Peace in the Middle-east

Right at the heels of the train bombing in Mumbai, (which has already faded from our collective memories—if it left an impression at all—poor, brown people dying isn’t much news) we are seared again by the air strikes in Lebanon this past week. For the first time in months, the chaos in Iraq has been pushed aside. Restrain and reason have once again become radical liberal mythologies in our world.

Last time I checked it was still frowned upon to plow missiles into another sovereign nation. Have international laws changed since the turn of the millennium? I realize these laws mean nothing, never has and it’s foolish to even bring it up. I bring it up here for posterity.

This is the sixth day of Israeli attacks on Lebanon, despite continuous pleas from the UN—not to mention the Lebanese people—to cease fire. The newswire has been flooded with stories of the accelerating violence I won’t bother recapping. There’s plenty of lopsided news reporting to go around. I’ve been following Moorish Girl’s advice, and trying to stay away from my RSS feed.

The nipping, angry provocation by Hezbollah was so clearly an invitation for Ehud Olmert to participate in political grandstand posturing that Olmert readily accepted.

"Nothing will deter us, whatever far-reaching ramifications regarding our relations on the northern border and in the region there may be. We have no intention to give in to these threats. We know that many tests yet await us. Our enemies are trying to disrupt life in Israel -- they will fail. The public is strong and united in this struggle."…more.

Brash irresponsibility conveniently couched in misplaced nationalism and fervent ideology. Sound familiar? I wonder about what “public” he is talking about. Did he poll the Israeli people, and ask them if it was okay to sabotage any hope of peace for their country and neighbors? Surely the public discussion around whether or not to invade Lebanon over two abducted soldiers was more nuanced than this “the public is strong and united” bullshit.

Especially chilling and eerie are phrases like “whatever far-reaching ramifications there may be”. As if all that mattered was that a few Lebanese die. It is a sorry day when it is difficult to tell apart terrorist rhetoric from government justifications. What is supposed to happen next? The Hezbollah and Hamas will now shrivel up and die? Does anyone believe this? Is this rhetoric really that different than anything Hezbollah or Hamas vomits out?

We could argue till we are red-faced and screeching that Hezbollah and Hamas are state-sponsored terrorist groups, and hence these states deserve some state-sponsored terrorism of their own. But that doesn’t change certain other inconvenient truths. Lebanon's control over Hezbollah is highly questionable at best. The missile strikes of the past few days have succeeded in doing nothing but kill some 150 people—all of them civilians. In fact, the one thing they have succeeded in doing is amassing antagonism for Israel and helping Hezbollah and Hamas grow bigger and more relevant to the Palestinian and Lebanese people.

A Side-note: hateful, racist bullshit will be deleted from my comments section. That’s a standing law, but I thought I’d evoke it again here.