Hey! Don't take my word for it!

I have been accused, by some readers of my blog, of not reading history books (mostly by people who have obviously not read any history books themselves) and of exaggerating the hate, blindness and fury that fuels both Islamic fundamentalists and terrorist groups.

I received an email the other day from a friend of mine. She was born and raised in Canada, married an Israeli, and has lived in Israel for 20-some years. She stays there, even after her divorce, because it is her home and the home of her children.

Her kids are now young adults, which means they are or soon will be, in the military as part of the mandatory 2 (women)-to-3 (men) years of military service that begins at age 18. Women who opt to serve in combat positions are required to stay in for three years.

Men, and combat-trained women, continue to serve as reservists, and are called up for a month every year until they are in their mid 40s. They can continue to be on reserve duty after that age if they so desire. Reservists are subject to being recalled to active full-time duty whenever required to do so. (Israelis joke that civilians are just soldiers on 11-month long furloughs.)

So, by virtue of many things, my friend and I don't always share the same opinion of what is going on, what is needed to resolve the greater and smaller issues. I recognize that I hold the views and opinions I do not only because I've done a hell of a lot more reading throughout the years on the history of the region and the religions involved than have most people, but I also have not lived there since 1974, and I have no children who will end up on the front line...though in Israel, everyone is on the front line all the time, given that the favorite targets of their enemies are the civilians themselves and where they live, not some distant battlefield.

So, I was surprised and interested when my friend sent me what was purported to be the written version of an address given by a former Lebanese citizen, a woman who experienced first hand what I've been saying for years: When it comes to Israel, Jews in and outside of Israel, and to Christians everywhere, Moslems preach hate, order hate, and raise generations of Moslems to hate. The attributed author of the speech I received was a Christian Lebanese woman who delivered her talk at a anti-terrorist rally at Duke University in 2004.

I get a lot of purportedly true stuff sent to me by well-meaning friends and acquaintances, like the email claiming that Oliver North specifically referred to Osama bin Laden when testifying before Congress in 1987 (see Snope's Oliver Twisted and Atta Boy).

So, when I received my friend's email and started reading it, I decided to check it out first, heading to one of the urban legend sites I used to check out the validity of the report. (I use Snopes.com and UrbanLegends.about.com.)

Snopes rated it as True, and provided a link to a 45-minute video of an interview with Brigitte Gabriel. I encourage all to read the transcript of the speech she gave, listen to the interview, and check out Gabriel's organization, American Congress for Truth.

A picture's worth 1000 words...and lies

Aish.com's Photo Fraud highlights some of the altered and staged photos taken in Lebanon being published in the world press.

A rocket launcher in a terrorist training camp? Who'd'a thunk it?!

And here’s another thing that's been ticking me off about the majority of Americans stranded in Lebanon.

While they are in Lebanon, they are "Americans".

Once they reach Cyprus or the other transit points, or are back in the US, or when their families here are interviewed on TV and radio, they are "Lebanese-Americans".

Either you are American, or you are not. If you are a U.S. citizen, you are an American. You might have originally been from Lebanon, or “of Lebanese descent”, but if you are a legally a citizen, then you are an American.

Theoretically, being American should make one against terrorism and the terrorists who have the stated intent of killing Americans, but, hey, obviously I’m wrong.

How else to explain why purported Americans will vacation in a country that supports terrorism by protecting and supporting the terrorists in its midst?

If the good people of Lebanon want to stop getting bombed, they have to expose those terrorists – including their family members who are lobbing Katyushas over the border.

Blaming Israel—the Jews—and the U.S. for your problems is just the same old fundamental Arab bullshit, which feeds of the habit of a people who blame others for their own failure to take personal responsibility for the situation in which they find themselves.

The Hezbollah just launched a new type of Iranian-supplied rocket, one that can travel farther than the Russian-made Katyushas. One fell yesterday in the town near where I lived.

Am I the only one who thinks that along with longer-range rockets, Iran has probably also supplied the Hezbollah with the material needed to make dirty bombs?

Oh, but there is good news: Three weeks after the Hezbollah attacked an Israeli outpost and kidnapped two Israeli soldiers, and 18 days after the Hezbollah started bombing Israel, the Lebanese army found ONE rocket launcher, near a PFLP camp.

(The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, founded in 1967, is one of the two major terrorist organizations making up the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Gee, I can see why it would have taken the Lebanese army THREE WEEKS to get around to looking in a terrorist training camp. You can probably figure out why I am finding it hard to believe that they only found ONE launcher there.

You are either part of the solution, people, or you are perpetuating the problem. It is that simple.