Friday, August 11, 2006

Pump up the Volume II



It was another one of those nights. You fall asleep, cozy in that large, warm bed. There is no need to close the shutters because there are absolutely no lights in the street due to the electricity rationing. The continuous discrete humming of the A/C adds the extra sound and coolness that helps propel you in an even deeper sleep. All you have left are the dreams that can bring about all the fantasies, voyages and unique moments that are only bound by the limits of your imagination. And believe me, mine run wild.
But it seems that I am not even allowed to dream anymore. I would consider myself somewhat of a deep sleeper, but I think the few that can sleep through these sounds are either deaf or drunk. It wasn't even as if someone rammed my door, it was as if someone dropped a two-ton container on my head. I am not joking. This is what the video contains: the loud sound of only one explosion which I knew was going to happen (when I say “here it comes, here it comes”) because it appears on the TV stations focusing their cameras at Dahieh before I hear it. However, what's missing is that awful shock wave which literally eats your bones inside out. That's a feeling that no one wants to feel, trust me.
Just one explosion was enough to wake me up, but I needed 4 more to make me go on the balcony to try and film the sound. My house is some 5-kms away from south Beirut at least. And my balcony faces north, thus making the sound of the explosion a little less powerful than if I was facing directly the beast. I counted some 18 explosions, some louder than others. Again, the only reason why the picture is dark is because we are running out of fuel due to the Israeli blockade on the country and our power plants are not functioning at full capacity. This is why you hear some humming in the background. These are the private generators of the Phoenicia Intercontinental Hotel. I nearly forgot, that’s my voice after I wake up crushed by a container and if I don’t make any sense that’s normal.
I will try and get some more footage, hopefully with a direct view of the blast area.

55 Comments:

Blogger HCB said...

I will. I'll admit there is a deep problem and it needs to be addressed. It's Israel. It's the fact a bunch of Zionists were enabled by Europeans and the United States at the end of World War II. It's the fact that when the jews who survived the holocaust were turned away from New York and England, no one knew what to do. Thank god, they said, for the Zionist movement. And thus, Israel was formed. A practical solution to a practical problem with the added benefit - so it was thought - that the zionists would have what they wanted. It would have worked had it been located in, say, Ethiopia or the Sahara desert. But the zionists weren't satisfied with that approach - it had to be in the middle of someone else's holy land. Because that land was also holy to the zionists - well, no - to the jews who were happy the zionists were finding support.

The problem, of course, is that for the zionists to be able to survive, they had to have an army and an air force and a navy. Provided by the United States. The problem then became money and materiel. Again the united states ponied up.

Then - whenever anyone complained, the zionists would put the yarmulke on and scream "jew hater" or "anti-semite" while they cynically counted on a feeling of guilt for the US not having done more to prevent or stop the holocaust. That whining and guilt invocation has worked for all the time Israel has existed. It worked so well, your prime minister got bored and decided to taunt the palestinians by visiting their holy sites himself. With armed guards and his "fuck you - I dare you to say or do something" attitude.

Then the zionists decided to expand their territories - Nazi Germany called it "Lebensraum" when they annexed Austria and demanded the Polish corridor. And now, the Zionists want Lebanon - not just the Golan heights - Lebanon. And so they invent an excuse - the terror raid by terrorists leading to the capture of their two soldiers. The world was fooled for a day or two but then it became clear. Another copying of Nazi Germany. The precisely identical excuse used by the Nazis to invade Poland on September 1, 1939. But, for a couple of days, the zionists continued the charade and bullshit about it being about the captured soldiers.

So - that's the problem. The very deep problem. But the REAL problem is in the solution. You offer none other than trying to kill everyone who either doesn't like you or you don't like. Have you ever wondered how many other countries foist an "anti-defamation league" on the world? Or why such a thing is needed? What would you say to a Muslim "anti-defamation league?" Or a MDF to match the IDF?

The solution is simple. Pretend Moses found Miami. Move out of the mideast. All will be well. When our "leaders" finally recognise the "deep problem", you won't have a choice.

And - I can hear it already - I'm anti-semitic. Don't whine in my face. Read some history. It's got nothing to do with anti-semitism. Or the jewish religion. Nothing. But I'm sure you and your country will continue to twist the situation thusly. Because your country is perverted in its neurotic demand to be seen as "good" while it perpetrates evil.

3:34 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

mrtez its terrible and I hope you get peaceful night sleep soon. and also hope that all Lebanon and northern Israel will also get a peaceful sleep!

