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Jul 17, 06
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Israeli Bomb Kills 7 Canadians In Lebanon!!!
OUTRAGE!!
Not that it wasen't already outrageous before what Israel was doing to the Lebanese, but now it hits home as well! http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...rnational/home MONTREAL — It was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime when Ali Al-Akhrass brought his wife Amira and their four young children to Lebanon. This summer would be a good time to go back to the homeland, he told his family. They could visit the family's old house and introduce the four small kids to relatives there, the family members who had stayed behind. Yesterday, all four children -- Salaan, 1, Ahamed, 3, Zeinab, 5, and Saja, 7 -- perished during the summer visit, in the ancestral Lebanese town of Aytaroun, near the Israeli border. So, too, did the children's mother and another female relative. In all, seven Canadians were killed in Israeli attacks on Lebanon, Foreign Minister Peter MacKay said yesterday. That number included six members of the Al-Akhrass family. "They didn't know that death awaited them," said Hussein Al-Akhrass, Ali's uncle, in an interview last night. "They had nothing to do with this conflict. They're not militants." The Canadian government moved yesterday to help thousands of other Canadians stranded in Lebanon. That number could be as high as 40,000. Mr. MacKay said Canada has dispatched two cruise ships from Cyprus to the Lebanese coast to help ferry Canadians out of the area. Extra consular officials have also been sent to help. For the Al-Akhrass family, that help is too late. Hussein said he was chatting with his brother, also in Lebanon, just a few days ago, discussing what options there were to ensure everyone's safety in a rapidly deteriorating situation. Hussein was going to join his family later this week, but had decided to stay where he was. Yesterday, as Hussein marched in downtown Montreal with hundreds of other members of Montreal's Lebanese community to protest against Israeli attacks on civilian Lebanese targets, he got a call on his cellphone. In that one call, he learned of the six tragic deaths. Ali, his nephew, was also injured in the rocket attack. Ali Al-Akhrass received his pharmacist's degree from the University of Montreal, and he started working behind the prescription counter for Jean Coutu for about six or seven years. He worked his way up to become chief pharmacist, before finally taking over his own Jean Coutu franchise. He was considered a prominent member of Montreal's Lebanese community. Hussein said he was trying frantically to find a way to quickly bring him and the other injured family members back to Canada. Ali Blaibel, a member of the extended family in Montreal, said the whole family is trying to find out where to turn for help. "We want to get the injured out, but it's very hard to get good information," he said in frustration. "The lines of communication are almost zero and here we are in a grieving situation." Hussein Al-Akhrass said that in the days leading up to the bomb attack his brother tried to get help from the Canadian embassy in Beirut via the Internet, but no one responded to his entreaties. Last edited by decypher; Jul 17, 06 at 05:42 AM. 
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Jul 17, 06
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Exactly Hezbollah, the numbers of civillian deaths to militant deaths is outrageous. Most people who comment on Israel's "just" actions lack a full understanding of the situation. Killing civilians and destroying a countries infrastructure only makes the population more inclined to join militants and to support them as seen with the election of Hamas into power in palestine. Israel isn't just punishing the militants but the general population, this is just going to be met with more rocket fire into Northern Israel.
Yes it's a difficult situation and both sides are at fault but Israel's killing of civilians and the infrastructure of lebanon is unexceptable. So is Hezbollah's fire into Israel. The whole situation is at this point because of the publicized deterrents that Israel receives and creates unchecked (nukes, tanks, jets from america). This gives legitimate reasons for other nations to militarize against them. If they want to diffuse the situation it can't be onesided. Israel being the unilateral leader of the region (exempt from certain international agreements) promotes this sort of militant action. You can't simply roll out of the region put up a wall and forget there are people on the otherside, as Olmert wants. The G8 called for "utmost restraint" other countries have called it illegal under international law while Harper and McKey sit around with their thumbs up there asses using words like "measured" and "urging." We need more pointed language especially with our own citiznes dying. Unilateral American/Israel authority has brought it to this situation by trumping international norms. Where's the proportionality in all this?
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Jul 17, 06
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Jul 17, 06
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>The government of Canada is one of Israels biggest supporters/partners.
>They are Israels largest trading partner, they host several of the largest Zionist organizations in the world including the "Jewish National Fund" >Canada created the ideological fodder for Israel Apartheid and continue to lend advice and support in the politics of oppressing Palestinians, and regular/working class/impoverished people in Israel >Canada is one of several nations that voted AGAINST the Palestinian "Right of Return" The government of Canada could care less about a few tourists getting blown away.
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Jul 17, 06
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what a shitstye.... Olmert just addressed the press earlier this morning, and it doesn't seem like the bombardment of lebanon will ease up. He also never mentioned discussing any sort of negotiations w/ lebanon. Actually Olmert's speech seemed eerily reminiscent of Bush's first state of the union. What a sad state.
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Jul 18, 06
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Anyway, I'd like to hear people's suggestions for implementable resolutions to this issue. The middle east thing that is.
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Jul 18, 06
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I say let them slug it out for a while.
Who knows, maybe something good will come out of it. It's not like I'm seeing any better idea's in this thread. On a side note: I love the new found popularity of catch phrases like "Illegal war" and "international law". I wonder what the history books would be like if they were around during WWII ect. "Today Germany began its Illegal war of occupation violating all international law" blaa blaa blaa Wars are only "illegal" if someone stronger than you takes your nation to the woodshed and then decides to Kangaroo court your leaders.
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Jul 18, 06
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Jul 20, 06
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By the way International Law has been quite prevailent in politics for over a century. The first Geneva convention was ratified on 1864. It was originally made to protect the wounded in war. After WW1 and WW2 when the horrors of civilization were exposed in the modern world there was a struggle to bring stability. The nuremburg trails and the 1949 Geneva conventions that furthered the international law that deals with the treatment of POW's and a whole lot of other things. There has been countless other humanitarian codes, laws, multi-lateral agreements and customs proposed and ratified since the late 19th century. This spans across many subject areas but the US has managed to roll back those norms quite nicely in recent decades. War's can be illegal but a nation such as the US can change such definitions such as in their National Security Strategy of which can be downloaded from whitehouse.gov. Using words such as pre-emptive warfare gives the US, as they see it, the power to attack a threat first as they see fit.
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