You Can Say "Never Again", Just Don't Act Like It
There's a regularity to the fighting between Lebanon and Israel now, so my first thought is that something is about to happen. In the context of events like this war, the sense that things have reached a stasis is probably the best indicator that things are about to change.
Israel attempted to kill Hezbollah's leadership by bombing the bunker where they were thought to be hiding. They failed. More rockets were launched into Israel, and Israel ran more bombing raids against suspected Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.
Steve Erlanger has an article in the Washington Post that suggests how the use of powerful missiles drastically changes Israeli security considerations. It's depressing to contemplate the consequences. At one point, the U.S. and Israel were trying to develop an anti-missile system to protect against rockets like those fired into Israel from Lebanon. But the funding was dropped by the U.S. and the program faded away. It probably seemed like a simple budget cut at the time, but it may have far reaching consequences if Israel does not acquire some way to protect itself from Muslim terrorist missiles.
How that country can survive with enemies at every border firing missiles at its cities I do not know. Crush Hezbollah now, while there is still time.
The LA Times offers an analysis of Israeli strategy that puts some of Israel's actions into perspective. Its helpful in that it verifies what ought to have been obvious: Israel wants to destroy 60% of the missiles in the south, destroy the symbols of Hezbollah's power in Beirut, and destroy the Hezbollah's logistical capabilities in the Bekaa valley.
The New York Times offers an analysis of Iran's role that is obtuse for not recognizing the central facet of Iranian foreign policy: destroy Israel:
Iran's support for Hezbollah's actions against Israel seems to have a twofold purpose: to deflect attention from Tehran'’s impasse with the United States and five other nations over its nuclear program, and to further position itself as a powerful regional player.
They left out the part about wiping Israel off the map. How many Iranian officials have to declare that intention before we start to take them seriously? It's not a bargaining position or fodder for the "Arab Street", it's a stated, well-known goal. The free world has an obligation to believe them, because thus far in world history, no state as virulently anti-Semitic as Iran has ever just been kidding.
Ranting Of A Sandmonkey describes the difference between the Egyptian left and the Israeli left:
I think that the Israeli want peace with us because they don't want their lives disrupted. They don't want to have the IDF soldiers fighting in Gaza, rockets coming into their towns from Hamas or having to go to wars against Hezbollah to get their soldiers back. I think they want peace because they want their peace of mind. They view us as if we were a headache. We view them as if they are a cancer.
And this is why there will never really be any peace in the middle-east.
PREVIOUSLY:
- Outcome Of Kidnappers' War Still Uncertain, Part 2
- Outcome Of Kidnappers' War Still Uncertain
- Israel Winning, Iran Wants A Time Out
- Kidnappers' War Grinds On, Part 2
- Kidnappers' War Grinds On
- 1914 Alert: Kidnappers' War May Be Reaching Breaking Point
- Various Updates On Israel / Lebanon / Gaza
- Wars And Rumors Of Wars
- Israel Masses Tanks, Rockets, Artillery On Northern Border
- "...we are ready for an open war."
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