You repeatedly claim that Israel is acting in self-defense. How preposterous! Self-defense on other people’s occupied territory is tantamount to one thing: blatant aggression.
You call Hizbullah a terrorist organization. We call it a legitimate resistance movement. There would have been no military wing of Hizbullah if there had been no Lebanese territory under Israeli occupation, if there had been no Lebanese hostages languishing in Israeli jails, and if Lebanon had not been exposed to almost daily Israeli intrusions into its airspace and territorial waters, and to sporadic incursions into Lebanese land and bombardment of civilian targets.
You cannot eliminate a party by demolishing a whole country. This would have been achieved peacefully by Israel withdrawing from the land it occupies, releasing Lebanese prisoners, and desisting from further acts of aggression against Lebanon.
Israel is the most horrendous terrorist power. And you, Mr. President, are unmistakably a direct partner, and hence a straight terrorist.
Former Leb PM al-Hoss: Bush is a terrorist
Former Lebanese Prime Minister Salim al-Hoss in an open letter to George W. Bush in the Daily Star:
Actually, Saleem El Hoss was is one of the most respected prime ministers of Lebanon, not like Seniora et. al.
the hypocrisy & total twisting of logic &truth is both typical & ridiculous.
“you cannot eliminate a party by demolishing a whole country”
Sure can. The nazi party was eliminated via the destruction of Germany.
The japanese belief in the deity of their emperor was destroyed along with their country.
Will it take total war to divest Lebanon of hezbollah, or will the Lebanese do it themselves. Seems that the Lebanese aren’t interested in doing it.
John, I’d like to destroy the Likud and Kadima parties. Some of the time I’d like to destroy part of the American Republican party, and at others part of the American Democratic party. I also want to go after Ralph Nader’s party all the time. So is it okay if I try to destroy both of those countries?
Mr. Salim is illustrating a disturbingly cavalier, and common, attitude towards words with this letter. Although I am generally sympathetic with his point, the word ‘terrorist’ cannot be accurately used in to describe what he is attempting to describe.
A recognized state with a government and uniformed armed services simply cannot, by definition, commit terrorism. Israel’s conduct of the war may be, and almost certainly is, unjust but this is not terrorism. Hizb Allah, on the other hand, consists of irregular forces who are NOT acting under the command of a legitimate government or state. Furthermore, Israel is targeting, or trying to target, Hizb Allah fighters (and I do not deny that they have killed far too many civilians). Hizb Alalh is targeting civilians. The point is that Hizb Allah is using civilians as a means to an end, something which is widely regarded as unethical, whereas Israel is killing them as a byproduct of attacking legitimate targets. That said though, it cannot be denied that Israel’s targeting seems to be exceptionally and inexplicably bad and they have killed far more people than they should have.
Nice letter to that clown of bush. Well written to say the least. Funny enough, in my case, I compare the israel military power to that of the nazis, funny how people like americans, see it the other way around, with the ME “terrorist groups”. Maybe, thats WHY, they hate you.