We default to a pro-Israel position in this country and I guess I'm okay with that. But it seems to me that Israel is in danger of using up its political capital in this aggression with Lebanon. I can already hear other leftie-types yelling at me, but I think it's something worth exploring. Perhaps this time, we ought not support what Israel is doing.
It's hard to claim that hundreds of Lebanese deaths -most of them civilians- are a proportional response to the capture of the two Israeli soldiers. And the number of refugees being created by this war (that must have a reason other than the captured soldiers) is overwhelming international aid agencies, which already had plenty to do.
There's some evidence (from the United Nations and other aid groups) that Israel is using illegal weapons that kill indiscriminately. Which sort of seems obvious when you think about it. Otherwise, the much-vaunted Israeli army is full of dreadfully poor tacticians. They can't claim that they are targeting combatants and just making tragic errors while simultaneously claiming to be some sort of super-army. It's much more likely that they are a super-army and are accomplishing exactly what they set out to do.
And WHAT is the unwillingness to negotiate about, pray tell.
Of course, I have absolutely no idea what any of us might do about this situation, any more than I know what to do about George Bush floating the test balloon of "Iran is the unseen manipulator behind all this". Yeah, George.... your unseen causes of other wars have worked out really well for us. Surely though, all the parties could be held accountable to the rule of international law. And I'm completely willing to believe that there are more than two parties. I'm just not convinced that the third one is so conveniently Iran. I think the third party might be the United States. After all, Israel is fighting with weapons they got from us and certainly encouragement for Israel to keep bombing is coming from the White House.
3 comments:
Interesting points you've highlighted.
Perhaps the 'third party' might just be the 'self-defensive' instinct or the 'indignation' left over from the actions of the Colonialists in their presuming the right to carve out a portion of Arabia and inaugurating the State of Israel. Of course, it is far better to blame a identifiable and sentient third party in order to detract the attention of the masses from the aforementioned and most plausible probability - not unlike 'terrorism'.
Nobody in this brangle is entirely innocent or without a fair-sized dollop of blame for it. There is at least some evidence to suggest that Israel engaged in deliberate provocations to get things going in Lebanon, and had been planning to do so for quite some time. It's obvious that neither side is sticking to military targets, as the laws of war require. Hezbollah and other groups like it will not be satisfied no matter how much land Israel gives up, unless every last Jew leaves for someplace else. And both Bush and Condoleezza Rice are fiddling while Rome burns, trying to burnish up their rusted-over public images in the vain hope of finding something they can use as a "legacy" that doesn't start with the words "Complete and utter failure..."
What we do about it is holler. Tell the Shrubbery to forget about their pipe dreams of glory and to worry about long-term stability after the bloodshed is over. Tell Israel to stay the hell out of Lebanese territory and to stop using the weaponry we sell them for aggression, or they can forget about buying from us again. Tell Hezbollah that if they don't calm down and stop shooting rockets into Israel, we're going to lead a U.N. coalition to smoke them out of their hiding places and put them on trial for crimes against humanity.
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