This picture really says it all. This morning I actually saw a better one on television news. The very first image I saw before the reporter even began reporting on the story was the American Secretary of State standing at a podium with a white background, between two flags, the US and Israeli ones. It spoke volumes to me. I doubt that it was intended that way since any visiting dignitary from any country will have his flag displayed next to the Israeli one, but it really represented to me the incredible ties that the United States has with Israel. This, in spite of incredible pressure from the international community and much of the media for an immediate cease fire.
We are nearing the end of the conflict one way or another. The carnage Hezbollah has caused its own people to suffer (and for which Israel is being blamed) is reaching crisis proportions. But apparently the US and Israel are in complete agreement as to when its military actions should end: when Hezbollah is either destroyed or defanged. As the Headline in one of Israel’s mainstream newspapers said of the US’s attitude to Israel: “Take Your Time!” But Israel does not have forever.
On the other hand, it may not have any choice but to continue fighting until it does complete the job, even if it takes longer than originally expected.
There is talk of an international force buffering the Southern Lebanese border. Israel in theory has agreed to it. But the international community is also aware that this time it can’t just be a token UN type force with no mandate to fight. This time it needs to have teeth. And that means taking over for Israel when if and when Hezbollah tries to move back into its positions and fire rockets at Israel. The mandate would have to mean conflict of the type where lives can be lost or permanent injury could ensue to the peacekeepers. The world has not forgotten the hundreds of US marines killed in 1983 by Hezbollah in a terrorist attack.
Well, the US isn’t going to send any Americans there. The Arabs won’t accept that as they believe the US will always side with Israel. The Europeans have once again shown their true colors, they will not risk any of their soldiers, not France, not Germany, not England, no one. They have all written off any participation. Yet they have all said that is the only solution that will work. The fallout of this is that they will have to allow Israel to finish the job and they know it. They can squawk about it all they want but they have neither the will or the power to do anything about it.
One more thing that bothers me. This idea that is always thrown in by reporters and pundits that all this devastation and bombing of Lebanon by Israel is creating more haterd for Israel and the US. The carnage and mayhem is increasingly being blamed by the Lebanese on Israel and the US and Hezboallah is seen as the solution.
But this ignores the truth. The hatred was already there. They have always blamed Israel for their problems. This has been drilled into them form the earliest ages. It is a deep rooted hatred that at best was latent until the current conflict. Of course they are going to blame Israel instead of Hezboolah. They simply never recognized that Hezbollah was anything but a “Party of God”… there to serve the people and kill the enemy… Jews. The current crisis has just brought all those feeling to the fore. Any fair analysis easily points to Hezbollah and its Jew hating, Islamist ideology as the real source of their problems. It’s a no brainer.
The carnage is occurring for one reason. Israel’s attempt to protect itself and Hezbollah’s determination to maximize even its own civilian casualties so as to make Israel look bad. Israel has no choice but to fight Hezbollah wherever it finds it… which is deeply imbedded amongst Lebanese civilians for that purpose. To protect itself from over twenty years of indiscriminate rocket attacks designed only for one purpose: to kill Jews.
It’s about time someone in the mainstream media starting reporting it that way instead of always sympathizing with the victims and reporting their point of view as the sole reason for their problems. It is an ignorant and myopic approach based on knee jerk responses to the carnage without care as to what is really to blame: Islamism.
