Friday, July 14, 2006

Things are Bad... Real Bad

Things are not looking good in the middle east right now... just incase you haven't... you know... been outside your cave in the past couple of days.

Palestinians Stream Into Gaza From Egypt after Palestinian gunmen blew a hole in the wall separating Gaza from Egypt. Not only will this allow in the Palistinians who have been stranded on the other side of the fence, but will also let in a whole host of foreign fighters waiting to take their shot at meeting Allah.

Israelis continues bombardment of Beirut after Israel Blockades, Bombs Lebanon While Hezbollah Rains Rocket Fire.

We are on he verge of something very big and very dangerous right now. If Israel is able to suppress the violence using its military, it will only give Iran additional fodder to continue its nuclear program, with will give Israel additional fodder to bomb Iranian facilities. Additionally, the fighting in Lebanon gives Syria a reason to re-enter Lebanon which could re-ignite secular tensions there. And to top it all off, it could drive the war in Iraq to new levels.

There really is no "insight" into this. It is just all screwed up. Contrary to Bush's assertions, removing Saddam has not brought stability to the Israel-Palestine conflict. We can only sit back and wait for the best because this is not going to solve itself anytime soon and Bush doesn't have any capital left to spend in foreign relations.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is there a solution for the Middle East problem? There is as long as everybody makes a compromise from its position.In order to reach the compromise, you have to talk to eachother. In order to talk you need to create the appropriate climate of trust and hope for peace. Both sides must show constraint.In that respect, Israel should not continue killing civilians and destrying infrastructure in Lebanon while allegedly targeting Hezbollah.Israel's military response is disproportionate and violates international humanitarian law.It is also highly suspicious that a chain of certain events, i.e. the highly sophisticated assasination of Lebanon's ex-prime minister Hariri, the withdrawal of Syrian armed forces from Lebanon, has left Lebanon completely defenceless to an unjustified attack by Israel. Could Israel be behind the assasination of Hariri? So far, it is the only one that has benefited in the region from its assasination.

I value human life in general and I do not think that the life of 2-3 Israeli soldiers is more important that the life of more than 230 children, women, elderly and other civilians killed while walking, working, playing in Beirut. What is more shameful is that all the foreign powers are so quick to send their ships to save their nationals but do absolutely nothing to save the Lebanese people. The result of all of this? More Lebanese muslims will join Hejbollah and more hatred will be generated which will result in a perpetuous war zone.

As for Americans? They continue being more self-involved and ignorant than ever. Perhaps another 9/11 will be the reward of its blind support to Israel and perhaps we should not be surprised.

Dingo said...

Thank you for your comment. You raise some valid points. You are right that it takes two to tango. But for the issue of a political solution, there is none at this point.

While the response by Israel is disproportional and probably doing themselves more harm than good at this point, until Hezbollah and Hamas want to seek peace, there can be no political solution. While most Palestinians want nothing more than to create their own homeland, free of Israeli occupation, the goal of Hezbollah and Hamas is the destruction of Israel. Since this is not an option for negotiation on Israel's behalf, there is no political solution available. Until Hezbollah/Hamas accept the idea of Israel, and Syria and Iran stop supporting military options, bloodshed will continue on both sides.