Not Much To Say

I have yet to write about the Israel-Hezbollah-Lebanon-Hamas fiasco. Partly because there are far more knowledgeable folks already doing so. But also because I find the whole thing beyond heartbreaking. On the one hand, I have always been an ardent supporter of Israel and her right to security. Yet, my support for Israel is not so blind or unconditional not to be moved by images such as these, which show Israeli children writing messages on rockets destined to strike Lebanon, thereby killing innocent Lebanese children.

I find Israel's most recent actions abhorrent and completely disproportionate to the acts that brought them about. Certainly there is enough blame to go around- the Lebanese government has been unable or unwilling to rid itself of Hezbollah; the world community has turned a blind eye to Iran's and Syria's influence and arming of Hezbollah; and, Israel has taken what would be a rather small incident and used it as a rationale for launching what may become WWIII.

While I am not so naive as to believe that Hezbollah or Hamas could be disarmed without the bloodshed of innocent civilians, I do believe that Israel has the moral obligation to make that bloodshed as rare as possible. Instead Israel has made the decision to indiscriminately bomb large swaths of Lebanon, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of people whose only infraction is being in the way of Israel's airstrikes. While the use of ground forces would result in greater loss of life for the IDF, it is clearly the morally just way to conduct this operation. Certainly Israel has the intelligence assets to ascertain the whereabouts of Hezbollah's leaders and the capability to take them out, without using missiles. To do so would minimize the loss of civilian life, which is a moral imperative for what are purported to be God's chosen people.