Jessica and others,

Took me awhile to find my post place again. I am computer dysfuntional. No, this stuff is not showing up in mainstream media (MSM), because it does not go with the "agenda". Our good correspondents do a very good job at what they do, but they are not "independent" investigative journalists. These posts are monitored, as it says down at the bottom, which is a good thing because the more these blogs are used, it puts con$umer market pre$$ure on corporate M$NBC, and in turn helps open up broader coverage that our good editors and correspondents can get to and develop. All sides of the story must be presented, and under market pre$$ure the bia$ed corporate "editing" policie$ begin to loo$en up. Each one of us is a con$umer in corporate eye$. This whole mess started out very focu$ed one I$rael merely "defending it$elf", but now between all of the correspondents, there is more even well-rounded coverage. How come none of our MSM has ever shown what a "Kassam" rocket looks like? Mostly, they are hand made out of scrap sheet metal like from burned out cars and refrigerator doors, with hand welded fins. One British newscaster interviewing live an Israeli diplomat just tore into him about the heavy-handed IDF policies over the years against the Palestinians, "especially their use of pitiful junk-yard Kassams. I say, most of them are duds, so how can Israel justify any of this by flattening whole villages and towns? Could it be that Israel is just tick at their defiance?"
So, I googled Kassams, found Israeli news shots of them, especially the Kassam that hit the "children's school yard". The press kept emphasizing "children's school yard but no body hurt" as a mantra, giving the impression that there were kids about. Yes, it hit a school yard, an empty one at 7 pm in the evening, and blew up about 3 square feet of brick paving. The others were duds that day. They are about 18-24" long--a flying pipebomb. 8 people in the neighborhood were treated for "hysteria". That was the early days of this killing spree. I'm not making light of Israeli suffering, especially with the heftier Katyushka rockets, that weigh in at a good 50 pounds or more, and can do a lot of damage. They have killed innocent people, for whom I pray for. In terms of "just and honorable warfare", however, I am finally understanding the Zionists' interpretation of this concept: surgical "payback" is 2-ton DU bunker-busters (only 66% as radioactive as the hot uranium) and "vacuum bombs" that instantly collapse a 10-story apartment building on occupants. All of those immense block-long shots of nothing but 25-foot high piles of rubble where new highrise apartments used to be, is the fruit of those lovely vacuum bombs. Body count ought to climb eventually from a 10:1 ratio as it stands now--10 dead Lebanese to every one Israeli--to at least 20-30:1 when that rubble starts getting cleared. What is the percentage of Lebanese child victims? 45-55%? Scratch a school yard? Down goes Palestine's infrastructure. Very noble of the IDF.
Remember how this all got started? For about 16 months, there was actually very low-level militant aggression out of Palestine per the Oslo War Agreements; Palestinians wanted their elections. Hamas won, IDF pulled out. Israel growled about Hamas government. The IDF ship was shelling Hamas positions, then the Gaza beach-goers got blown up with a guided missile. They don't fire off unguided rockets from the state-of-the-art SAAR-class covettes. The final story after many corrections, including the "mine" story--which made no sense since that is a popular beach, so a mine would have been trampled 10,000 times before, nor would one mine kill and injure 40 more people all along the beach aside from the poor girl's family--is that the IDF officially doesn't know what happened. According to the IDF command to Haaretz, they stopped shelling at 4:34 pm, commenced shelling about 5:10 pm, and their surveillance tape of the beach showed everything was fine at 4:45-4:50 pm. The Palestinian sources reported, however, that the first patients off of the beach were admitted into the hospital from the ambulances just shortly before 5:00 p.m. Hospitals keep records and admission times. Assuming an ambulance response once called in, load-n-go, and turn-around time to the single Palestinian hospital of about 20 minutes minimum, the beach was shelled at 4:34 pm or prior. Of course, there were other ambulances on a disaster roll behind the first one, as well a a number of people who ran on foot from elsewhere on the beach to help. The Israeli surveillance tape, given that time frame then, should have shown live bodies being frantically picked up off the beach, or covered up, and the photojournalist filming the carnage. There were more casualties than just that one girl's own large family. Israel had no answer for that except slipping into regretful "ambiguity".
No one in their right mind can say that the Palestinian hospital cooked their admission times, simply to make Israel "look bad". No one in the middle of combat trauma medicine cares a whit about politics and propaganda when they are up to their elbows in bloody flesh.
Naturally, militant Hamas stepped up their rocket launches in retaliation for Gaza Beach. Those beachgoers were nowhere close to any militant activity. This excuse that Hamas or Hezbolla uses women, children, ambulances, UN observation posts, Canadians, tourists, refugees, little elderly people in black clothing, fishermen, beach piknikers, bicyclists, bomb shelters, restaurants, and flying geese as shields, is wearing a bit thin. Especially when the surviving UN peacekeepers from a clearly marked, long established observation post, said Hezbolla was no where close to them. Might have been the UK Guardian, however, that also reported that the peacekeepers had just witnessed or had knowledge of a very serious IDF atrocity and was reporting it to the UN command, before becoming "collaterally damaged" themselves.