Please read the following:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/749294.html


A flimsy reed By Yossi Sarid (Member of Israeli Knesset)

This war is, first and foremost, an Israeli tragedy. It is also a Lebanese tragedy and, in fact, an international one.

When the Israeli cabinet decided to respond to the abduction of two soldiers by launching a war, it did not take into consideration the fact that no one would stop it. Once started, there would be no element in the world today with the authority to stop it, whose call for a cease-fire would cause the warring parties to lay down their arms. The world of the early 21st century is one of total license, without discipline or authority.

Every time I hear about the "international community" and the United Nations and its Security Council, I exchange my tears for cynical laughter. There is no community without leadership, and no security council without someone or something to set the tone. The one that should be playing that leadership role, the United States of America, is a flimsy reed.

The election of George W. Bush as president of the United States was a terrible calamity for the world and all its inhabitants. We all know the world is a big place, and leading it is too big a job for Bush. He is not the one who can ease its pain. Ever since he was born again and his eyes opened, he views the world as flat. In a confluence of fundamentalist Christian and Texan cowboy traditions, he divides the world into good people and bad people, the sons of light against the sons of darkness. The division is sharp and clear, all black and white, with no shades of gray. What a pity it is that the American president has inherited the earth and not the skies, which are divided so clearly into heaven and hell.

The messenger-president never has and never will have any truck with those not on the "good path" laid down by evangelist preachers and the Pentagon's "new world order" prophets. And so, the only empire on the planet is feuding with half the world. It isn't speaking to North Korea or Iran or Syria or to their satellites and emissaries - Hezbollah, Hamas, the Taliban and the like.

In his total redemption crusade, Bush is ignorant of how the world does mourn. He tilts at the windmills of evil like some grumpy Don Quixote, and reaps the whirlwind. He is absolutely determined to bring democracy to every country in the world, even if they drown in their own blood. About 100,000 Iraqis have already greased the cogs of Bush's messianic revolution with their blood, and about 1,000 are slaughtered every week. The victims in Afghanistan are uncounted.

The international community is split and torn, divided and polarized as never before in recent history. It refuses to follow Bush's path, but does not have its own. The European Union occasionally seems more clear-eyed, but also more frightened. The global choice is thus a very poor one, between the soft-headed and the soft-hearted.

Only in Israel do people still thrill at the sight of Bush and his Condoleezzian entourage. Maybe they have a plan to save Israel from its enemies, but they have no plan to save it from its big buddy or from itself. The bad guys, meanwhile, have long since stopped being impressed. They do their own thing, as if there was no America and it had nothing to say. Bush can raise his voice a thousand times, and nothing happens: Georgie-boy is in a snit, and if he doesn't want to talk to us then who needs him? The crazies of the world are only uniting and growing stronger. They thumb their noses at his finger-wagging, the scolding of a teacher who is totally out of touch with his out-of-control classroom.

The United States under Bush single-handedly destroyed its deterrent power and that of the free world, including Israel. If the American demon that has taken over Iraq is not so terrible and can be worn down, then just how terrible could the Israeli demon possibly be?

Who would have believed it? Sometimes a normal human being finds himself missing the old world of blocs and the Berlin Wall. True, the fate of humankind in those days depended on the restraints imposed by what used to be called the "balance of terror," but it was a balance nonetheless that mandated serious thought before action. When the terror of the Cold War disappeared, that balance disappeared along with it, and the omnipotent American hegemony became impotent. The world is heating up and spinning out of control. In this unconstrained world, we are the victims-of-the-month.

3:56 PM  
Blogger Rick said...

No hcb, you're not anti-Semitic, no more than I am. I just have a major bone to pick with the Israeli government.

But clearly moving out of the Middle East is not a practical solution, and the holy land was holy to Christians, Muslims, and Jews. That's the trouble with the "promised" land... it was promised to too many damn people.

All yesterday's arrests proved was that the Bush Administration failed miserably in its clearly stated goal of dismantling al Qaeda. We were in such a hurry to invade Iraq that we turned over the most important work to Afghani warlords. Real bright.

Israel has got to be happy about the arrests because they know that the attention of Americans and many others will be pulled towards more immediate security threats than the current conflict in the region. But in my mind, Lebanon and Iraq need to remain front page news... there are massive injustices taking place in both states.

