Another response to Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

Dear Mr. Hinchey,

The tone of your response clearly shows that my posts upset you deeply. You responded in a furious tone, supported by ridiculous claims (then again, you're the same guy who claimed that the guy USA has in its possession is not Saddam Hussein, because the teeth don't seem familiar to you…).

I do not claim to be a reporter. I live in Israel and have an opinion. You claim to be an unbiased reporter. Still, it doesn't stop you from posting posts titled "Allah Ackbar" and always, always, assuming that Israel is lying and the other side is correct.

Simply put – Israel is not targeting civilians. Hezbollah is hiding behind civilians, because they know it will be interpreted in a way which will help them pressure Israel not to attack them. According to your reasoning, Israel should not be entitled to retaliate, simply because the terrorists choose to hide behind civilians. Think for a second – maybe it’s the ones using civilians as human shields that should be scolded?

Another unfortunate claim you make it that Israel is on "conquered" land. At the very best, you could say it's on disputed land, and even if we accept that claim, it's only relevant to the Palestinians, and absolutely not to Lebanon.

Israel is not, and has not, for the past 6 years, occupied Lebanese soil. Remember those Hezbollah celebrations six years ago? Israel withdrew. If it had any interest in fighting Lebanon it would never have withdrawn! Today, Israel is within internationally recognized borders, acceptable even to Lebanon, which were crossed by the Bin Laden wannabe, Hasan Nesrallah's men. The real blame for Lebanon's current situation.

You then go on and claim that the entire world is united against Israel . Clearly wishful thinking on your behalf, or possibly an unbelievable ability to ignore the amazing support Israel has received for its latest advance from almost all countries in the world, including the vast majority of Arab Countries. Even Countries such as France and Russia, which traditionally criticize Israeli actions, understand who the bad guy is, this time around.

Additionally, though I do not understand what relevance the war in Iraq has to our current situation (where two Israeli soldiers were abducted and eight more killed by Hezbollah terrorists crossing Israeli border, on internationally recognized Israeli soil), I have to say something. Fine. They didn't find weapons of mass destruction. They did overthrow a leader who tortured people, was responsible for the deaths of millions and who threatened to use weapons of mass destruction, if he had them? Good argument. I'm sure all intelligent readers are now convinced that the USA were the bad guys in that episode.

Even though it's obvious you are absolutely biased against Israel and the USA , and that you will not let the facts guide you out of your biased course, I will agree to one thing you say – almost all Israelis and Arabs want peace. Hey – look at the peace we have with Egypt and Jordan. Look at how much tourism is flowing from Israel to Sinai in Egypt … of course it used to, until your "freedom fighting" groups decided to blow the whole area up twice…

But I digress. The main point is that any country willing to live in peace with Israel, can.

Unfortunately, the civilians in countries such as Iran, Syria, and Lebanon (and of course in the West Bank) are held captive by either insane leaders or militant terrorist groups. Those are the people you should be complaining about.

Finally, guess what? War means spending a month in reserve duty for most Israeli males. It most certainly means a tax increase (planes use gas which costs money – a lot of money) and it involves a chance of dying for many of them. Logically, we'd have to all be insane to want that. Did it ever occur to you that we just want our three brothers who are being held captive, along with a guarantee for peace and quiet? That you should be posting articles calling for Hezbollah and Hamas to free them, so that situation would settle down?

No. If it were up to you, Israel should just sit back and wait for the next attack. Fortunately, the nations of the world today don't see it that way.

Oh, and one final note. A mine can kill 7 people. You can type it out as angrily as you want, but that's what really happened. I showed you evidence.

Gil Eyal
Pravda.Ru

The author is a lawyer in Israel, and owner of the political commentary blog titled Get Your Facts Straight