Hamas did "declare" a unilateral cease fire.
Unfortunately, they didn't back up their declaration. Not that they could, most of the dirty work is done by splinter cells they create and no longer control.
In addition, unlike Iraq which was greatly divided, Iran is unified in that it strongly supports the democratically elected theocratic government. Iran also has contracts with Russia and China for oil and other resources whose services would be disrupted by war. Bush and Israel hate Tehran, but much of the world views it favorably. Therefore, he will never get a "coalition" to support any invasion plans.
times like these i wish i could personally go and thank AQ khan...the paki dude that started all this nuke trade...
colpy: lol.. are you some what jealous that you didnt get that award this year? anyhow..was just sharing my opinion...if I am not welcomed, ill leave.
Saudis consider nuclear bomb
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Ewen MacAskill and Ian Traynor in Vienna[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Thursday September 18, 2003[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]The Guardian[/FONT]
Saudi Arabia, in response to the current upheaval in the Middle East, has embarked on a strategic review that includes acquiring nuclear weapons, the Guardian has learned.
This new threat of proliferation in one of the most dangerous regions of the world comes on top of a crisis over Iran's alleged nuclear programme. A strategy paper being considered at the highest levels in Riyadh sets out three options:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/saudi/story/0,11599,1044402,00.html
I would agre with you... except Canada voted in favor of creating Israel. I believe all nations must take responsibility for their actions.... including Canada:
Actually Hamas maintained a unilateral ceasefire for nearly two years. During that time that Hamas appealed for peaceful negotiation, Israel killed innocent Palestinian civilians and assassinated Hamas leaders.
When Hezbollah captured and killed Israeli soldiers along the Lebanese/Israeli border in a disputed area, Israel responded by bombing Lebanon from one end to the other. Only after two days of Israeli bombardment and about a hundred innocent civilian casualties, did Hezbolah declare war without limits and begin targeting Israeli civilians.
Israel assassinated the Hamas leader which successfully got the three main Palestinian militant groups to agree to a ceasefire as per the "Roadmap to Peace".
I have already backed these facts up on previous posts on this website.
In the Israel/Lebanon battle last summer Israel killed about twice as many Hezbollah soldiers but about 25 times as many innocent civilians. So how can anyone claim that Israel is more careful about not harming innocent civilians???
Iran's done a great job of hogging newsprint this year. I can only think 2007 will be a banner year for the upstart. Is it capable of nuclear technology in the near future? Certainly. Ten years is a ridiculous assumption. The rogue regime has contacts, lots of peer company, and oodles of cash. Good luck to us all!
I think people are cofusing the semantics of the NPT with the Gritty reality of it.
The Gritty reality of it, is that the NPT is designed to keep the big 5 on top, and that in exchange..the non-big five wouldn't be nuked into oblivion during a fight. You don't have nukes so we won't use them.
It has never been anything other than a control mechanism.
It is akin to a room with 200 people and 5 big guys with guns. They tell everyone..nobody had better try and get a gun, and as long as you don't we won't shoot you, even if we get in a fight.
There are flowery words and promises no one has any intention of keeping, but that is the long and the short of it.
Its kind of like how everyone says they don't engage in espionage, but no government worth its salt doesn't involve itself in the spy game.
We've torn apart your "backing up" of these facts numerous times in previous posts. If simply declaring war makes it OK to kill civilians, then be reminded that Israel has been officially in a state of war with Lebanon for decades.
Israeli forces enter southern Lebanon
Saturday, July 22, 2006
...The Israeli air campaign, now in its 11th day, has mostly targeted Shiite Muslim regions in southern and eastern Lebanon as well as Beirut's southern suburbs. Saturday's raids were the first major air strikes in the Christian heartland of Lebanon.
Israel has twice before invaded and occupied Lebanese territory, in 1978 and 1982.
Senior Israeli military officials said the offensive will not end until Israel can force Hezbollah to retreat beyond the Litani River (eao: didn't happen), which runs about 30 kilometres north of the Israeli-Lebanese border. Israel on Friday called up approximately 3,000 reservists.
The fighting has killed at least 348 people in Lebanon — including at least eight Canadian civilians...http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2006/07/22/israel-lebanon.html
Jerusalem Post
Sep. 26, 2005
Jihad ’unhappy’ with Hamas ceasefire
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
In the first criticism of its kind, the Islamic Jihad organization said on Monday that it was "unhappy" with Hamas’s decision to stop firing rockets at Israel.
Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar announced on Sunday night that his movement would stop firing rockets at Israel. The announcement came hours after Israel killed Muhammed Sheikh Khalil, a senior Islamic Jihad operative in Gaza city.