For those who think I am a bleeding heart liberal, let me clarify... I favored going into Iraq when I thought that the case had been made on WMDs. Once I saw that we were lied to (and let's be clear, this Administration has made an art out of lying to the American people), I vigorously opposed the war. Unfortunately, we are damned now if we stay and damned if we go... we have helped create a civil war in Iraq, and every day we lose Iraqi citizens and American soldiers, and for what?

America has no place setting foot in Lebanon, but we do have a role to play in bringing peace to the region. The first thing we need to do, which of course we will not, is to sit the Israeli government down and tell them that there is a new rule from now on: diplomacy first. Playing into the endless cycle of violence has accomplished nothing in this conflict, and Israel has gained nothing, and has not stopped Hezbollah. If anything, the have simply fanned the flames of radical Muslims.

3:59 PM  
Blogger Μαύρος Γάτος said...

Courage, my friend. Courage...

REQUIEM FOR AΝ UNKNOWN BABY, FOR PEACE, AND FOR LOGIC

LISTEN HOW THE BLATANT RABBI GLORIFIES MURDER: "DURING TIME OF WAR, THE ENEMY HAS NO INNOCENT"

4:12 PM  
Blogger Μαύρος Γάτος said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

4:12 PM  
Blogger HCB said...

I am astounded by Yossi. Utterly amazed. I apologize for my general condemnation of Israel and it's Knesset. He obviously is a thinking, compassionate, understanding person. Not because he is pro-Lebanon or pro-Israel. But because he is a human being willing to be heard - wanting to be heard - in a cacophony of horrors. Do you see, Rick? Carmel? Juli? All of you - there is hope for an international community spawned by this site. With people like Yossi in positions of influence, there is a chance the madness will stop and be replaced by an attempt at understanding and empathy.

4:23 PM  
Blogger Rick said...

Yossi, I added your srticle to my blog (with credit, of course).... I want everyone to see your very wise words.

4:26 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

To Rick and hcb, I think you are both very honest in your views, but you both need to be a little more understanding of the fustration with Muslim extremest in America, i not trying to say who is right or wrong, just that if there was another attack that killed thousands of Americans I think that all hell would break loose. I get the feeling of anger building in The US

4:29 PM  
Blogger Rick said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

4:36 PM  
Blogger Rick said...

Yes anon, there is a lot of anger here. And thanks for your thoughts. I live in Illinois, and many here (unfortunately) feel that we should leave the Middle East alone so that the Jews and Muslims can wipe each other out. My sense is that it is their way of coping with an insane situation.

Muslim extermism is dangerous. 9/11 is all the proof we need of that fact. But so is Christian extremism, and Israeli (Zionist, not Jewish) extremism.

I certainly don't have the answers, but I know this from my work as a mediator; once violence is employed, it is far less likely that we will achieve a resolution that will benefit both parties. What we have here (metaphorically) is a bike wheel spinning very fast, and no one wants to be the one to stick their finger in and stop the wheel. Someone needs to realize that sticking a finger in isn't the answer, but rather grabbing the wheel from the outside. This is where the U.N. could be a major player in the world, if the major powers would ever let it.

4:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank you Rick, this is anon from above, I found a very interesting article on MSNBC that I think you and hcb would find interesting.

Son of Hizbullah?
The horror show in Lebanon is not new, but a sequel. This time, something even worse could rise from the rubble.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14286066/from/ET/

5:02 PM  
Blogger Rick said...

Pretty damn depressing, anon! Thanks for the link - I hope they discover a better option than any of those.

Option #4: The French and U.S. train the Lebanese military and the government is able to convince Hezbollah to take a more political and less military role. Israel gets the hell out, and Syria stays out, but becomes a strategic partner for Lebanon.

Well, I can hope.

5:27 PM  
Blogger HCB said...

Anon 5:02
May I add that I read that article this morning because I've always found Chris Dickey to be thoughtful and informed. I'll add to what Rick says by saying I see no military solution to the mess at all. It simply is not possible to "win" or, even, to weaken any terrorist group by threats or actual killing and destruction. Rather, it takes precisely the opposite. Killing and destruction lend credence to the terrorist creed. By removing hope, they make the hopeless more receptive to the terrorist message. The answer is to provide - rather than remove - hope. But that will not ever happen until people like you and Yossi and other fair minded, sympathetic, studied people sit together and agree the problem is mutual.

It's good to see you. It would be good if you'd create some kind of name for yourself instead of remaining one of the many "anonymous" posters.

5:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank you hcb, i will create a name as soon as i get some spare time,

5:57 PM  
Blogger Μαύρος Γάτος said...

I'm somehow relieved seeing that there exists still a voice in Israel that sees the situation clearly. Anon, please accept my sympathy. It's apity people let themselves fall into the vicious circle of blood and hatred.... which generates even more blood and hatred.

6:54 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I live in the US but am so anxious and distraught over whats happening--sleepless nights, no appetite. I cant imagine how you guys feel living in that. And believe me, in all that chaos and destruction and horror, I wish I was in Lebanon close to my family and close to my people. I somehow believe that I would feel more relieved to know that I can provide support to those I love and they to me. This may be crazy talk but that's how it is.

My prayers are with you all. Thanks for sharing.

7:11 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

So do people here actually believe all of the lies?

7:11 PM  
Blogger Avasmommy said...

What a depressing article.

Rick, I like your option #4 better than the 3 in the article.

7:32 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Go Israel GO, let the boms drop! Let the lies be told about the civilan deaths and kill every supporter! No cease Fire until the job is done.

7:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Go Israel GO, let the boms drop! Let the lies be told about the civilan deaths and kill every supporter! No cease Fire until the job is done.

7:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Go Israel GO, let the boms drop! Let the lies be told about the civilan deaths and kill every supporter! No cease Fire until the job is done.

7:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Go Israel GO, let the boms drop! Let the lies be told about the civilan deaths and kill every supporter! No cease Fire until the job is done.

7:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Go Israel GO, let the boms drop! Let the lies be told about the civilan deaths and kill every supporter! No cease Fire until the job is done.

7:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Go Israel GO, let the boms drop! Let the lies be told about the civilan deaths and kill every supporter! No cease Fire until the job is done.

7:36 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Go Israel GO, let the boms drop! Let the lies be told about the civilan deaths and kill every supporter! No cease Fire until the job is done.

7:36 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Go Israel GO, let the boms drop! Let the lies be told about the civilan deaths and kill every supporter! No cease Fire until the job is done.

7:36 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Go Israel GO, let the boms drop! Let the lies be told about the civilan deaths and kill every supporter! No cease Fire until the job is done.

7:36 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Go Israel GO, let the boms drop! Let the lies be told about the civilan deaths and kill every supporter! No cease Fire until the job is done.

7:36 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Go Israel GO, let the boms drop! Let the lies be told about the civilan deaths and kill every supporter! No cease Fire until the job is done.

7:37 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Go Israel GO, let the boms drop! Let the lies be told about the civilan deaths and kill every supporter! No cease Fire until the job is done.

7:37 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I do not wish for more destruction and I do not wish to belittle anyones faith but I just watched mrtez's film and oh how I wish that little blue light that hovered across the screen (obviously a building) had really been a ufo. If only there had been hundreds of them flying all over the world that night, with loudspeakers saying, 'STOP,stop what your doing all put your weapons down, there are no Gods just us and your world and a very frail world it is too. If you don't all cease fire Now! We will blow the earth of the map. Perhaps then people would find unity.

Our thoughts are with you all, try to stay safe.

7:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Since my words are used in a blog, and the cowards that run this will not post the truth about their own people we will start to degrade the blog every chance we can.

Go Israel GO, let the boms drop! Let the lies be told about the civilan deaths and kill every supporter! No cease Fire until the job is done.

7:41 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Apparently Sam has tourette's syndrome or is autistic. Can someone block him?

7:42 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Try too, It won't help. This pro terrorist site needs to be targeted for what it is.

7:44 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

this isnt about terrorism, its about the effects of war, regardless of reasons. anyone who says war (or terrorism) is a good thing needs to get a conscious. the ends dont justify the means.

sam, you are wasting your energy (and ours) here.

7:50 PM  
Blogger HCB said...

oh my, anon - don't talk to the guy. Look at what he has to say under the topic, "Killer Tan" - he is unable to form a rational thought because, among other things we discussed there, he's unhappy with his little tiny dick. He's a eunuch without a brain (look it up, Sammy - a new word for you to learn)

He's running low, folks. The smell will soon just drift away. Ignore it until then.

7:54 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Will Israel bomb all of us?

Propaganda Wars

Killer Tan

These are blogs on this site, so where is the blog refering to the ncondemnation of radical's that are casuing the death. If you all thisnk this 100% the Israeli's fault then your all smoking the same crack pipe or living in a closet.