After Hamas escalated the shelling, the two Palestinian civilian men were kidnapped on an IDF raid on the claim they were wanted Hamas terrorists [crossing an international sovereign border, BTW, which means that since the IDF occupation pullout, under international law it means that Israel can't treat someone else's nation like it's their own back yard to trash, but that law applies to every one else, not Israel.]
Then the raid against Cpl. Shalit's tank unit, which appears to have been part of the two-front mobilization along the Palestine-Lebanon borders that Israel called up IDF reserves for a couple of months ago.
Now the IDF invades Gaza on the pretext of rescuing Cpl. Shalit, blows the bejabbers out of everything, bombs-up the power plant that the U$ paid for, destroys the domestic water lines, pounds more of the war-rickety housing into the ground, shoots what ever happens to be moving on the ground, then kidnaps one-third of the Palestinian government--Hamas--who are now in the Israeli gulag. The poor Palestinian doctors sent a plea by way of Red Cross (since their own phones are shot to hell) to doctors world wide to come to Palestine, because they have gunshot victims with very peculiar wounds and don't know how to treat them. Something in the ammo just keeps burning, burning, and burning. Same problem coming up now in Lebanon--they think it might be white phosphorous coated ammo. Some bombing victims have serious flash burns, but it is really hard to tell a phosphorus burn from a radiation burn.
About the first reserve call up--was especially noteworthy in Haaretz because only 10,000 or 1/3 of the reserves actually reported for duty. The rest had medical excuses. Now, another 30,000 reserves have just been activated in the past few days, so, it is probably prep for a withdrawal from Lebanon by way of Syria, taking out Golan Heights in the process.
Yes, everything that I wrote is as I found it and believe is quite true. Since I really don't know what I am doing with the PC, in the future I'll write notes of sites. I do have a considerable amount of photos and stories downloaded onto disk, but haven't been very organized, thinking it was only for myself, which I can dig out, if someone is interested. No blog or website, sorry.
I google per topic or incident, in this case, "Cpl Shalit", and look at everything that came up related to it through several search pages. I go through a lot of sources, from international news, ie Pravda (yes, Russian news in English), AsiaNews, British and Euro newspapers, Palestinian news (the only news getting out for a while was from portable PC's on battery--$48 million power plant got shot to hell.) Red Cross and Red Crescent have sites in Israel. Iraqi news, and Jewish news sites inside Israel like Haaretz--the government and the military command blab all of the time, no kidding. (Haaretz also reported the "return to Israel" of about 90 Peruvian Indian Jewish converts within the past few weeks.) The Israeli government tells their people one thing, and seems to tell the world another, but that is also in accordance with the Zionist ethics. There were blogs of friends of Cpl Shalit that showed his much more mature pix, one of them was of him doing some sort of humanitarian work, maybe holding a child.
I spent 18 years in law enforcement, have some college science background (disabled now with lots of time), so I appreciate substantial evidence, witness info, good research and solid conclusions, and have enough sciences to get the drift of the more technical stuff, no matter what site it comes from. The cactus story comes from a pro-Palestinian organization called Cactus-88?, i think based in Arizona. I google everything that comes up on a particular topic in the news, and follow links. The info about the "tunnel" came from a retired military, now private intelligence researcher with contacts inside the "conspiracy wingnut realm" who seemed very well qualified to render an objective opinion on the soil conditions and what would be necessary to build a tunnel in sand. He used satellite imagery right off of Google itself, and even provided geo coordinates if anyone wanted to check for themselves. Once I saw the sat photos of geo surveys which can also map various kinds of soil, mineral deposits and terrain, plus ground photos of the land site other people forwarded to him. I read his analysis, I'm convinced his evidence and testimony as an expert witness would stand up in any criminal court of law for the prosecution. Most of the "taboo" sites are not knee-jerk rant and hate sites as I fully believed for quite awhile. Many are well reasoned, some have PhD's on board their investigative sites, and have solid networking base going for them, especially the "false flag" debunkers. In short, I didn't write these things, unless it seemed "good enough to go to court on". It was in Haaretz that the IDF command claimed they could have recaptured Cpl Shalit as he was on the Israeli side for 90 minutes while his captors cut through the wire, but having absorbed enough Marine (semper fi, all) lore from an ex-husband Nam vet, my own conclusion was that it simply didn't make sense to spend that long a time on enemy turf making an escape. The razor wire coils had to be cut on the way in, and the photos showed it to be 10-20' wide, resting on about a 1' berm of soil.
