The Future of Lebanon

I think it's probably fairly obvious to anyone who reads more than a few posts in this blog that I believe the military action wrought by Israel against Hezbollah but with the weight of this action truly felt by the civilian population of Lebanon, especially South Lebanon is wrong.

But it goes deeper than my sensibilities and my grave concern for the humanitarian crisis now playing out there as well as in some of the towns in Northern Israel. Let me try to explain.

First, Israel's stated objective is to wipe out Hezbollah. But that can't and won't happen, not even if Israel spends the next two centuries in Lebanon.

Not only will they fail to wipe out Hezbollah, Israel is creating new terrorists each and every day with its tactics. Last weekend's Qana Massacre alone will live in the hearts and minds and popular myths of the area for ages to come. If Israel stopped its operation in Lebanon right this very moment, their actions have already born whole new generations of terrorists, whether they align with Hezbollah or another group, or form their own collective.

What Israel is doing is very much like what the U.S. has done under the Bush doctrine, and anyone with half a brain realizes that this has not worked and it has done nothing but make matters far worse than they were before 9-11-2001.

Second, Israel bears a great deal of responsibility for the situation that allowed an organization like Hezbollah to come about in the first place. Examples (I'll cite just a few, but there are dozens):

a) their occupation of South Lebanon for years up until 2000 from which Lebanon has never, ever recovered
b) Israel's complete disrespect for any borders but their own
c) acts of aggression toward other nations and people only then to hide behind the powerful body of the United States when these other parties rebel against the aggression
d) Israel allows pro-Zionist religious extremists to operate against other races and nations but they yell to the max when other religious extremists try the same thing

Third, they have set up a military occupation unless and until an international peacekeeping force takes over. However, Israel isn't really going to allow such a force to operate unless Israel itself can run the show. So this force really isn't going to work; it won't save the lives of civilians at least in part because Israel does not want it to do so.

Fourth, by destroying so much of Lebanon, they have guaranteed that extremist organizations like Hezbollah will fill the void because they will provide services and some degree of infrastructure Israel has now decimated.