7:54 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

yes, hcb..i will try but he annoys me.

7:56 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I will not fade, I will not be a person like most of you here that only focus ona topic when it makes you feel warm and fuzzy.

I'm here to saty, hi all. This is Sam and HCB likes my tool for some reason. Did I stumble into a gay blog too? I hope not.

7:56 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

do u guys know the magnificiant view from on top of the phonecian intercontinental hotel overlooking downtown, the mountains and the sea?

7:59 PM  
Blogger HCB said...

I know - he used to annoy me too. As well as a lot of other people. But once we saw him for what he is, he became laughable. He's not even a good bigot because he's stupid. So - laugh at him but shun him. Little tiny people like him have little tiny brains. The good news is they also have little tiny effects on anything. They try hard to be important but it just doesn't work. Because they can't think OR speak. They simply masturbate their lives away.

8:03 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Why are you so focused on my sex life? You have said nothing that is of concern. Is that all the teach you down south? Now we all know why the Sout lost the war. The brains are from the North and the morons were from the south.

HCB you're still responding. Get a clue, if it's to me or another person.... you're still responding.

8:08 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I support Bush 100%, it's easy we run the country and you don't. The truth is painful.

To bad we can't keep him for four more after this term.

Heaven is where I'm going and Bush will be there too, only the haters of Faith wil be in hell. The sate of islam is now what I consider hell.

8:20 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wait a minute. Sam? Are you seriously still here? Why? Oh i know, you have been constipated for a such a long time now that the shit is coming out of your mouth.
Answer me Sam. Did you go out and buy a life and a brain like i told you to?

8:41 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Here's to your so called peace, if it's not going to help there's no need to stop now.

I just read this and got goose bumbs. This is the only way to fight terror. Keep your flowers and sad stories. No one that can stop the fighting cares.

BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC News Services
Updated: 4 minutes ago
JERUSALEM - Israel has begun an expanded ground offensive in southern Lebanon after expressing dissatisfaction over an emerging cease-fire deal, government officials said.

Shortly afterwards, a source close to the Israeli government said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to ask him if there was any room left for diplomacy.

Olmert has indicated he’d be willing to call off the offensive if Israel’s basic demands are met, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the private conversation.

Olmert and his defense minister, Amir Peretz, made the decision to expand the offensive after meeting for four hours Friday. Peretz instructed the military to launch the offensive, officials said.

Olmert’s spokesman, Asaf Shariv, told The Associated Press that the expanded incursion had already begun. An emerging cease-fire deal being worked out by the U.N. Security Council fails to meet Israel's basic requirements, such as stationing robust international combat troops in southern Lebanon once Israel withdraws, Shariv said.

“Yesterday we were very optimistic, but they (the Security Council) took the wrong turn,” Shariv said.

The government has decided to implement a Cabinet decision on Wednesday granting the army permission to carry out a massive ground offensive “to deal with the Hezbollah positions in south Lebanon, from which barrages of missiles continue to be launched against the Israeli civilian population,” said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev.

8:49 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It reassures me when i realise that followers of W. are as stupid as he is: he hasn't managed to convince the smarter lot.
"only the haters of Faith will be in hell". So, Sam, you consider yourself a lover of Faith?
You assimilate Islam to terrorism, another sign of your shallow, shallow intellectual capacity. I don't even know why I am writing this, sometimes it's not even worth the effort, and in this case I think you're a lost cause.

8:57 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

lola said...
Wait a minute. Sam? Are you seriously still here? Why? Oh i know, you have been constipated for a such a long time now that the shit is coming out of your mouth.
Answer me Sam. Did you go out and buy a life and a brain like i told you to?


Well you I did go and buy it but I haven't read a page yet. I sent a question to a Mosque website asking for some guidence so that I don't waste anymore time than needed. Why read more of a pagin guide than is really ness. As to your comments, you're just like HCB. You speak of how great you are but your just as hate filled as me. Mirror !

Ang if you a follower of Islam than your the shit filled one to be honest.

8:58 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

We all know many comments and articles on this blog are exaggerated and embellished, but not always can we prove it, but this time we can:

"There is no need to close the shutters because there are absolutely no lights in the street due to the electricity rationing. The continuous discrete humming of the A/C adds the extra sound and coolness that helps propel you in an even deeper sleep."

