Dear Sir/Madam,

It amazes me how the U.N. Council can so easily draft a resolution to sanction Iran for its Nuclear ambitions, while at the same time taking such a great deal of time to have Israel make some concessions to the world body over the war in Lebanon.

I used to think that the United Nations was a body made up of diplomats who sought to bring about justice and peace in our world. Yet, I am beginning to think that it is nothing more than a group of overly paid bureaucrats who do nothing but get fed by powerful people and interest groups.

Lebanon has been brought to its knees, and the nation has lost its right to protect and oversee its territory; not because of Hezbollah, as we are so often told by American press, but because a neighbouring nation has decided of its own accord to remove people who did not agree with its worldview!

The U.N. stood, and still remains, idle while the nation, Lebanon, is being thrashed, over and over, with bombs and bullets. Lebanon’s airspace is now its neighbour’s airspace; its neighbour is free to fly spy planes, bombers, jets, missiles, and any other object that it wishes over the territory which was once taught to be sovereign.

When will the U.N. put some muscle in its diplomacy and not let the powerful take full advantage of the ones that are so much less!!

I believe that it is time to take a hard look at this world body. Why is its office situated where it is? Is it not much more fair and productive to have the U.N. office locate in some other country, one which is much more neutral?? Should not the voice of the U.N. be the voice of all nations and not just of one or two who are powerful enough to sway its other members??

Let us hope that after the resolution of the Middle East Crisis, the U.N. begins to look internally at some of the problems which it is facing……….Let the U.N. be, once more, a proud body, representing all of humankind!!

Sincerely,

Carm Caruana

I don't think Israel's current defensive measures (proactive destruction of offensive rockets)increase the Arab street hatred at all. This is a millenium event renewed all over again. Qana, or Canaan in the old testament has always had it out for the Israelites. Israel is a caged beast, but it is not an animal, it is capable of very rational and logical thought. They don't camouflage or lie about their position. You try to kill me or say you want to kill me, and you are my enemy, like George Bush said,either you are with us or against us, or leave us alone. The Arabs are too stupid to get the message and would prefer to distract their poor people with war and hatred of Israel rather than helping their people with all the money we pay for their oil. I have sympathy for the "innocent" people who are victimized by their own people,but no empathy for them.....when will they rise up and overthrow their ignorant leaders? Their UN Ambassador Gillerman gave a very logical and unemotional response to Israel's position. Personally I hope Israel burns most of Lebanon to the ground. Maybe the other countries will get the message. One should not
act in fear of further reprisal....it comes anyway.
Eliminate the very small majority of terrorists, and ignore them getting more support from those on the sidelines. Everyone including the Arab street knows what Hezbollah is. If they want to elect them as a majority government, we can deal with them at that point. We are not going to influence the arab street to get them to like Israel or the U.S.

Every time there is a cease fire, all it manages to do is to get Hezbollah or Hamas or any of the other terrorists resupplied and locked and loaded.

Why do we, the United States of America, have any right to tell Israel to NOT invade Lebanon! We have taken many civilian lives in Iraq in the name of anti-terrorism. We are wrong and Israel is wrong. There is never an excuse or a reason to take civilian lives. There was no real reason for us to invade Iraq and actually there is more of a rerason for Israel to protect their own borders. But we, as the last superpower in he world, having wrongly invaded and ioccupied a country have no right to support Israel. We need a cease fire in the Middle east at all cost and we need to exity form Iraq at all cost.....

The people with money and means got out of Qana while those without stayed behind. It's Katrina all over again.

The only question: Did Hezballah deliberately leave them behind or was Heballah occupied elsewhere and forgot abut them?

I think it is strangely ironic how in this age of instant news and, thanks to networks like NBC instant "drama" that comments such as Mr. Seigenthaler's comment in his advertisement for the news tonight that the latest develpments in Israel "is having an tremendous impact in the U.S. and around the world." Well it is not having any impact on me nor did the news yesterday or the day before that. The irony is that yours and the other networks want us to think they have an impact so we will watch your broadcast. I and a growing number of Americans rarely watch the news anymore. I in fact did not turn on the news or listen or watch any news programs for a month and gusee what?? When I watched the news after a month, the holloway girls was STILL missing, Bush's campaign manager Karl Rove was still under investigation and there was still problems in Iraq (just as we knew theere would be because most Americans realize that these things take years). What is most ironic is how all of the news anchors all flew down to Gaza-land when the conflict broke out like a bunch of maggots attacking a dead animal. The days events in the middle east are having a big impact?? That conflict has been going on for centuries. NObody seems to get it. Don't mess with Israel. And why we are on the subject of animals, we must all realize theat Israel is like a trapped animal..trapped on all sides by an entire people who don't think that it or the people in it should exist. Now it is a trapped and wounded animal. Wonder why it is dangerous??Thank God we don't have a democrat in the White house or a majority in congress because the first thing they do after Israel is attacked is "cease fire" cease fire". And how can anyone fell sorry for Lebanon?? They have allowed the enemies of Israel to use thier country for every attack that has been launched against Israel. They did it in 1982 and look what happened to them.
No, I will ot watch the news today because it is entirely predictable.
Mark MCMenamin
Houston, Texas

I am FURIOUS at what is occuring in this latest situation in Israel/Lebanon. Does Israel have a right to defend itself?; yes. Should Hezbollah disarm and work as a political force for change?; yes. Should Israel resort to this mass military operation to bring that about?; no. Israels actions have only served to increase the hatred arab peoples feel towards them. Not just muslim arabs but all arabs. And because the U.S. is appearing to support Israel in this, the hatred is also being aimed at us. The people in the U.S. really need to study history and they would see, Isreal has often been overly aggressive in how they deal with their arab neighbors. I truely believe much of the reason our government supports Israel is more because of guilt felt over not responding to the Jewish Holocust sooner during WWII than the belief that Israel is actually acting in a justified manner in dealing with threats it percieves to its security.

John,
First of all, it is good to see you back (for a second weekend) in your chair, smiling again. Secondly, while this might not reach you by the time you are on air, we do hope your coverage of today's assult in Qana will include what seems to be a provocation for the attack...namely the firing of four missles from a mobile Hessbolah unit, which subsequently followed a motorcycle into a covered area..and it was that covered area which Israeli intelligence identified and took out...
Stay well, great work, and again, glad you are back.

One comment often heard is that Israel does not target civilians while Hezbollah and similar organization do.

1) With the technology that Israel has, it has the capacity to target non-civilians. By contrast, Hezbollah has outdated rockets that cannot be directed anywhere except away from themselves. As their war machine is not on the same level, to get the same level of destruction and fear in the Israeli population as Israel's attacks have on the Palestinians and Lebanese people, Hezbollah et al sometimes resorts to suicide bombers. What are they going to do,... walk up to a military outpost and blow themselves up before they get shot 100 feet away? Continue to throw stones at walls being build down their towns? No, to inflict the SAME level of pain and damage, they have to target civilians. Unfortunate but, given the circumstances, not incomprehensible.

2) Intentions and process may be good, but the outcome is even more so. Woops if you accidentally ran over someone with your car but I think it's cold comfort to the family that it was an "accident".

As long as Dr. Rice falls short of demanding an unconditional ceasefire to the conflict on all sides she must share the blame for the death or mutilation of multitudes of Israeli, Palestinian and Lebanese women and children. Frankly the biased Bush administration is mostly part of the region's problem and so far contributes nothing to the solution.