That last one was really disappointing. I was looking forward to reading about unintentionally foolish people. The Onion is, of course, intentionally foolish.

I am now OFFICIALLY ashamed to admit I used to think Dennis Miller was smart and funny.

Shouldn't you point out the links to The Onion, like you point out the satires? Someone might just take the little quote seriously if they don't read the article itself... after all, it is bunched with a lot of other serious links.

Israel had a PLAN to invade Lebanon?! OMG! A plan!? You mean, faced with the prospect of thousands of missiles being shipped from Iran and Syria to their northern border, the Israelis actually laid out a plan on what to do if Hezbollah acted up and threatened them!?

Nefarious! Evil! Sick!

You guys are unbelievable. I suppose next you'll blame Israel for the Iranian missiles getting to Lebanon.... Pathetic.

Well the Hezbollah probably started shipping the rockets after they heard about Israel's plan to INVADE LEBANON AGAIN:

Israel set war plan more than a year ago Strategy was put in motion as Hezbollah began gaining military strength in Lebanon Matthew Kalman, Chronicle Foreign Service

Friday, July 21, 2006

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/07/21/MNG2QK396D1.DTL

(07-21) 04:00 PDT Jerusalem -- Israel's military response by air, land and sea to what it considered a provocation last week by Hezbollah militants is unfolding according to a plan finalized more than a year ago.

In the six years since Israel ended its military occupation of southern Lebanon, it watched warily as Hezbollah built up its military presence in the region. When Hezbollah militants kidnapped two Israeli soldiers last week, the Israeli military was ready to react almost instantly.

"Of all of Israel's wars since 1948, this was the one for which Israel was most prepared," said Gerald Steinberg, professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University. "In a sense, the preparation began in May 2000, immediately after the Israeli withdrawal, when it became clear the international community was not going to prevent Hezbollah from stockpiling missiles and attacking Israel. By 2004, the military campaign scheduled to last about three weeks that we're seeing now had already been blocked out and, in the last year or two, it's been simulated and rehearsed across the board."

More than a year ago, a senior Israeli army officer began giving PowerPoint presentations, on an off-the-record basis, to U.S. and other diplomats, journalists and think tanks, setting out the plan for the current operation in revealing detail. Under the ground rules of the briefings, the officer could not be identified....

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/07/21/MNG2QK396D1.DTL

Israel Responded to an Unprovoked Attack by Hizbullah, Right? Wrong The assault on Lebanon was premeditated - the soldiers' capture simply provided the excuse. It was also unnecessary

by George Monbiot

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0808-23.htm

Whatever we think of Israel's assault on Lebanon, all of us seem to agree about one fact: that it was a response, however disproportionate, to an unprovoked attack by Hizbullah. I repeated this "fact" in my last column, when I wrote that "Hizbullah fired the first shots". This being so, the Israeli government's supporters ask peaceniks like me, what would you have done? It's an important question. But its premise, I have now discovered, is flawed.

Since Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon in May 2000, there have been hundreds of violations of the "blue line" between the two countries. The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) reports that Israeli aircraft crossed the line "on an almost daily basis" between 2001 and 2003, and "persistently" until 2006. These incursions "caused great concern to the civilian population, particularly low-altitude flights that break the sound barrier over populated areas". On some occasions, Hizbullah tried to shoot them down with anti-aircraft guns.

In October 2000, the Israel Defence Forces shot at unarmed Palestinian demonstrators on the border, killing three and wounding 20. In response, Hizbullah crossed the line and kidnapped three Israeli soldiers. On several occasions, Hizbullah fired missiles and mortar rounds at IDF positions, and the IDF responded with heavy artillery and sometimes aerial bombardment. Incidents like this killed three Israelis and three Lebanese in 2003; one Israeli soldier and two Hizbullah fighters in 2005; and two Lebanese people and three Israeli soldiers in February 2006. Rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel several times in 2004, 2005 and 2006, on some occasions by Hizbullah. But, the UN records, "none of the incidents resulted in a military escalation"....

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0808-23.htm

Israel's assault, then, was premeditated: it was simply waiting for an appropriate excuse. It was also unnecessary. It is true that Hizbullah had been building up munitions close to the border, as its current rocket attacks show. But so had Israel. Just as Israel could assert that it was seeking to deter incursions by Hizbullah, Hizbullah could claim - also with justification - that it was trying to deter incursions by Israel. The Lebanese army is certainly incapable of doing so. Yes, Hizbullah should have been pulled back from the Israeli border by the Lebanese government and disarmed. Yes, the raid and the rocket attack on July 12 were unjustified, stupid and provocative, like just about everything that has taken place around the border for the past six years. But the suggestion that Hizbullah could launch an invasion of Israel or that it constitutes an existential threat to the state is preposterous. Since the occupation ended, all its acts of war have been minor ones, and nearly all of them reactive.

So it is not hard to answer the question of what we would have done. First, stop recruiting enemies, by withdrawing from the occupied territories in Palestine and Syria. Second, stop provoking the armed groups in Lebanon with violations of the blue line - in particular the persistent flights across the border. Third, release the prisoners of war who remain unlawfully incarcerated in Israel. Fourth, continue to defend the border, while maintaining the diplomatic pressure on Lebanon to disarm Hizbullah (as anyone can see, this would be much more feasible if the occupations were to end). Here then is my challenge to the supporters of the Israeli government: do you dare to contend that this programme would have caused more death and destruction than the current adventure has done?

[George Monbiot is a journalist, author, academic and environmental and political activist in the United Kingdom.]

Delusional. Truly. What is Hezbollah's purpose other than to destroy Israel? What else would they being doing with those weapons they got from Iran other than seek to use them on Israel? Now we're to believe that they only had the weapons so as to protect themselves from the evil Israeli meanies? Puuulease. And in your up is down, down is fucked out your mind world, Hezbollah attacked Israel by committing a war crime (kidnapping soldiers), but it's all Israel's fault!

Hezbollah is a terrorist organization which was supposed to have been disbanded as per UN security council resolutions SIX YEARS AGO. As always, Israel does what it was supposed to, pulled out, but the Arabs don't fulfill their part of the bargain -- stopping to kill Jews.