What would we be saying if Hizbullah kidnapped the Israeli Deputy Prime Minister and launched a daring raid inside Israel to disrupt a U.S. effort to resupply the Israeli Defense Force? We would be up in arms over their provocation and would be convening the UN Security Council to recommend new sanctions. Hell, we’d probably have the National Security Council in session and be ready to dispatch U.S. military forces to help Israel.
Okay. Back to reality. Hizbullah is minding its own business (or at least fostering that public image) and has embarked on public relief operation to counteract the devastation visited on the people of Lebanon by Israel’s recent invasion and bombing campaign. The Hizbullah aid and recovery effort is so successful that some wags suggest that Nasrallah be hired to take over from FEMA in the event the U.S. is hit with another storm like Katrina. How inept are you when Hizbullah is able to organize a better public relief effort? But I digress.
Having helped transform Hizbullah from a band of terrorists into the rock stars of the Muslim world, Israel persists with being stupid. Ehud Olmert either never learned or forgot the first rule of crisis management–i.e., when you’re in a hole, stop digging. With the reputation of the Isreali Defense Force in tattters after the debacle in Lebanon, Israeli leaders apparently decided to go all out to secure their reputation as the supreme rogue state in the Middle East. How else to explain the following?
Israel kidnaps elected official: The Palestinian’s Deputy Prime Minister, Nasser Al Shaer was kidnapped by the Israeli army on Saturday, after hiding since the start of Israel’s Palestine offensive in June. He was seized in a raid at his home in the West Bank town on Ramallah.
Israel breaches ceasefire: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called Israel’s latest attack on Lebanon a violation of the UN backed truce that ended the 34-day war. “The secretary-general is deeply concerned about a violation by the Israeli side of the cessation of hostilities as laid out in Security Council resolution 1701,” a spokesman for Annan said in a statement posted on the United Nations Web site.
I realize Israeli officials will justify the kidnapping as the capture of a wanted terrorist and the attack in Lebanon as an effort to prevent Hizbullah from rearming. Unfortunately for Jerusalem’s sake, these acts feed the image of Israel as a renegade state that operates outside the normal boundaries of international law.
If you had a friend you cared deeply about engaging in self-destructive behavior you would do an intervention–sit them down and try to talk some sense into them. Apparently that is not an option with Israel. Witness what happens when a reporter tells the public that Israel was trying to manipulate public perceptions during the recent invasion of Lebanon:
KURTZ: One other note. On RELIABLE SOURCES two weeks ago, “Washington Post” Pentagon reporter Tom Ricks said he’d been told by U.S. military analysts that Israel was leaving some Hezbollah rocket launchers intact because the killing of Israeli civilians provided an image of moral equivalency in the war. “Post” editor Len Downie, responding to a letter from former New York mayor, Ed Koch, says he told Ricks he should not have made those statements.
Ricks told the “New York Sun” that he accurately reported the comments from analysts but that, quote, “I wish I hadn’t said them, and I intend from now on to keep my mouth shut about it.”
The last thing Israel needs now are a bunch of sycophants and fawning relatives telling it how great and good it is. They need to stop acting like adolescent fools and find the moral high ground they once occuppied. One key to Israel’s longterm security is to solidify its reputation as a nation committed to law and the protection of human rights. When Israeli civilians were being blown up on buses and in market places during the Intifada, international public pressure forced Hamas and Hizbullah to shift away from suicide bombings.
When Israel acts with honor and restraint it has little difficulty portraying its enemies as crazy terrorists. But, when Israel lowers itself to the level of the terrorists, it is Israel, not the terrorists, who suffer. And let there be no doubt, Israel is suffering.
The time has come to look to the past for some answers. When Israel kidnapped Adolf Eichmann, the mastermind of the Final Solution, in the 1960s, the Israelis gave the Nazi a defense counsel, a public trial, and a chance to confront his accusers. That was a moment of greatness for Israel because it provided a graphic demonstration of the difference between a terrorist state and a civilized nation. Israel gave a mass murderer due process and, in the course of events, provided the ultimate condemnation of the Nazi regime.
Now we have the spectacle of Hizbullah acting with statesmanship and restraint while the Israelis destroy their credibility among the international community. That is a truth Israel’s true friends need to communicate to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in the strongest terms possible. And they need to do it soon.
“One key to Israel’s longterm security is to solidify its reputation as a nation committed to law and the protection of human rights.”
This statement you made, seems also approprate, if you change the name of the country, to USA.
