What is Israel doing?
If we were playing the blame game for the current conflict, I would point to Hezbollah for inciting Israel, after Hamas had already captured a soldier. Hezbollah expected a response, just not something so powerful.
However, Israel has taken its retaliation to a different plane. It has set the Lebanese economy back by a decade, at a time when the country was just recovering. It has bred a new hatred in the Middle East, regardless of whether its response was warranted. Country's like Saudi Arabia, who at least rhetorically accepted Israel (even while paying $5,000 to suicide bombers) are now publically siding with Hezbollah. If nothing else, Israel's response has unmasked the true hatred for its existence in the Middle East.
Israel's immediate goal is to push Hezbollah roughly a mile from the border, to create a buffer zone from future attacks and more missiles. Since it will not re-occupy territory, an international force will patrol this zone. With Hezbollah's current missile range, and its ability to get future technology from Iran, this 1 mile swath of land will have little effect, if the group wants to continue lobbing missile accross the border. It has also tried to weaken Hezbollah by bombing the organization's infrastructure. However, it has gone far beyond this, bombing power plants, bridges, the airport, etc. as well as inflicting severe collateral damage on civilian populations.
While I am sure that Israel can accomplish its immediate goals of pushing back the border and destroying Hezbollah's infrastructure, the response is likely to make Hezbollah stronger rather than weaker. It will receive increased funding from surrounding states and greater popularity at home. Israel's future seem more tenuous today than it did 19 days ago.
What is Israel doing? It realizes that peace is the only chance of a normal existence. But it's as though it wants to bomb Lebanon back to the stone age; It's as though it believes this extreme response will convince Lebanon never to attack it again; It's as though it believes that by showing Lebanon the horrors of war, the country will dream only of peace; It's as though it is tired of limited responses, and the failure of proportionality; It is like a bear caught in a cage, with the wolves creeping in.
I hope that Israel knows what it is doing, because I see a conflict that is breeding hatred rather than laying the ground work for peace.
However, Israel has taken its retaliation to a different plane. It has set the Lebanese economy back by a decade, at a time when the country was just recovering. It has bred a new hatred in the Middle East, regardless of whether its response was warranted. Country's like Saudi Arabia, who at least rhetorically accepted Israel (even while paying $5,000 to suicide bombers) are now publically siding with Hezbollah. If nothing else, Israel's response has unmasked the true hatred for its existence in the Middle East.
Israel's immediate goal is to push Hezbollah roughly a mile from the border, to create a buffer zone from future attacks and more missiles. Since it will not re-occupy territory, an international force will patrol this zone. With Hezbollah's current missile range, and its ability to get future technology from Iran, this 1 mile swath of land will have little effect, if the group wants to continue lobbing missile accross the border. It has also tried to weaken Hezbollah by bombing the organization's infrastructure. However, it has gone far beyond this, bombing power plants, bridges, the airport, etc. as well as inflicting severe collateral damage on civilian populations.
While I am sure that Israel can accomplish its immediate goals of pushing back the border and destroying Hezbollah's infrastructure, the response is likely to make Hezbollah stronger rather than weaker. It will receive increased funding from surrounding states and greater popularity at home. Israel's future seem more tenuous today than it did 19 days ago.
What is Israel doing? It realizes that peace is the only chance of a normal existence. But it's as though it wants to bomb Lebanon back to the stone age; It's as though it believes this extreme response will convince Lebanon never to attack it again; It's as though it believes that by showing Lebanon the horrors of war, the country will dream only of peace; It's as though it is tired of limited responses, and the failure of proportionality; It is like a bear caught in a cage, with the wolves creeping in.
I hope that Israel knows what it is doing, because I see a conflict that is breeding hatred rather than laying the ground work for peace.
posted by PWN at 5:10 AM
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