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Sunday July 23, 2006

Punish Israeli War Crimes

Over the weekend, as Jan Egeland visited Beruit, reports are now coming in of Israeli war crimes. Coming from the UN high commissioner, comments also mention that Israel is illegally using US machines of war against civilians. Israel justifies this show of force as required to match that threatening them. How appropriate is what Israel is doing? The casualty figures are about 10 Lebanese dieing for every 1 Israeli.

And today, there are reports of Israel bombing refugees and killing a journalist. What defence do they have for this? Are they afraid Hizb Allah will flee too? Israel has passed the point of sensibly attacking Lebanon and are just being stupid. The government of Israel should be brought before the world court and tried for war crimes - there is no excuse for planes to bomb people fleeing a war zone. None at all.

It's about time the USA pulled the finger out and spoke some harsh words in Israel's ear, rather than watching the dollars tick over as Israel uses more American weapons (and therefore has to buy more.) There comes a point when Israel has to stop blaming Iran and Syria for its killing of Lebanese people and take responsibility for what it is doing. Crying that Hizb Allah is firing rockets indiscriminately is no excuse. The terrorists are just that - terrorists. Unless Israel wants to become a terrorist organisation (like the US military), they need to attack the terrorists and not innocent civilians.

And what of the USA's request that Hizb Allah be disarmed? That organisation will never, truely, be 100% disarmed and the US government is naieve in the extreme if they think disarming now solves the problem. Don't they look at CNN? Don't they see that Israel's actions are galvanizing more and more support for this organisation as every day goes by? The Lebanese will slowly care less and less over time about whether or not Hezbollah

Someone who has spent more time researching this has included a much more complete analysis of the situation, where upon it looks like things are going to get worse, not better, in that region.

Btw, is it Hezbollah or Hizb Allah?

Update

Why should Israel be punished and not the terrorists? Sure, punish them both, but Hezbollah is not a government. We expect more of Government, be they Australian, American, Israeli, Lebanese or Chinese. I've too often heard the US government defend its pathetic actions (and lack of respect of human rights) with the "but they are terrorists". That's not good enough - they are people, humans. So my comments aren't anti-Israeli or anti-semetic, they're pro-human rights. Just because there are terrorists operating from within Lebanon does not give Israel the right to bomb ambulances or civilian cars. It is not right to drop bombs that destroy entire apartment buildings because there may be a terrorist inside or there may be rockets inside one apartment. To drop our standards and slay people indiscriminately because they may be terrorists or may be harbouring terrorists is not acceptable. Being in Government means you have rules to abide by. If you can't abide by them, get out.

I'm sure that if any of the terrorists in Hezbollah that have been perpetrating this are caught alive, they will be tried in court for their actions for various crimes.

This goes back to something you learn at school - if someone else punches you, it doesn't make it right to punch them back. Two wrongs don't make a right - both Israel and Hezbollah have been acting indiscriminately and wrongly. The only difference is in the magnitude. To this end, Israel's actions are far worse - it is destroying another country in an effort to attack relatively few people - and many say this is not working. Israel's Government has chosen wrongly and poorly to associate itself with the USA and to follow the American model of dealing with problems.

Perhaps the best thing to do is to get all the angry people, strip them down naked, and put them in a big arena and let them go for it. Although you have to wonder if the likes of Hezbollah would be standing there alone.

The solution to this isn't to destroy Hezbollah but to destroy the memes that give Hezbollah reason to exist. And that is exactly opposite to what Israel is doing now. Watching CNN, I see Lebanese kids saying they want to grow up and be Hezbollah supporters. Doesn't that send a chill down your spine and make you think, "gee, maybe the wrong approach is being taken here." This issue is deeply rooted in the history of the region and bombing apartment buildings is not going to help anything, except the ego of a few men in Israel.