The Middle East

I once had a friend whose predominately Catholic family was from Palestine. Although he may not have fully understood the reprecussions of what he was saying, he often called Arafat a hero, and proclaimed that Israel must die. I don't know all of my history, and I don't know the circumstances that led to the Palestinian people's support of the P.L.O., but it boggles my mind when people rise up in support of terrorist organizations.

The recent bombings in Lebanon, and the killing of innocent Lebanese people, is being used as fodder against Israel, and fuel for the extremists' cause to irradicate Israel from Earth. Sounds extreme, I know, the total annialation of a culture from the face of the Earth, but when we are dealing with extremists, the rediculous and absurd is considered normal. This would be considered a call to genocide, but the Muslim extremists, and the Lebanese government (in their silence towards Hezbollah's actions), consider this to be entirely just.

Now we have protests that call on governments to publicly renounce Israel and her actions, while they are consistently silent about what organizations like the Taliban and Hezbollah, and governments like Iran have stated and acted against Israel. How could we support regimes that promote terrorism and genocide? How could people logically and morally rise up in support of such atrocities? How can we allow our children to support murder in the name of martyrdom by publicly supporting such inhumane organizations?

Personally, while I would hope that there must be a peaceful way to coexist within the Middle East, if anyone were to speak to me about the Hezbollah - Israel war, I would give my full support to Israel. I believe that they are retaliating agianst a regime that lusts for their demise. I cannot fathom why anyone would want to support an organization that uses its own people as shields, and then cries murder when their "shields" are wounded or killed. And yet, our media and our culture is silent about the base actions of Hezbollah -- as if we are terrified by what may be the outcome of our public denouncing of such an organization. We need to grow a backbone and renounce any form of support for Hezbollah and the governments that allow such organizations to exist within their borders, and, quite literally, in their own backyards.