lebanon-israel conflict

Real fighters believe in their cause

I read a story in the Haaretz today about ex Israeli Defence Minister Yitzhak Mordechai's testimony before a panel investigating the IDF's failure in the 33 day war.  According to Mordechai, Israel had "optimal conditions to secure a victory". Mind you, this statement coming from a man (pictured below) who was indicted for sexual misconduct during his military service.

The key to success, Mordechai says, would have been to launch a wider ground operation. That said after all the tonnes of bombs the IDF dropped, the F-16 fighter jets, the constant shelling, the reported 30,000 soldiers invading Southern Lebanon - is it even possible to arrange for a more intense and serious attempt at "bringing Hezbollah to its knees", as he puts it? Journalists who have inspected post war southern Lebanon said that the IDF did as much damage as possible.

Mordechai is in for a rude shock if he thinks that the IDF can uproot Hezbollah in another attempt by launching a wider ground operation. It comes down to this: when the going gets tough, Hezbollah thrives. Their fighters come ready to die, they believe in their rights to defend themselves and protect their human rights; and that belief feuls courage. The IDF on the contrary believe in what? That they should be invading someone's land and oppressing the people; that violating Lebanon's rights is a good thing? When the battle gets messy, my guess - after viewing many interviews with IDF soldiers and Hezbollah geurillas -  is that the IDF soldiers look back toward northern Israel longing to be back home. They have a home to go back to, but Hezbollah guerillas are fighting at home. They will fight to the death because they believe in their cause.

Maybe Mordechai's claim was taken out of context, as one of the commentators of the article explained. "The only thing Mordechai knows about bringing people to their knees is ...young female soldiers who served with him." Good call.

Finkelstein: Is criticism of Israel anti-semitic?

I came across a (2005) Norman Finkelstein talk the other day on anti-semitism, titled: "Is criticism of Israel anti-semitic?" Finkelstein talks about the misconception and misuse of the notion of anti-semitism, the overwhelming lies and fraud inherent in well known Zionist publications and the simple reality of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict when intentionally misleading influences are removed from the picture. Very sobering.

http://www.workingtv.com/finkelstein.html

Human Rights Watch

I've just browsed through the HRW website, hrw.org, and I was very impressed with the amount and detail of information available. There are countless publications on wars, natural disasters, political conflicts and essentially anything involved with mass human suffering.

Publications can be browsed by country. I briefly scrolled through a couple reports listed under Lebanon and Israel pertaining to the July 2006 war - they seemed to be very well structured and researched, and extremely well written. As well, the writing focuses mostly on human suffering - what, how and why it occurred - without delving into too much political analyses.

I haven't yet read enough to voice my opinion on whether the reporting is fair. Will do so in due course. I've added hrw.org to the links list on the left.