Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Lebanon, crucified by Hezbollah and Israel
This attack by Israel on Hezbollah is a play by Israel to take out the Hezbollah rockets. ISRAEL escalated this into the debacle it has become in order to "degrade" Hezbollah's ability to damage northern Israel. This is the plan the IDF has had in place for months, awaiting only the cover of a Hezbollah attack - any attack.
Israel decided months ago that civilian deaths in Lebanon were an acceptable price to pay for removing the threat of the rockets.
Except - the rockets keep coming, Hezbollah hasn't given up, and the civilian deaths in Lebanon and Israel keep mounting. Israel erred, and badly. They have lost the support of much of the world, and they have not yet and are not likely to seriously harm Hezbollah, short of genocide. Looked at in that light, you could say that EVERY death, Lebanese or Israli, is a result of Israeli hubris and miscalculation - just as it is a result of Hezbollah hubris and miscalculation.
I think that Israel intended to harm Lebanon, as even they recognize that it is up to the Lebanese to end Hezbollah. So, if that is true, they intended the main effect of their attack to fall on civilians from the very beginning, and claiming to target Hezbollah is no more than a shallow cover for their real end - terrorizing the Lebanese population into ending Hezbollah, and thereby ending the threat to Israel of the Hezbollah rockets. See here Hezbollah Rockets for some discussion on the rockets. There is much more to be found on line, much of it by Israeli sources.
I think it is clear - when the neo-cons play with weapons, people always get hurt. The government in Israel is apparently little different from our own failed administration - prideful, arrogant, and misguided.
Jake
Israel decided months ago that civilian deaths in Lebanon were an acceptable price to pay for removing the threat of the rockets.
Except - the rockets keep coming, Hezbollah hasn't given up, and the civilian deaths in Lebanon and Israel keep mounting. Israel erred, and badly. They have lost the support of much of the world, and they have not yet and are not likely to seriously harm Hezbollah, short of genocide. Looked at in that light, you could say that EVERY death, Lebanese or Israli, is a result of Israeli hubris and miscalculation - just as it is a result of Hezbollah hubris and miscalculation.
I think that Israel intended to harm Lebanon, as even they recognize that it is up to the Lebanese to end Hezbollah. So, if that is true, they intended the main effect of their attack to fall on civilians from the very beginning, and claiming to target Hezbollah is no more than a shallow cover for their real end - terrorizing the Lebanese population into ending Hezbollah, and thereby ending the threat to Israel of the Hezbollah rockets. See here Hezbollah Rockets for some discussion on the rockets. There is much more to be found on line, much of it by Israeli sources.
I think it is clear - when the neo-cons play with weapons, people always get hurt. The government in Israel is apparently little different from our own failed administration - prideful, arrogant, and misguided.
Jake
