Ceasefire ramblings

I have a lot to say about Israel and Lebanon agreeing a UN sponsored ceasfire, but it is too difficult to adequately and intelligently write those thoughts down at the moment. So instead I thought I would mock the inane crap spouted by others about the ceasefire. And where better than go that the BBC's Have Your Say? Two comments stand out amongst the hysterical, polemical, and ignorant dross - one from Ali and one from Jeff Smith. Ali starts by saying that the Jews lived together with the Arabs for thousands of years in peace and that is was only the state of Israel that has created the problem. Now, I am 99% sure that is total bollocks, but I am too lazy to do the research to prove Ali wrong at the moment so I will concede the point. What I this is total shite is this:

"Basiclly Europe wiped their hands clean of their own jewish problem (ie they were racist towards the jews for over 200 years) and put it in the middle east."

Ignoring the poor spelling and punctuation, it is highly offensive to talk of a "Jewish problem". We don't speak of a "Muslim problem" in this country, rather a "fundamentalist problem". As for Europe solving their "Jewish problem", I am not convinced that the majority of Europeans had a problem with the Jews. Certain elements in Europe did, certainly, and they had a go at solving their Jewish "problem", and it is one of the darkest times in human history. It is also worth pointing out (1) many Jews wanted to go to the Middle East (and fought for it), what with it being their Holy Land and all, and (2) many Jews still live in Europe - without a "problem". As with so many of the comments about the conflict in the Middle East, there is an ugly reek of Anti-Semitism to what Ali writes.

However Jeff's post deserves the dubious honour of complete reproduction here, partly to marvel at the terrible spelling (Islanic, anyone?) and spacing, but also just to marvel at the nonsense he is spouting. He says:

"Israel wanted rockets to stop and a buffer zone.Hezbollah wanted Sheeba Farms, no more Israel, and a Fundamentalist Islanic state modelled on Iran.Israel 2/2, Hezbollah 0/3.With one side achieving its aims and the other not, peace will not last."

Errrmmmm, no. Israel's war aims were to rescue the kidnapped soldiers and stop Hezbollah chucking missiles into Israel. Read the rest of the news, Jeff. Hezbollah still fired missiles at Israel last night, and the two soldiers are still missing. Neither side has acheieved what they wanted, true, but the assertion that peace will come only when both sides achieve their aims is dense beyond belief. Hezbollah's fundamental aim it to destroy Israel; Israel's core aim is to protect their state and their citizens. One side succeeds and the other fails - there is no compromise, no mutually aggreable solution in what is a fight for survival. There will be no lasting peace as Hezbollah will do all it can to destroy Israel, and the IDF will do all they can to stop them.