The Middle East Crisis

On the 12th of July, Hezbollah seized two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid. Israel, in their usual fashion, claimed that this was an "act of war" and launched a series of air and artillery strikes on the Lebanon, hitting such important terrorist targets as Beirut's international airport, various apartment blocks in southern Lebanon and a pro-Hezbollah TV station (which would make more sense if the Israelis hadn't claimed they were trying to get their soldiers back). Strangely, they didn't hit the Hezbollah HQ until 3 days later (I would have thought that this would be the top target, evidently killing innocent civillians at an airport is more important to Israel).

Now, why, in response to a terrorist attack, would you attack a country and her innocent civillians? Imagine if, in response to the IRA bombings, we'd flattened Dublin. We would have been hauled over the coals and support for (and membership of) the IRA would have increased dramatically. Now, while Israel isn't being hauled over the coals (The spineless leaders of western democracies won't stand up for them), Hezbollah support and certainly hatred of Israel have increased. It's almost as if the Israelis don't care.

Of course, Israel's logic says that Hezbollah are supported by the Lebanese Government and that this is Lebanon declaring war. They'll say that Lebanon's inability (or, in their mind, refusal) to crack down on Hezbollah shows this. Actually, what it shows is that the Lebanese government is weak and that their PM can barely control one militiaman, let alone the whole of Hezbollah. But then when have Israel let trivia such as moderation, proportionality or the truth get in the way of a few air strikes?