It could have been oh so simple. Hamas capture an Israeli soldier and demand that Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails be released in exchange for him.

This isn’t new. Israel have agreed to such negotiations before. What we got instead was the bombardment and scores of deaths in an already crippled Gaza. A third of the Hamas administration were seized and are still being held by Israel.

At this point Hizbullah decide to intervene where no other Muslim bodies in the region did. They captured two soldiers and made the same demand regarding the prisoners.

Cue even more killing in Lebanon now. The unhinged Israeli reaction is then put alongside the far fewer deaths in Israel from rockets as if they are the same thing by outlets like the BBC. They'll follow it up without hint of shame with a story about tens of thousands of Brits being evacuated from Beirut and other Lebanese towns. Israel isn't being evacuated because of bombings - Lebanon is.

But back to the prisoners - there has been little or no discussion on who they are. There are about 10,000 of them, many of whom have been held for years without charge. They are subject to Israel’s very own Guantanamo. See the Bethlehem Bloggers for an example of how a 22-year-old woman was recently abducted.

Yet, when the G8 leaders issued their communiqué on the situation there was no mention of it. What kind of leadership is this? I know that there was a lot of negotiation about the wording due to US intransigence, but this omission is galling.

Bush and Blair probably liken the Israeli action to their own wars on Afghanistan and Iraq following terrorism or supposed future terrorism. Large numbers of civilian causalities in the pursuit of evil regimes and terrorists.

Israel however doesn’t seem to need a 9/11 as pretext. Just a few soldiers being held prisoner. They have made much of Palestinian attacks on civilians in the past, but if this is the hell (do not visit if you’re eating just now) they unleash on other civilians when three military targets are captured – not killed – then they should not be surprised if others do not make the distinction either.

Source: http://osama.typepad.com/

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