Given our current standoff with Iran, how serious is this Israel situation getting?

Question

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyid=2006-07-12T180458Z_01_LA622138_RTRUKOC_0_US-MIDEAST-USA-KIDNAPPINGS.xml&src=rss&rpc=22

This is not, "same **** different day"

Answer 1

I fear the worst. This region has been a powderkeg for a long time but I really believe the lit match is just an inch away from the fuse now. This place will explode much sooner than later and then things will spread quickly.

Answer 2

More of the same. This is a repeating cycle. The Palestinians violate the cease-fire and attack the Israelis. Israel puts up with it until they lose patience then defend themselves. And new peace treaty is signed and last a few months until the Palestinians violate it again. Repeat.

Answer 3

Israel is doing what it always vows to do, protect and defend its borders and do all it can possibly do to secure the safety of its soldiers in combat. The kidnappers know this. It's silly to ask for 100's or 1000's of prisoners in return, but this is just another instance of skewed logic coming from the asymmetrical warriors north and south of Israel.

As for Iran, they just don't want Israel around. Heck, I don't want to be taxed. Likelihood of either of these things changing? Zero. Iran needs oil-consuming markets to prop up its government and economy, and so will not do anything TOO drastic to initiate severe sanctions or military reprisals. They use their proxies (Hezbollah or Hamas or Syria or Lebanon) to poke and prod Israel as a show to the radical elements of Islam that it is a major player in their jihad. But jihadists are stateless (for now) and they mean what they say and say what they mean, and have little use for diplomancy (Iran as a nation is not in this camp, fortunately). If Iran chooses an extreme policy (direct military confrontation with Israel or the US), it is likely suicidal. So they need the smaller players in the area to do their bidding. Israel is wise to neutralize these smaller players so Iran's true intentions then must be carried out by its own forces and authorities. This of course is the least likely or desirable scenario for Iran, but if it continues to use Syria/Lebanon as political tools for its anti-Israel campaign, it risks increased retaliation by a convincingly more able and dominant force in the IDF. What happens to Iran's poke-and-prod policy vis a vis Israel when Israel decides to irreversibly neutralize Lebanon or Syria (requiring a significant escalation from where we are today) ?

Saudis and Iranians are fighting for hegemony in the radical Islam sphere of influence. Saudis fund Hamas, Iran funds Hezbollah. The pseudo-pincer movement we see today (conflicts on two fronts) is an attempt to embroil Israel into another imbalanced conflict that would display the 'unfairness' of their policy against homeless/defenseless/stateless Palestinians, thereby instigating an outcry from the neutral world against Israel's conduct.

Hey, listen, the UN mandated the Israeli state. They should at least defend it, for pete's sake. And, responsibly, since land and infrastructure was forcibly seized by indigenous Palestinians in the late 40's to create the state, the UN should secure reparations and ensure a policed and secure state for the Palestinians too. But the UN is a defunct organization, more concerned with fancy offices in New York and Switzerland, and kickbacks from world leaders that fatten diplomats' pockets without resulting in true progress or impact. Aren't the West Bank, Golan Heights and Gaza Strip PRIME candidates for a UN security force that can ensure peace and security while a new Palestinian state is formed and functioning? Shouldn't Christians and Jews and Muslims demand this type of force secure the whole of Jerusalem, so important to all three beliefs? There is too much money to be made by keeping the small nation of Israel and the small warriors of Palestine at each other's throats for another millenia. This is not a new conflict, just an old one with new players. Very sad. In retrospect, the Sharon tragedy is a Palestinian tragedy, in that Sharon would have guaranteed a de facto Palestinian state that would have to fend for itself in the real world. Olmert is being tested, but that test response will now result in more years of escalation, retaliation and bloodshed...so....same ol' @()#, different day!

Answer 4

no longer quite, the biggest difficulty is u . s . a . of america's unconditional help for Israel that permits them to interrupt international regulation with impunity. even as some UN resolutions hostile to Israel are in simple terms stupid (fantastically those from the overall assembly), there are plenty in the protection council the position the U. S. is on my own with its veto, the position the vote casting is 14 to at least a million which include a large number of particularly pleasant international places to Israel like the united kingdom, curiously some individuals don't realize that the persevered unconditional help of Israel and use of their veto makes them seem corrupt and stupid, and seem particularly akin to China interior of the way it continuously stops any actual action being taken on Sudan, they should be proud to have a similar moral "intense floor" as China...

Answer 5

Quite serious.
Hizbollah is a terrorist organization directly funded and supported by Iran and Syria.
When Israel attacks Syria, it might trigger a much larger scale war than we can imagine.

Answer 6

I should really be more concerned with these things....my husband is a Marine Sgt....and he would have been sent off to Iraq (again) in September, if he would have stayed with that unit.

Answer 7

The situation is getting real bad.

Answer 8

Bad.

Answer 9

Same **** different day.