Middle East

Right, so the guns have stopped firing, the rockets are no longer flying and the bombs are no longer dropping around Lebanon. Good news for the civilian population of Lebanon, who were the victims in this farce. What good did it all do? Nothing at all.

According to some accounts, this assault was planned a long time ago. Armaments were being shipped to Israel, via UK airports, even as the bombardment had already commenced. The idea, presumably, was to silence Hezbollah. That has failed. Even if part of the infrastructure of that organisation has been destroyed or disabled, they'll be back on full force in no time at all. Thanks to their backers in Syria and Iran.

I think a valid point was made earlier today by a BBC observer on the News 24 channel. One key player in the Middle East, Syria, is ignored in all of this. Now, in my book, as long as people are talking, at least they're not as willing to start fighting. But my impression of the current US administration is that they are not interested in talking. The invasion of Iraq is one good example. Just go in with the big guns, and don't think of the consequences, or what to do when the baddie has been kicked out. And this campaign in Lebanon is a taste of the same medicine.

Methinks the US government is staggeringly insensitive in dealing with the Middle East. I do not understand, or even claim to understand, the Islamic way of thinking. You're talking a wholly different culture here. One of the few things I do appreciate is that people in that area of the world understand subtlety. Fine-tuned negotiation, mutual respect based on trust and understanding. You get a heck of a lot further with that than with a load of bombs.

For all those who are slamming Islam, as it is being abused as an excuse for all sorts of atrocities, including 9/11: provision is being made in their Scriptures for Christianity and Judaism. These religions are treated with the deepest respect. Why? Because they share Abraham [Ibrahim in Arabic] as a common forefather.

Although I naturally empathise with Israel (their residents are more akin to Europeans than their surrounding Arab neighbours), I will say that the establishment of the Jewish State in 1948 was catastrophically mishandled. Don't forget that people were kicked off their land for Jews to take over. I need to read up again on what happened around that time, but suffice to say that if people had just knocked on the door and said "we want to come and live here", I feel quite sure that they would have been welcomed. There was a protectorate called Palestine in that area, managed by the British. As per normal, the Brits took their hands off the area and left it to its own devices.

That's all water under the bridge. We currently have an uneasy ceasefire in the Levant, and long may it last. I would just like to suggest to George W. Bush to abandon his bombing methodology in dealing with people he doesn't like. It's been shown not to be working. Now is the time to start talking again. I hope we see some courage from the White House. Courage from President Bush to talk to people like the Iranians and the Syrians. No, I don't like them either, I've said as much in my entry on the Iranian President's blog. But talking is better than bombing.