This is not good.
Israel bombs Beirut; imposes blockade
After the ramp-up in recent weeks--Israel declaring it would draw its borders without consulting the Palestinians; the bombing of Gaza--I really think we're looking at the end game of the Palestinian question here.
I am a Hindu from Indian Punjab and I am intimately familiar with militancy and terrorism. Punjab was the worst terrorism affected state in the Indian history. It reached its peak in 1984 when Sikh militants took shelter in the Golden Temple (equivalent of Mecca for Sikhs) and the Indian army had to storm it with tanks. They had literally turned the Golden Temple into a fort with all sort of reinforcements and artillery deployment.
The point here is that this was the watershed moment for Sikh militancy. It increased a little bit after that but it started going down and was totally eliminated by 1994. We all know that Islamic militancy won't go on forever. So what you think would be the watershed moment for Islamic militancy?
The price of oil is going to turn the world into economic turmoil, so we may be looking at the onset of WWIII here as well, especially if this spills over into Iran.
Welcome Manish. In my opinion--and I'm not an authority--the one thing that would really put a plug in jihadism is responsible government in the Muslim world. The average Muslim in countries like Egypt and Pakistan (two large exporters of jihadis) is not getting what he/she needs: security, a fair judiciary, reasonable, limited and pro-active executive leadership. In many situations, it's the fundamentalists who are (or who appear to be) offering these things instead--look at Somalia and the Islamic Courts. So my short answer is good government. Certainly not shelling Lebanon.
CP, the words World War III did cross my mind as well. But I think--I hope--we're not there yet.
It's not about the end of the Palestinian Question. It can't be if Israel wants unilateral withdrawl and then annexation in order for those borders to be recognized the international community will have to agree - won't happen if any land is taken through war - won't happen if the palestinians keep resisting. This is about something else.
Pimpette; that something else is going to trickle down to one worD...oil.Its all about economics/oil. willow, for years and i wont start the count here, we have been waiting for good governance (surprise! I am here in Pakistan) and all we get is lords and masters who want their piece of the pie and save some for their grandchildren and so on.The major problem of jihadis being trained and exported is used as the crutch by which these so called leaders can stay on. of course the jihadis, to begin with,were brought up for Afghanistan and the Soviet invasion.That they became useless after the Russians left Afghanistan is what made this clonoing so difficult to handle...and thus the exporting of the jihadis and not the wheat and sugar we produce so abundantly. the heart bleeds be open to change,but never give up your values
Ginan Rauf
No Willow this is not good, this is downright scary. The
escalation is frightful. This is regional and involves players
like Syria. The fear is of another civil war in Lebanon. It
is obvious that the government in Beirut is decidely not
in control.
The border between Gaza and Sinai has become so pourous since control was ceded back to the Palestinians that I'm actually a little afraid Egypt is going to get drawn in as well. All it would take is a couple of stray missiles or an Israeli incursion into Sinai to chase down militants who escaped over the border.