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Hezbollah: 1 - Israel:0 [Halftime] (pg. 2)
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| Shakka |
| quote: | Israel's Way Out: Hezbollah and Hamas attacks have backed it into a corner. Escalation against Iran and Syria might be the best hope.
By Daniel Jonah Goldhagen
FOR THE SECOND TIME in the long history of the Middle East conflict, an enemy of Israel has effectively
said: We do not care what you do.
Hezbollah — in choosing not to return the two soldiers it seized on July 12, and in its bombardment of Israel — has declared that it does not care if its war-making leads Israel to attack Lebanon's cities, ruin that country's economy and kill its people. What matters most is inflicting damage on Israel, weakening its morale and goading it to a level of destruction that will incite the world's wrath. The Palestinians said as much with their second intifada and their suicide bombings. But this is different because Hezbollah's daily rainfall of rockets in Israel portends an intolerable military assault without end.
What can Israel do — what could any country do? — with such an enemy? Except for a desperate Saddam Hussein during the Persian Gulf War, other countries and armies that would have liked to destroy Israel did not target Israeli cities because they knew that Israel would intensely bomb Cairo, Amman or Damascus. Israel had deterrence. Had an enemy dared such an attack, Israel could have compelled it to stop by inflicting massive damage. With Hezbollah — and with Hamas as well — Israel's ability to deter attacks or to compel them to stop has been lost.
The third strategic means of dealing with an enemy — making a genuine peace — has not been possible because Hezbollah and Hamas are expressly committed to Israel's destruction. They see any cessation of hostilities as an interlude before further attack.
So Israel has adopted the fourth strategic
possibility: to devastate its dangerous foe, which also would restore deterrence. Yet Israel has discovered that against combatants who look like civilians and whose rockets are hidden everywhere, it must fight longer and occupy and destroy much more of Lebanon than it may deem moral, wise or feasible. Even a future international force in southern Lebanon — the possibility of which is highly uncertain — may be incapable of thwarting Hezbollah and would still leave northern Israel in Hezbollah's rocket range.
What strategies remain? No. 5 is intolerable: living with ongoing, and probably increasing, rocket attacks into northern Israel and beyond. Hezbollah's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, promises that "there are many cities in the center [of Israel] which will be targeted in the phase of 'beyond Haifa.' "
The sixth option is to compel Hezbollah's suppliers and patrons — Syria and Iran — to end the terror.
Neither country wishes a war with militarily superior Israel (Syria's saber rattling notwithstanding). If every Hezbollah missile into Israel produced Israeli retaliation against Syria, and possibly Iran (including its nuclear production sites), Syria and Iran would be forced to make Hezbollah stop.
Obviously, this is a last-ditch option. It would escalate the conflict and increase international pressure on Israel to desist.
All of Israel's strategic choices are bad or ineffective or undesirable. And yet this last option would be the most likely to reestablish the deterrence critical to Israel's long-term survival — and to peace in the region — by demonstrating Israel's enduring power to compel an end of attacks. And it might prevent still more massive devastation of Lebanon.
Make no mistake: Israel is fighting for its life. It faces a historically new kind of fanatical foe, political Islam, which combines three characteristics:
a political-religious ideology calling for its enemies' annihilation; indifference to, even the celebration of, its own people's death (because martyrs are rewarded with a place in heaven); and virtually unstoppable technology (missiles) and techniques (suicide bombing) of terror.
The political Islamists are emboldened by their newfound power. As Nasrallah has boasted, "When were 2 million Israelis forced to become displaced, or to stay in bomb shelters for more than 18 days?" And the danger will escalate a thousandfold if Iran, the epicenter of political Islam and Hezbollah's master, achieves its own invulnerability with nuclear weapons, so that it too can launch rocket and other attacks against its many targets. Iran's former president and current power broker, Hashemi Rafsanjani, spoke candidly in 2001: "The use of even one nuclear bomb inside Israel will destroy everything," he said, although it would harm the Islamic world. "It is not irrational," he went on, "to contemplate such an eventuality."
A nuclear Iran, sharing Hezbollah's and Hamas' enmity for Israel's very existence, is a foe with a million times the wealth and destructive might to found, fund and supply many more Hezbollahs against many more enemies, including the hated West.
Israel's political Islamic enemies are studying and rejoicing over the new geostrategic situation. These totalitarians' ultimate targets — all "infidels,"
especially here and in Europe — should study it as well, be sobered and realize that Israel, in fighting this war in its self-defense, to reestablish a geostrategic balance, and for its long-term survival, is ultimately fighting for them as well.
