and give ever more cash and armaments and military support.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/12/AR2006071201627_pf.html

A Beautiful Friendship?
In search of the truth about the Israel lobby's influence on Washington

By Glenn Frankel
Sunday, July 16, 2006; W13

(snip)

Thanks to the work of the lobby and its allies, Israel gets more direct foreign aid -- about $3 billion a year -- than any other nation. There's a file cabinet somewhere in the State Department full of memoranda of understanding on military, diplomatic and economic affairs. Israel gets treated like a NATO member when it comes to military matters and like Canada or Mexico when it comes to free trade. There's an annual calendar full of meetings of joint strategic task forces and other collaborative sessions. And there's a presidential pledge, re-avowed by Bush in the East Room, that the United States will come to Israel's aid in the event of attack.

On Capitol Hill the Israel lobby commands large majorities in both the House and Senate. Polls show strong public support for Israel -- a connection that has grown even deeper after the September 11 attacks. The popular equation goes like this: Israelis equal good guys, Arabs equal terrorists. Working the Hill these days, says Josh Block, spokesman for the premier Israeli lobbying group known as AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, "is like pushing at an open door."

Not everyone believes this is a good thing. In March two distinguished political scientists -- Stephen Walt from Harvard and John Mearsheimer from the University of Chicago -- published a 42-page, heavily footnoted essay arguing that the Bush administration's support for Israel and its related effort to spread democracy throughout the Middle East have "inflamed Arab and Islamic opinion and jeopardized U.S. security."

The professors claim that our intimate partnership with Israel is both dangerous and unprecedented. "Other special interest groups have managed to skew foreign policy, but no lobby has managed to divert it as far from what the national interest would suggest," they argue. They go on to say that the war in Iraq "was due in large part to the Lobby's influence," and that the same combine is "using all of the strategies in its playbook" to pressure the administration into being aggressive and belligerent with Iran. The bottom line: "Israel's enemies get weakened or overthrown, Israel gets a free hand with the Palestinians, and the United States does most of the fighting, dying, rebuilding and paying."

(snip)