I have decided to take a break from talking about my dynamic relationships with men to focus instead on the peaceful Middle East. Ha. The “peaceful Middle East” – voted Tiragem & Co’s most oxymoronic three-word oxymoron of 2006, 15 years running. This year it beat out “pious Paris Hilton” and “employed Kevin Federline”, tied for second place, by a few hundred points.
In all seriousness however, it is unfortunate the current goings-on between Lebanon and Israel. Of course, I use the words “unfortunate” and “goings-on” because people have run out of words to describe Middle Eastern conflicts, and the words “war”, “offensive”, and “incursions” have been bandied about far too much for my liking. When the conflict first started, I considered that the international community would immediately call for a cease-fire, and not necessarily because it was the most sensible thing to do, but because that is what the international community, in the voice of the United Nations, usually called for. Imagine my surprise when I learned that America supported Israel’s actions.
America could not understand how the vast majority of the United Nations could believe that they and/or Israel could reason with terrorists, the terrorists in question at this moment, Hezbollah. After all, they said, Israel was attacked first, and has every right to defend itself and eliminate those who initiated the conflict.
I agreed with them at that point. Honestly though, at that point as well, I was unaware of how this had all started, having begun looking at coverage of the conflict a few days into it.
I want to see Hezbollah disbanded, and also Al-Quaeda, Jamas, and all other terrorist organizations, that pose a threat to Western culture.
But this then begs the question – does the destruction of Hezbollah justify the destruction of an entire country? Because that is what Israel is doing, essentially. In order to eliminate Hezbollah, it is currently destroying the recently re-built and always fragile infrastructure of Lebanon by destroying roads, bridges, power stations, waterlines, economic activity, and not to leave unmentioned, it has destroyed a few hundred homes and claimed, thus far, a few hundred lives. According to the BBC, up to a third of them were children, and almost all were civilians. Oh, and how can I forget – at least half a million people have been displaced by the conflict.
But fine. Let’s say at the end of it all, Hezbollah is utterly annihilated. Great. I’ll rejoice for that. But the collateral damage, for the abovementioned goal to be achieved, is likely to be a few billion dollars in damage, a few hundred thousand jobless, several tens of thousands homeless, a few thousand dead in Lebanon. What then? Will Israel have a moral obligation to rebuild Lebanon the same way America and England had a moral obligation to rebuild post-war Iraq? Or will Israel say that it was Lebanon’s fault for harbouring terrorist, and they will just have to pick up the pieces themselves. One route sees Israel leaving a pile of rubble for the Lebanese to reconstruct, and the other shows Lebanon being occupied by foreign forces supposedly fulfilling their moral obligations.
Well my friends, I never claimed to have 20/20 vision, but I can see that further down each of these routes, these two roads merge into a single highway – which shows increased hatred for Israel and Western culture by Arabs and Muslims.
Then again, most routes in the middle east lead to that highway – just some of those routes are more direct than others.
I guess this is what it all comes down to – the never ending Middle East crisis. Fox News has been asking the question “What is America’s role in ending the Middle East crisis”, and I smirked at that one. Even if America wants to or manages to end this crisis, the much larger Middle East crisis will still continue.
Ever since Israel was created several decades ago, Jewish people given land amidst other countries who hated everything they were and stood for, there has been conflict. Fueled by hatred perhaps, maybe a few Islamic rogues fired a couple of guns at some Israelis, and Israel responded by attacking some militant headquarters, perhaps killing a child or two in the process. And so it began, and has endlessly continued. Each side would attack each other, citing their attack as merely a response to a previous attack by the other side.
When a Jew says to the Muslim Arab – do you support terrorist attacks, the Muslim Arab says…
They are justified because Jews are killing Palestinian civilians, destroying their homes, weakening their infrastructure, imprisoning for years thousands of Palestinians, and now destroying an entire country in a bid to displace a minority of Hezbollah militants.
When a Muslim Arab says to the Jew – why don’t you stop attacking Palestine and leave us in peace, give us back our land, the Jew says…
We do that, then Palestinians launch rockets arbitrarily into Israel, killing civilians, unleash suicide bombers into our markets, killing many. We only defend our land.
Both sides are right. And because of that the war never ends.
Most Americans would then snidely ask if I can do any better – the neo-conservatives they are called apparently. No. I certainly cannot. I would do things differently. Whether they will be done any better is purely a matter of speculation into the “If”. I watched Hardline today on the BBC, and I think the British fellah – curse my memory, I cannot remember his name – made a very valid point on how things might have been better now.
If, he had said, America had launched a war against Al Quaeda, instead of launching a war against terrorism on the whole, the war would have already been won. Keen point, I must say. Certainly, America would have had an immensely larger amount of support from the international community, it would have been able to spare more troops to Afghanistan, and possibly have pulled the country up to a far better position than it is currently in. Then, I would dare say, America would have been able to hold the new and improved democratic and auto-functioning Afghanistan up as an example of what can be achieved through determination and leadership.
Easier said than done, you say? Well I’ll tell you what. It’s easier done than Iraq.
And in case you’re wondering why I’m bringing in America’s military tactics into what seems to be a conflict solely between Israel and Lebanon, well let me clue you into something. To many Arabs, even the moderates, Israel is seen as the Middle Eastern arm of the West, and ever since Iraq was invaded, things have only gotten worse in the Middle East. Everything is connected ideologically. And because ideology runs much in government, everything is somewhat connected politically as well.
Anyways, I have to run. But I’m glad to have finally said what I wanted to say. I’ve been stewing to write about Muslims and Arabs since the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed were published.
But one more thing! This was all started because of the kidnapping of 2 Israeli soldiers??!! Is this true! You launch a war against a country, displacing millions, and killing hundreds so far, because of 2 soldiers? I have to check if that’s really true. But I *really* have to run, now!