Please get out of the way

I love the notes Israel is dropping on Lebanese villages: "please not that the Israeli army and air force will be conducting surgical strikes in your area this week, so please, no parking on the road and we apologise for the inconvenience of blowing up your homes and slaughtering your children. If you could be so kind as to remove yourselves along the highways we have so thoughtfully cratered with bombs and routinely strafe this would be the best way to protect yourselves. Oh, and this message is backdated two weeks to when we first started bombing the hell out of your towns. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible."

I have no time for these Hezbollah numpties who clearly have little regard for the safety of civilians on either side, but we know they are terrorists. Israel is a democratically governed nation yet it is committing wanton acts of terror while Blair and Bush sit by and let them, slaughtering hundreds of civilians including children. What is even scarier is that the bulk of Israeli opinion seems to think that hundreds of innocents being killed by them is acceptable. And they wonder why so many people hate them so much. Of course you have the right to defend yourselves from lunatics firing missiles into your towns, but the Israelis seem to be shocked that they get hit back after bombing Lebanon.

Even if you are the most gung-ho hawkish Israeli surely you should be a bit more pragmattic about this - bombings of large areas of Gaza failed to return the solider kidnapped there and instead killed many innocents, ruined the land's infrastructure and pushed even moderates into hating Israel. So what is your strategy in the North - why do exactly the same again, but do it on a bigger scale. Oh, and bomb large parts of one of the few democratic nations in the region which is still recovering from a dreadful civil war. Yeah, that will really secure peace for your country and won't lead to more instability and a whole new generation of traumatised kids who will grow up with a burning hate of Israel. As far as increasing security this is about as successful as the 'liberation' of Iraq was in securing peace and stability.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could just put a big chunk of country aside for those fools who are utterly convinced that the only way to settle anything is with big explosions, well away from everyone else, and just let them duke it out there, leaving civilians out of it. How ironic that Israel should now be re-creating the terror of Guernica, repeating the awful crimes against civilians that an evil regime that they above all other people should despise, yet here they are committing similar acts.

And before anyone gives me that tired old argument that saying anything against Israel amounts to anti-Semitism, don't bother - that's the biggest load of cobblers. I'm not anti-Semitic, or anti-Muslim or anyone for that matter. I'm just anti bloodthirsty barbarians who think killing hundreds of innocent civilians is acceptable. Bush and Blair don't dare criticise Israel because their own records in this regard are less than spotless - actually, let's face it, they should be in the War Crimes court in the Hague. Maybe if we hauled more so-called world leaders off to the Hague to answer for their crimes then politicians would become less enamoured with warfare as a tool of policy. As ever it is ordinary folks on both sides who get caught in the middle. Oh, and wasn't it amazing what Boing Boing and other news sources published this week, that the American government made their citizens being evacuated from Lebanon sign a promissary note agreeing to reimburse the state for the cost of saving them? Isn't that what your taxes are for?