Which global "hot spot" concerns you most?

[Zippa D Doodah]

N Korea has its "Dear Wackydoodle Leader", and long range missiles that travel the length of a football field. But their is the ominous shadow of the Chinese in that arena...

OR, do you worry more about the middle east where there is now a growing trend of capturing Israeli soldiers as a means of forcing Israel to consider release of its own prisoners.

I think both of these "hot spots" involve volatile nations, questionable leaders, global powers, and horrifying weaponry. I fear what N Korea -with China's tacit approval -is capable of; I dread what Israel is about to be forced into doing to maintain its sovereignty. The Middle East does concern me a bit more based on today's news.

 

[cardaway]

In the near term I certainly worry about what Israel is going to do. They scare me.

 

[ducklite]

At least there is some predictability in the Middle East, and while we might think that their political ideology is crazy and not agree with it, at least we can in some twisted way understand where they are going with it.

In Korea their leader is an unstable megalomaniac without clear motives or political direction.

All I can say is thank God he doesn't have nukes.

Anne

 

[snowball22]

The Middle East is what concerns me the most!!

*It's the fight over every last drop of oil available that could tear the world apart in a flash*




North Korea is just blowing smoke. There is no way they would seriously do anything stupid.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

In the near term I certainly worry about what Israel is going to do. They scare me.

They are definitely being backed into a corner. They will have to defend themselves in order to get the kidnappings to stop.

 

[MorganLeFey]

I have personal ties to Israel and friends who live there.

In 1973 Golda Meir, of blessed memory, seriously contemplated the use of nucler weapons as a last resort. she knew that is she used the nukes, there really wouldn't be a "winner", so she contemplated using them only in the event Israel was faced with annihilation. fortunately Kissinger and Nixon came through with aid...and Israel won the Yom Kippur War. without Kissinger and Nixon and aid from the US, it is very likely Israel would have lost that war.

what happened today scared me too. tension between Israel and the Palestinians has been high since Arafat's Intifada began in 2000. I thought sharon was on the right track with the unilateral pullout from Gaza and parts of the West Bank...you can't negotiate with terrorists, and it's clear Hamas is a terrorist organization. but today things escalated -- Lebanon is involved. what's next, Syria? if things continue to escalate outside of the West Bank and gaza, across international bordersinto neighboring countries, we may wind up with yet another war in the region.

do you worry more about someone who has real weapons and exercises restraint, but who may actually use what they have if their backs are to the wall,

or do you worry about a real nutjob in North Korea who is trying to use scare tactics, but doesn't [yet] have the technology to pose a real threat?

 

[RoyalCanadian]

In the near term I certainly worry about what Israel is going to do. They scare me.

Why would Israel's right to self-defense, self-determination and their basic right to exist scare anyone?

What should scare you is the consistency of the Arab leadership to portray Israel as the bogeyman in the world when it is the only democratic country in the Middle East with a clear record of protecting human rights and following international law instead of the Palestinian and Arab clear record of terrorism, human rights abuses and acts of war directed against civilian populations.

 

[ducklite]

or do you worry about a real nutjob in North Korea who is trying to use scare tactics, but doesn't [yet] have the technology to pose a real threat?

But has the seemingly tacit backing of their nuclear able, one billion strong, fellow communist neighbors...

Isreal is smarter than to use a nuclear weapon. The UN would become involved--and not just diplomatically--before it came to that.

Anne

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

what happened today scared me too. tension between Israel and the Palestinians has been high since Arafat's Intifada began in 2000. I thought sharon was on the right track with the unilateral pullout from Gaza and parts of the West Bank...you can't negotiate with terrorists, and it's clear Hamas is a terrorist organization. but today things escalated -- Lebanon is involved. what's next, Syria? if things continue to escalate outside of the West Bank and gaza, across international bordersinto neighboring countries, we may wind up with yet another war in the region.

do you worry more about someone who has real weapons and exercises restraint, but who may actually use what they have if their backs are to the wall,

or do you worry about a real nutjob in North Korea who is trying to use scare tactics, but doesn't [yet] have the technology to pose a real threat?

Israel has every right to defend itself -and I have every expectation that the leaders will do just that. My fear for the Middle East is that some loose conglomerate of -arguably minority -Arab factions are making some very alarming decisions that are going to result in the inevitable tragic response from a nation (Israel) armed, capable, willing, and justified in defending itself. I am just praying right now that a mediator will step forward before things get extremely bloody and scary. While I have great respect for President Bush, I don't see a Nixon/Kissinger-style act of diplomacy coming out of this White House. I pray that I am wrong.