The photo of the deep undercover militant who forgot to take his star of david off came up on a "false flag" debunking site/blog. It dovetailed with the other news stories of the special sniper air rifles w/micro-transuranium bullets from a US paper on one hand, and the story in an Israeli source about the deep undercover special forces units. I may have found it while I was doing a study of the gruesome alleged "Nick Berg" assassination, which I recently got the nerve up to watch. First of all, "Nick" doesn't look like the real Nick from real life candid photos that people have posted. The real Nick has red hair when his head is not shaved. A number of doctors and forensic examiners in Australia and elsewhere have the opinion that this was probably a corpse that was beheaded. Even if heavily drugged, unless unconscious, there is some kind of protective reflex. The doctors also opinioned that the blood flow from neck wasn't right. The "screaming" was analyzed as a female voice. Another observation has been made that while sitting, "Nick" on film "blinked and fidgeted" precisely every 59-60 seconds, and returned to the precise position of just before, easily measurable by just letting the mouse pointer rest underneath an eye. No live person goes back into the precise position they were in after a fidget. People blink about 12-16x per minute. And the victim is wearing an orange prison jumpsuit. Nick went missing early in the Iraqi war, so where would "terrorists" get orange prison clothing like at Guantanamo or Abu Graib? The full film when slowed down shows a greenish baseball cap bill and a pale ear intrude into the video from the right side, maybe holding another camera. That film was digitally cooked--nothing explains why "Nick's" mouth keeps getting blurry as he talks, yet the background "terrorists" remains sharp. Once a person sees how proficiently and neatly Muslims wrap their headscarves across their faces, looking back at the Berg "terrorists", honestly, it really looks like one took a white t-shirt and wrapped it around his own head. Another Berg "terrorist" is wearing pristine white tennis shoes.
It is learning how to see, and that means getting educated from sources all over the Web, because frankly there is more freedom of speech and press in other countries than there is in the good ol' USA right now. Check out all of the independent e-news sites that you possibly can. The only avenues left may be public libraries if they haven't started pulling books off of shelves, and the Internet, which the DOD is planning now to get locked down, gated and censored by 2008. (That tidbit came off of the MSM e-feed, or maybe NY Times back page or something.) I was pretty naive a few months ago just bumbling along until some things just didn't seem to add up anymore. And I am a moderately "hawkish" Republican, used to belong to the NRA, and deeply believe in terms of doing one's duty, ESPECIALLY in terms of protecting and serving my country, but there is also right and wrong. My ancestors have served in every single war the US ever fought, and my Greek grandfather served in the Balkan Wars of prior to the 1900's, winding up a Turkish POW. (I'm going Independent...it's all one party--Republicrats. Demolicrans?) I never questioned before, and it is time for questions, hard thinking, and turning the TV off to hit the libraries and the Web.
Everyone should google and objectively research such things as Zionism, and why many Orthodox Jews are opposed to what is going on, and have been for 100 years. One of the more shocking episodes recorded on one of the anti-Zionist Orthodox Jewish websites was a secret video shot of the IDF storm-trooping a synagogue and beating the tar out of the Orthodox Jews during their prayers. Research the early days of Zionist terrorists under the British Mandate. What an eyeopener. There are hundreds of human rights violations and atrocities filed against Israel, and when the UN votes to apply sanctions, the US vetoes it. Check out all of the international humanitarian sites that you can...look up Rachel Corrie's death. Amnesty Int'l is monitoring both "white slavery" of 3,000 Slavic prostitutes, most who were tricked with "actress/model" promises into Israel; and AI is also trying to keep tabs on the 100's of Palestinian "detainees" inside the Israeli gulag.
Research Lebanon, and Hezbolla, and maybe you'll find some information on their "grassroots". Don't have to like them, but one thing I found was that the Lebanese Hezbolla are more political than religious, and they were forged by the crucible of the times after the UN pullout of Lebanon in 1983, and the IDF entered in as the occupier. Hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent women and children were violated and butchered in the streets by the IDF under Sharon in two series of atrocities in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah knows that the leopard has not changed its spots, and are more than ready to defend their nation because they remember their mothers, sisters and brothers. Research the Israeli attack on USS Liberty in 1967, Mossad "false flag" operations, and the likely US coverup around it. The survivors are pushing for a proper investigation because much more evidence has come to light over the past 38 years. It is better to be an informed bigot that to be blindly prejudiced.
Sure, I know. Atrocities are happening everywhere, and Africa and some other nations are a heartbreak. Israel points a finger at someone else, but there are three more pointing back at her. Same can be said for America, but I'm certain Americans can take a look at our own government's abuses once we learn about them, and begin to apply corrections, but it takes work. That's the difference between America and Israel: America can feel shame when hypocrisy is pointed out--Zionist Israel can not. Israel is not a "democracy" because only Jews can vote and have rights. It is an apartheid state. Israel doesn't even have a constitution.
This whole ME thing, planned for years, is about Israel becoming a regional power in the Zionist dream called "Greater Israel": as a U$ "ally", with Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and a hefty third of northern Saudi Arabia and relevent ports held under a U$-I$raeli-Big Oil yoke, and Iran beaten into submission again. The U$ partnership with Big Oil is heavily into the oil fields--"Greater I$rael" is about controlling the network of oil pipes that runs through all of those countries. Whoever has the pipes controls the oil of the realm.