Not only is Israel`s reputation going downhill faster but it`s also giving Lebanon & Hezbollah a huge boost by how they are reacting to these attacks. They kidnapping of the Hamas official along with the nearly two dozen lawmakers & other members of the Hamas government, leaving the Palestinians with no official administrative body, is another horror that Israel will have to deal with in {I think} the not too distant future.
And now I see that “TERROR 2.0 is playing on CNN. When will they realize I`m not afraid.
It never seems to occur to them that the land from which the Hamas parliamentarians are snatched is not Israel, and that Israel has no authority to arrest anyone in Palestine. CNN always refers to the captured Israeli troops as kidnapped. Very few in the world see the only distinction between the seized Istraeli soldiers and the seized Hamas parliamentarians as being the parliamentarians are civilians and elected reps of a “state”.
Having Israeli propoganda on our TVs is bad enough but when the propoganda is ludicrous it is even worse.
It’s pretty obvious that Olmert has closely studied Bush’s recent monograph, Anti-Terrorism for Dummies (experto credite).
I really appreciate Bush’s declaration of war on Hezbollah on our behalf. Hezbollah had refrained from attacks on us for some time, and had not been acting like an international terror group. Now it could be open season on us.
This a bold statement for an American to make. It tip toes dangerously close to blasphemy even. Afterall, to say that Hezbollah is carrying out humanitarian work for the innocent victims of Israel’s aggression, is to forget George’s warning that “you’re either with us, or you’re with the terrorists”. Why is it alright for an American to make a reasoned judgement about Hezbollah, but when a non American says something similar they are acting outside of all reason?
Wonderful point! My thought this morning, though, seem to be centered on the fear that it, in the near future, it may not be alright for an American to make a reasoned judgement about anything that the Administration opposes.
When I was a small girl, the nice lady from the John Birch Society used to come to our school to warn us of the dangers of communism. One of the things that scared me most was the speech about secret police and neighbors spying on one another.
I the 1980s I had the opportunity to work with some theatre artists and directors from Romania and other middle European countries. Even though they were in the U.S. they were extremely careful about everything they said. They all assumed they were being watched by other nationals of their countries who were also here. Their fear was palpable.
We are becoming what we feared, what we spent the whole cold-war struggling against. The world is upside down and I feel like I’m falling on my head.
War destroys any illusions about deterrence.
Bush has destroyed the power of the greatest superpower.
Sharon through Olmert have destroyed the legendary image of competence of the Israeli Defense Forces, a legend built in the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War.
War doesn’t increase national security, it weakens it by showing exactly what you’ve got.
Stop it! I don’t for a single second agree with the concept of attacking and killing “Collaterals” But give it a break. Who was unwilling to step in and demand a cease fire? Who has refused to have any communication with the major suppliers to Hesbollah(spelling?) Who has publically stated that the two major suppliers are considered to be part of the group of Countries determined to be the USA’s most dangerous threats?,
Sure, the attacks on Lebanese civillian population appears to be supporting Hes. but how about checking out the “support” the US has given to the Lebanese government? Why has the US been pushing the Leb gov with respect to the assination of the former head of its gov?
Again, I am in no way condoning the behavior of the Israeli government. They were wrong,plain and simple. Yet, I wonder why the citizenry of this country doesn’t appear to be willing to challenge the never- ending lies that this administration has spewed forth in its continuing attempt increase its personal worths!
Mnay citizens of this country challenge the lies and insanity of this illegitimate administration but we do not have access to the same oureach as the corporate propaganda machine — FOX, MSNBC . . .
Israel has done more to open the eyes of its supporters in the last month than anyone else could have. Even my American Jews are questioning Israel’s behavior which is a radical departure from the norm!
I think more people are coming to the ralization that the problems in the Middle East and the existance of non-governmental forces willing to commit acts of violence and even terrorism cannot solved by military actions. Looking at motivations and employing diplomacy are the only adequate response. Olmert and the Cheney/Bush junta have exposed their barbarity and incompetance. Let’s hope (and do all we can) to foment a change to sane leadership.
Israel’s poking the pooch.
Israel and the USA have been fighting wars in the Middle East on the Cheap. Hezbollah has now made all future wars very expensive in lives and money. Unless Israel negotiates secure borders with its neighbors, its only option is genocide. How ironic a nation created because of the Holocaust only a few generations later must resort to genocide to create buffer zones from Hezbollah and Hamas rockets.