Middle east pot is bubbling
I don't buy any of this from the Israeli intelligence agency
Israel's spy chief has given a warning that Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip are garnering increasing numbers of weapons and tactical expertise from Hezbollah fighters since the war in southern Lebanon erupted earlier this summer.
Yuval Diskin, the director of Shin Bet, Israel's equivalent of MI5, said Egypt's Sinai Peninsula was being used as a terrorist base and fast becoming a haven for arms smugglers preparing to shift their wares into the Gaza Strip.
This from an intelligence agency that got caught with it's pants down, not realizing that Hezbollah had a tunnel network and significant anti-tank and rocket capability. We're now supposed to believe their intel in Gaza is any better ? That there are tunnels from Egypt supplying Hammas ? If they know there are tunnels (20 of them) why aren't they already bombed ?
Gaza has come under sustained, and, at times, intense, military pressure from Israel since Palestinian militants snatched an Israeli soldier in late June. More than 270 air strikes, numerous ground raids and days of incessant artillery fire have caused damage of almost
Shalom Russell,
First, note that the tunnels that Yuval Diskin is talking about are between Egypt and Gaza, not Gaza and Israel. That makes them a little more difficult to just bomb.
Second, please take a look at the 50-year plus history of Israel. From the War for Independence in 1948 to the recent retaliation against Hezbollah's rocket attacks (which caused some $1 billion in infrastructure damage and displaced 1 million Israeli citizens) Israel has always acted in defense. Article 51 of the United Nation's charter always applies.
Third, to imply that actions on either side are those of people behaving like children is to trivialize the real issues involved.
Fourth, for more than 50 years, the governments of Syria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt have had within their power the ability to create a viable second state. They, for their own reasons have chosen not to do that. Gaza and the West Bank could be a thriving, self sustaining Nation. The Palestinian leadership has done nothing in 50 plus years to work towards that goal. Its motivation has become clear following the death of Yasser Arafat: it's not set up to govern a peace-time nation, it only knows how to fight for the elimination of Israel.
Fifth, certainly there are elements on both sides that are spoiling for the big fight, but fortunately, cooler heads continue to prevail in the Israeli government. If that were not the case Israel would simply nuke Damascus, Tehran and Mecca and have done with it.
Finally, please remember that Final Solution is a very loaded phrase. Don't throw it around lightly.
B'shalom,
Jeff Hess
Lots of good points you raise. Yes the tunnels are from Egypt, allegedly, but they have to terminate in Gaza - therefore could be bombed - if they actually existed.
Israel's actions, while "in self defense" has often been disproportionate - the latest war with Lebanon an example, that escalated the entire affair from a simple kidnapping to a full out war costing probably 2,000 lives from both sides. I understand the theory behind being disproportionate - but it isn't effective in the long run - as Israel's problems with it's neighbors have shown over 50 years.
I absolutely agree about Israel's neighbors having had the power to create 2 states and failed, instead feeding their own base and political ambitions. While there is greater acceptance of this idea (a lot less talk of eliminating Israel than there used to be from the actual governments) It isn't anywhere close to actually happening. And I think that the governments moving closer to this idea is what creates the fervor in some of these countries where factions still do not accept that idea. In Lebanon and Palestine those factions for now appear stronger than those governments.
If Israel nuked anyone it would lose world support and without that it would have a hard time surviving in the region I think. Israel is in defiance of more UN resolutions than any other nation, and only the US veto has prevented any action from being taken. We don't hear too much talk about that in the US
Final Solution. Yes I chose that intentionally because I think it highlights the very real dangers and much of the mindsets that are pervasive in the region - your reference to nuking neighbors is a loose example - that mindset certainly exists in many arab nations.
I think the problems in the region are very serious, but I have also come to the conclusion that an utter lack of leadership furthers those problems. When conflicts go on as long as this one has all sides lose the right to be the good guys - I don't think there are any anymore, and I'm not going to start going down the road of matching up equivalences to figure out who is the least bad.
You got to think that economic development and trade is the answer. By lifting up Israel's neighbors out of poverty, providing education and a sense of worth, would move these nations out of this cycle into something where they have a much greater self interest in peace. I look at US policy to supply billions of dollars a year in aid to Israel - much of which is spent on weapons as being utterly counter productive to that end, and worse still puts the US in a position of picking a side instead of being a trusted 3rd party. It also paints a target on our back.
If the radicals in the middle east want to wipeout Israel - how is that not wanting a final solution to their "problem" ?
I can't think of a more appropriate use for the term to be honest and sure as all getup aint going to apologize for it.
let's get your "disproportionate" response correct. If you are talking "final solution," how does 6 million sound?
You can't look at any one side in this anymore and say "they are the good guys". There's just been too much bloodshed on both sides.
That's why I talk about needing adults. Someone to sit people down and say, look both sides have to change, acomodate and compromise - and no one is going to be 100% happy with the result, but if you don't then everyone just keeps on killing - at which the point US shuold say and you will both be doing it without our financial or military support.
The US should not be in the business of subsidizing other people's conflicts.
Israel is tired of doing most of the accomodating.