"Even the Arab world is sick of this crew of vicious criminals. When the Arab League won't help you, Syria disses you, and they all issue so muted a criticism of Israel it looks to many like an endorsement of the bombings, Hamas and Hezbollah have overplayed their hands. By encouraging radical unrest and attempts to overthrow Arab governments, Hezbollah, Hamas, and their sponsor, Iran, have made themselves an issue as big or bigger than Israel and the West."

Um, you might want to check the front page of today's NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/28/world/middleeast/28arabs.html?hp&ex=1154145600&en=00302b87a267fb0d&ei=5094&partner=homepage

"The criticism of Israel is not anti-semtic, but it is ill-informed. Hamas is killing as many or more Palestinians than Israel. The Palestinians are screwed in that hamas has no wish for security and peace, and they misuse money meant for health and food on rockets and armaments. They are as corrupt as Fatah, but less inept than Fatah. Hamas' uprising was an excuse for Hezbollah to act a fool. Hezbollah claimed they were helping Hamas, but they really don't give a dman about the Palestinians or Hamas- neither the Arab states nor the Persian Iran cares. Hamas was a pretext, and as soon as the real Arabs were threatened, Hamas/Palestine was ignored by the Arab world."

For an alleged military historian and analyst, you have quite an interesting slant. It's always telling how for some the onus is on the occupied rather than the occupier. Any proof that Hamas is killing more Palestinians than Israel? Or was just a flamboyant statement. Although Hamas is certainly suspect, what money is Hamas "misusing" now? They're under economic sanctions and, iirc, the Israeli government is holding the aid funds. The notion that they are and/or were using money meant for aid solely for arms is simply not true. I'm sure they used some of the money for arms to fight the Israelis (big surprise there) but one of the main reasons they got elected was that they, unlike Fatah, actually provided some services to people. I guess they used monopoly money. What was "Hamas's uprising"? Being democratically elected? If you mean the the latest events, only in the Middle East could Hamas capturing an occupying Israeli soldier be considered an "uprising".

Anyway, I do agree that a lot of this is self-interested actions, old alliances and proxy stuff for others, including Israel's actions, but that's nothing new.

Yep. Typical propaganda tactic. If some here were to actually read the link to the story, it makes your point rather clear and it provides a counterpoint from an UN spokesperson, but that would kill the propaganda buzz.

You might want to read one of the earlier letters here.

"Canadian UN e-mail

A quick note... the (never publically released) e-mail sent from the Canadian UN observer killed in southern Lebanon didn't in fact say that there were Hezbollah fighters around the post that was destroyed. That was the _interpretation_ put on the e-mail by Lewis Mackenzie, who besides being a retired general was also a failed Conservative candidate for Parliament - and who is vurulently anti-Arab. That interpretation is now being trumpeted as if it were fact.

One might note as well that, if Mackenzie's interpretation is correct, it indicates that Israel destroyed that post deliberately: that it was not, after all, a 'mistake'.

-- SMac"

Or not. It's going to be fascinating to see how many times the interpretation of the unplublished e-mail by a dubious soucre is repeated as fact and how many times the UN spokeperson's counterpoint to the interpretation is ignored. So far we have one....