Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Looks like we have a few more weeks of war ahead of us

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3284769,00.html

Interestingly enough, in the Grapes of Wrath operation back in 1996, the first Qana incident was enough to bring about a ceasefire. Looks like this time things are different. However, I think Hezbulla is doing the right thing (I know, weird combination of words there Hezbulla & "right thing"), by not shooting rockets into Israel anymore. If they continue doing this, Israel's ability to carry on with this war on Lebanese soil will be weakened overtime, both in terms of world public opinion and in terms of internal support.

IMO, it's not the two kidnapped soldiers that are driving Israel forward, at least not in terms of public opinion here in Israel. It's the constant shelling of civilian settlements in the north that propelled the Israeli response. Take that away and, personally, I doubt that Israel will be able to maintain support for the war for more than a few weeks. Though of course, who knows if Nassaralla can continue with his new policy... I bet he's itching to fire those promised Zilzals at Tel Aviv.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I didn't know that they are not firing anymore. Well few weeks is long time. Do you think anything would be left from Lebanon in that time?

I really don't know what to say, there are so many things which are not right. I hope things get better soon. really soon

Anonymous said...

Janjo, no one really knows what to say. Me niether. War accomplishes shutting even talkative bastards like myself up, it is so ugly and mind-boggling stupid, in the end. One would die for adult behavior among groups but that doesn't look too likely.

AnneMoss said...

I think that as long as the HA doesn't fire at civilian settlements, Israel limits its fighting as well. No more mass bombardments of Lebanese towns, but only ground fighting (with some direct aerial support for that).

Anonymous said...

The constant shelling of civilian settlements in the north seems to me to be reason enough for a country to defend themselves.
If any other country were in the situation that Isreal is in, I believe they would do the same, if they had the capability to do so.

Hezbollah fights in a cowardly way. They have brainwashed many of the Lebanese people into thinking that they, (Hezbollah), do good for them, while they've actually been setting the Lebanese up to be human shields. I think Hezbollah does not want to be considered terrorists, but that is exactly what they are. They do not have military posts or fighting zones that are distant from civilians. They shell civilian settlements. Hezbollah is not only terrorizing Isreal, they are also terrorizing Lebanon.
Why do so many people choose to be blind to this?

Gloria said...

RE: Anonymous, and the video -

Help me remember - why did the war begin between Israel, Egypt, Syria and Jordan in 1967?

Wasn't Israel provoked then, as it continually is?

IMO ....
This may sound too simple, but if your country is attacked, why can't you defend yourself, AND take security measures to reduce the possibility of another attack?

The terriorist attacking Israel don't understand anything but power - they don't fear it, but they do respect it. They just want to win. When they think they CAN'T win -- they don't attack. When they think they CAN win, they attack.

AnneMoss said...

Gloria, well put! What a wonderful summary of the concept of deterence, one of the cornerstones of the Itaeli defence concept.

Anonymous said...

Hi Gloria and Ann,

I also watched the movie and I should say it was long. 1 hour and 17 mins. Anyway I should say I do agree with Gloria and I am aware of Arab invasion in 1967 but I had learnt other things from the movie too.

Like I would now think twice and ask why about everything not just follow the news. I think poverty and level of people’s life in Palestine has a lot with the security issue in Israel.

And I think people can not live in humiliation. You can not treat people with different standards. Where I live, even when you are living in an illegal building they don’t come and destroy it over you head. They take you to court, and even if court says you should evacuate the house and give it up to be destroyed they still will wait until you leave the house.

PM Tony Bair put right that creating a Palestinian state will help a lot to the Middle East peace. I don’t think Palestinians have a good memory neither of Jordan nor Israel ruling in West bank.

I really loved the ending where every one was working together, was it a dream or was it reality? It can work, right? I mean here I have friends which are Jews, Muslim, Christian Hindu, Sike and even those not believing in anything and we are not just living next to each other but together. We have our best times together.

HA is an extremist, but there are others which are opposing to them. What you call self-defence is not going to destroy HA but just weaken it and also let other people in Arab world to have sympathy for them. This war might weaken HA but it is not gonna effect HA ideology. Actually it is gonna even make it stronger. These people in southern Lebanon after all these bombardons will be potentials for HA to be trained to become suicide bombers.

Once this war is done and we are celebrating our victory, are we gonna be there in rubbles to pick up those left and educate them and teach them that HA won’t do them any good? Or are we just gonna bomb these civilians today while chasing HA and leave them in HA hands tomorrow?

If one day people care enough to overcome this problem, it will not be through power but only by communication and winning those from within the community who oppose HA and other extremist. Don’t you have extremist in Israel? If you just jail them to prove they are wrong don’t you think that people would just follow them blindly? while if you try to educate others against them, they become isolated.

Lebanon was the only country which I always thought would have a good relationship with Israel in near future. A destroyed Lebanon is what HA want, to bring terror. Look into Iraq. Look into West-bank and Gaza.

If you let people to build their lives they become more conservative and they would oppose extremist. When you have nothing to loose you would do anything. But when you have something, you would be more rational and mindful because you don’t want to lose what you have gained.

I don’t know maybe I am wrong! I never have lived neither in Israel nor in Lebanon or Palestine. I think the day that we see a peace in middle-east; human civilisation is transformed to a higher level which we all can celebrate it. Let’s hope that it happens soon.

(Of course it will not be the last and next would be to over come poverty and Global warming)

Anonymous said...

Excellent letter, Janjo and thank you. You put your heart right out there.