Don't Be Fooled

Really. Don't be fooled.

Fuad Siniora is the prime minister of Lebanon has a published op-ed in today's NYTimes (I doubt that he wrote it or even can understand it). In it, - it's called Give the Arab Peace Initiative A Chance, I found this bit:-

But the report failed to draw the most essential lesson from the July war and the wars that preceded it: military action does not give the people of Israel security. On the contrary, it compromises it. The only way for the people of Israel and the Arab world to achieve stability and security is through a comprehensive peace settlement to the overarching Arab-Israeli conflict.

Hey, didn't we have a peace settlement? We withdrew from Lebanon. The Shebba Farms affair is a ploy. Why did Hezbollah fire on Israel for 6 years and kidnapp soldiers?

And then there's this bit as well:-

the war took the lives of more than 1,200 Lebanese citizens, the vast majority of them civilians

The majority of the dead were Hezbollah terrorists who shot at citizens.

We don't have peace because Arabs aren't interested in peace but in Israel's weakening and eventual elimination.

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P.S. Here's the letter I sent to the NYT:-

Fuad Siniora's op-ed ("Give the Arab Peace Initiative a Chance") asserts that for Israel to achieve stability and security "is through a comprehensive peace settlement to the overarching Arab-Israeli conflict".

In other words, it is not enough for Israel to have comprehensively withdrawn from Lebanon in 2000. Nor for Israel to have ignored six years of Hezbollah arms build-up or to restrain itself in the wake of cross-border firings, kidnapping of soldiers, ambushes, invasion of its territory as well as water source diversion. And neither for Syria to have escaped censure for refusing to disengage from Lebanon as well as assassinate Lebanese at will.

Lastly, I dispute his claim that last summer's battles "took the lives of more than 1,200 Lebanese citizens, the vast majority of them civilians". The number was not that high and the majority of the dead were Hezbollah terrorists and their supporters and adherents who were shooting rockets at Israeli civilians.