Stop demonizing of Israel for merely defending itself
What other country, when attacked in an unprovoked aggression across a recognized international frontier, is then put on a countdown clock by the world, given a limited time window in which to fight back, regardless of whether it has restored its own security? What other country sustains 1,500 indiscriminate rocket attacks into its cities — every one designed to kill, maim and terrorize civilians — and is then vilified by the world when it tries to destroy the enemy’s infrastructure and strongholds with precision-guided munitions that sometimes have the unintended but unavoidable consequence of collateral civilian death and suffering?
I’m not a big Charles Krauthammer fan, but in this case I think he’s nailed it. Why is Israel consistently held to a standard that no other country is held to? If a terrorist group bent on the destruction of Minnesota had taken control of southern Manitoba, and if that same terrorist group regularly lobbed rockets into northern Minnesota, what do you think the reaction would be? Don’t think for a minute that the US wouldn’t be pounding the crap out of southern Manitoba as we speak. No one in this country would be thinking twice about invading Canada so that we could rid ourselves of the threat along our northern border. Our government would argue, with complete justification, that we have every right to protect ourselves from a deadly threat along our northern frontier. The argument could, and should, be made that if Canada can’t (or won’t) control what a group is doing on it’s territory, then we have no choice but to take matters into our own hands. This is exactly what Israel is doing, but the problem is that the world holds Israel to a much different standard than it does.
Hyprocrisy reigns….
For reasons that I cannot begin to fathom, Israel is now being viewed as the aggressor, as if Hezbollah was merely growing daisies on their side of the Lebanese border. Many have complained about Israel’s tactics, and yet it seems I have yet to hear anyone except the US and Israel discussing the fact that Hezbollah, a group sworn to the destruction of Israel, is still lobbing rockets into Israel. Why is one tactic (Hezbollah’s) acceptable, while another (Israel’s) is not? Both kill civilians, so it’s not as if that argument can be used. At least Israel is making an attempt to respect the laws of war. Hezbollah is known for siting it’s military assets in residential neighborhoods, placing innoncent civilians in harm’s way…not that they actually care. To Hezbollah, the lives of Lebanese civilians are useful only as pawns to be employed to score propaganda points.
And what of the Lebanese government’s responsibility in this quagmire? Government ministers are quick to condemn Israel for killing innocent Lebanese civilians and destroying infrastructure, and while, yes, any civilian deaths are horrible and regrettable, a few points are being conveniently ignored here:
- The Lebanese government has ALLOWED Hezbollah to set up shop in southern Lebanon.
- The consequence of Lebanese complicity is that Hezbollah is now completely beyond Lebanese government control. In effect, they have turned the southern 1/3 of Lebanon into Hezbollahland, a place where Hezbollah has complete dominion. That Hezbollahland abuts Israel’s northern border and Hezbollah is sworn to Israel’s destruction seems to be lost on the Lebanese government and the rest of Hezbollah’s apologists.
- Hezbollah regularly site military assets in heavily-populated civilian neighborhood, in complete contravention of all accepted laws of war. And yet where is the ringing international condemnation of this tactic?
The bottom line from where I sit is simple: lose the hypocrisy or shut the Hell up. If you’re going to condemn Israeli “aggression” without so much as a peep about Hezbollah’s tactics, you’re nothing more than a rank hypocrite and a Hezbollah apologist without a shred of credibility. Crawl back under the rock from whence you emerged.
This war is a horrible, terrible thing. The loss of innocent lives can never be countenanced, but let’s not lose sight of why this war began in the first place. Israel is simply trying to protect itself against an implacable foe on their northern border. Israel has every right to defend itself and protect their citizens. We here in the US would be doing nothing less in similar circumstances.
I’m not a fan of war- ANY war- but at some point a country deserves to be able to defend itself, particularly if their adversary is willing to target innocent civilians and completely ignore the internationally-accepted laws of war.
Lose the hypocrisy, willya??
