CIVILLIANS BARING THE BRUNT

How this kind of carnage by a supposed 'developed' and 'democratic' nation should be allowed to continue is mind numbing. The death toll is only 1 part of the story. There are almost 4,800 Palestinian's injured too, with somewhere between 1-2,000 of them children. About half of the 1.5m population of Gaza are under 18 so it's no surprise to see so many young folk being injured or killed by this senseless Israeli rage, but it is, all the same, a moving statistic in itself. All these figures are being announced by the Gazan medical staff, as the Israeli army will still not allow any press into the area to verify the numbers. The death toll of Israeli's is still at 13, with 10 of them being soldiers killed in the Invasion.

OBAMA TO THE RESCUE?

Nope, more like the Israeli administration are hoping their guys are out of Gaza by the time he hits office. His lack of genuine comments, or a caring word, towards the Palestinian people of Gaza, for so long, has told its own story. Not to mention his ridiculous climb down on Guantanamo, saying it won't be closed within his first 100 days in office. While he will be slurping the champers in those 100 days, the detainee's will be in their usual hell hole. 100 days is a long time for anything, and he knows this. He is a clever man afterall, but it looks like he is just another cog in the American Empire machine. He is not 'change' by any means. That is unless he surprises us all, and on his first day in office berates Israel for what it has done, and seeks to install a bit of equilibrium between the Gazan's and the Israeli's. I bet the Palestinian children would very much appreciate that.

THE PALESTINIAN'S NEED A BIG BROTHER

The Palestinian people could really do with a strong arm around them, after years of terror from their neighbours. When I was young I always had this vision of the US soldiers as the good guys, always coming to the rescue, but I'm finding it hard to think of 1 time this has actually happened since my adulthood. In fact, looking back, it was all Hollywood nonsense most probably. The brand of democracy that the US has spread will surely come back to haunt us all in the western world, as soon as our time at the front of the quque is over. And it's coming fast. The emerging powers in the East are continually growing, and the Muslim countries, and possibly even some South American countries, could kick off at any point this century. When our time comes to an end I really hope we have something good to show for it. I hope we get a lot more charitable towards those that need help, to help influence the next lot of superpowers to do likewise. Palestine would be a great place to start. This attack by Israel is the most un-complicated human rights abuse we've had, by a developed country, for many years. Maybe this is the straw that breaks the camel's back, but before this is over there will sadly be lots more bloodshed, and now there is also the slight problem of Lebanon to add into the mix.

ROCKETS FROM LEBANON

More rockets have been fired from Lebanese soil into Israel yesterday. This is the 2nd such incident in a week, and after Hezbollah issued strong words towards Israel, over it's invasion of Gaza, there is a fear that this war might be widened to include South Lebanon. It seems someone is attempting to bring Lebanon into the conflict, but who? It really is hard to tell. Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, had said that his fighters were ready on the Israeli-Lebanon border, if Israel tried anything, which did put a bit of tension in the air last week. Since then we have had these 2 separate rocket attacks, which could only add to that tension. But Hezbollah have denied any wrong doing, saying that someone is trying to get them implicated, and hence involved. And they are pretty adamant about this.

ABOUT HEZBOLLAH

In the Muslim world, Hezbollah are regarded as a Grade-A resistance movement, and they are currently one of the parties in the rainbow coalition government in Lebanon. Set up between 1982 and 1985, they were originally an Islamic resistance group, with both military and political intentions. They wanted to free Lebanon of secularism and commercialism, and they wanted the colonial westerners to leave their land. They believe in Christian's and Muslim's living side by side, but would prefer them to do it under Islamic law, as this is the cleanest form of governance according to them. They were the main protagonists in the 2006 Lebanon War, against Israel, which claimed the lives of 158 Israeli's and just under 1,000 Lebanese. They got the thing started when they kidnapped a couple of Israeli soldiers, and demanded their imprisoned men be let out of Israeli jails, in return for the Israeli soldiers safe return. We in the west constantly hear that they are financially, and sometimes militarily, supported by Iran and Syria, and that they are an evil terrorist organisation, but they also have a deep political side.

They are one of the 2 main Shiite parties, and currently hold 14 of the 128 seats in parliament. Although they are officially one of the opposition parties, one of their men, Mohammad Fneich, is the Minister for Labour in the all encompassing "National Unity Government". Unlike some of the other Lebanese resistance groups that have turned to politics, Hezbollah has refused to disarm its fighters, keeping a major fighting wing in South Lebanon, their stronghold. It is rumoured to number up to 10,000 including part-timers. They say this army is there to protect its people from a possible Israeli invasion, and after a lot of wrangling, the Lebanese parliament allowed them to continue in their present form, with the militia attached and legitimised. Hezbollah are a terrorist organisation according to just the US, Israel, Canada and Holland, but ironically, they condemned Al-Qaeda for the twin towers, as there were civilian casualties. They would not comment either way about the Pentagon. Some parts of their military wing are also considered terrorists by the UK and Australia. They have massive public support, due to their outspoken nature, and could be a dangerous addition to this war. They have the ability to draw it out over a long time.

WE MUST SHOW SOME SUPPORT

As western nations, we must all show support for the Palestinian people now, for many reasons including the possible escalation and involvement of other countries, which will inevitably lead to more civilian deaths, but the main one being that they have simply suffered enough. And it was needless suffering. Their land has been taken from them, and now the dust has settled, its time to give atleast a big chunk of it back to them. That's the only fair outcome. That is what we must pressure our leaders to do, and it is achievable. It can be brought about by taking the first step of bringing Israel to justice for these current gross human rights violations, and maybe begin to heal some wounds. This could turn really nasty in the next decade if the balance of power shifts away from the west, and with countries like Lebanon supporting groups like Hezbollah, you can be sure that if they get an opportunity to take some revenge, they will jump at the chance. Sure hasn't Israel on plenty of occasions?