[Courage the Cowardly Dog]

aside from believing fosters means beer, Australians also believe peace means rock throwing, and Crocodile hunter means good watching.

SYDNEY - Prime Minister John Howard was mobbed and police clashed with Hezbollah supporters and other anti-Israel protesters in the west coast Australian city of Perth on Saturday.


Howard’s car was damaged by demonstrators as he left a meeting. Around 200 protesters waving Lebanese and Palestinian flags and shouting “we want peace” punched, kicked and threw projectiles at the vehicle as police struggled to keep order.

Police wrestled protesters to the ground and there was at least one arrest.

Protest organizer Muhammad el-Khatib said that he had family in Lebanon and that the Australian government should try and broker a ceasefire.

“There are mothers watching their children die,” el-Khatib told Australia’s AAP news agency. “Hezbollah is protecting Lebanon, they are freedom fighters not terrorists.” (my note: freedom from what? Israelis got sick of watching their children die at the hands of terrorsits. Hezballah is a disease thatis RUINING lebanon and may cost the state it's sovereignity.)

The military wing of Hezbollah is banned in Australia but the political organization is not.

The current crisis was sparked when Hezbollah launched a cross- border raid July 12 in which eight Israeli soldiers were killed and two abducted.

Australia, a close ally of the United States, has been supportive of Israel’s right to defend itself.

Defence Minister Brendan Nelson said last week that Israel faced a threat to its existence from Hezbollah and Hamas, the militant Palestinian movement, which both receive support from Iran and Syria.

“It’s very important that Australians appreciate, no matter how affronted we are by what Israel is doing, that they are dealing with Hezbollah and Hamas, who are committed to the abolition of Israel as a state,” the defence minister said.

Along with the US, Australia has urged that long-term problems be addressed and has not called for a ceasefire.

“We should feel enormous sympathy for the everyday Lebanese person,” Nelson said. “We should also feel some sympathy for the Lebanese government. But at the moment let us hope an appropriate longstanding resolution comes to this conflict. We can’t afford to have a situation where band-aids are being applied to it again.”