Apparently, the "rationing" that you have created does NOT include a/c. Quite a ration.... continuous humming nontheless. You'd think the a/c would ber on power-saver mode at least!! But nope, it's continuous.

9:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Blogwatch, what kind of a comment is that?
I keep on thinking it's not worth arguing, but then again maybe it is?
Ever heard of generators?
Let me explain in a simple manner:

1- there is no electricity outside, so it's dark and there is no need to close the shutters.
2- the generators of buildings who have some (definately not a majority) allow the a/c to keep functioning in a "continuous" fashion.

get it? If you want, I'll draw you a picture, to make things a little bit more clear.

9:04 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

A great quote by Golda Meir:

"We can forgive you for killing our sons. But we will never forgive you for making us kill yours. Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us."

9:06 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Awesome Quote and from a Great Woman too. Very well said, but it will never happen. The Arabs / Muslims are filled to brim with hate adn death and very one sided views.

9:10 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

http://www.aish.com/movies/PhotoFraud.asp

9:30 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Golda Meir was a great propagandist.

A total BS artist as well.

11:30 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hezbollah is believed by the United States and some other countries’ intelligence agencies to have kidnapped and tortured to death U.S. Marine Colonel William R. Higgins and the CIA station chief in Beirut, William Francis Buckley,[26] and to have kidnapped around 30 other Westerners between 1982 and 1992, including U.S. journalist Terry Anderson, British journalist John McCarthy, the Archbishop of Canterbury's special envoy Terry Waite and Irish citizen Brian Keenan.[27] Hezbollah was accused by the US government of being responsible for the April 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut that killed 63; of being behind the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing, a suicide truck bombing that killed 241 U.S. marines in their barracks in Beirut in October 1983; of bombing the replacement U.S. Embassy in East Beirut on September 20, 1984, killing 20 Lebanese and two U.S. soldiers; and of carrying out the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847 en route from Athens to Rome. These accusations are denied by Hezbollah.[28]

The U.S. claims Hezbollah carried out two terrorist attacks in Argentina during the early 1990s: the 1992 Israeli embassy bombing in Buenos Aires, killing 29 people, and the bombing of a Jewish community center there, killing 85.[29][30] Hezbollah denies these claims.[31][32]
On July 26, 1994, eight days after the community center bombing, the Israeli Embassy in London was car bombed by two Palestinians. The United Kingdom, Israel and Argentina blamed Hezbollah for the attack.[33]
On October 7, 2000, Hezbollah abducted three IDF soldiers from the Mt. Dov sector: Adi Avitan, Omer Soued and Binyamin Avraham .[34]
On October 16, 2000, Hezbollah announced the kidnapping of Elchanan Tannenbaum, an Israeli businessman.
On March 12, 2002, in a Hezbollah shooting attack on the Shelomi-Metzuba route in northern Israel, six Israelis civilians were killed.[35]
On August 10, 2003, a 16 year old Israeli boy was killed by shrapnel from an anti-aircraft shell fired by Hezbollah, and four others were wounded. [36]
On April 7, 2005, Two Israeli Arabs from the village Ghajar near the Israel-Lebanon border were abducted by Hezbollah operatives. They were later released. [37]

Suicide attacks
Hezbollah is reputed to have been among the first Islamic resistance groups to use tactical suicide bombing in the Middle East, and early bombings attributed to the group (e.g. the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing) inspired other militant extremist groups to adopt the tactic for their own purposes. The Palestinian Sunni group Hamas is perhaps the most well-known of these copycats, and while Hezbollah has largely ended its own suicide bombing campaign, some claim[citation needed] it continues to help Hamas in planning and training for suicide missions to this day.

According to Robert Pape’s Dying to Win,[38] Hezbollah conducted three distinct suicide bombing campaigns against forces it deemed to be occupying Lebanon:

1983–1984: 5 acts against the US and France,[38] including these specific acts:
April 18, 1983: U.S. embassy bombing in Beirut.
October 23, 1983: Beirut barracks bombing, targeting French soldiers and U.S. Marines;[38] responsibility for this is disputed (see 1983 Beirut barracks bombing).
1982–1985: 11 acts against Israel.[38]
1985–1986: 20 acts against Israel and the South Lebanon Army.[38]
In addition to these campaigns, Pape documents six other isolated suicide attacks taken by Hezbollah between 1985 and 1999.

2:01 AM  
Blogger Bash said...

THIS is what we have to live with...

2:27 PM  

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