Needed: More anti-Hezbollah pixie dust.
 

I suspect that without the Israeli state where it is, the Muslim world would hate Jews less than they hate Christians, and less than Christians have historically hated Jews. Which is not to say that there isn't a historical component to it.

Needed: More anti-Hezbollah pixie dust.
 

Israel has been out of Lebanon for years,* but the soldiers were kidnapped by Hezbollah, not Hamas.


* I do not feel like having a conversation about Sheba'a Farms -- hopefully no one else does, either.

Needed: More anti-Hezbollah pixie dust.
 

Um... Do you mean to suggest that Hezbollah wasn't reacting to Isreal's actions against Gaza and the PA?

Needed: More anti-Hezbollah pixie dust.
 

Not that I really know,* but yes. I don't think they were connected. I don't think that Hezbollah can just kidnap Israeli soldiers whenever they like. I wish I could remember where I read the following, but my understanding is that the Israeli unit on the border had these two humvees out alone, without cover, etc., and the local Hezbollah commander saw them there and went for it. I think Hezbollah would have done the same things on other occasions had the opportunity presented itself, and it was just happenstance that this happened now.

* Spanky Disclosure: Although what follows is unattributed, I do recall that what I read was attributed.

Needed: More anti-Hezbollah pixie dust.
 

Iranian-directed assault to get Israeli into a 2 front conflict and distract attention from the G-8.

Needed: More anti-Hezbollah pixie dust.
 

It's an Iranian plot to keep people from hearing about Bush's groping of Merkel? Pretty shrewd!

Needed: More anti-Hezbollah pixie dust.
 

It actually goes back to the Babylonian Captivity, in 597 B.C.E. when the First Temple was destroyed and the remaining Tribes of Israel were expelled from Israel and Judeah. During the Captivity, the Assyrians moved in large numbers into the former kingsoms of Israel and Judeah.

Many of them intermarried with the Jews who were not expelled and adopted their own form of Judaism. These people were known as Samaritans. When Cyrus of Persia overthrew Nebuchadnezzar in 537 B.C.E., the Jews were allowed to return to Israel and found the country to be populated by Samaritans, Phoenicians (who some believe were the ancestors of today's Palestinians), Chaldeans, and Egyptians.

The introduction of Islam in the 7th Century C.E. orignally saw a fairly large degree of intercooperation among the Muslims and the Jews, particularly in the areas of philosophy and medicine.

The hostility between Arabs and Jews did not really come into being until the Late Ottoman Empire, in the 18th-20th Centuries. The conflict over the land known originally as Canaan, then Israel, and then Palestine, didn't really come into bloom until the end of WWII, when the Brits, French, and Dutch began to try to deal with the simultaneous problems of resettling all the people displaced by the Nazis, the anti-Colonial movement, and the fact that it would have been mighty inconvennient to have to return all the land and property that had been stolen from the Jews when they were sent off to die.

Walzer
 

I think you've hit the nail on the head, although the Iran situation is a real problem. I'm sure that Mossad's number one priority is knowing exactly how close Iran is to building a nuke...and figuring out which facilities need to be bombed to prevent it from happening. It wouldn't be the first time Israel conducted such an operation.

CDF

(this is kind of like visiting the snake pit at the zoo--interesting in a voyeuristic sort of way, but not something I want to make a habit of. What is it that makes some people more politically-oriented than others, and desirous of butting heads on politics-related web pages?)

Walzer
 

Really? Israel blew up nuke facilities before? You're just the knowledgable, big-brained kind of guy we need here. Are you sure you won't reconsider?

Walzer
 

A greater inclination to procrastinate and less to actually accomplish.

Walzer
 

In Hank's case, it counts towards the community-service requirements for his parole.

Your google-fu is weak, grasshopper
 

Nope, thanks. On the other, try googling "Osirak." I'm sure there's a Wikipedia entry or something on it. Otherwise, you can rely on my hazy memory of the facts. In the early '80's, Israel bombed a nuclear reactor that the French helped build in Iraq, at a place called Osirak (sp?). I think it was supposed to be a light water reactor but Israel believed it could be used to enrich uranium. They took it out with an airstrike. The political repercussions were somewhat less than you might expect--or at least it seemed that way at the time.

I understand how this might have escaped your notice--I don't know how old you were back then. I'm also giving you the benefit of the doubt regarding your attention span and school curriculum. After all, some kids focus exclusively on eating paste and jamming the fat end of the crayon up their nose.

Resume-padding for a White House internship, as it were.

CDF

Needed: More anti-Hezbollah pixie dust.
 

what does Gaza have to do with Lebanon?

Needed: More anti-Hezbollah pixie dust.
 

I don’t think that the Muslims and Arabs hated Jews that much before Zionism caught momentum. I believed they hated the Western Christians much more because they were occupying most of their land. They believe that the western Christian nations artificially chopped up Arabia into colonies. I think they also believe that the Western Christians (namely Britain) gave part of Palestine to the Jews because of guilt for the Holocaust. They feel that the only reason there were sufficient Jews in the Holy land to create a nation was because the Western Christians controlled their land and let the Zionists in. In other words, if they had been in control of their own land at the critical time, the Zionists would have never been allowed into the country (at least not in large numbers). So (in their mind) if the western powers had honored their promise to the Arabs after WWI for revolting against the Turks there would be barely any Jews in Palestine, and certainly no Jewish state. So to them the west allowed the Jews in and then let them create their own country right on their land. So the Arab hatred of the Jews derives mainly out of nationalism and a feeling of being victimized by the Western Christian occupiers to the benefit of the Jews. This is why the secular Arab groups (like the PLO and the Baathists) hate Israel so much.

