Israel's crime: losing
I've avoided much commentary on the Israel-Hezbollah war for several reasons, including the fact that I haven't been blogging much about anything lately as well as a suspicion that just about everything that can be said about this conflict has been said elsewhere.
Still, as someone who is very pro-Israel, the past several weeks have been terribly disheartening. The same military force which defeated four entire Arab armies in six days a generation ago now seems incapable of doing much more then fighting a war of attrition to a draw against a small (albeit very well-trained) guerilla army in a single Arab state. Israel's inability to take and hold territory or do much of anything to stop the missile bombardment of its own citizens has not gone unnoticed by its enemies who are happily gloating that they have basically taken the worst Israel has to offer and are still standing. Lebanese infrastructure has certainly taken an incredible beating, but Israel's airstrikes seem to have damaged Lebanon's tourist industry and civilians way more then they have done much of anything to affect Hezbollah, which is still firing off missiles at Israel at a steady pace (of course, the usual bias of the international press still holds true: Israel is maligned for killing civilians in Lebanon, but Hezbollah, which is intentionally targeting Israeli civlians, gets a free pass). Nonetheless, to use a very bad sports metaphor, Israel seems like a Super Bowl quality football team that has shockingly been played to a tie by a high-school opponent, and has taken their frustration out by rampaging through the stands beating up the high school's fans.
As a supporter of Israel, the entire situation makes me incredibly sad. For whatever reason (and I am sure the military analysts will study this conflict for a long time) Israel seems incapable of winning militarily. The longer the war drags on, the worse it gets for Israel's citizens and economy, not to mention Lebanon. It doesn't look like there is any "magic bullet" that will somehow enable Israel to easily roll up an enemy which is dug in fortified positions and excels in hiding in the middle of civilians.
It is kind of ironic that Hezbollah expected Israel's "usual" response to Hezbollah's aggression: a few token strikes on Hezbollah positions followed up by the normal prisoner exchange. That might have just "encouraged" Hezbollah, but it is hard to see how the result of that could have been any worse then what actually happened: the tiger has been shown to have a rather weak bite, at least right now. Still, it is useful to keep a proper perspective. Israel is a strong, western liberal democray, it is not going to fold up because of Hezbollah or anyone else. Unlike Hezbollah's rather extreme fantasies, Israel "losing" this war no more means the end of Israel then the US "losing" in Iraq means that Iraqi troops will soon be occupying Washington. Israel isn't going anywhere. Unfortunately, it looks like the same thing can be said about Hezbollah.
7-30-06: And this doesn't help win the war: Apparently Mr. Magoo is a bomber pilot in the Israeli Air Force.
I've avoided much commentary on the Israel-Hezbollah war for several reasons, including the fact that I haven't been blogging much about anything lately as well as a suspicion that just about everything that can be said about this conflict has been said elsewhere.
Still, as someone who is very pro-Israel, the past several weeks have been terribly disheartening. The same military force which defeated four entire Arab armies in six days a generation ago now seems incapable of doing much more then fighting a war of attrition to a draw against a small (albeit very well-trained) guerilla army in a single Arab state. Israel's inability to take and hold territory or do much of anything to stop the missile bombardment of its own citizens has not gone unnoticed by its enemies who are happily gloating that they have basically taken the worst Israel has to offer and are still standing. Lebanese infrastructure has certainly taken an incredible beating, but Israel's airstrikes seem to have damaged Lebanon's tourist industry and civilians way more then they have done much of anything to affect Hezbollah, which is still firing off missiles at Israel at a steady pace (of course, the usual bias of the international press still holds true: Israel is maligned for killing civilians in Lebanon, but Hezbollah, which is intentionally targeting Israeli civlians, gets a free pass). Nonetheless, to use a very bad sports metaphor, Israel seems like a Super Bowl quality football team that has shockingly been played to a tie by a high-school opponent, and has taken their frustration out by rampaging through the stands beating up the high school's fans.
As a supporter of Israel, the entire situation makes me incredibly sad. For whatever reason (and I am sure the military analysts will study this conflict for a long time) Israel seems incapable of winning militarily. The longer the war drags on, the worse it gets for Israel's citizens and economy, not to mention Lebanon. It doesn't look like there is any "magic bullet" that will somehow enable Israel to easily roll up an enemy which is dug in fortified positions and excels in hiding in the middle of civilians.
It is kind of ironic that Hezbollah expected Israel's "usual" response to Hezbollah's aggression: a few token strikes on Hezbollah positions followed up by the normal prisoner exchange. That might have just "encouraged" Hezbollah, but it is hard to see how the result of that could have been any worse then what actually happened: the tiger has been shown to have a rather weak bite, at least right now. Still, it is useful to keep a proper perspective. Israel is a strong, western liberal democray, it is not going to fold up because of Hezbollah or anyone else. Unlike Hezbollah's rather extreme fantasies, Israel "losing" this war no more means the end of Israel then the US "losing" in Iraq means that Iraqi troops will soon be occupying Washington. Israel isn't going anywhere. Unfortunately, it looks like the same thing can be said about Hezbollah.
7-30-06: And this doesn't help win the war: Apparently Mr. Magoo is a bomber pilot in the Israeli Air Force.
posted by Mike at
7:57 PM
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