Letters to the Editor
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Nice try, dendrio
...but your tired old argument of equivalency falls kind of flat if you only look at, say, the last 500 years or so of civilization.
People like you would love to believe that every single ideology, culture, and religion in the world today are 100% equal in their pro's and con's. But almost any critically-thinking person can tell you that is simply false. Find me ONE instance of Jews participating in a violent crusade of forced proselytization in the last thousand years. Jews don't even WANT people to convert to their religion. They make it hard to convert. They just want to be left the hell alone.
Such is not the case in Islam, where their slogan to the world is "convert or die". And even after converting you stand a good chance of being "honor-killed" for not being a "good enough" Muslim. You're likely to be stoned to death for drinking a beer (or speaking to a man, if you're a woman). That's the uncomfortably un-egalitarian fact of the matter, demonstrable by only a cursory perusal of the news on any given morning for about the last three decades.
The reality is that Islam as a modern global religion seems currently beholden to a very strong and influential undercurrent of violent, nihilistic extremists. Obviously not all, or even most, Muslims subscribe to this kind of ideology, but unfortunately those moderate Muslims would rather stand by silently than try to help the rest of the world stop the cancerous spread of militant Islamic zealotry.
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If history is any guide
You folks are usually the first ones that invaders line up and shoot. If you can't be trusted to back the basic ideals and freedoms of your own societies then you certainly can't be trusted as collaborators with the new Jihad.
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We don't need your help
Achmed Al Vichy writes:
You folks are usually the first ones that invaders line up and shoot. If you can't be trusted to back the basic ideals and freedoms of your own societies then you certainly can't be trusted as collaborators with the new Jihad.
[sarcasm](Best Billy Bob accent) If anybody lines up anybody 'round heah, it'll be our good ol' boys who do it, not some ragheads with pea shooters.[/sarcasm]
Seriously though, invading America may be hazardous to your health. I'd recommend against it, comrade.
Oh, and by the way, what the hell are you talking about? Who is "you folks"?
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Uh, Jeffrey?
[i]"it is, however, antisemitic when Jews are called "monsters" and "Nazis", when obvious double standards are used against the state of Israel[/i]
Isn't it ironic then that the word is being used for people who in fact are demanding that an "obvious double standard" no longer be available to Israel? That is, Israel no longer gets "special treatment" when it kills civilians because of its history and the reasons for its founding? That it is to beheld to the SAME STANDARD as other civilized countries and asked to answer for its actions?
[i]and finally, the lot of you hypocrites are antisemitic because all of America is "stolen land"[i/]
Bloody hell. Do you even know what the word "antisemitic" means? Because the above implies you think it means... I don't know... racist, or [i]something[/i]. You literally don't know what the words you are arguing about mean. I give up
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"Speak truth to power"
I will hazard that YOU don't know what the word Anti-Semite means. What do you think it means? Does it apply to just Jews, or does it apply to both Jews and Arabs? Which do you think?
The "double standard" is that you get behind Hezbollah when she kills Israeli civilians. But Israel is not allowed to retaliate fight back. How's that for a double standard?
Or if Israel fights back, Israel must be careful to only target Hezbollah soldiers who hide among civilians (regardless of the deceits of Mitch Prothero) without hitting a single innocent. A task which is impossible.
However, Hezbollah can fire rockets at Haifa and kill all the innocents they want, and folks like you flock to their banner?
No double standard here?
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The "hiding among civilians" myth
Is Mitch Prothero covering another war?
http://www.news.com.au/sundayheraldsun/story/0,21985,19955774-663,00.html
Pictures and story of Hezbollah firing rockets from a residential area in Beirut, published today in Melbourne, Australia.
As the story says: "Hezbollah came in to launch their rockets and within minutes the area was blasted by Israeli jets.
"Until the fighters arrived it had not been touched by the Israelis. Then it was totally devastated."
and
" The images include one of a group of men and youths preparing to fire an anti aircraft gun metres from an apartment block block with heets hanging out on the balcony to dry.
"Others show a militant with AK 47 rifle guarding no go zones after Israeli blitzes.
"Another depicts the remnants of Hezbollah Katyusha rocket in the midle of a residential block blown up in an Israeli air attack."
One should note that the Hezbollah militants are dressed in civilian clothes and apparently do not lack for junk food.
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jews in lebanon
doc5467 claims that there are jews in Lebanon--maybe a few, but they are negligable demographically and politically...per wikipedia,
"In the 1980s, Hizballah kidnapped several Lebanese Jewish businessmen, and in the 2004 elections, only one Jew voted in the municipal elections. By all accounts, there are fewer than 100 Jews left in Lebanon"
Of course, it's unlikely that the wikipedia article takes into account the IDF members deployed now there.
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Prothero Misses
Mr. Prothero states Hezbollah doesn't mingle with civilians and it's almost impossible for a journalist to ever meet a Hezbollah fighter.
First, I guess all the rocket attacks are coming from those areas of Lebanon officially designated as "non-civilian", perhaps? And those people shooting at the IDF from Lebanese villages, most of whom, when filmed, are wearing civilian clothes, couldn't possibly be Hezbollah?
Second, perhaps he should take a closer look around at what his competition is publishing. See, for example, "Guns in the Closet: At home in a town in southern Lebanon, a Hezbollah fighter waits to be called to action", Kevin Sites, Fri Jul 28, 8:23 PM ET on Yahoo! HotZone News. Mr. Sites seemed to have no problem finding a Hezbollah fighter to interview, and the Hezbollah fighter was certainly not shy about pulling weapons out of his home closet and having them photographed, and stating Hezbollah hides weapons in 'civilians' homes.
Finally, so perhaps either Mr. Prothero isn't as good a journalist as perhaps he believes himself to be, or perhaps he has other motives for attempting to state, in the face of significant contradictory evidence from other journalists, that Hezbollah hiding in amungst civilians is a "myth".