It appears that the war in Lebanon is backfiring in certain regards, especially in worldwide public opinion (see story below). From a public relations standpoint, it's a disaster. It's not helping Bush or the Repugs. It's not really helping anyone. Israel would have been much better off to have responded to the border raid in a very limited way, thus avoiding the Hezbollah rocket attacks that came only when Israel unleashed a massive and disproportional bombing campaign. So, if you're a supporter of Israel, you would probably hope, as I do, for a moderate government that doesn't get into excessive retribution (i.e., be a good neighbor, and you can have peace and prosperity). At any rate, it appears that there is some question as to whether Lebanon has the right to exist. Will it end up becoming an occupied land, a puppet state controlled by Israel? All we seem to know right
now is that the Israeli offensive has radicalized the people in Lebanon, and by now bombing Christian areas in Beirut, the Israelis may even be turning the Lebanese Christians against Israel. One of the clear achievements of the Israeli war in Lebanon is to have angered the Lebanese people. So now, Israel has a new enemy in the region (many of us can remember a time, not so long ago, when Lebanon was the only one of Israel's neighbors that was supportive of Israel).
and, on a closely related point:
Human Rights Watch: Israel Guilty of War Crimes
By Juan Cole
Informed Comment
Thursday 03 August 2006
Human Rights Watch, after extensive investigation, has concluded that the Israeli military is guilty of war crimes. HRW says:
Israeli forces have systematically failed to distinguish between combatants and civilians in their military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Human Rights Watch said in report released today. The pattern of attacks in more than 20 cases investigated by Human Rights Watch researchers in Lebanon indicates that the failures cannot be dismissed as mere accidents and cannot be blamed on wrongful Hezbollah practices. In some cases, these attacks constitute war crimes.
The 50-page report, "Fatal Strikes: Israel's Indiscriminate Attacks Against Civilians in Lebanon," analyzes almost two dozen cases of Israeli air and artillery attacks on civilian homes and vehicles. Of the 153 dead civilians named in the report, 63 are children. More than 500 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli fire since fighting began on July 12, most of them civilians.
"The pattern of attacks shows the Israeli military's disturbing disregard for the lives of Lebanese civilians," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "Our research shows that Israel's claim that Hezbollah fighters are hiding among civilians does not explain, let alone justify, Israel's indiscriminate warfare."