HISTORIC ZIONIST QUOTES...

"We must expel Arabs and take their places."

-- David Ben-Gurion, Prime Minister of Israel, 1949-1954, 1955-1963 to the General Staff

"We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population."

-- David Ben-Gurion, Prime Minister of Israel, 1949-1954,1955-1963, to the General Staff.

"There has been Anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?"

-- Quoted by Nahum Goldmann in Le Paraddoxe Juif (The Jewish Paradox), pp. 121-122.

"Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves ... politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves... The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country."

-- David Ben Gurion, Prime Minister of Israel, 1949-1954, 1955-1963

"There is no such thing as a Palestinian people... It is not as if we came and threw them out and took their country. They didn't exist."

-- Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel 1969 - 1974

"How can we return the occupied territories? There is nobody to return them to."

-- Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel 1969 - 1974

"The Partition of Palestine is illegal. It will never be recognized .... Jerusalem was and will for ever be our capital. Eretz Israel will be restored to the people of Israel. All of it. And for Ever."

-- Menachem Begin, the day after the U.N. vote to partition Palestine.

"Israel should have exploited the repression of the demonstrations in China, when world attention focused on that country, to carry out mass expulsions among the Arabs of the territories."

-- Benyamin Netanyahu, then Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister, former Prime Minister of Israel, speaking to students at Bar Ilan University, from the Israeli journal Hotam, November 24, 1989

"If we thought that instead of 200 Palestinian fatalities, 2,000 dead would put an end to the fighting at a stroke, we would use much more force...."

-- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, quoted in Associated Press, November 16, 2000.

"I would have joined a terrorist organization."

-- Ehud Barak's response to Gideon Levy, a columnist for the Ha'aretz newspaper, when Barak was asked what he would have done if he had been born a Palestinian.

"It is the duty of Israeli leaders to explain to public opinion, clearly and courageously, a certain number of facts that are forgotten with time. The first of these is that there is no Zionism, colonialization, or Jewish State without the eviction of the Arabs and the expropriation of their lands."

-- Ariel Sharon, Israeli Foreign Minister

"Israel may have the right to put others on trial, but certainly no one has the right to put the Jewish people and the State of Israel on trial."

-- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, 25 March, 2001 quoted in BBC News Online

"Everybody has to move, run and grab as many (Palestinian) hilltops as they can to enlarge the (Jewish) settlements because everything we take now will stay ours...Everything we don't grab will go to them."

-- Ariel Sharon, Israeli Foreign Minister

Very strange article. From its content, it sure seemed to me that he was inventing an excuse where none existed. And as the subject line indicates, the UN has said in no uncertain terms that Hizbollah was using them as cover for rocket attacks.

Like I said, very strange.

Mitch, tell the truth now, are you a liar or an idiot?

Here's more evidence that you are full of crap:

I lived until 2002 in a small southern village near Mardshajund that is inhabited by a majority of Shias like me. After Israel left Lebanon, it did not take long for Hezbollah to take have its say in other towns. Received as successful resistance fighters and armed to the teeth, they stored rockets in bunkers in our town as well. The social work of the Party of God consisted in building a school and a residence over these bunkers! A local sheikh explained to me laughing that the Jews would lose in any event because the rockets would either be fired at them or if they attacked the rockets depots, they would be condemned by world opinion on account of the dead civilians. These people do not care about the Lebanese population, they use them as shields, and, once dead, as propaganda. As long as they continue existing there, there will be no tranquility and peace.

Dr. Mounir Herzallah

Berlin-Wedding

I'm a little confused by the logic of this article. Prothero opens his piece with an example of Hezbollah commandeering an apartment building for military purposes in a civilian neighborhood, then claims that Hezbollah doesn't "hide among civilians". And the "evidence" that he seems to accept as proof that Hezbollah fighters don't operate among civilians is his inability to meet one easily and openly ("I haven't seen the phenomenon, so it must not exist"). Prothero doesn't seem to consider that the Israeli military may have access to other intelligence that identifies Hezbollah military targets among civilians.

What was it one of America’s founing fathers said…something about a citizen’s greatest duty to his country is to give his criticism…If only the Israel supporters posting here conducted themselves with enough love for Israel to give it white-hot criticism for launching into a reckless, destabilizing war of choice instead of carrying on like a bunch of fearful authoritarian followers.

I’m neither an Israeli citizen nor a Jew, but I’d venture that when I raise my voice against the latest warmongering in Lebanon that I’m a better friend to Israel than you…

So, these pictures were taken in a Beirut suburb right?

"The Melbourne man who smuggled the shots out of Beirut and did not wish to be named said he was less than 400m from the block when it was obliterated.

"Hezbollah came in to launch their rockets, then within minutes the area was blasted by Israeli jets," he said.

"Until the Hezbollah fighters arrived, it had not been touched by the Israelis. Then it was totally devastated. "

But Beirut is too far away to launch Katyushas.

"The images include one of a group of men and youths preparing to fire an anti-aircraft gun metres from an apartment block with sheets hanging out on a balcony to dry."

Maybe these are patriotic Lebanese volunteers fighting to defend their homes? An anti-aircraft gun is a defensive weapon.

"Others show a militant with AK47 rifle guarding no-go zones after Israeli blitzes."

How many people do you think have an AK47 in the middle-east? Maybe its a concerned father worried about his home and family?