Anne and Crew - Please be careful while over there doing a wonderful job of reporting. You are one of my favorities and are in my prayers. God be with you

Anne,
Your interview of the Isreali spokesperson, on Sunday morning, was extremely informative. I was impressed with the way you handled it. Keep up your fine journalism.

Anne, Clifton, NJ

Anne,
Your interview of the Isreali spokesperson, on Sunday morning, was extremely informative. I was impressed with the way you handled it. Keep up your fine journalism.

Anne, Clifton, NJ

Ann and Crew, just be careful, I dont want my favorite news person injured.

Ann Curry's post-Qana interview with the female Israeli spokesperson that was shown Sunday morning on the Today show was one of the most unprofessional displays of journalism that I have ever witnessed. Ms. Curry was hostile and beligerent in her approach and continuously interrupted the spokesperson as she tried to answer Ms. Curry's questions.

I watch NBC news because I find it to be the most professional news organization around. However, obviously the decision makers in your news organization who dispatch journalist to hotspots around the world made a hugh mistake when sending a lightweight like Ms. Curry to do a tough job. It's one thing to read the news its another to report the news fairly and objectively in a time of war. I believe Ms. Curry violated the following ethical standards of the Society of Professional Journalist in her interview with the Israeli spokesperson:

— Support the open exchange of views, even views they find repugnant.
— Distinguish between advocacy and news reporting. Analysis and commentary should be labeled and not misrepresent fact or context.
_ Ethical journalists treat sources, subjects and colleagues as human beings deserving of respect.
— Recognize that gathering and reporting information may cause harm or discomfort. Pursuit of the news is not a license for arrogance.

Question: is the post by Cindra, Redding, California true? I had never heard anything like this on the news. Is that story authenticated?

Question: The long post by Cindra, Redding, California, is all of that accurate? I hadnt heard anything like that before in the news. Is that authenticated?

Thank you for finally covering (for 2 minutes), Israel's side of the story. Israel is the only nation in the world fighting against TERRORISTS who want to erase them from planet earth. This was the first time I have seen any major media show both sides of the story. We need to wake up and realize the dangers we face.

