(no subject)

[desh]

You know, I've always felt much less connection to Israel than your typical active American Jew. I was only in Israel once, 10 years ago, and haven't had much desire to go back since. When the Israeli government does things I don't like, my reaction isn't "let's do something about that", but rather, "I don't want to be associated with that".

So why is the news making me sick to my stomach?

Comments

Jeff Rants!, Part 2

[jdcohen.livejournal.com]

Israel's response of sending in the tanks, however, is completely asymmetrical and counter-productive. Though it makes a good show in Israeli public opinion polls, it is a completely knee-jerk and ill-thought-out reaction. It is driving Palestinian support for a resolution with Israeli into the ground and shoring up support for the beleaguered Hamas - essentially, it has ENTIRELY the opposite effect of what I described in the previous paragraph. However, this being a cycle of violence wrought with the inflamed emotions of both sides, yadda, yadda, yadda, both the Palestinians and the Israelis completely miss the fucking point of the CYCLE of violence being CYCLICAL. At the very least, Israel has its whole "Unilateral Disengagement Plan", which I applaud for at least being a way OUT of this cycle, though not a very fair plan to the Palestinians. If the Palestinians want fair, they can at the very least acknowledge that violence is NOT the way to solve the conflict. Of course, even with this latest offensive into Gaza, there was still hope that this particular chapter of the ongoing saga could be put to rest - until Hezbollah had to go and fuck things up by kidnapping TWO Israeli soldiers.

The struggle between Hezbollah and Israel is VERY similar to that of Hamas and Israel. Hezbollah is a powerful political force in Lebanon and a terrorist threat to Israel. Hezbollah's signature tactics have involved rocket strikes against Israelis across the northern border. Hezbollah has enjoyed some measure of popular support in Lebanon, but only so long as the majority of Lebanese are militarily unable to remove them from power permanently - attempting to do so now would only plunge Lebanon into a civil war. However, one major factor emerges that separates Hamas and Hezbollah - support. Hamas, like most of the Palestinian body politic, is very much alone in the international arena. Hamas has no dependable allies and no major sources of funding. If Israel were to take on Hamas (and it is), it would be relatively assured of some sort of victory. Hezbollah, on the other hand, has backing from Syria and Iran. Though this backing does come with strings attached, they have a larger support base, more funding, more weapons, and better trained fighters than their Hamas counterparts. Basically, they're more dangerous than Hamas and have taken advantage of Hamas's kidnapping's timing to perform their own to throw Israel in to utter chaos. And what's more, it worked.

Now, Israel was stupid to attack Hamas for the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit. It is counter-productive and wasteful to do so. However, at least with Hamas and Gaza, it's an operation that is assured to meet little or no actual resistance. Hamas's resources are stretched thin and Israel is supremely dominant in this arena. However, Israel is just being moronic in attacking Hezbollah in Lebanon - and what's more, at the same time that the whole Gaza operation is still going on! Ehud Barak got Israel out of Lebanon in 2000 for the exact reason that Ehud Olmert should avoid going in - Lebanon is Israel's Vietnam. It is the guerilla war that no one wants that is unavoidably complex. It is good-kids-returning-in-body-bags, Charlie-in-the-trees, war-what-is-it-good-for, My-Lai-Massacre, unsolvable-quagmire-esque and Olmert just doesn't see it. Same thing with Hamas in Gaza - you don't want to attack the Lebanese people, because you want instead to drive a wedge between the mainstream Lebanese and Hezbollah. Hell, the wedge is already there! The mainstream Lebanese hate the Syrian influence that has invaded Lebanon and, TADA!, guess who just happens to be working with Syria in Lebanon? Hezbollah! Seriously, Israel is becoming a poster child for missed opportunities here.