Dan--I apologize in advance for continuing on this tangent.

Typically, I am willing to call Israel out for lots of things they do. In this case, however, I cannot think of a better way for Hezbollah to be disarmed, which needs to happen (based on both a UN resolution and common sense). There is no global political will to have this done, so Israel has to. I would not want to live with a militant group on my northern border. Fortunately, we have the Canadians, and, well they do not support our destruction (unless you saw South Park the movie where they blew up the Baldwin family).

While Israel is blowing up civilian targets in Lebanon, which is not okay; the way I see it is the Lebanese have been abandoned by the entire world. There should be an international force taking out Hezbollah, helping the Lebanese. Sometimes, the status quo is not sufficient.

Fact is, no one wants to disarm Hezbollah. It is a dirty, gritty job. There will be deaths, and probably lots of them. Remember the American Marine barracks that was blown up, killing some 240 marines, which prompted us to leave Lebanon. Lebanon can't do it without their army splitting on sectarian lines and throwing the nation into civil war, again. We can't do it because we are too thinly stretched anyway. Plus, are you ready to fight Iran and Syria? Undoubtedly, we could beat them, but do we want to?

Unfortunately, this is a circumstance where I really do not know what the best route is. I cannot condemn Israel for doing what I would want done if there the situation was the same (which I doubt will ever happen). At the same time, I cannot understand how destroying the infrastructure of Lebanon is the best way to do it. I just wish Israel would have been a bit more honest about its intentions at first. I also wish they would stop bombing Beruit and general civilian infrastructure and go after Hezbollah directly.

But, until we realize that there are actually bad people out there who want to destroy things, we then cannot understand the Israeli situation. Our nation's war against terrorism is often misguided. But, that does not mean we should not be vigilant. Until 9-11, we pretty much had the luxury (with some notable circumstances) of watching terror on TV. Still, we do not live in an area where our families are constantly in threat, like the Israelis and Lebanese do. Thus, in terms of comprehending the situation, many of us are just fish out of water.

So, I guess what I am saying is, how would you have Hezbollah disarmed? Or, do you think it is acceptable that they have been building up arms on Israel's northern border for the last 5 years. This includes the 30,000 rockets that were transported from Syria and Iran during that time. I wonder for what purpose???? In addition, the Lebanese stopped more shipments this week.

that one of the moderators, perhaps it was you? posting comments related to Iraq. As to it not being "within a local context," that is exactly my point. Why haven't there been demonstrations organized in Philly by "progressives?" Given the extent to which the "progressives" usually protest Bush administration foreign policy, why aren't they agitated on this issue? Suddenly the Bush administration gets a Mulligan in its ill-conceived "war on terror?"

I think it's pretty normal that people who regularly check YPP want to talk about international politics. We've built a nice little community and I personally prefer to talk about these things with folks I know.

That said, I don't think the discussion needs to be on the front page. One of the reasons this blog is so sucessful is that it focuses on local politics and it's best to keep our eye on the ball.

The Middle East is a mess. It's beyond frustrating watching events escalate without being about to affect meaningful immediate change to US foreign policy.

The situation of different ethnic groups and countries in the Middle East appears so hopeless because all play a zero sum game. Either I'm winning or you're winning and there's no, "let's trade and make money together."

While I'd agree that there are other websites that are better suited for analysis of the Middle East, I also think many people in Philly and elsewhere figure that denial beats depression. I'm not saying that's okay but it's understandable: George W. Bush has worn people out. Democracy is an agonizingly slow process. Hopefully we'll get some better leadership soon.

"I didn't make it through this whole thread so I'll probably say things that have been said.
But I just think it's silly to criticize YPP for not dealing with Israel."

If you had read the thread then you would have seen that my original post was not meant as a criticism of YPP, or Dan. If it came across that way, I apologize. I was attempting to air my observation that I find the silence of the so-called "progressive" community in response to what is happening in Lebanon very, very strange. My original post was not meant to start a discussion on the Middle East so much as to question why there seem to be so few happening. I only posted my views on the crises in response to another post.

"Israel hasn't been censored out."

I never suggested that it has been.

"Of course a group of bloggers in Philly should be wringing their hands about Israel. We all have ever so much influence as to what goes on there."

Now here's where your comments start to get rather bizarre to me. Is your point that there isn't any reason to express one's views on a subject as important as this one? And that to do so is just "hand-wringing," and that since we can't dictate foreign policy, we should just abdicate to the Bush administration without finding out how our neighbors feel? I can't help but wonder if that kind of attitude is exactly what resulted in a paltry number of 8 congresscritters to stand against the Republicans and Democratic politicians' statements today in support of Israel. Why should Democrats voice opposition if not even the progressive community shows that they give a shit?

"I'm glad it hasn't come up here, because it isn't really in the expertise or purview of the people who write here and it isn't an issue that people come to YPP to read about."

Let's skip past the fact that you seem to think that you have some god-given ability to determine what people come to YPP to read about. What is really disturbing about that statement is that you think that somehow deferring to "expertise" on this issue is somehow appropriate. Do you think it is appropriate to defer to "experts," such as Donald Rumsfeld on the war in Iraq? Do you defer to "experts" on social security? Well, I strongly disagree with you there. I think that it is vitally important that the progressive community be discussing this issue. And I'm greatly disturbed that it doesn't seem to be happening. If Dan or whomever doesn't want to put this thread at the top of the board - fine, I respect that. But I remain perplexed that this issue seems to be flying under the radar screen of the "progressive" blogosphere.

"Another nice thing about YPP is that most of the bloggers on here are young people with some small amount of influence in this town. We are not complete nobodies holding forth, but people who are engaged in some issues and are moving some people. for that reason, we are credible writing about this place at this time. We are not credible wringing our hands about other countries."

Ok, I think that I've already expressed how absurd and dangerous I think your is your view that a discussion of perspectives on the displacement of hundreds of thousands innocents and the deaths of hundreds of innocents is merely the "wringing our hands" - but I'm glad that you have so much influence and that you're getting so much accomplished. And as such a go-getter and person of influence, I hope that some day you too will think that discussions about American involvement in death and destruction on a massive scale is of some value.