"Hamas declares an end to its operations from the Gaza Strip against the Israeli occupation, which came in response to the assaults by the enemy," Zahar told reporters in Gaza City...
http://info.jpost.com/C005/Supplements/GazaUpheaval/n.04.html
...First Israel said it was acting to stop Palestinians from firing homemade Qassam rockets into Israel, rockets that have killed just eight people within Israel over five years. Then Israel said it was responding to Palestinians' capture on June 25, 2006 of a single Israeli soldier, though Israel holds 10,000 Palestinians captive. News reports currently suggest that the ongoing Israeli attacks may jeopardize the soldier's safe return. Now the Israeli government is again playing up Qassam rockets, and arms smuggling into Gaza as justifications.
Israeli reporter Amira Hass put Gaza arms smuggling in perspective, writing in the Israeli Ha'aretz on October 18 that "what exists in Israelis' consciousness is not the millions of cluster bombs ... or the tens of millions of bombs and shells and lethal bullets stored in our arms warehouses and our gun barrels and the bellies of our helicopters and planes. Although the amount of such explosives is measured in the millions of tons, it is the 20 tons of explosives and the few thousand rifles that permeate the Israeli consciousness." Ironically, under the much vilified Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, Palestinians have killed by far the fewest Israelis in any period during this six-year intifada
Despite the fact that they have vastly inferior weapons, are killed in much greater numbers than Israelis, live under Israeli occupation and are having their land taken from them by Israelis, Palestinians are generally portrayed in the US as the aggressor. Ironically, under the much vilified Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, Palestinians have killed by far the fewest Israelis in any period during this six-year intifada -- nineteen Israelis over seven months.
Hamas has largely maintained a ceasefire since early 2005, even as Israel and western governments demand that Hamas renounce violence and recognize Israel, and the western media simplistically repeats that Hamas is "committed to the destruction of Israel." In the meantime, Israel is actually destroying the Palestinian people and any hopes for a Palestinian state through heightened violence and land seizure. But the world has been silent about Israeli actions.
The dominance of the Israeli narrative and of Israeli voices in the US media is one factor that allows Americans to maintain this hypocrisy. Rather than providing comparable information about both sides, Palestinian attacks and weaponry are over-emphasized, and the Israeli government line repeated. Comparative figures and analysis of the overwhelming numbers of Israeli missiles and bombs fired at Gaza and Lebanon,[6] of Israel's vast weaponry, and of the numbers of Palestinians killed, are typically harder to find.
For example, the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Washington Post, three of the largest and most respected US newspapers, all describe the current crisis as beginning with the capture of an Israeli soldier, erasing history prior to June 25, 2006. Israel's heightened assault on Gaza began with heavy shelling in late March, resulting in the killing of large numbers of Palestinians in Gaza before June 25, including gruesome attacks like the June 9 shelling of a Gaza beach which killed seven members of the family of 12 year-old Huda Al Ghalia...http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=O'20061113&articleId=3834
July 24, 2003
Behind the Hudna Scenes
by Ran HaCohen
The Palestinians have now reached a so-called Hudna, or internal cease-fire. Armed resistance to the occupation, as well as terror attacks on Israeli citizens, have fallen to a minimum: there has not been any massive terror attack since the 11th of June, considerably longer than the "seven days of quiet" demanded in the past by PM Sharon as a precondition before demonstrating his promised "painful concessions"...
http://antiwar.com/hacohen/?articleid=666
Statistics Last Updated: December 14, 2006Israeli and Palestinian Children Killed Since September 29, 2000122 Israeli children have been killed by Palestinians and 836 Palestinian children have been killed by Israelis since September 29, 2000. (View Source)
Israelis and Palestinians Killed Since September 29, 2000 1,084 Israelis and 4,398 Palestinians have been killed since September 29, 2000. (View Source)
Israelis and Palestinians Injured Since September 29, 20007,633 Israelis and 31,168 Palestinians have been injured since September 29, 2000. (View Source)
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/
BBC
25 May, 2005
Amnesty slams Israel 'war crimes'
Most Palestinian casualties are unjustifiable, Amnesty says
Amnesty International has accused Israel of committing war crimes in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The rights group's report for 2004 says Israeli forces have killed some 700 Palestinians - including 150 children - mostly in unlawful circumstances.
The report lists "reckless shooting, shelling and air strikes in civilian areas... and excessive use of force".
It also condemns the killing of Israeli civilians by Palestinian militants and violence by Jewish settlers.
"Certain abuses committed by the Israeli army constituted crimes against humanity and war crimes," Amnesty's report says. "The deliberate targeting of civilians by Palestinian armed groups constituted crimes against humanity," it adds...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4580139.stm
Family of nine killed as they slept
Conal Urquhart in Gaza City
Thursday July 13, 2006
The Guardian
Awad Abu Salmiah lay in a small ward covered in bandages, drifting in and out of consciousness. He looked around but did not seem to notice the absence of his parents or brothers and sisters.
The 19-year-old was dug out of the remains of his two-storey house on Wednesday morning, four hours after a 550lb bomb crumpled the building. He does not know that almost all his family is dead.
Nabil Abu Salmiah, 45, and his wife, Salwah, 38, were killed along with two sons and five daughters, aged from four to 18...http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1819128,00.html