scout29c-
The first capture of IDF Corporal Shalit was in "retaliation" for the illegal seizure of two Palestinians the day before that Israel claimed were Hamas. Hamas, and the Palestinian government strongly protested this kidnapping of Palestinian civilian non-combatants and declared that they were not Hamas, and never had been, more or less apolitical. The two men, one a physician, had a (dead?) relative that once belonged to militant Hamas. the IDF crossed the border of a sovereign nation that the IDF had withdrawn from, let us not forget, to effect this kidnapping. The next day, militant Hamas allegedly crawled through a secret tunnel that keeps growing with each telling, from 300' to 1/2 mile, to attack a tank platoon and capture an IDF soldier-combatant, Corporal Shalit. Hamas then demands the release of the latest kidnapped Palestinians, as well as all of those that have been held for years on indefinite "detainment" inside the Israeli torture gulags without any hope of trial, left to die of despair. Where did we get Guantanamo and Abu Graeb? We learned it from Israeli standard operating procedures. Non-Jews have no citizens' rights inside Israel to begin with, more so with Palestinians and other Muslims. Women and chidren in Israeli detention are systematically and routinely beaten, molested, and raped, often deprived of medical care because Israeli physicians struggle with "duo loyalties"--loyalty to the ethics found in the Oath of Hippocrates vs. loyalty to the Israeli state. (A physician traditionally only has "one loyalty", that of the Hippocratic ethic towards any patient. I read an Israeli discussion paper on this subject and was horrified when I got the sense of it.) What care these women and children do get is because an international human rights agency finally exerts enough pressure to get inside the gulags. The men fare about like what has been seen from Guantanamo and Abu Graeb. There are hundreds of Palestinians inside the gulag that sit there on mere accusation, have never had trial or been convicted of any crime, and quite a few are non-combatant political hostages and relatives of suspected militants, and not the suspected militants themselves. The kidnapping of the Palestinian physician and his son (?) is a blatant example of this kind of thing. However, now that the IDF had pulled out, Palestine recognized as a sovereign state with its own government, Israel should have followed international arrest and extradition procedures, which means presenting an investigative case and evidence substantiating a warrant tendered to the Palestinian government, just like what happens in all the rest of the civilized nations. Behind the media coverage the next day over Corporal Shalit, enough world pressure was exerted on Israel to release in short order the the two Palestinian non-combatants before they disappeared into the gulags.
As far as the incident with Cpl. Shalit goes-the soil of where the alleged cross-border secretly made tunnel was supposed to be is virtually 100% sand. Go dig a tunnel on a beach and see for yourself. It would take serious soil and mining engineering and equipment to build a tunnel through sand. The tunnel would have to be 100% shored 360 degrees all around with tons of concrete plaster. Dry sand acts like a liquid, it flows everywhere. Sure there have been tunnels dug in other places in more solid soil, notably under the Egyptian Gaza checkpoint, quite often to obtain food, water and supplies back into Palestine, as well as for arms running. Keep in mind, that everything had to be moved by hand, the largest diameter tunnel was about 4' wide. These were probably detected by ground sensors. The "secret tunnel" story involving Shalit just doesn't wash, unless the heavy equipment involved--cement trucks, water trucks, etc. had Star Trek cloaking devices. IDF blew up a stretch of sand and called it a "terrorist tunnel". IDF military command claimed that after Cpl. Shalit was captured, there was a 90 minute window where the IDF could have gotten Shalit back on the Israeli side before Hamas had cut through the razor wire and escaped to the Palestinian side, but the IDF missed the chance. That doesn't wash either. That particular stretch of border is separated with at least a 10-20' wide mass of coiled razor wire. The militants would have to do the cutting very slowly and painstakingly before they penetrated into Israel, because razor wire when cut will whip around and make noise, and it is a "tangle wire" that will trap and slash anyone who handles it carelessly. There is no mystery here. The militants did the painstaking cutting before crossing into Israel, opening up the return path for a hasty exit. This only makes tactical sense--if you are expecting some kind of hot pursuit especially with a wounded prisoner, are you going to stop and spend the time to cut through a wide mass of razor wire, especially if it keeps you on the opposite side of the border for 90 minutes? The wire was probably cut several miles away from the reported IDF tank unit position. In the larger picture of things, that tank was part of an army-wide mobilization along the borders of Palestine and Lebanon. Ten