Thursday, July 27, 2006
The Israeli-Hizballah conflict - my view.
Due to the intensity and seriousness of the conflict in Israel (against Hizballah - an armed party in Lebanon), I'd like to share what I think about the situation.
A brief to this conflict: about two weeks ago Hizballah decided to launch a military-political operation called "True Promise", an operation which its goals were to rescue Lebannese prisoners who are kept by Israel, Samir Kuntar among them.
The operation conisted of infiltration to Israeli territory, kidnapping two Israeli soldiers (and killing a few others) who were on patrol and on top of it, they launched Katyusha rockets on Israel as a diversion.
The kidnapped soldiers shall be used for prisoner exchange - it's not the first time Hizballah launches such operation, it is one of the fewest times however that Israel responds by attacking without negotiating at all, as they feel Hizballah is pulling Israel's strings, and Israel is tired of it.
Israel responded with an immediate military operation, bombing Lebannese territory which they claim is being used by Hizballah as infrastructure and recently launching limited ground attacks on southern Lebanon - the goals of the Israeli operation are vague but are known to A) cause Hizballah to be disarmed and B) return the kidnapped soldiers.
As for now, the conflict is in its stat-quo situation which is consistent attacks from the air on Beirut and southern Lebanon, plus a small ground military operation (Israel), and about one-hundred missiles a day being fired from Lebannese territory towards Northern Israel (Hizballah), the Lebannese government however demands cease fire.
Needless to say how deadly this operation is, we'll skip to the point.
Hizballah - I don't have any problems with the ideologies of this group, if they want to hate Israel, they can hate it how much they like and their local affairs shouldn't bother me, I do not sympathize their ideology, just feel that they have right to believe in what they want.
On the other hand, being a political party in a country which claims to be democratic, they have NO right to have their own military, they have no right to control Lebannese territory and most importantly, they have no right to attack Israel on the behalf of Lebanon, they weren't democratically selected to do so, I feel that Lebanon is paying the price for this; Hizballah IS the major problem in this conflict and should be disarmed or at least lose their military control in Lebanon.
Israel - I believe that the operation against Hizballah is necessary, Hizballah is not going to stop bothering Israel and they are surely not going to be disarmed on their own.
Many people think that the Israeli operation is not justified, in reply to only 2 soldiers being kidnapped and a few missile attacks, however, let us not forget that the above aggression is the last straw in this whole Israeli-Hizballah conflict, all of the diplomatic attempts were failed, a UN force which was sent to Lebanon to silence Hizballah is not doing its job, something the UN is very good at, watching as an observer and never really risk their forces.
Israel had no choice but to launch an offensive to mute Hizballah once and for all, and for this I support the government in full.
I do not however think the means, specifically the air raids are the right tool for the job, not only many innocent people are being hurt- hundreds of dead Lebannese civilians and hundreds of thousand people being evacuated out of Lebanon, this is not going to benefit Israel;
I think the large scale air campaign was selected because Israel fears of another Israeli-Lebanon war and rightly so, the said war costed over six-hundred Israeli soldiers (about 25% the casualty size of Israel's deadliest war - Kipur... this is a catastrophic size).
So therefore Israel has full legitimacy to act in Lebanon, the means might not be just, but that's beside point... Israel had ENOUGH of it.
I'd like to add that from my knowledge about military operations, air attacks are not a good tool against terrorist/guerilla infrastrcuture simply because the infrastructure is mostly civilian, the air force, no matter how precise it is can never pinpoint the exact targets.
Next time I'll talk about how and why Israel is being internationally criticised and what are the consequences of it.
A brief to this conflict: about two weeks ago Hizballah decided to launch a military-political operation called "True Promise", an operation which its goals were to rescue Lebannese prisoners who are kept by Israel, Samir Kuntar among them.
The operation conisted of infiltration to Israeli territory, kidnapping two Israeli soldiers (and killing a few others) who were on patrol and on top of it, they launched Katyusha rockets on Israel as a diversion.
The kidnapped soldiers shall be used for prisoner exchange - it's not the first time Hizballah launches such operation, it is one of the fewest times however that Israel responds by attacking without negotiating at all, as they feel Hizballah is pulling Israel's strings, and Israel is tired of it.
Israel responded with an immediate military operation, bombing Lebannese territory which they claim is being used by Hizballah as infrastructure and recently launching limited ground attacks on southern Lebanon - the goals of the Israeli operation are vague but are known to A) cause Hizballah to be disarmed and B) return the kidnapped soldiers.
As for now, the conflict is in its stat-quo situation which is consistent attacks from the air on Beirut and southern Lebanon, plus a small ground military operation (Israel), and about one-hundred missiles a day being fired from Lebannese territory towards Northern Israel (Hizballah), the Lebannese government however demands cease fire.
Needless to say how deadly this operation is, we'll skip to the point.
Hizballah - I don't have any problems with the ideologies of this group, if they want to hate Israel, they can hate it how much they like and their local affairs shouldn't bother me, I do not sympathize their ideology, just feel that they have right to believe in what they want.
On the other hand, being a political party in a country which claims to be democratic, they have NO right to have their own military, they have no right to control Lebannese territory and most importantly, they have no right to attack Israel on the behalf of Lebanon, they weren't democratically selected to do so, I feel that Lebanon is paying the price for this; Hizballah IS the major problem in this conflict and should be disarmed or at least lose their military control in Lebanon.
Israel - I believe that the operation against Hizballah is necessary, Hizballah is not going to stop bothering Israel and they are surely not going to be disarmed on their own.
Many people think that the Israeli operation is not justified, in reply to only 2 soldiers being kidnapped and a few missile attacks, however, let us not forget that the above aggression is the last straw in this whole Israeli-Hizballah conflict, all of the diplomatic attempts were failed, a UN force which was sent to Lebanon to silence Hizballah is not doing its job, something the UN is very good at, watching as an observer and never really risk their forces.
Israel had no choice but to launch an offensive to mute Hizballah once and for all, and for this I support the government in full.
I do not however think the means, specifically the air raids are the right tool for the job, not only many innocent people are being hurt- hundreds of dead Lebannese civilians and hundreds of thousand people being evacuated out of Lebanon, this is not going to benefit Israel;
I think the large scale air campaign was selected because Israel fears of another Israeli-Lebanon war and rightly so, the said war costed over six-hundred Israeli soldiers (about 25% the casualty size of Israel's deadliest war - Kipur... this is a catastrophic size).
So therefore Israel has full legitimacy to act in Lebanon, the means might not be just, but that's beside point... Israel had ENOUGH of it.
I'd like to add that from my knowledge about military operations, air attacks are not a good tool against terrorist/guerilla infrastrcuture simply because the infrastructure is mostly civilian, the air force, no matter how precise it is can never pinpoint the exact targets.
Next time I'll talk about how and why Israel is being internationally criticised and what are the consequences of it.
# posted by Avihoo Ilan @ 9:45 PM 
