When Israel is involved compared to when Lebanon is involved.

I'm sure the outcry will begin any minute now.


It can't possibly be due to hypocrisy, bigotry or AntiSemitism/antiZionism.

An Iraq national ith ties to the IS group is being detained after trying to cross into Lebanon. It's possible this person may be useful to secure the release of 20 Lebanese soldiers.

It's a rather different affair than if, say, she were a citizen of Beruit and the Lebanese Army blew up her house, leaving her and her child homeless, simply on account of who she's married to.

And I thought you said you didn't support collective punishment? Were you lying again?

im talking about the difference in reaction.

Your just proving my point.

There's really no valid comparison to be made between the two. Lebanon's police are not conducting collective punishment. Ergo, there is no outrage about them conducting collective punishment.

It's a terrible thing when Israel does not return the bodies of the most horrific terrorist pair this decade but when Obama does the exact same thing by not returning the body of an equally horrific terrorist if not worse aka Osama Bun Laden , then that's "the right thing to do".

There's never comparisons with Israel EVER -( except Nazi ones)- the Jewish state is uniquely bad because it is the Jewish State .

You're trying to conjure up outrage because people have different reactions to different situations. That's silly.

Now that the silliness has been exposed, you're trying to change the subject to something else entirely in a classic case of whataboutism.

That's just silly .

Cheers .

Sure thing li'l buddy

And I don't mean that in a snarky dismissive way, i'm genuinely confused. How I know wut?

we see you.

What you talking about?

...the wives and children of Hamas leaders - to use as future bargaining chips - correct?

1) the idea is to use them as bargaining chips in a current crisis - 20 captive Lebanese soldiers. It's not like, "oh, let's hold her and see what comes down the road."

2) Unlike Hamas, IS has a habit of just flat-out killing its captives. So. We have a situation where 20 Lebanese soldiers literally have the knife on their necks.

3) This woman practically delivered herself into police custody. The Lebanese security forces didn't track her down and catch her. She came to the border, was investigated in the way border crossings are, and was detained.

If Khaled Meshaal had his guns in the mouths of 20 Israeli captives, and his wife just happened to fly into ben-Gurion one day... yeah, I kinda expect Israel would take advantage of that. Or the wife of a wanted criminal came to the US, same thing, I would expect she'd be detained, questioned, and used as leverage.

It's unpleasant, perhaps, but it's not really something to condemn.

Now the question arises... what will Lebanon do with the pair? That remains to be seen. Most likely, they will simply be deported back into syria. Possibly they will be granted asylum, if she is fleeing the guy or proves cooperative. if she is harmed, imprisoned, or otherwise punished for what her husband is doing, then you get condemnation, because that's wrong. If she has lebanese relatives and they are punished, you get the condemnation, because that is wrong.

it's that old bugbear of yours, ethics.

As it stands, Lebanon is not doing anything one wouldn't expect any other country to do. Detaining an associate of a known criminal is not wrong, especially if you know htye may be able to bring some amount of justice to the issue. But if they have done no wrong themselves, then punishing htem is itself unjust and wrong.

thats generally viewed as a serious offence, and could quiet easily merit a jail sentence.

Given that the average Israeli sentence for Palestinian kids throwing stones is three years in military prison, I would say that Lebanon still stands head and shoulders above Lebanon as far as the rule of law is concerned.

...there'd be little more than a "tsk, tsk" from the anti-Imperialist Left.

Let's recall what the unhinged Left thinks about their anti-Imperialist terror buddies vs. the Zionist entity...

Nor are they particularly prone to cutting off people's heads. In fact Hezbollah doesn't do that, either.

Man, talk about unhinged. You must be an entertaining person, face to face, since your mouth doesn't have an edit function or delete key.

The point still stands.

Lebanon or Hezbollah could do whatever they want with her and it wouldn't provoke more than a yawn from the so-called anti-Imperialist Left. These are their progressive buddies in their battle against the Imperialist Zionist entity, so they get a pass.

You're putting out a blob on nonsense and trying to act like it's insightful and meaningful.

....will not go after Hezbollah or Lebanon. They're not the enemy. They're fellow progressives in the fight against bourgeois western Imperialism.

We know how this works. Let's be real here...

If the anti-Zionist Left got worked up over Lebanon or Hezbollah's actions, it would assist the Zionist cause. So no more than a one-line condemnation and a wink-wink would be in the cards.

I just want to make sure that you understand what's going on here, that you're basically making something up and working yourself into a froth over it.

Ever heard the term "persecutory delusion"?

I suggest you go back and refresh your memory.

It's why you won't answer the simplest questions.

Alan Johnson's description of the reactionary anti-Imperialist Left is dead-on. All you have in response are diversions, smoke-and-mirrors.....

I'll give you another chance. Here's another tidbit from Alan Johnson & I'd appreciate your input on it. Is he right or wrong, and if wrong please explain...

You've got one slender paragraph, sans context, excised from an 8,500-word essay by John Molyneux on the subject of the interrelation between religion and Marxist theory, slipped into a gish gallop collection of similar sans-context one liners, compiled expressly to cause a sense of outrage i in the reader, and you want me to "answer" it in one or two sentences?

I'm sorry, there's just no way to actually do that. it's a fucking complex question, and I'll be really honest shira, you are not equipped to initiate, much less maintain such a conversation.

...excerpt from Alan Johnson. I want to know what you think about it.

Do you relate to this anti-Imperialist Left that he is describing? Or do you distance yourself from them? If the latter, why?

Either that, or someone's conducting plagarism.

You can call it ducking and dodging if you want. I know exactly what John Molyneux is saying, since I read his essay (I linked it for you in the prior thread too, so you can read it - seems you demurred.) I also know that attempting to have such a discussion with someone like you would be about as useful as trying to explain the concept of ring species to a young-earth creationist:

"but they're still salamanders, right? Goddidit!"

if you want to learn about anti-imperialism, I suggest you conduct some research on your own first. Like, actual research, not reactionary op-ed pieces by a right-wing "reformed leftist" like Alan Johnson.

The people Johnson is describing are __________ ?

a) Embarassments to the anti-Imperialist Left
b) Representative of the anti-Imperialist Left
c) Non-existant
d) Other