We hear unctuous statements about how Israel takes pains to avoid civilian casualties. But Israel's words and deeds contradict her propaganda.
As the war began, Ehud Olmert accused Lebanon, which had condemned Hezbollah for the killing and capture of the Israeli soldiers, of an "act of war." "Everyone in southern Lebanon is a terrorist and is connected to Hezbollah," roared Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon.
In Qana, 57 of Haim Ramon's "terrorists," 37 of them children, were massacred with precision-guided bombs.
Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz publicly threatened "to turn back the clock in Lebanon by 20 years."
No sooner had Hezbollah taken the two Israeli soldiers hostage than Israel unleashed an air war -- on Lebanon. The Beirut airport was bombed, its fuel storage tanks set ablaze. The coast was blockaded. Power plants, gas stations, lighthouses, bridges, roads, trucks and buses were all hit with air strikes.
Within 48 hours, it was apparent Israel was exploiting Hezbollah's attack to execute a preconceived military plan to destroy Lebanon. It was the moral equivalent of a municipal police going berserk, shooting, killing and ravaging an African-American community, because Black Panthers had ambushed and killed cops.
If Israel is not in violation of the principle of proportionality, by which Christians are to judge the conduct of a just war, what can that term mean?
[Note: Latest figures are 900 civilian dead in Lebanon, 19 in Israel, a ratio nearing 50-1. Hezbollah is firing unguided rockets, while Israel is using precision-guided munitions.]
Thousands of Lebanese civilians are injured. Perhaps 800,000 are homeless.
Yet, whatever one thinks of the morality of what Israel is doing, the stupidity is paralyzing. Instead of maintaining the moral and political high ground it had -- when even Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan were condemning Hezbollah -- Israel launched an air war on an innocent people. Now, 87 percent of Lebanese back Hezbollah, and the entire Arab and Islamic world, Shia and Sunni alike, is rallying behind them.
[From an article by Pat Buchanan, writing in Yahoo News]
1 comment:
EZE.13:10 .... Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace; EZE.13:16 To wit, the prophets of Israel which prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and which see visions of peace for her, and there is no peace, saith the Lord GOD.
The U.S. also sees the world through an Old Testament perspective, with itself, rather than God, as the protector of physical Israel. It too believes in an eye for an eye, or many eyes for each American eye, and sees those who would challenge it and its partner Israel as the enemies of God. So Israel and the U.S. are birds of a feather that flock together, and they consider themselves eagles while many other nations of the world see them as vultures or other birds of prey that attack the weak and the helpless. Israel is backed by the U.S. because it is Israel and because they are partners in perfidy.
They’re so ignorant of the rest of the world, the last thing U.S. need to be doing is meddling in Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq and the Mideast. As the old saying goes, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” When it does, then things can get pretty nasty. And U.S. has done much to destroy any peace!
Ted Rudow III,MA
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