thousand IDF reserves were called up and activated several months ago, about the time of the "pullout" from Gaza, as part of this mobilization. Palestine conducted their elections, and political Hamas won the majority of legislative seats through popular vote, in what would be like a parliament, I think, so political Hamas became the dominant part of the Palestinian government. There are still other parties on the council, and the Palestinian president is not a member of Hamas. Israel immediately began demands of state recognition by the Palestinian government, which would basically mean concessions of lands and resources that are Palestinian on the books, especially the Golan Heights area with its water resources and rich agriculture, and probably ejection of the Palestinian island communities inside the bounds of claimed Israeli borders, who are kept in isolation. There has been ongoing dispute about Israel returning to the pre-1967 borders; Israel's territories stolen through subsequent campaigns of terror and slaughter after 1967 are a touchy issue. The other is the Wall, which has been built not on Israeli soil, but on Palestinian lands, destroying vast chunks of private farmlands and separating thousand of acres of farms and water from their owners, without any compensation. All part of a plan to "cleanse" Arabs off of Israeli soil, make it impossible for farmers to work their own land. The Wall has drastically altered water irrigation and drainage. Over the years, many Palestinians have been either murdered, or owners and heirs prevented from ever returning to their rightful properties. Israel then invokes a "3-year abandoned property law", if an owner or heirs to land don't occupy it for three years, the state seizes it. They have other ways of seizing land, too. Like illegally bulldozing buildings down, while occupants are often still inside, and then claim that the owners abandoned the property. Or turned a blind eye with a nudge and a wink to the semi-separatist armed "settlers" who illegally moved into the Palestinian "desert" that no one occupied. That is quite a lie, the lands the settlers moved into were already occcupied by thriving farmsteads. They purged the Palestinian farmers off of their lands, razed to bare soil thousands of acres of olive trees, fruit trees, vineyards, etc, destroyed ancient cemetaries, and every other sign that these lands had ever been habitated. Then, this man-made "desert" was re-planted with "holy" trees and plants set into the ground by "holy" hands. Except for the darn cactus, living witnesses to what used to be there--acres of cactus once used as fencing, keep growing back in tidy lines that show where livestock pens used to be on every farm and its borders. There are many more issues.
Israel, however, decided that they could not work with the newly elected government. Rather than wait through a cool-down period when hot-tempered hyperbole would settle down, which Israel never intended to do no matter what government was voted in. With the IDF mobilized for two fronts, Israel instigated things by rolling into Gaza and seizing the two Palestinians, counting on Palestinian outrage not only at the kidnapping, but the utter disregard for their sovereign borders by Israel who had agreed to abide by those borders. The reaction was predictable, if in fact it was actually the Hamas that attacked the tank patrol--there are IDF special forces-sniper units (male and female) of Arab-looking personnel that speak the Palestinian and/or other local Arabic dialects in deep undercover infiltration of Muslim militant groups, or live in complete isolation in secret hideways speaking only Arabic. [IDF high command blabs to the Israeli press all of the time. Thought it was a bit too out there, until I saw a photo closeup of an Islamic militant unit of some sort, disguised with the usual headwrap masks, and one of them forgot to take his "Star of David" necklace off. Found out the info about the clandestine special forces in an Israeli paper that reported that the US had sold 50 air-powered sniper rifles with a range of one mile that use "micro-nuke ammunition". ]
So, Cpl Shalit's capture, whether a "false flag" operation with these special forces, or an actual retalitory mission by militant Hamas, was just the incident Israel was looking for to go crashing back into Gaza, start blowing things up again, and kidnap a hefty third of the entire Palestinian government--duly elected political Hamas, throwing them into the Israeli gulag. (Not all Hamas are miitants--kind of like Republicans and extreme right wing armed Republicans.) Pound Palestine back into the ground, paralyze the government, slaughter more citizens, and then complain that Palestine isn't doing anything productive in the Oslo War Plan. Those "political prisoners" you referred to in your post, were most likely the duly elected Palestinian government members of the Hamas party that are going to rot along with hundreds of others the IDF has thrown into the torture gulags over the years.
They have also made the most sober-minded political statement of the decade--let the Palestinian people vote for the recognition of Israel or not.

