Israel attacks a Hezbollah patrol in Southern Lebanon. They kill three Hezbollah militiamen in the fight and capture two. Five more Hezbollah militiamen are killed when a truck they are traveling in after the attackers hits a mine.
Hezbollah is furious Israelis say they want several Israelis who have been languishing in Lebanese prisons under Hezbollah control to released for the two soldiers they have captured. Hezbollah won't trade for their men who have just been captured it would make them look weak.
Hezbollah has in past held thousands of Israelis in miserable conditions prison camps and jails. When Hezbollah finally withdrew from Northern Israel after almost two decades occupation and starting a war that killed more than 17,000 Israelis, mostly Israeli civilians, they kept some prisoners and didn't withdraw completely. No apologies, no compensation, Hezbollah left with insults, parting shots, dire threats.
Then Israelis watch while Hezbollah brutally mistreats Lebanese Jews-- taking their land, confining they to giant camps, killing unarmed civilians when they protest, denying their rights when not denying them their lives.
And Israel's heroic fighters who drove the powerful and richly financed Hezbollah army out of Israel do nothing. They grumble, their supporters grumble but they do nothing. Israelis watch but they just don't have the army that can fight Hezbollah straight up. Besides Lebanese Jews are a different sect than most Israelis and they are wrong about some very important religious matters... Still watching is excruciating....
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IN Response to the attack.
Hezbollah bombs the Israelis bases near where the attack took place. Their commandos seize four Israelis and kill six. Israelis pursuers lose then 10 men in trying to get them back when vehicle hits a mine.
NO WAIT.. What Hezbollah does is........
Imagine Fox news. The corporate press. American politicians. You can write O'Reilly script for him get it 90% right. You can sit and write the establishments explanations and apologies for Israel attack. Analogies can only go so far but think how the incident would be reported.
Well Israel shouldn't have done it but Hezbollah started the whole by not releasing all Israelis prisoners when they withdrew. Israel is sorely pressed.... That would be the reasonable sounding guys.
Morality without universality, (if not universal in the big sense, universal in the sense of including all the parties involved) is not morality. Idea has been formulated thousands of times for thousands of years. What good for Peter is Good for Paul. Depends whose Ox is being gored. Do to others what you'd have them do to you.
In the Middle East we have basically-- all one side, all the time. Not even natural bias but a striving to be more biased. People strive to out do each other in close mindlessness -- they wallow in it and are very proud of themselves. It's American media and allies that still dominate the world so it's that side gets that mostly heard. And there are other reasons why there is no dissent in the US. But step across a line into the Arab and Moslem world you get the same thing-- a smaller echo maybe, but in reverse. That's one reason the Middle East is so dangerous and always so extreme. Why fools and hypocrites that are only pretending moderation and balance shouldn't be left in charge.