Posted on 07/20/2006 12:23:11 PM PDT by winner3000
Rony Malkoun grew up a quarter of a mile from the Hezbollah headquarters in Lebanon destroyed by Israeli airstrikes Sunday.
"My mom and dad, my uncles are still out there," he said. "They live in the Christian area. I've been glued to the TV since the war started."
"They (Hezbollah) have to return those soldiers, and hand over their weapons to the Lebanese government" said Malkoun, a Bloomingdale resident and a member of Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Catholic Church in Lombard. "It's not up to them to initiate war with anybody."
Malkoun said everyone involved should work on a peaceful resolution to the situation.
"There are a lot of civilians being killed and a lot of infrastructure being destroyed," he said. "And not a lot of Hezbollah fighters seem to be getting injured. I hope they come up with a solution for all this. It's terrible."
Palatine resident Roger Dabdab is a former president of the Chicago Lebanese Club.
The club is neither political nor religious, Dabdab said, "but we're all Lebanese and we care very much about the suffering that's happening in Lebanon."
Dabdab said he would like to see U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559 completed. The resolution was adopted by the United Nations on Sept. 2, 2004, and calls on Syria to withdraw its forces, stop intervention in Lebanese politics and demands that Hezbollah and other militias disband.
"But I don't know how that goal is going to happen," Dabdab said. "The Lebanese army is weaker than (the militias), and Hezbollah has some Lebanese people."
Dabdab said he understands Israel's position and how Hezbollah provoked the situation by kidnapping two soldiers.
"But there are humanitarian issues in targeting the infrastructure and airports," he said. "That weakens the Lebanese government. It makes it harder to make sure territorial integrity is respected. After 29 years of Syrian occupation, the government is weak, and I'm afraid this might destabilize it."
Lebanon should not only be peaceful, Dabdab said, but should also be neutral.
"It's hard to be peaceful if armed groups are using Lebanon as a staging area for war by proxy, so I understand Israel's position," he said. "Meanwhile, it's the Lebanese people who get hurt."
Dabdab said he has been talking to other Lebanese Chicagoans about what they could do during this crisis.
"We purposefully keep politics and religious parts out," he said. "It would be nice to figure out a way to speak with one voice and do something for the humanitarian cause."
Simon Karam, also of Bloomingdale, said the Lebanese community wants a strong government.
"We waited so long to get independence from Syria. We don't want war again in the country," Karam said. "Peace can't happen by fighting. ... It's not fair to destroy the whole country to disarm Hezbollah."
"peaceful resolution"
Hey birdbrain, where have you been? The Iranian-Syrian backed Hizbollah doesn't want a peaceful solution. They've been lobbing missiles at Israel for years. Last week, they've declared war. The only solution is for innocents to get the h*ll out and let Israel pulverize these murderers into dust. Anything less and the same problem will still exist later like it's always done setting the situation up for another flareup. Let Israel get the job done completely.
Lay down with dogs....
Ameri-Lebanese: We just want our little playground back. What they do out in the country doesn't affect us. We are so chi chi. We are so french. WTF, they are bombing us? I guess our moral equivocation (aka SouthPark head in sand syndrome) approach doesn't work.
Have the french left a colony in anything other than basketcase shape? Ever?
" "But I don't know how that goal is going to happen," Dabdab said"
Go study up on Iraq, and what happens to countries that violate UN resolutions in support of terror. Pay attention to John Bolton...
ALL Americans want this conflict (and the WOT in general) to end. ....but it'll end when the Islamofascists are vanquished, and not before.
What "peaceful" resolution is possible, with you have insane murderous Islamic thugs - devoted to the destruction of EVERYONE not an "approved Muslim"?
The RESOLUTION will come, when the Islamonazis have been destroyed in such numbers as to bleed the dream of world domination from their bodies.
Give War a chance --- Diplomacy has been tried and proved fruitless..
Just ask Clinton, Halfbright and Carter..
Semper Fi
Now, if only the kidnappers would release their hostages and stop pretending that Israeli cities are target ranges erected for their personal target practice.
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