Actually, President Bush and Prime Minister Blair’s comment are measured rather than defensive: what would be the logic of calling for an immediate cease-fire that would only serve as an opportunity for the combatants to regroup rather than disarm? As Ms. Curry observes, Hezbollah rockets are striking deeper into Israel each day and the poor civilians in that country are in an increasingly precarious position. To make matters worse, few news organizations worldwide seem prepared to admit the obvious: the “disproportionate number of civilian deaths in Lebanon” is the direct result of Hezbollah insurgents using the poor civilians of Lebanon as human shields. If anything, the Israeli military has gone out of its way to avoid civilian deaths. Hezbollah, on the other hand, is strengthening its position along Lebanon’s border with Israel where so many refugees have been herded together like cattle fit for slaughter.

I am extremely disappointed in your one sided coverage. All I hear about is the destruction in Lebanon, the lives lost and the families split up. We have numerous friends and family members in Israel, many of whom live in Northern Israel. They have fled their homes, jobs and day-to-day lives. One family dar to us fled Kiryat Shemona to Haifa to stay with family only to have missiles shot at them again. Now, their 18 & 12 yr old are statying in Tel Aviv with their 21 year old and they are in Jerusalem with their one year old. This is just one family of many who have no home. Many of our other friends live with the sirens hour after hour, minute after minute because they can't leave.
I am no longer watching NBC's news reports in the Middle East. Its not just you, its all your reporters reporting from Israel and Lebanon. I always watched The Today Show & Nightly News but no more.

