More slogans

Lebanon is an Iranian Proxy
In its ambition to take over the Middle East, Iran is driven by both Shia Muslim extremism and Persian nationalism. This makes Israel, as well as the Sunni Muslim Arab states (Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia), very nervous. Hizbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza are Iranian proxies. Syria is an ally of Iran, partly because it is controlled by the Alawite minority (10% of the population) that is a Muslim heretical sect like the Shia in Iran. Lebanon is supposedly a democratic country, but when all the other militia groups were disarmed after the Civil War, the Shia militia Hizbollah refused, and has gone from strength to strength, supported by Syria and Iran. It is now more powerful than it was before the Second Lebanon War of 2006. In the past two years Hizbollah has entered the Lebanese Government and is now a controlling partner. The current President Saad Hariri can do nothing without Hizbollah approval. Since Syria left Lebanon officially in 2005, it now controls Lebanon thru Hizbollah. Originally Israel supported the idea that the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) would control the area of Lebanon south of the Litani River. But, the LAF is no longer neutral, with ca. 50% Shia soldiers and ca. 30% Shia officers, the LAF is now essentially an offshoot of Hizbollah. We must now consider Lebanon in all respects as a fully fledged proxy of Iran.

Israel is a Legitimate State
The campaign to delegitimize Israel implies that Israel is in fact a legitimate State. The key determinate of legitimacy is whether or not a state is recognized by the UN and the majority of countries on earth, and Israel is. It has existed for 62 years! Apart from the Biblical heritage, that everyone knows, modern Israel derives from Jewish immigrants who started returning in the 1860s and settled the land, which was largely barren and underpopulated. More Jewish immigrants came after the Holocaust in WWII. By hard work and commitment they have built an effective and thriving state. By comparison, the Palestinian Arabs have been largely content to sit in camps and bemoan their fate, even with billions of dollars of aid they have not prospered and have largely depended on violence and the destruction of Israel for their raison d'etre. To those who believe in a "two state solution" this fact is unpalatable, but true.

There never was an Arab State in Palestine
The area called Palestine by the British was conquered from the Turks in WWI. After the British received the Palestine Mandate from the League of Nations in 1922 its responsibility was to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Britain then unilaterally divided Palestine and separated the Arab State of Transjordan from the Mandate. It later became Jordan when its Arab Legion occupied the West Bank from 1948-67. Until the 1930s Britain honored its commitment to the Jews, but then under Arab influence it reneged and from 1938 began to severely limit Jewish immigration, thus causing the deaths of many Jew who were trapped in Europe during WWII. After WWII Britain gave up its Mandate and allowed the newly founded United Nations to determine the fate of Palestine. In 1948 the UN voted for partition to form a Jewish and an Arab State. But, the surrounding Arab countries invaded the nascent Jewish State and the first of several wars of intended destruction too place. However, in every war Israel defeated the combined Arab forces. At no time has there ever been Arab sovereignty over Palestine.