What if the folks in charge of Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hoop-De-Doo and the All Night Warriors were to just quit trying to destroy an entire nation of people?
What if, instead, they sank all of that time, effort, and money into a struggle to improve the lives of their own people?
What if they began understanding that teaching hate from conception to resurrection might not be the best way to produce a vibrant and enlightened society?
What if…
Ok, I’m awake now. Back to reality.
This latest round of violence started when Israeli soldiers ambushed a Hezbollah patrol on Lebanese soil, killed several individuals, kidnapped two survivors, and carted them away.
Wait. Still dreaming. Got that backwards.
So, some questions.
Was it Israel that spent the past 6 years importing (What is that pesky little figure? 10,000? 12,000? 15,000?) Katyusha rockets? What, pray tell, did the U.N. observers think Hezbollah was going to do with all those rockets? Hold one bodacious New Year’s Eve party?
What should Israelis (and the rest of the world, for that matter) believe when the leaders of several governments and terrorist groups repeatedly shout, swear, proclaim, declare, insist, expound and advertise that their goal is the annihilation of a nation and all of its people? That it’s all posturing?
What are Israelis supposed to do when Hezbollah and Hamas apparently miss New Year’s Eve by a few months and begin purposely firing hundreds of rockets into civilian (that would be non-military) areas of Israel? Are they to sit back, wait for the 999,999th "harshly worded" communiqué from the United Nations and hope that this is the one that’ll work? Are they supposed to willingly become the duck in some crazed Islamic fundamentalist shooting gallery?
When these rockets are filled with ball bearings for the express purpose of killing and maiming as many Jews as possible (matters not whether they are men, women, children, young, old, able or infirm) why are the voices of global outrage silent?
When Israel responds but first announces when their bombs will be falling, tells people to leave, drops leaflets saying the same, and goes out of its way to minimize collateral damage, why are they vilified?
When Hezbollah launches attacks from civilian areas, could there be just the tiniest bit of hope amongst the terrorists that Israel’s response will cause civilian casualties (else why be there) and, thus, bring condemnation onto the Israeli government for, basically, defending itself?
Whenever there’s an incident wherein a bomb intended for a rocket-firing site kills civilians, shouldn’t the question be: "Well, who the hell put the rocket sites there in the first place?" Shouldn’t a second question be: "What kind of government would allow a terrorist group to do such things within its borders?"
Whenever there’s a call for a "cease fire," why do all eyes turn immediately to Israel and not to the thugs who’ve been repeatedly responsible for causing the situations that call for such cease-fires?
Finally, when those whose ruling passion is hatred have repeatedly scuttled attempts at a negotiated settlement of the problems in the area, what is the recourse of a reasonable nation?
Admittedly, diplomacy, when conducted between reasonable nations, often works to settle disputes.
History, however, has repeatedly shown that whenever diplomacy is attempted between a reasonable nation and a cynical and brutal opponent, what follows is disaster.
The goons, for the price of some meaningless "dialogue," purchase the time necessary to bring a gun to the head of those negotiating in good faith. Things then goeth south quickly.
For the past several weeks, Israel has been fighting a war that it did not want, in a place it had voluntarily left, and at a time when all it sought was peace.
Israel is fighting the enemies of order, enlightenment, culture, and independence. It is standing almost alone against governments and organizations that couldn’t care less about the deaths of innocents. Methinks, therefore, that condemning Israel is just this side of absurd.
If anything, we should tell Syria, Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and all of the others of that ilk, "This time, studs, we’re just going to stand by and hold their coat. You clowns started this one and, for once, we think we’re going to let them finish it."
Israel is a nation that’s learned that "talking" with these groups is less than useless. It simply encourages them to push harder, demand more, and continue their merry and murderous ways.
One wonders when the rest of the world will learn that remarkably simple truth.
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