Israel Will Create More Terrorists Than It Kills
Despite President George W. Bush’s claim on Monday that the crisis started because Hezbollah decided to “fire hundreds of rockets into Israel from southern Lebanon,” Hezbollah did not attack civilian areas in Israel until after Israel began attacking civilian areas in Lebanon last week.
In fact, until Israel began its recent assault on Lebanon, not a single Israeli civilian had been killed by Hezbollah since well before Israel’s withdrawal of its occupation forces from southern Lebanon in 2000. Virtually all of Hezbollah’s military actions since then have been against Israeli occupation forces in a disputed border region between Lebanon and an Israel-occupied portion of southwestern Syria, not against Israel.
Congressional leaders of both parties have called for tough action against Syria for allowing the transshipment of rockets to Hezbollah forces, which have killed up to a dozen Israeli civilians. However, they have refused to consider suspending the shipments of F-16 jet fighters and other weapons and delivery systems to Israel. These weapons have inflicted far more civilian casualties on the Lebanese side of the border, despite provisions of the U.S. Arms Export Control Act which prohibits U.S. arms transfers to countries that use American weaponry against non-military targets.
In short, both Republicans and Democrats recognize that while arming those who kill innocent Israeli civilians is wrong, they support arming those who kill innocent Lebanese civilians. This is racism, pure and simple.
Not only is Israel’s offensive against Lebanon illegal and immoral, it does not increase Israel’s security or curb the threat of Islamic radicalism. In fact, it does the opposite.
Hezbollah gained popular support in the Shiite community in recent decades largely as a result of the failure of the central government to protect the population from Israeli air and naval attacks and the mass kidnapping and imprisonment of thousands of young men.
Israel’s current offensive will only strengthen Hezbollah’s appeal and undermine Lebanon’s pro-Western government.
This is not about Israel’s legitimate right to self-defense. As with the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, it will create far more terrorists than it destroys.
Stephen Zunes | CommonDreams (read more. . .)