Recent events in Israel, Lebanon and Palestine depress me. The cycle of war never ends, with revenge attacks upon revenge attacks. When I spoke with my father about this though, he had said, “What do you expect Israel to do instead?”
Israel has got its back against the wall since its inception. It is not going to lay down. It’s only going to keep on fighting with all its got. It is the only country surrounded by entities and governments who would want nothing more than to see it stop existing as a country.
How should Israel have reacted?
It’s a vicious circle. Israel would not relent and give any concessions to the Palestinians, Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran until they respect Israel’s right to exist; and its enemies would not do that until Israel relents. Who among that bunch would be willing to give in first?
In the meantime, Israeli aggression would only enrage Islamic radicals even further, and push those already sitting on the fence over the edge. Islamic terrorism has a lot of root causes, with the Israeli condition probably the biggest.
And to spice things up even further, we’ve got North Korea waving its penises around. A basket case of a country – poor beyond relief and with its people starving to death, it maintains the largest standing army in the world and develops missiles and nuclear weapons. It then sells the technology to terrorists and to parties in the Middle East, most of whom are playing out the scene now in and around Israel.
The only silver lining is that rather unexpectedly, some Arab countries have voiced their displeasure at the turn of events and lay the blame squarely on Iran and Hezbollah. Mere words though are not enough.
Dominic Knight:The war without end?
Light of Beirut fades on its darkest day – World – smh.com.au
Air raids shake Lebanon – World – smh.com.au
Militia Rebuked by Some Arab Countries – New York Times
Israel and Hezbollah Trade Barrages – New York Times
ADDED 8:22PM
Some interesting links and discussion going on at MetaFilter.
7 Responses to “The Israeli Condition”
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This is what you call burning a haystack to find a needle.. There is no black or white.. just shades of gray..
Very grey indeed. And with no sides willing to back away, what is the endgame?
if you look at every stage in history, there is always a war going on in some shape or form. you always hear people saying they want world peace, which would be great in theory, but in practice? sadly, it seems impossible.
The day we see peace in the Middle East is the day globalisation fully enguls the globe entire and boundaries cease to exist.
girlstar7: yes, it seems ingrained into human nature isn’t it? Which is why Stephen Hawkins say is true – we do need another planet or two, if the human race is to survive in the long run.
mervkwok: before that will happen, everyone would have to be on an equal footing – no hunger, no poverty. That seems very unlikely too.
The sad thing is that Beirut was once the jewel of the eastern mediteraean and it was just enjoying a bit of a revival and prosperity after a few years of peace. My Lebanese friends always tell me how beatuiful it is (was). It was high on my must visit list until recent events.
Rob: stuck between Syria and Israel, with the south of its border controlled by Hezbollah – what’s happening now was kinda inevitable. Sad nonetheless.