I'm in a bad mood but I've got a good excuse...oh and the middle east
There will be no long posts from me for the next little while: I damned near took the end off my finger tonight by closing the safe on it. My index finger which is slightly vital as fingers go. I shall probably lose the nail which is now turning black in the centre. I'm rather cross about this as it is the result of a moment's carelessness on my part, though I have finally stopped leaking. I'm tapping this out with one hand will keeping my other hand plunged into a bag of ice. Its been there for an hour and a half and I've taken codine and a couple of beers ... and I'm almost but not quite at the point where I might get some sleep. Oh and tonight, for one night only, I'm blaming ALL typos on me 'one handedness' ... okay?
In the mean time I'm beginning to realise quite how curmudgeonly I've become in my 'old' age. I've no particular brief for or against Israel (I'm neither Jewish or Muslim nor of any particular semitic origin) but I'm now suffering from a quite spectacular fit of antidiluvianism: the rest of the world seems to be queuing up to slag off what Israel is doing and demonise the state of Israel, and I certainly agree that the deaths and injuries and the devestation of infrastructure being inflicted by the Israeli military look awful. But as I asked someone else in the last day: what else could Israel plausibly do?
Those in the west who stand on the sidelines wringing their hands are attempting to apply western values to a quite completely different culture: note, please different rather than better or worse. Hamas and Hezbollah are two peas from the same pod in that neither wholly accepts the existence of and on-going right to exist of the state of Israel.
It is beyond dispute that one way or other these as well as other related and splinter anti-Israeli organisations are well resourced and have powerful and influential backers including Syria and Iran and Putin's Brave New Russia.
And Hamas and Hezbollah enjoy their current quasi-normalised status through plebicites: am I seriously supposed to side with those who handed Hezbollah the cloak of demi-respectability it wears?
When Israel finally and belatedly and somewhat tentatively began to retreat to within accepted and universally recognised borders it was taking a step that rendered it vulnerable - because the last thing anti-Israeli organisations want is any slight evidence of Israel behaving reasonably. Those of us who've been disgusted for years by the planted settlements, the battlements, the rape of the natural environment and so forth suspended disbelief and held our breath. I think that, ironically, this latest little conflagration has risen at a time when Israel has in the recent past been behaving reasonably well. The life Arab Israelis might be grim but Israel has seemed to be exploring the boundaries of what it can get away with in the direction of reasonable-ness when for most of its existence it has been exploring the 'opposite' boundary.
Well we all now know how reasonable Israel can afford to be. One of its young solidiers has been kidnapped and it has made absolutely clear that it will leave no stone unturned in its efforts to (a) bring about his return, and (b) punish the kidnappers and those who have provided succour to the kidnappers. Would I expect the Australian government to cave in? Well yes actually (but my low expectations of Little Johnny's government are another subject).
Those who voted Hezbollah into office gave the green light to what has happened and it's a bit rich to bleat about the consequences. Israel might well have seized on the pretext offered up by Hezbollah in kidnapping the young conscript, and Israel might even have engineered the entire scenario to provide the excuse it felt it needs to beat the crap out of Hezbollah, but that organisation is nakedly anti-Israeli. It's backers want nothing less the obliteration of the state of Israel. Its backers are not the least bit interested in negotiations or diplomacy or concessions or debate or anything else that might hint at a conciliatory posture viz-a-viz Israel.
In such circumstances and knowing that Hezbollah's weaponry are targeted at Israeli, given that this state of heightened alert was triggered by an act perpetrated by Hezbollah how could Israel possibly be expected to put the lives of its civilians at risk by declaring or agreeing to a ceasefire?
If Israel were to show what would be construed as weakness how long would it survive? If it did not hold its ground and concede that ground on its terms rather than with a Iran-sponsored, Syrian-supplied, Hezbollah-held missile pointed at its head, then how much longer could the state of Israel continue to exist.
I have no particular brief for Israel but the obliteration of Israel would be a failure of mankind.
In the mean time I'm beginning to realise quite how curmudgeonly I've become in my 'old' age. I've no particular brief for or against Israel (I'm neither Jewish or Muslim nor of any particular semitic origin) but I'm now suffering from a quite spectacular fit of antidiluvianism: the rest of the world seems to be queuing up to slag off what Israel is doing and demonise the state of Israel, and I certainly agree that the deaths and injuries and the devestation of infrastructure being inflicted by the Israeli military look awful. But as I asked someone else in the last day: what else could Israel plausibly do?
Those in the west who stand on the sidelines wringing their hands are attempting to apply western values to a quite completely different culture: note, please different rather than better or worse. Hamas and Hezbollah are two peas from the same pod in that neither wholly accepts the existence of and on-going right to exist of the state of Israel.
It is beyond dispute that one way or other these as well as other related and splinter anti-Israeli organisations are well resourced and have powerful and influential backers including Syria and Iran and Putin's Brave New Russia.
And Hamas and Hezbollah enjoy their current quasi-normalised status through plebicites: am I seriously supposed to side with those who handed Hezbollah the cloak of demi-respectability it wears?
When Israel finally and belatedly and somewhat tentatively began to retreat to within accepted and universally recognised borders it was taking a step that rendered it vulnerable - because the last thing anti-Israeli organisations want is any slight evidence of Israel behaving reasonably. Those of us who've been disgusted for years by the planted settlements, the battlements, the rape of the natural environment and so forth suspended disbelief and held our breath. I think that, ironically, this latest little conflagration has risen at a time when Israel has in the recent past been behaving reasonably well. The life Arab Israelis might be grim but Israel has seemed to be exploring the boundaries of what it can get away with in the direction of reasonable-ness when for most of its existence it has been exploring the 'opposite' boundary.
Well we all now know how reasonable Israel can afford to be. One of its young solidiers has been kidnapped and it has made absolutely clear that it will leave no stone unturned in its efforts to (a) bring about his return, and (b) punish the kidnappers and those who have provided succour to the kidnappers. Would I expect the Australian government to cave in? Well yes actually (but my low expectations of Little Johnny's government are another subject).
Those who voted Hezbollah into office gave the green light to what has happened and it's a bit rich to bleat about the consequences. Israel might well have seized on the pretext offered up by Hezbollah in kidnapping the young conscript, and Israel might even have engineered the entire scenario to provide the excuse it felt it needs to beat the crap out of Hezbollah, but that organisation is nakedly anti-Israeli. It's backers want nothing less the obliteration of the state of Israel. Its backers are not the least bit interested in negotiations or diplomacy or concessions or debate or anything else that might hint at a conciliatory posture viz-a-viz Israel.
In such circumstances and knowing that Hezbollah's weaponry are targeted at Israeli, given that this state of heightened alert was triggered by an act perpetrated by Hezbollah how could Israel possibly be expected to put the lives of its civilians at risk by declaring or agreeing to a ceasefire?
If Israel were to show what would be construed as weakness how long would it survive? If it did not hold its ground and concede that ground on its terms rather than with a Iran-sponsored, Syrian-supplied, Hezbollah-held missile pointed at its head, then how much longer could the state of Israel continue to exist.
I have no particular brief for Israel but the obliteration of Israel would be a failure of mankind.
posted by Enyo @ 10:48 pm
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