The rest of the Muslim world feels like the Arabs were mistreated and screwed because they were fellow Muslims. So they see the west and the Christian world allowing the Jews to "Screw" the Arabs because they were Muslim. They believe that if Muslims didn’t occupy Palestine, the Jews would never have been allowed to create a state there.

Obviously their version of history is a little screwed up.

They also believe that the Jews control the United States (clearly most of them aren’t that familiar with Idaho or how small the Jewish population in the US is) and that is why the US is so supportive of Israel.

And on top of all that, all the Muslims resent Israel, because Israel is now occupying the third most holy city in Islam: Jerusalem.

So in sum, the Jews, I don’t believe were that big on the Muslim radar screen, and had been tolerated and treated much better in the Muslim world than in the Christian world prior to the creation of Israel, but after that the Jews became the number one enemy.

Your google-fu is weak, grasshopper
 

wow! thanks! did anything else happen in, what did you call it.... Iraq- yeah,

did anything else happen in Iraq we might want to talk about here?

Walzer
 

I believe he refers to the 1981 bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor at Tuwaitah. The reactor was a French-made Osirak-type reactor, capable of generating plutonium.

But I could be wrong.

Walzer
 

My boy! We don't need Chevy after all. We got a substitute equal of him right here!

Walzer
 

Serious psychological problem mainly derived from feelings of insecurity and an inability to integrate with society at large.

Your google-fu is weak, grasshopper
 

I can't read minds. And even if I could, I wouldn't start with yours. I prefer Plato's "Republic" to Rey's "Curious George and the Man with the Yellow Hat."* No offense.

If you're suggesting I go back and read months of posts to acquire an intimate sense of the board gestalt, it ain't gonna happen. Don't worry--I won't be around long, and I promise not to disrupt your careful work here.

You might want to parse that last clause closely.

CDF

* although both admittedly have their merits.

Walzer
 

Are you talking about me? Because if you are, you'd better be careful, old man, or you may be next to get a white powder letter from me.

Unless, of course, you've bought a copy of my most recent book, "Godless", now #4 on the NYTimes bestseller list. Then you're okay.

Your google-fu is weak, grasshopper
 

you may want to check your sarcasm detector. it doesn't seem to be working.

Your google-fu is weak, grasshopper
 

if Adder is calling whiff on you, it's maybe time for a sock change. I would have thought the "big-brained" thing would have been a tip off. Unless, does anyone know if he has Hydrocephalus?

Walzer
 

Guess I should have checked before I posted....facts (and memory) are slippery things.

CDF

Your google-fu is weak, grasshopper
 

This isn't the first time Adder thought I had the sarcasm detector turned off. More accurately, it's saturated today after a series of ridiculous conference calls. Sarcasm deserves an appropriate response--dialed up in intensity and given back.* If I cross the line sometimes into being "snide," so sorry--deal with it. I think you're capable of an effective, funny riposte if you put some effort into it.

If not, whatever. I'm not going to lose my log-in and re-invent myself as "creamy_ass_face."

Speaking of which--where is patentgreedy, anyway?

CDF

* I thought you might still be smarting after our 'Brain' exchange the other night--I'm glad you let your anger go.

Your google-fu is weak, grasshopper
 

Think of me as Israel and you as Hezbollah. You can do me no real harm, but if you insist on shooting random rockets into my space, then I will respond- and my repsonse will be disproportionate.

Your google-fu is weak, grasshopper
 

I'd have to disagree with you on this one, bub.

Where do you stand on "The Fountainhead" versus "Babar the Elephant"?

Your google-fu is weak, grasshopper
 

Ha! At your most delusional, I actually find you amusing. But at best...at the very best...you could aspire to be John Paul Jones aboard the Bonhomme Richard.

Like him, you have not begun to fight.

CDF

(and unlike him, I don't foresee you engaging in effective combat)

Your google-fu is weak, grasshopper
 

I find them difficult to distinguish, frankly.

CDF

Elephantine Ego
 

Clearly then, you've never had a former girlfriend hit you in the head with a copy of "The Fountainhead"

Elephantine Ego
 

that's a pretty funny joke. I have a friend doing stand-up, can I offer em that joke?

Your google-fu is weak, grasshopper
 

I crap biggar'n you

Elephantine something.
 

You should go after her weapons supplier. That thing is dangerous.

CDF

(elephantine ids are more dangerous than egos...)

Reverse-Hank edit to remove smiley face...because the graphic looks much worse than the text version

You ain't no Curly.
 

The game isn't who can cover the most wall space IRL with shit smears. Here, we use teeny tiny letters.* There are 26 of them.

CDF

* I won't trouble you with numbers...although we use those too.

You ain't no Curly.
 

No. Here it is shit smears. Ty says we can't get bogged down in facts.

You ain't no Curly.
 

Stop confusing me with the President. I know we're both smart, handsome and popular, but really.

You ain't no Curly.
 

It's 2006, not 1996, Ty.

If only I were better and finding and pasting images, I would do images of some choice quotes, some pictures in which he looks particularly squinty-eyed and cross-eyed, and a graphic of approval ratings here.

You ain't no Curly.
 

actually 1986 was the guy who didn't like facts

You ain't no Curly.
 

Hank, you are being cruel. It wasn't that he didn't like them, it was that by then he just couldn't remember them.

So SHP when do I get to meet this women?

"Detective Bart Lasiter was in his office studying the light from his one small window falling on his super burrito when the door swung open to reveal a woman whose body said you've had your last burrito for a while, whose face said angels did exist, and whose eyes said she could make you dig your own grave and lick the shovel clean."

Hell, Bart won't let me near her. All I did for him, and he won't share. Pisses me off.

Besides, don't you have some tall Nordic thing going on?