Key Hezbollah leader killed in strike, Israeli military says

[LeftInTX]

53. Yes, it does.

OTOH: They started the original Middle East terrorism in the 1960's.

Sirhan Sirhan (who is Christian by the way) shot Bobby Kennedy in retaliation.

The first terrorist group was mixed Christian and Muslim with Christian leadership. Eventually they became Islamic groups.


In 1989, Sirhan told British journalist David Frost: "My only connection with Robert Kennedy was his sole support of Israel and his deliberate attempt to send those 50 fighter jets to Israel to obviously do harm to the Palestinians."[3] Some scholars believe that the assassination was the first major incident of political violence in the United States stemming from the Israeli–Palestinian conflict (Sirhan carried out the attack on the first anniversary of the 1967 Arab–Israeli War), though it occurred at a time when the American public was overwhelmingly focused on the Vietnam War.[4]

A motive cited for Sirhan's actions is the Middle East conflict.[39] After his arrest, Sirhan said, "I can explain it. I did it for my country."[39] Sirhan believed that he was deliberately betrayed by Kennedy's support for Israel in the June 1967 Six-Day War,[40] which had begun exactly one year before the date of the assassination. During a search of Sirhan's apartment after his arrest, a spiral-bound notebook was found containing a diary entry that demonstrated that his anger had gradually fixated on Kennedy, who had promised to send 50 fighter jets to Israel if elected president. Sirhan's journal entry of May 18, 1968, read: "My determination to eliminate R.F.K. is becoming the more and more [sic] of an unshakable obsession...Kennedy must die before June 5th."[39] They found other notebooks and diary entries expressing his growing rage at Kennedy; his journals also contained many aphorisms that were thought to be his version of "free writing". He wrote in support of communism: "Long live Communism... I firmly support the communist cause and its people... American capitalism will fall and give way to the worker's dictatorship."[41]

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The six day war was a war of hubris which was started by Egypt. (The Suez Canal also was part of it) Egypt with Arab allies of Jordan and Syria was expected to win. Egypt had this and that. However, Israel hustled and beat the pants out of them. That's when the real problems with the Palestinians started. Prior to that there was issues, but they were mostly local and consisted of guerilla tactics on both sides. The big problem had always been Egypt versus Israel. When Israel won that war, suddenly land that was part of Jordan and Egypt came under Israel's control. Egypt refused to sign a peace treaty, so Israel kept the land, but didn't know what do with the Palestinians.