The World as I see it.

I have been resisting the temptation to condemn Israel and all its cronies publicly following the recent fighting in the Middle East. I fear that I will get carried away to such an extent that I start experiencing a fate similar to George Galloway, Respect MP for Bromley and Bow. Maybe not on the same scale but I believe completely that it is advisable never to fuck with those stronger than ones self. In the world we live in today, right/wrong, good/evil, justice/injustice, fair/unfair, righteous/unrighteous has gone to hell. We all might as well follow suit. As they say, “To the victor - the spoils.” Damn right, I say.

12^th July 2006, members of the Lebanese Shiite militant group - Hezbollah [who are fighting the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon] - initiated a rocket and mortar attack on Israeli military positions and in a separate battlefield near the Israeli/Lebanon border, a ground contingent of militants attacked 2 Israeli Humvees capturing 2 Israeli solders and killing 8 in what Hezbollah have called Operation Truthful Promise. The promise being the one made by Hezbollah leader - Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah - to capture Israeli Soldiers and swap them for Simir Kunta and other Lebanese prisoners held by Israel. [Do me, I do you - God no go vex, abi?] Also what of the Israeli shelling of a beach on the 9^th of June, packed with children in northern Gaza strip? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5065008.stm Many illiterates have pinned the starting point of this current crisis to Hezbollah’s strike of the 12^th July. What they fail to understand is that this crisis goes back to 1948 and the creation of the state of Israel, the six day war of 1967 and the annexation by Israel of Syria, Lebanon and more of Palestine!

Anyway, Israel responded with what they called Operation Just Reward later renamed as Operation Change of Direction. Israel’s PM Ehud Olmert said the attack was an “act of war” by Lebanon and said he holds Lebanon responsible for the fate of the two soldiers and that it would pay a “heavy price”. Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz said the state of Israel sees itself “free” to use “all measures” that it finds it needs and the Israeli forces have been given such orders. On the 13^th of July, IDF - Israeli Defence Force - bombed Lebanon’s International Airport and imposed an air and sea blockade on Lebanon. In addition to this, Israeli Air force has bombed Beirut-Damascus Highway, other transportation infrastructure and power stations in order to cripple Hezbollah, they [Israel] say. In the process, hundreds of civilians have been killed especially children, women and the elderly unable to get away from the shelling hotspots. To show how serious the Israelis are in crippling Lebanon and not Hezbollah, Israel’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, told Israel’s Channel 10, “If the soldiers are not returned, we will turn Lebanon’s clock back 20 years”

The fighting has gone on like this till today. Even the United Nations, the supposedly world peace keeping force came under direct attack from trigger-happy Israel. The United Nations are not new to this area of the Middle East. They were first there in 1978, then called the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon or UNIFIL. They were there to administer Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon and restore international peace and security. They were back there again in 1982, when Israel invaded again. Israel occupied this piece of Lebanon till agreeing to withdraw in 1999. Then on the 25^th of July 2006, four unarmed United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation peace keepers from Austria, China, Finland and Canada were killed in an Israeli air strike on a UN observation post in southern Lebanon. The 4 had taken shelter in a bunker which was a 3-storey building in Khiyam. They were shelled “14 times” by the Israelis over a period of 6 hours during which the UN officials under attack raise the alarm with Israel “10 times” to call off the attack. On every single occasion, they were re-assured by way of a verbal promise. The officials were later finished off [Killed] when their bunk was hit by a precision-guided missile from an Israeli aircraft. That is after making contact 10 times with Israeli officials!! I leave you to make up your own minds here. It was to this that Kofi Anan - Secretary General of the United Nations said in a statement from Rome to be, “… shocked and deeply distressed by the apparently deliberate targeting by Israeli Defence Forces.”  On the 26^th of July 2006, Ehud Olmert phoned Kofi Annan and expressed his deep regret over the death of the four UN observers. He promised that Israel would thoroughly investigate the incident and would share the findings with Annan, but says he was taken aback by secretary general’s statement saying Israeli attack on UN post “apparently deliberate”. What a bare faced and cheeky statement.

If Israel can attack even well known UN observation posts in Lebanon with such audacity, you sure as hell can imagine what they have been doing to non-combatant Lebanese WITH IMPUNITY!

After two world wars and the 1949 4^th Geneva Convention, one would blindly assume that lessons would have been learnt from wars. How wrong that is. What we are witnessing in the Middle East is the beginning of the third world war.

With the whole world agreeing in 1949 to outlaw collective punishment and reprisals against non-combatants, Israel seems to have stuck two fingers up the convention. The other country in the new club of “Do as I say and not as I do” is the United States [Ref: Iraq].

By blowing up Airports, Roads, Bridges, Power Plants, Oil refineries and houses, Israel has cut off movement, water and electricity supplies and ensured an eminent humanitarian disaster in Lebanon.

This will only add fuel to insurgency and terrorism.

What scares me is the effect the present status quo will have on the Arabs at large.

With Iran and Syria already joined up, it will only be a matter of time before many other Arab states follow suit - then it will get very interesting.

I have said it before, what you are living through are the beginnings of the 3^rd world war. Why do I think so? Because America, in the way it sees things will have no choice but to attack Iran if it joins the fight against Israel and it will all get messy from then on.

Watch this space.

There are very dark days ahead. Israel has in typical fashion decided to assault its neighbours [Lebanon, Palestine and Syria] in the audacious name of self-defence. George Bush and Tony Blair at the G8 summit in Russia blame Hamas and Hezbolla for the current Middle East crisis. No mention of the illegal invasion of Iraq or the disproportionate use of military might by Israel on Lebanon. Any way as I have always maintained, those who are equipped with logical analysis and bothered enough to do a bit of research will see things differently.

You might have noticed I do a bit of book reviews these days. As well as my piece on IQ and Race – 2, which some people are dying to read [FBI], I am currently reading

Freedom Next Time: John Pilger. Bantam Press Ó 2006, 344 pp £17.99

And awaiting delivery of

American Holocaust: The conquest of the New World. By David Stannard, 416 pp, Oxford University Press, Ó1993

Please be patient.

All you Africans and Black people out there who might be rejoicing to this news [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5060468.stm] should remember back in the day when Africa was under the nails and claws of the British, French and Belgian imperialists. All those Africans who wanted freedom for Africa were labelled enemies of the state, disturbers of the peace, and terrorists. Recap: Margaret Thatcher called Nelson Mandela a terrorist!

It was OK for this dead man to team up with Osama bin Laden to fight the Russians when they wanted to annex Afghanistan but very wrong of him to fight against the American-led coalition that illegally invaded Iraq.

Talking about the American-led coalition, do any of you remember how they [Americans] got their independence from the British back in the day? LIBERTY OR DEATH - That is what they told the British!

This is exactly what this man was doing. He was not free but now he is dead - living up to the available options. 

Whatever your reasons for condemning this man, do you know enough history to back-up your reasons?

Me thinks not!