Hizbollah , Jesus and Tommy Sheridan

During his recent visit to Lebanon former Scottish Socialist Party leader (and now Solidarity leader) Tommy Sheridan referred to Hezbollah as ""is now the movement the oppressed across the globe will take inspiration from".

According to Sheridan in one village he visited in southern Lebanon a local dignitary Sheikh Qaouk said "if [Jesus] was here he would raise the rubble off the Lebanon children and throw the rocks at Israel".

Now I'm neither a Christian nor a Muslim, nor am I taking sides in the SSP civil war (and if I did i'd take Tommy's side because his policies are more sensible) - and yes I believe the News of the World and possibly MI5 too are out to destroy Sheridan. I admire Tommy Sheridan for sticking to his principles and I agree with him on a lot of things.

Nor was it Tommy who came up with the line about Jesus.

However from what little of the Neew Testament I've read Jesus wasn't continually urging people on to random acts of violent revenge, nor did i get the impression his miracles involved raining rocks down on anyone's heads. Non-violence and forgiveness seemed to figure fairly strongly.

I sympathise with the Lebanese and what they've suffered over the decades - and i understand that Hezbollah also see themselves as defenders and allies of the Palestinians. Their organisation of welfare and public services is excellent - and they had every right to resist Israeli occupation of Lebanon.

However I really hope that the oppressed of the world don't take the Hezbollah path. Attacking members of an enemy military is one thing but both Israeli forces AND Hezbollah targeted civilians in the 2006 war just as in most of the previous conflicts between them.

I don't accept that being the weaker side makes targeting civilians right or war crimes acceptable. Both sides were guilty of war crimes and both should be condemned for them.