Israel throwing out the bath with the water
Israel continues its offensive in Lebanon, bombing the airport in Beirut for the second day in a row. From what I can tell, Israel is doing this to punish the Lebanese government for not disarming Hezbollah, which has launched missiles into Israel during the last week and is believed to have coordinated other attacks with Hamas in Gaza, including the abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Israel’s offensive, disproportionate and indiscriminate, does nothing to further israel’s aim, which is an eventual sustainable peace. The attacks deep into Lebanon do indeed punish the Lebanese government, but it is a government that is largely anti-syrian and anti-hezbollah. It is a government that is fragile, and has not had clear leverage to allow it to disarm Hezbollah without having the slide into chaos. Truth be told, the current Lebanese government is the best Israel could hope for all things considered, but that government is now being punished for an offensive that it did not launch. By destabilizing the government, Israel is playing into the hands of Hezbollah, which would like to see Lebanon dip into anarchy, a situation that would facilitate the efforts of Syria, Hezbollah’s major benefactor, to regain much of the control over the country that it was forced to forfeit a year ago.
As Israel knocks out airports, bridges and power networks, it takes the heat off of Hezbollah, which most people in Lebanon consider an unwanted presence as the country has struggled to rebuild a soverign and stable government after decades of civil war. Now Israel, which has of late shown a disturbing inability to differentiate between military and civilian targets with its bombing and shelling, may be supplanting Hezbollah as the immediate enemy of the Lebanese people, regardless of individual politics.
Which brings up another big problem with the way that Israel is handling the latest crisis. Israel is out to destroy terrorist infrastructure in Gaza and Lebanon. Although I have no military experience whatsoever, I bet that Hezbollah and Hamas aren’t about infrastructure. They are terrorists woven into the larger fabric of the countries they occupy, and they are as resilient as a hydra. Knocking out infrastructure penalizes the whole, and likely does very little to trip up Hezbollah. The price paid will could be total destabilization in Lebanon, which will do nothing to serve israel’s better interests.
Israel’s offensive, disproportionate and indiscriminate, does nothing to further israel’s aim, which is an eventual sustainable peace. The attacks deep into Lebanon do indeed punish the Lebanese government, but it is a government that is largely anti-syrian and anti-hezbollah. It is a government that is fragile, and has not had clear leverage to allow it to disarm Hezbollah without having the slide into chaos. Truth be told, the current Lebanese government is the best Israel could hope for all things considered, but that government is now being punished for an offensive that it did not launch. By destabilizing the government, Israel is playing into the hands of Hezbollah, which would like to see Lebanon dip into anarchy, a situation that would facilitate the efforts of Syria, Hezbollah’s major benefactor, to regain much of the control over the country that it was forced to forfeit a year ago.
As Israel knocks out airports, bridges and power networks, it takes the heat off of Hezbollah, which most people in Lebanon consider an unwanted presence as the country has struggled to rebuild a soverign and stable government after decades of civil war. Now Israel, which has of late shown a disturbing inability to differentiate between military and civilian targets with its bombing and shelling, may be supplanting Hezbollah as the immediate enemy of the Lebanese people, regardless of individual politics.
Which brings up another big problem with the way that Israel is handling the latest crisis. Israel is out to destroy terrorist infrastructure in Gaza and Lebanon. Although I have no military experience whatsoever, I bet that Hezbollah and Hamas aren’t about infrastructure. They are terrorists woven into the larger fabric of the countries they occupy, and they are as resilient as a hydra. Knocking out infrastructure penalizes the whole, and likely does very little to trip up Hezbollah. The price paid will could be total destabilization in Lebanon, which will do nothing to serve israel’s better interests.
posted by CatZoo at 11:51 AM
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