As of today's Hezbollah actions, N Korea is offically on the back burner in my mind.

 

[cardaway]

Why would Israel's right to self-defense, self-determination and their basic right to exist scare anyone?

Not everybody agrees the situation is totally one sided.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

The issue is not one-sided by any means, but other aggressors are giving Israel no choice about its response.

 

[vanessat]

After decades of strife, Israelis desperately want peace, and are willing to sacrifice a lot to achieve it, but there are always those extremists, funded by Iran and terrorist groups, who use violence and terrorism to undermine any chance of it happening in the near future.

 

[Miss Jasmine]

Israel has every right to defend itself -and I have every expectation that the leaders will do just that. My fear for the Middle East is that some loose conglomerate of -arguably minority -Arab factions are making some very alarming decisions that are going to result in the inevitable tragic response from a nation (Israel) armed, capable, willing, and justified in defending itself. I am just praying right now that a mediator will step forward before things get extremely bloody and scary. While I have great respect for President Bush, I don't see a Nixon/Kissinger-style act of diplomacy coming out of this White House. I pray that I am wrong.

As of today's Hezbollah actions, N Korea is offically on the back burner in my mind.

Well said, and I agree.

 

[vanessat]

What is really scary is Iran developing nuclear capability. They have a mission: jihad against "the big evil" - the US and the "little evil" - Israel.

 

[cardaway]

The issue is not one-sided by any means, but other aggressors are giving Israel no choice about its response.

It's how for they choose to go in their responses that worries me.

 

[DawnCt1]

Why would Israel's right to self-defense, self-determination and their basic right to exist scare anyone?

What should scare you is the consistency of the Arab leadership to portray Israel as the bogeyman in the world when it is the only democratic country in the Middle East with a clear record of protecting human rights and following international law instead of the Palestinian and Arab clear record of terrorism, human rights abuses and acts of war directed against civilian populations.

Well said. They are a democracy surrounded by wolves who want to see their demise. I believe that there is a Biblical admonition issued to those that would turn their backs on Israel, which was predicted to become a "millstone" around necks.

 

[frndshpcptn]

Cardaway, how do you think they should respond to the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah militants?

I've spent some time in the cities in Northern Israel that sit along the Lebannon border. It's scary to actually see the border fences and know you can literally put one foot in one country and one foot in another (well - not legally - but in terms of proximaty to one another).

 

[Miss Jasmine]

What is really scary is Iran developing nuclear capability. They have a mission: jihad against "the big evil" - the US and the "little evil" - Israel.

Even scarier is Russia helping it.

 

[RoyalCanadian]

It's how for they choose to go in their responses that worries me.

Israel's responses have always been of an intensity limited to the level of the provocation. While Arab terrorists deliberately attack Israeli civilians, Israeli responses are limited to military and political targets.

As for the latest incursions into Gaza -- this is all brought upon the Palestinians by their own leadership. The kidnapping of Corporal Shalit was a pre-meditated act of war against the State of Israel by the Hamas leadership. As a former combat infantryman, it would give me great confidence to know that my country would do anything within its power to bring me home safe and sound.

Time and time again it is Israel which has shown a willingness to negotiate with the Arabs, despite the encouragement it gives to those who choose to perpetrate acts of war and terrorism against the country. Israel is more than willing to live in accord with UN Resolutions passed against Israel -- if only the Arab states that insist on maintaining a state of war with Israel were as willing to negotiate.

 

[BuckNaked]

I'm more concerned about North Korea than the Middle East.

As for the current situation vis a vis Israel, anyone that "knows" me from these boards knows that I'm not, nor have ever been, a dyed-in-the-wool supporter of Israel. However, I back them 100% in what they are doing now. In the US, we talk about and to some degree, fret over, the ever present threat of terrorism.

In Israel, they *live* it every day. I'll be the first to say that many of Israel's problems have been brought on both by their own actions and by the unfortunate habit the US has of going balls to the wall in support of anything and everything Israel chooses to do. Having said that, Israel has made major concessions and taken huge steps in the last year or so to attempt to disengage from the Palestinian territories and from Lebanon.

And what do they get for it? Continued attacks and their soldiers being kidnapped. What are they supposed to do? Just sit back and take it indefinitely?

Sorry, but no. They have a right to defend themselves, and if that means going into Lebanon and Gaza to go after the people that are committing terrorist acts and kidnapping Israeli soldiers, then they should have at it.

If the Palestinian people, as opposed to the ruling Hamas party, are truly interested in peace with Israel, then perhaps they should turn the intifadah onto their own government and put leaders in place that are more interested in peace than in continuing a battle that ultimately they cannot win.

JMO.