There is little debate among the international community that Israel has a sovereign right to defend its citizens and border from aggression that emanates from Lebanese soil via the Hezbollah terrorist group. The only argument against the Israeli response that seems to find any traction is the argument of proportionality – that Israel is fighting back too hard, and in the process is destroying the Lebanese infrastructure, and killing too many innocent Lebanese civilians.
Paramount in this discussion is the fact that Israel only wants peace with its Arab neighbors, and regrets having to cause harm to a country that is the playground for the devious military mis-adventures of Iran and Syria. The Hezbollah paymasters sit comfortably in Damascus and Tehran while they watch a fight they instigated take place on Lebanese soil. Maybe the world community should consider aiming its criticism at the source of the conflict, Iran and Syria. No country, especially a tiny country like Israel, would tolerate hundreds of suicide bombings and thousands of deadly missiles raining down on its citizens, much less have its troops killed and/or kidnapped. A harsh response is to be expected. Would it make the global community happier - if more Israelis died in order to make the deaths more proportional? How cynical.
More importantly, the Israelis have always anticipated a heavy Hezbollah bombardment of the Northern border areas, and have prepared bunkers and early warning systems to protect their citizens. If Lebanon is going to "allow" a terrorist militia to fire rockets into Israel, then they should invest in protecting their citizens from Israel's logical response. Their failure to do so is a main reason for the Lebanese civilians' death toll.
With that said, the deliberate destruction of the Lebanese infrastructure by the Israeli military serves two purposes: First of all, destroying bridges, electrical grids and airports has strategic military value. It prevents their enemy from fleeing and/or re-arming. Secondly, it sends a message to the Lebanese, the Syrians, Iranians and everyone else who considers themselves the "enemy" of Israel that the price of terrorist /military adventures against Israel is "priceless".
The death toll of Lebanese civilians is regrettable, but their lives are not worth more than an Israeli life, and the Lebanese people have allowed Hezbollah to become part of their government and wage war on Israel from their soil. Hezbollah's strategy of using civilians as human shields, and storing weapons caches in civilian homes is clearly the reason why there are more civilian casualties than the usual civilian "collateral damage".
The world calls for Israeli proportionality? There are 1.5 billion Muslims in the world, and only 12 million Jews. It would not come as a surprise to anyone that at least 10% of the Muslim world (or 150 million Muslims) would love to martyr themselves if it meant that Israel would be destroyed. In the case for proportionality, it would only take 6 million Muslims to wipe out the 6 million Israelis…and the Muslim volunteers would line-up faster than you can say "72 virgins".
Those calling for proportionality are discounting the value that Israelis put on life vs. the twisted psychology behind Muslim extremists who decapitate and mutilate fellow Muslims with so much enthusiasm that it is hard to believe the atrocities that they are committing, much less what atrocities they would commit if they ever had a chance to rampage through Tel Aviv.
Some Muslims are fighting for what they believe is a right to their homeland, other Muslims are fighting to realize the pan-Arab dream of a Mideast that is 100% Muslim, others are fighting just because they hate and want to kill Israelis/Jews. To the Israelis it doesn't matter why the Arabs/Muslim want to kill them. As an Israeli father told me the other day, "they shoot a few missiles at us, we shoot a lot of missiles at them, they kill a few of us, and we kill a lot of them. We are fighting for our existence".
The entire Israeli/Hezbollah war that is dominating the global press is a result of the failure of the United Nations to enforce UN resolution 1559, in which the government of Lebanon agreed to remove Hezbollah from the border. For the past 6 years, the UN's UNIFIL force of 6,000 was reduced to 2,000 – and they sat and watched while Hezbollah not only re-armed, but hardened their defenses on the border. It is ludicrous to expect Israel to even entertain the whims of the EU or UN when it comes to exerting its sovereign rights to protect its citizens. The result of an Israeli proportional response is that it would be death by a thousand cuts. The Muslim world would easily (gladly) absorb 100,000 dead soldiers over a 2 year period, if it meant Israel would lose 100,000 too. The idea that Israel should fight a war for survival "proportionately" is absolutely ridiculous. The concept of proportionality allows the aggressor to dictate their opponent's response. That is a recipe for an endless cycle of violence. Wars are fought - and like a fire, they will burn out when one side wins.
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