Hamas Leader (Mostly) Dead
Here in microcosm is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict summed up in an instant:Israel's air force targeted the two-story house of Nabil Abu Salmiyeh, a Hamas activist and university lecturer, after getting intelligence information that the leaders of Hamas' military wing, responsible for the abduction of the soldier, were meeting there. Palestinian security officials said seven or eight top Hamas officials were present.
The blast wounded 37 people, three critically, said Health Minister Bassem Naim. Hospital officials said Raed Saad, a top Hamas operative, was among the wounded, but details of his condition weren't released.
Abu Salmiyeh, his wife, and seven of his nine children, ages 4-18, all died. Innocent victims or human shields? You make the call.
When I was in Israel in 1999, Hezbollah was targeting Israeli towns along the northern border with Lebanon with Kaytusha rockets. In 2000 when I returned a year later, there was a palpable tension in the air. The reason? Ehud Barak had withdrawn from the southern Lebanese security zone by March 2000, leaving the 4,000-man Southern Lebanese Army (Maronite Christian run, but consisting of both Shi'ite Muslims and Christians opposed to Hezbollah) to themselves and granting what Hezbollah turned into a victory. SLA members fled to Israel, where the government offered work permits and even citizenship to the SLA refugees.
The lesson the Palestinians learned? Resistance produces results. Why bother with peace?
2006 is fallout from 1999. Hamas and Hezbollah, much like al-Qaeda, cannot be negotiated with because there is nothing to negotiate about. The destruction of Israel is their only objective.
In the face of such committment, the deaths of small children are difficult to understand. Yes it is tragic, but they were sacrificed by their own parents for a cause they most likely barely understood. When Hamas or Hezbollah or any organization chooses violence, innocents will die. Is that the fault of the IDF? Clearly not.
War is terrible, but has the peace of Israel restrained been any less terrifying? If there was ever a justification for action, the Israelis certainly have every pretext for self-defense.
I am still eternally hopeful peace will come to the Holy Land. Palestinian Christians caught between a rock and a hard place still need the attention of the world, and deservedly so. Yet understand this: it is not the Israelis who are convinced the Palestinians should be wiped off the face of the earth. Such rhetoric is only heard in places like Damascus, Teheran, and unfortunately in Lebanon where Hezbollah forms part of the government.
For those who believe in the objective of death, there can be no peace. Soldiers of the Israeli Defence Forces deserve our support.
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James Atticus Bowden 
2 Comments:
It will always happen. That doesn't diminish the tragedy of the deaths. Deaths of innocents, like unleashing evil, is an inevitable aspect of every war.
I reject St Augustine's 'Just War' as bogus. Name the Just War that didn't have its share of evil on all sides. My reading and thoughts since confronting all that during the Vietnam War - is that morality was a reflection of worldview and thus politics rather than politics following morality. How you see the war determined its moral standing.
My only visit to Israel was business in 2003 including the neighborhood where a bus was blown up the month before.
The MSM-missed story is the emmigration of Palestinian Christians from the area. They are under pressure from the Islamists. Look at the huge shift in population loss of Arab Christians in Israeli-controlled territory.
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