Israel – out of control?
Joseph Farah
Posted: July 17, 20061:00 a.m. Eastern
If you rely on the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Associated Press for your news, it would be easy to get the impression that Israel is out of control – wantonly killing Lebanese and Palestinian civilians and provoking a larger conflict in the Middle East.
The lead headline in the Post yesterday, for instance, read: ''Israel intensifies assault on Beirut.''
Of course, if striking directly at the terrorists who launched hundreds of rockets at Israeli civilians in the previous three days and who struck inside Israel's border, kidnapping two soldiers and killing eight others means assaulting Beirut, I guess that would be accurate.
But Israel is hardly targeting Beirut. It is targeting Hezbollah, a terrorist organization in league with al-Qaida and sponsored by Syria and Iran – a terrorist group that is killing and maiming Israeli citizens by the score.
Here's the way the third paragraph of the Post story reads: ''In a war that has witnessed an escalation each day, the asymmetrical nature of the conflict was laid bare Saturday: For each attack by Hezbollah since it captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid, Israel has inflicted a far greater price. It has systematically dismantled the country's infrastructure, displaced thousands of residents and instilled a new sense of foreboding and fear in the now-deserted streets of this brash, confident city still shadowed by the legacy of Lebanon's 15-year civil war.''
What message is any thinking person supposed to take away from such an account? Israel is out of control.
But a few points need to be made about such commentary disguised as news reporting:
Hezbollah has been operating freely in Lebanon as a de facto government for years – even after Syria withdrew from the country. The government of Lebanon has done little or nothing to take control of entire regions of the country, including its international airport, in which Hezbollah has set up a military infrastructure with one goal in mind – attacking Israel. How is Israel supposed to respond to attacks directed from those regions?
Israel has the military might to destroy Lebanon in a day – an hour, 30 minutes. Has it occurred to anyone that the Jewish state is demonstrating incredible restraint in focusing its wrath on only Hezbollah targets?
Stories are quick to emphasize the death and injury toll of Lebanese and Palestinians, but you have to scour the reports to learn that hundreds of Israeli civilians have been hurt and killed in rocket attacks targeted at towns and cities in the Jewish state.
How should a civilized nation respond to terrorist attacks within its borders? How did the U.S. respond after Sept. 11, 2001? Should civilized nations respond with force only equal to that which was used by its enemies? Or is it legitimate and proper for civilized countries to respond with overwhelming force – to discourage future attacks, wipe out those responsible and deter future attacks?
Again, it is as if my colleagues – as well as the United Nations, the European leadership and much of the rest of the world – believe Israel is the real problem in the Middle East.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Blaming Israel for the current violence in the region is the equivalent of blaming the U.S. for the terrorist attacks of September 11 and its response to them.
Let's review the key developments in this war:
On July 12, Hezbollah launched Katyusha rockets and mortar fire at the Israeli town of Shlomi. The same day, the terrorist group boasted of seizing two Israeli soldiers in the Israeli town of Shtula – killing eight other soldiers.
Then, and only then, did Israel strike back by bombing roads, bridges, power stations and other Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah then began a much wider rocket assault on Israeli towns, including the port city of Haifa, some 20 miles south of the Lebanese border. It was in this series of attacks that wounded more than 300 Israeli civilians, while killing at least a dozen.
I suppose there are those who think Israel should only respond with like force. Israel, a tiny nation with 1 percent of the population of its enemies in the Mideast, cannot afford to trade corpses. And, even if it could, it would not be good national security policy.
Israel's enemies should be grateful this American of Lebanese and Syrian heritage is not calling the shots in Jerusalem. Israel finds itself in this crisis because it listened too closely to the voices of appeasement from around the world – including from my colleagues in the international establishment media.
Evacuating from southern Lebanon and Gaza and other territories Israel conquered in hard-fought combat with no concessions from its enemies was bad policy. Israel encouraged the attacks it is now enduring. It's long past time for Israel to draw a hard line in the sand and punish severely those who cross it.
Joseph Farah is founder, editor and CEO of WND and a nationally syndicated columnist with Creators Syndicate. His latest book is "Taking America Back." He also edits the weekly online intelligence newsletter Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, in which he utilizes his sources developed over 30 years in the news business.