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Israel has been at war almost since its founding. It entered the promised land as conquerors with a mandate from God. It did not complete the mandate, and was plauged with battles ever since with few respites.
As it wandered from God, God punished them by taking them out of Israel to Babylon (modern day Iraq) and did not let them return for 70 years. After many years and many times that God tried to get His people to do what they should, including sending His own Son whom they rejected, He finally scattered them among the nations.
Fast foward to 1948 and the nation of Israel is reborn, but not without strife. Jordan, Syria and Egypt are sworn to remove this Jewish people and accept nothing but the entire land. And this is where we are today. Israel continually shows that it is blessed by God, that it has superior firepower, and that it will not let itself be vanquished by the Arab foe.
The Arabs claim the land as their own, and shift tactics from frontal assaults, to suicide bombers, and now through the taking of hostages from Israel trying to extract concessions. The Arabs use time and the press to make themselves seem like the victims. The woman pictured is a Lebanese woman shown after an attack. We’re to feel sympathy for her– while we are supposed to ignore that her country permits terrorists to live there and to launch missle attacks on Israel. We’re supposed to feel a sense of grief and side with the “underdog” and overlook that these terrorists want the death and destruction of a nation and are willing to abduct or kill innocents.
We’re presented with the one side– just go try to find pictures of the battle. You’ll find many more of the Lebanse than you will of the men abducted, the families that have been torn apart. What a selective memory we have when pictures are used. What a picture is painted for us by those that have the duty to present us with information.
When you think about the size of the land of Israel, and you think about the lifestyle these people have to have (worried about car bombs, suicide bombers, nuclear attack) about what their neighbors could do, what they are saying about you, and what they have done in the past, it becomes painfully clear who the victims are.
I am proud and support Israel all the way. Their country is about the size of Idaho, I believe is what I have heard. And yet they are a power to contend with. My prayers are with them.
Anyhoo, leave it to the media to side with the terrorists and try to gain sympathy for them. Lebanon deserves what it gets. This is God’s country and they need to BACK OFF!
Is this a matter of feeling sorry for the innocents killed or those fighting? I feel immense sympathy for the woman. She’s hurt. She’s clearly not a soldier with intent to kill, regardless of what her country stands for.
I guess my point though is a balanced approach. Certainly this woman is heard and deserves a degree of sympathy– but she and those around that area are not ignorant of the company they keep and that fighting would be going on there.
The other point is that the media can totally focus on the dead civilian Lebanese, but what about focusing on the impact that the loss of the soldiers through kidnapping and what that is doing to families in Israel.
The media has a tough one here because they need to understand the culture and what’s going on and how to present something happening in a different context in a way Americans can digest– instead of just throwing pictures up of wounded women and expecting us to be discerning enough to know this is only one side.
Its unfortunate that this had to happen yet again.
The Holy Land has a really rough past and present and its truely unfortunate that so much blood has been shed over it. No loving God wants this.
I can certainly say that I feel sorry for Lebanon regardless of religious issues because of all the support Israel has received in terms of US arms and technology. Look at the casualties on both sides comparatively. A lot of this is a result of Israel’s superior military prowess.
It just seems so sensless to me to rage an all-out war with Lebanon over two soldiers being kidnapped! War is a last resort and casualties should be limited to as few as possible. I simply do not see this happening on either sides and I dont know how to look at it besides something tragic, especially given its location.
This has nothing to do with Israel’s superior firepower. If Israel was weaker than its neighbors, it wouldn’t exist. This is about terrorist organiztions operating within Southern Lebanon in violation of a UN ceasefire in effect since the 90s. Firing rockets into Israel from there is not ceasing to fire by anyone’s definition. Israel asked Lebanon to put troops on the border. Can you imagine that? It’s as if the Minutemen were shooting rockets into TJ on a daily basis and the Mexican government begged us to send National Guard troops down there as a buffer.
I am glad that Israel took a stand and defended herself against terrorists kidnapping two of their soldiers. Where is the sympathy for them or their families or all the casualities that Israel has lost???
It may be just two lives, but that’s the whole point it is two lives. And it should not be taken lightly.
I am proud that the US is standing behind them.