When I heard of the deaths of 34 children in Qana today many things went through my mind. Had Israel overplayed its hand? Had Hezbollah been delivered a slight reprieve in its weakened condition?

What must the people of Lebanon be thinking? Where does their anger lie?

Are they angrier with Israel for assaulting them or with Hezbollah for placing targets on their backs? Perhaps they are upset with themselves for keeping company with someone who would make targets of them?

Before the uproar allow me to say that children are innocents. They do not make such decisions. They are forced to live with the decisions made by the adults around them. The children who died in the conflict are not audience for these questions. These questions are for the adults.

As for the questions, I can only answer for myself as the crystal ball is reading Error 404. Initially I would lash out at the one who hit me. It would be knee jerk. I would lash out in defense, pain and anger. I would make it clear that such behavior can not continue.

Then I would look up the sum’#&%!@ who placed the target on me and have a day of reckoning.

I do not consider it farfetched to expect a similar reaction from the Lebanese people. Israel should expect the same.

It was well on its way to winning this conflict until this morning. Although Hezbollah wages war behind women and children, Israel must wipe the foam from its mouth and realize that they are iin fact women and children. No matter how Israel feels about Iran, Hezbollah, its tactics or its mission, it must exercise greater caution in how it fights this war and how it chooses to engage its enemy. Otherwise this has been a lesson in futility.

Understandably Israel is frustrated but they must realize this frustration does not cross cultures. The world recognizes that Hezbollah uses human shields but that tends to be forgotten when they see multitudes of dead children. Consequently the world may move to act in a way that does not benefit the Nation of David.

Israel can not expect the people of Lebanon to overlook such atrocities. It goes against human nature. It should be mindful of the wishes of the Lebanese government and its innocents because without their help Israel can not win. It must have their support and that means painting Hezbollah as the monster, not themselves.

I applaud the United States for pressing for talks that include a discussion of the greater underlying issues in the region. I just hope for everyone’s sake Israel doesn’t over play its hand until that time.

AnnabelleDickson
http://annabelledickson.squarespace.com

One of the dominant themes in every conflict that involves Israel, is the idea that Israel is somehow a ‘moral’ player each time. We are constantly bombarded with reports of how the Israeli army is always involved in some kind of moral dilemma. Or that it is with a ‘heavy heart’ that they must bomb women and children in order to get at the ‘bad’ guys, who are always ‘immoral’ because they hide amongst the civil population.

One has to merely scan the sites of major Israeli newspapers, like Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post in order to be inundated by double-talk about Israel’s hard moral choices. From government officials down to ordinary people, the word ‘moral’ pops up everywhere.

From a psychological perspective, nothing tells more of Israel’s lack of moral perspective than this over-use of the word itself. One does not need to speak of it so much when one is certain of their moral position. Only when there is in fact doubt, does the word become dominant in public discourse.

As the bombs fall on civilians in Lebanon, and as more and more of them die, one can expect to hear more about Israel’s moral struggle to make sure that it is doing the ‘right’ thing.

A case in point: early on Sunday Israel bombed an apartment building in Qana, south Lebanon. Over 55 civilians, most of them women and children located in the basement were crushed to death. Israel’s response: we warned them to leave! Hezbollah had fired rockets from that village.

It is clear that Israel has no ‘moral’ problems with killing those who would struggle for their rights and their land. It seems that Israeli society as a whole has somehow, in a very perverse way, identified with their oppressors of times long past. They are now, on a phantasy level, playing out the roles of those who had abused them. Just like abused children who grow up to abuse others.

It has become clear that Israel has become a modern Nazi state. It has staked its survival and identity on the idea that it must maintain its racial ‘purity’ among a sea of dirty, backwards Arabs. Only from this ideological springboard can it proceed to mete out death in the way that it has for as long as it has been in existence.