Complicated Situation…

As a person of Jewish descent…  I’m generally a pretty big defender of Israel’s right to protect themselves against attacks on their sovereignty.  There are a lot of pervasive misconceptions about the history of the conflict over the Jewish homeland.  

However, the current situation shows just how complicated this situation has become.  Sometimes we must put aside high minded notions of who was wrong first and acknowledge that we live in the now and not the past.  What Israel is doing to the Lebanese at this moment is wrong.  It’s wrong for two reasons: 1 – Inflicting collective punishment on innocents in reaction to the actions of a limited few is immoral. 2 – This will work against the long term goal of eliminating violence against Israel, Jews, and the US.

Israel is simply going to generate a whole new group of people that hate them.  They may destroy Hezbollah, but they will be replaced by something worse if history is any guide (see Iraq).

The people of the middle-east need to look past their immediate futures and notions of who started what and learn to value life over the figurative “last word” as it were.

Two wrongs don’t make a right…

The world in general seems to have forgotten this. Kofi Annan points out that both Israel and Hezbollah are to blame for the current firestorm in the Middle East:

The UN Security Council inched closer to substantive involvement in the Lebanese crisis Thursday as Secretary-General Kofi Annan placed the blame for the violence on Hizbullah’s unprovoked attacks while slamming Israel for its “disproportionate response.” “Hizbullah’s provocative attack on 12 July was the trigger of this crisis,” he told the Security Council after meeting with envoys he had sent to the region earlier this week. “Whatever other agendas they may serve, Hizbullah’s actions, which it portrays as defending Palestinian and Lebanese interests, in fact do neither. On the contrary, they hold an entire nation hostage [and] set back prospects for negotiation of a comprehensive Middle East peace,” he said. Despite this, he said, while “Hizbullah’s actions are deplorable and, as I’ve said, Israel has a right to defend itself, the excessive use of force is to be condemned.” He said that while Israel’s stated objective was to hit Hizbullah’s infrastructure, it had “torn [Lebanon] to shreds.” He said the IDF’s actions were not weakening popular support for Hizbullah but rather the government of Lebanon.