I have enjoyed watching Ann Curry for several years. Today she lost my respect. I was watching the Sunday Today Show and Ann was interviewing an Israeli woman. Ann kept badgering her and did not and would not listen to her answers. She insisted on her ridiculous questions without allowing the woman to answer. Fortunately for the woman, when ending the interview, she left Ann holding the bag. The woman ended asking Ann what she would suggest the Israelis do when they are being constantly targeted and their citizens are living in bomb shelters. Ann had no answer. Ann should get out of the Middle East. She lacks the diplomacy for this particular assignment.

When Ann Curry asks an Israeli woman a question, she should let the woman answer and not keep inerupting her so that she could not get her point accross. I was very dissapointed in Ann. Have you asked Hezbollah when they will stop launching rockets into Israel? I just heard Ann's report from Jerusalem and found it to be very one-sided, the terrorist side.

I'm so sorry you had to stay in a "modest motel" Anne. Try sleeping in a bomb shelter. I wonder, would it be ok for us to attack or invade Canada or Mexico if we were being hit by rockets fired from there or would we have to just sit back and take it like you think Israel should? Why aren't you focusing on the Hezbala cowards that are using the citizens of Lebanon as shields? Combatants should face each other on the battle field..Its high noon for terrorists so we'll meet you on main street!

Ann Curry wrote, "Their comments seem a touch defensive, given a worldwide outcry over the disproportionate number of civilian deaths in Lebanon."

I must agree that it is heart-wrenching (even to the point of tears) for me, to see the lack of regard for the innocents (on both sides) of this war. Sad, but true, is that the politicians, the Generals and most soldiers enjoy the protection from bombs and gunfire in secured postion or even miles from the conflict.

Maybe, a "war" would be more humane and probably even "entertaining" if the politicians and generals (from both sides) jumped into designated steel cages (with NO WEAPONS) and fought EACH OTHER until one side was pulverized to a bloody pulp. Of course, this would be televised WORLDWIDE, so that EVERYONE can see just how far we have really advanced in the present day and age.

And, most especially, NO ONE would shed tears for those politicians and generals beat to a bloody pulp.

...Maybe, I am just so heart-torn about all the innocent carnage, that I am medicating my feelings with wishful thinking!

I missed something here. From Jackie's post one would assume that Syria had been bombed by Israel. I haven't heard that. They have bombed the roads near Syria's border and Syria has closed its border. Syria had said earlier that if Israel came too close to its border there would be consequences. Has Syria done anything?

Greg -- Good catch .. sorry about the typo ... it was indeed a few hundred YARDS, not miles. I've corrected the post.

Now how does this work. If Israel bombs Syria is Syria just to set back and do nothing. I know mistakes happen like the bombing of the UN peace keepers, but what does a country do when their being bombed? Should they Syria defend itself or is the Bush policy that if your not a friend of the US you sent back and take it.

Well, if America had minded its own business instead of trying to make Americans out of everybody, spreading manifest destiny to the whole world, none of this would have happened. You got to admit that when Sadaam Hussein was in power there was stability in Iraq and in the Middle East. Also, America's meddling in the Middle East since 1948 has caused nothing but trouble.

Quote: "...we can hear the firing of Israeli 155 millimeter artillery into Lebanon a few hundred miles away."

What is a few hundred miles away? the artillery? Lebanon? targets? I wish I had a Howitzer that coul fire a couple hundred miles.

The Really Big Story that Almost Happened

Just before everything went to hell in the Middle East, I had been reading about the fight between Hamas and Fatah parties in Palestine. Hamas became the majority party in government and refuse to change their stand that Israel should be destroyed.

However, the Palestinian prisoners in Israel came out saying the country should vote on whether or not Palestine should recognize Israel. Seems the prisoners are a political force in Palestine. Because of the prisoners standing with Palestinians, their suggestion was one that Hamas could not ignore or oppose. If that vote had occurred, democracy in the Palestine would have done something its leadership could not.

What would the world have been like if that vote had occurred?

Did Hamas and Hezbollah grabbing of Israel soldiers have more to do with their situation within their own country than the old conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors?