It's your chance to form an alliance with the other 60% of the Lebanese population and take out Hizbullah with the Lebanese Armed Forces

We helped the Lebanese before during the first civil war, and yet there is not the slightest degree of gratitude from the Lebanese Maronites for the genocide we prevented against them. I hope you wipe each other out.

since hizbulla's "defeat" of an under-prepared and pitifully-led israel last year, i wonder what kind of "victory" is in store for them this year? if they insist on a war, then by all means let's find out, shall we?

This is going to sound weird to many of you, but the situation is nothing more than a continuation of Iranian imperialism and their colonization around the Middle East. Yes, Iran has occupied southern Lebanon for many years. Iranian military officers trained and commanded Hezbollah units, and Iran continues to illegally funnel arms and ammunition to its proxy army there. Last summer's war was started not by Israel, not by Lebanon, but by Hezbollah - armed and trained and directed by Iran. Hamas leaders in Gaza have openly admitted to bringing in millions of dollars in cash from Iran to Gaza, to prop up the failing government of Ismail Haniya while Hamas thugs did their best to kill off Fatah members. It is a known fact that Syrian covets Lebanon. It is a known fact that the Iranian occupation of southern Lebanon has brought nothing but death, destruction and instability to Lebanon.

I wish I could help but in Israel we look at Lebanon as a cause that we tried once and our leaders ruined. Lebanon is a beautiful country with some of the people being the friendliest I have ever met. I want to have peace with you but unless you or your goverment take care of the Shiites, Hizbollah and the Iranians we will never have peace, as all they want is war. It is sad that our two countries cannot have peace because of the Shiites and the Iranians and Syrians, we would make good friends who can teach each other so much. I hope you are well and my friend stay safe in the times to come (whatever it may bring) Allan

Just watch. It will be too good an opportunity to pass up if things get ugly there.

I am sure there are many others like him but their weak position in Lebanese society puts them at a distinct disadvantage.

change.The muslim representation in politic is very low,they are the majority of population of Lebanon,there is no democracy on Lebanon.Shias are only the 40%,are the group more important on lebanon,and sunni are more than 25%,all crsitians is about 30%,there is no comparation.

#8 alot of the current shias are an import, I wonder what was their numbers in 75 or 85. Bit like Betlechem once 80% christian now 80% muslim. #2 loved your response made me laugh, not that its a laughing matter, notwithstanding #7 comments true being many nice and good lebenese, but in the end they always have to tow the line of the powers they live in.

The syrians are once again seeing pressure building on them...for example the inspectors on the border AND the harari investigative findings. What better way to clean the slate of pressures than to start an internal crisis. WHY does the west try to PANDER to this country!!!??? Enough is enough!

the maronites saved our asses for 24 years in the south the best allies we can have in this part of the world and in 24 hours we abandoned them we are the real traitors look at the price we have paid since it's only the begening now we have iran on our border is that better

THE MAJORITY OF LEBANESE ARE CHRISTIAN WITH ABOUT 64% INCLUDING ALL LEBANESE OUTSIDE OF LEBANON MAYBE IN EGYPT YOU WERE ABLE TO MARGINILIZE THE COPTS (CHRISTIANS) BUT NOT IN LEBANON THOSE LIVING OUTSIDE HAVE ENOUGH POWER NOT TO LET THIS HAPPEN

Lebanon is not cristian,they are not the majority of lebanese people,go to France.There will be war very soon.Wait the power the Ahmadineyad&Iran.

Most Israelis feel very strongly for the Lebanese people and last summer we certainly did not perceive the war that occurred as being against the people of Lebanon but rather against Hezbollah, which is the enemy not only of us but also of the Lebanese people. I don't know how feasible it is that we would go in again this summer, unless we were directly attacked, and I shudder to think of our doing so under our current disgrace of a Prime Minister. I invite you to come over to the Good Neighbors Blog and take part in the dialog there between Israelis, Lebanese, Palestinians and others from the Middle East as we try to seek solutions to the problems that plague our region.

As opposed to say, Livni, the ayatollahs learn from all their lab experiments. They took the Hizbollah model and transferred it to Gaza. Now they took are transferring to Lebanon what they learned in the Gaza lab. There they learned that a few tough murderous and ruthless fighters can scare off your average non-Islamist Arab. That is how Fatah fell. The ayatollahs are drunk with power and success so now they are going for TOTAL control of Lebanon. There's a good chance they will succeed and Lebanese Christians and secular Muslims will be history,

Part of the problem is raised by Abu Pierre - if Lebanon really mattered to the Christian Lebanese, they would be in Lebanon, serving in the army, and giving Hizbollah/ Iran/ Syria a pounding. If you believe in something, you have to be willing to fight for it, and maybe lose your life doing so. With all due respect, to sit in London and Australia isn't going to free Lebanon of the scourge of Iran.

especially that one who is abusive, hateful, and the know-it-all on everything pertaining to palestinians, even when confronted with those oh so annoying things called "facts"? i think his name was ramzi. people shouldn't waste their time at that site, unless you are the sort who enjoys pandering to certain individuals with volatile tempers who browbeat anyone who dares to debate palestinian actions as anything other than understandable and whose idea of "dialogue" is a one way street to nowhere. one thing i learned is if you go to "good neighbours", be one but don't expect to be treated as one.

reading these, particularly to the divergent views of the same demographic reality, is there any doubt why war is inevitable?

There is a signifigant difference that the world is about to see. When Jews fight arabs, despite the fact that the arabs started every conflict, Jews behave with civility and morality. It's about to change. We will all witness again, how arabs fight. We see it every day in iraq, sudan and countless other arab/muslim countries. Gaza will look like a summer picnic and we all know once hezbooboo is in trouble, they will attack Israel, (just like hussein did.. It's going to be an interestng summer with lots of dead arabs.

We backstabbed our allies in Lebanon by withdrawing in 2000 and feeding them to the dogs. Is it any wonder that they don't trust us? Learn some history.

and will be more grateful if Israel joins in to obliterate Hezbollah completely. We were dismayed by Israel's bad performance in the second Lebanon War in summer 2006.

There are 15,000,000 Lebanese in the world. Most of them live outside of Lebanon. The majority are Christian. The proportion outside of Lebanon are overwhelmingly Christian wheras in Lebanon they are around 35-40% of the population. They have been disenfranchised. Lebanon was created for the Maronites.

Majority of Lebanese are Lebanese, when we gonna look at each other as humans no matter what we are muslims, christians, jews, atheist it's becoming too racist in the middle east...in regards to the article it's wishfull thinking.

Regarding democracy: o It only works if parties are outlawed or excluded from the process if they advocate overthrow of the main government (rather than winning on their own ideas), maintain armed gangs, or practice intimidation and violence to increase their power (or $$). Therefore, Lebanon needs to hire someone like Rudy Guilliani to break these mafia type groups and run them off like he did in New York City. Then Lebanon can have a better time of it. o The percentages of each group shouldn't matter so much. In an unintimidated democracy, people in each group vote across parties rather than as this type of percentage block that people are talking about in this thread. It also seems like the concept of voting for a person rather than a party would allow the rotten eggs to be voted out without having to tank a party that has good ideas. This individuality protects the minorities. o If a country allows private murderous gangs to work for political parties in the system with no exclusion of the party from being on the ballot for doing that, then I can't even see that it is democracy. And how on earth can the U.S. advocate this? In Iraq and PA? And I guess Lebanon, too.

Best wishes to the Christian Lebanese, to the Muslim Lebanese who want peace and to the Israeli people. May G-d bless you.

"o If a country allows private murderous gangs to work for political parties in the system with no exclusion of the party from being on the ballot for doing that, then I can't even see that it is democracy. And how on earth can the U.S. advocate this? In Iraq and PA? And I guess Lebanon, too. " Good point; perhaps you can ask President Bush to replace Condi Rice with you at our State Department. You clearly get it in a way she simply REFUSES to see.

15th of July is OK to start a civil war. When it will end one thing will be accomplished. Hizballah will dominate the whole south and will add to that its badly needed corridor from the Syrian border. Then, the fundamentalist arc will more surely touch the Israeli border.