Fire Support - because the Marquis of Queensbury never had to go door to door in dispersed tactical formation, with multiple engagement zones and the threat of recurring lateral ambushes.

There are these people called "Palestinians".  Sucks to be them.  I don't think that being more popular than the Muslim states is a good excuse for destroying the infrastructure of an already crippled state.

And it makes up for the ones we don't hear about with a horrific human rights record.  I don't know, I don't think escalation will lead to resolution, or if you prefer it another way, I'm not convinced that two wrongs will make a right.

Sorry?  Are we talking about what may be a part of the Lebanese government attacking Israel or the response of the Israeli government?  So far as I can see it's largely a matter of scale with said scale favouring the Israelis.

Nope, but I don't see Iran using its army on Israel, I see Israel using its army on Lebanon.

So because Hezbollah, an admitted terrorist group that don't enjoy majority support in Lebanon (according to your statement), does something Israel has carte blanche to do whatever it likes? I disagree.

Wonderful!  Considerate of them.  I only hope that the people living there have access to people who can read, the war that has been more or less ongoing since 1987 may have affected the chances of people being able to read these leaflets.

http://www.ghazi.de/educat.html

Who's defending Hezbollah?  They're quite clearly dangerous terrorist loonies.  It's all the poor bastards who are being killed by the Israelis through no fault of their own (except being illiterate, or being unlucky) that I feel the need to speak out for.

Maybe its because they're getting quite a lot of help from the US?  In terms of all that nice equipment they're blowing Lebanon up with.  I think you'll find that a couple of nice beaches and fruit growing capacity don't buy a lot of tanks, fighter aircraft, shells, etc.  (At least they don't seem to be spending on such in the Bahamas...)  There's also "defending yourself" and committing an act of war.  Let's say the SNP went rogue and started launching missiles at England and then English tanks start shelling "infrastructure" in Scotland.  Is there any question that England has started a war with Scotland?  No.  Do most of the Scottish people doing the dying support the terrorists?  No.  Same situation with Lebanon.  It's not "self-defence" it's murder.

Hmm... by perhaps engaging in dialogue and making life better for the people around them?  Versus, say, ignoring the problem and crushing opposition through force.  No, I'm sure no one's suggested that... wait...

Obviously there's something about that part of the world that encourages bastardry on a grand scale.  However, just because you live next to bad people, doesn't mean that you're right to be bad yourself.  Are you seriously suggesting that I should consider Israel and Iran as being at the same level?

There is always a mod reading these threads. I'll leave things for now unless I receive a complaint through the correct channel. However, I would say gentlemen, do try to stick to the topic - which was the BBC's coverage. I realise with a topic like this, all sorts of tangents can feel justified, but one man's justified tangent, is another's derailment.

You'd think that, but I couldn't possibly comment about Israeli Munitions Industries (IMI) being a major arms producing company. I also couldn't point out that they produce their own line of tanks, bespoke to the Israeli government because they are uniquely different to other 4th generation MBTs: Merkhava 5, I believe we're on.

Israel makes it own stuff... they'd be mad not to, surrounded as they are by hostile states. They also sell to other people, including the UK: the rotters even put in a gratuitously cheap bid on a contract to try to drive a rival munition out of the market.

Indeed, making weapons is a profitable business, I'm surprised you didn't mention the Uzi but hey.  Nonetheless I think you'll find that they still import a lot more weapons than makes "sense" from an economic point of view.  (Obviously it makes a lot of sense being surrounded by all the mad Arabs.)