DANIEL JONAH GOLDHAGEN, a member of Harvard University's Center for European Studies and the author of "Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust," is completing a book on genocide. His website is www.goldhagen.com. |
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| George Smiley |
| quote: | Originally posted by Groundhog Boy
The only way it "helps" us is if other coutries (Iran, Syria) get involved giving us an excuse to fight them |
| quote: | | Even if that's what we wanted, now is the worst possible time for it due to other conflicts we're currently engaged in. |
Not really. America wont undertake a military operation against Iran like the would against Iraq (they simply cannot). However, America does have a lot of bombs and missiles which would be employed to do the job... |
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| hardcore trancer |
| Hezbullah is getting bigger and stronger daily thanks to Israel.Even their old enemies are joining them to fight Israel. |
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| Fir3start3r |
| quote: | Originally posted by hardcore trancer
Hezbullah is getting bigger and stronger daily thanks to Israel.Even their old enemies are joining them to fight Israel. |
Nice opinion, got any prove?
Why do you love Hezbullah anyways?:conf:
Hezbullah are nothing but patsies for Iran's agenda of hate and terror. |
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| CHRles |
Look at the guy's sig - he's part of the terrorist alliance of a pro-nuclear Iran. We've got a "terrorist lover" on this website...
This guy is probably sad the terrorists in London failed in their attempts to bomb planes. |
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| pkcRAISTLIN |
its an interesting question. on the one hand theres no doubt israel would be hurting their capability, however you have to look at the flipside of that- where theyre obviously hardening their resolve, lebanese sympathy & recruitment drive.
the \'score\' if you will depends on each groups goals of the conflict. if israel\'s goal is the halt of katyusha (sp?) rockets into israel, obviously thus far its been a failure. however, what exactly is hezbollah\'s goal? israel is now further into lebanon than theyve been for 6 years, theres no prisoner exchange in sight, and the infrastructue of the nation housing them is crumbling.
if israel can push hezbollah out of southern lebanon and replace it with a UN force then id say that would count as a victory for israel. of course, hezbollah just need to stay alive and they could count it as a victory for themselves too.
i would be interested to see how a UN force would deal with hezbollah if and when it is finally deployed. |
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| RebeL9 |
| quote: | Originally posted by CHRles
Look at the guy's sig - he's part of the terrorist alliance of a pro-nuclear Iran. We've got a "terrorist lover" on this website...
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in that way we have loads of terrorist lovers since there are lots of israeli supporters here.
One terrorist is the other ones freedom fighter. |
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| pkcRAISTLIN |
| quote: | Originally posted by RebeL9
in that way we have loads of terrorist lovers since there are lots of israeli supporters here.
One terrorist is the other ones freedom fighter. |
say what you like about israel's awful tactics that result in terrible collateral damage, but urban warfare against guerilla fighters (whom hide behind civilians) will always lead to that, irrespective of who is fighting whom.
there is a world of difference between that and firing missiles randomly at civilian centres, even if the results are sometimes the same. |
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| CHRles |
I'd be a lot less alarmed if it was Turkey gaining nuclear technology. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised that should Iran somehow does end up obtaining nuclear power (thanks to Russia and China), that one of the following countries - Kuwait, the UAE, Turkey, or Saudi Arabia - would very quickly be supplied with that technology as well vis-a-vis Europe and America.
The problem with Iran should be obvious. You have a country that not only blatantly talks about wiping out another country in the middle east (something even Palestinian leader Abbas has condemned), but also constantly spewing hatred speech about the west, and arming terrorist groups (that have shown they dont even care about their own people). |
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| hardcore trancer |
| quote: | Originally posted by CHRles
Look at the guy's sig - he's part of the terrorist alliance of a pro-nuclear Iran. We've got a "terrorist lover" on this website...
This guy is probably sad the terrorists in London failed in their attempts to bomb planes. |
Having nukes doent make you a terrorist you yank.
And the so called london terrorists plot is working very well to shift attentions from the war in Lebenon and Iraq. |
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| hardcore trancer |
| quote: | Originally posted by CHRles
The problem with Iran should be obvious. You have a country that not only blatantly talks about wiping out another country in the middle east (something even Palestinian leader Abbas has condemned), but also constantly spewing hatred speech about the west, and arming terrorist groups (that have shown they dont even care about their own people). |
I can say the same about North Korea but its too bad everyone is ignoring the real threat here, it Kind of reminds me of 911 when everyone knew was about to hit the fan and yet no one tried to stop it.I have a feeling the same could happen with NK as well.
About Iran arming so called terrorists,The U.S. has been arming Israel for years and Israel has used those arms to terrorize the palestinian people.why arent you condemning them? |
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| hardcore trancer |
| quote: | Originally posted by Fir3start3r
[quote]Why do you love Hezbullah anyways?:conf: |
why do you support Israel?:conf:
| quote: | | Hezbullah are nothing but patsies for Iran's agenda of hate and terror. |
yup Hezbullah is the real evil here. :rolleyes: |
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