What did Lebanon do to deserve being attacked so bad?

Question

Do you think the voilence will escalate?
Who will side with Lebanon? What allies will side with Israel?
What is the UN doing about this? What can they do about this?

Answer 1

When it comes to international situations like the kidnapping of citizens of other countries IN those other countries, Lebanon is responsible for the conduct of its own people. If they refuse (or cannot) take such responsibility, they put Israel in the dangerous place of having very little meaningful recourse beyond aggressive action.

Think about it this way: what if some American group, say a group of Catholic churchs in southern Texas, decided to kidnap a Mexican policeman patrolling his side of the Texas-Mexico border. Is Mexico going to complain to the churchs? No, they're going to complain to the US government.

Why? Alot of reasons. Mexico doesn't have an ambassador to the churchs in question. The churchs aren't represented in international forums like the UN. Mexico could, perhaps, complain to the Vatican, but presumably the Vatican has no control over the activities of these particular churchs.

Mexico's only recourse would be to complain to the US government, under whose laws the members of these churchs operate. Kidnapping being illegal in this country, the presumption is that the US would be able to bring the guilty parties to justice. Because the guilty parties (a) are not Mexican citizens and (b) are not in Mexican terrority, Mexico cannot apply its own kidnapping laws to the parties in question.

Now suppose that the US responds to Mexico by saying we (i.e., the US federal government) have no control over what individuals in Texas do; it's a matter for the state of Texas to deal with. In fact the US cannot legitimately make this argument: when it comes to international relations, Texas is bound by all the treaties and agreements that the US is a party to, including those that would cover this type of situation.

However, if the US persists in making this arguement even if it is not correct, what is Mexico to do?

This is the situation Israel is in. Israel's only legitimate course of action is to complain to Lebanon, but Lebanon just throws up its hands. Very likely Lebanon really cannot rein in the actions of its own people. Even so, given this lack of recourse, Israel has, somewhat understandably, decided to take matters into its own hands.

When terrorist organizations hold governments hostage to their actions, as Hezbollah has repeatedly done to Lebanon, they implicitly acquire the soverienty that ordinarily attaches to those governments. Lebanon cannot simply throw up its hands and say we have no control; if they have no control, who does? Hezbollah and other terrorist groups use this as a cover for their actions. Israel has repeatedly said it will not deal with the niceties of international relations when its neighbors and the terrorist groups they harbor violate them.

Is it right to subject civilians to violence? No -- assuming that there ARE any civilians in southern Lebanon, of course. But is it right to let one's citizens conduct a war with another country and then try to duck responsibility for it? Personally I don't think so, and while I hope Israel can find a way to show restraint, I do not condemn her actions or the motives that have driven her to commit them.

Answer 2

Lebanon has protected and provided a haven for Hesbollah, a terrorist organization that crossed into Israel and kidnapped two Israeli soldiers.

Lebaonon has known Hezbollah has controlled the southern third of that nation for quite some time and done nothing about it. The areas being attacked by Israel are those known to be Hezbollah strongholds.

The violence will escalate if Syria decides to jump into the fray. If they stay out ... it will remain between Israel and the Hezbollah. I don't think Syria is stupid enough to get involved. The last time they did something like that ... they got their a$$es kicked.

The United States, obviously, will side with Israel, as will other nations who hate terrorism and are fighting against it ... such as Britain. The only nations that will side with Hezbollah would be Syria and Iran.

The U.N. is pretty well worthless in this sort of a conflict. The U.N. membership is numerically third world countries, and they tend to line up against the U.S. About all the U.N. can do is pass resolutions ... and look how many of those Iraq violated with total impunity. If you look at how many resolutions the U.N. has passed against Israel ... just for defending themselves ... you realize how worthless the organization is.

Answer 3

Lebanon is stuck in the middle of Syria and Israel. Big mistake. They were too weak to implement UN Resolution 1559 calling for the disarmament of Hezbollah. Had they successfully done so, they would be a sovereign nation today (having a relatively anti-Syrian occupation electorate). By kidnapping the Israeli soldiers, Hezbollah has dragged Lebanon into this conflict. Remember it was only recently that Syria pulled out of Lebanon (or as Syrian's call it 'Greater Syria')

Answer 4

If I heard correctly, the Lebanese kidnapped an Israel soldier and threatened to turn him over to the Palestines, but there is also a connection between the Palestines and Lebanon, both which are not too fond of Israel-- Lebanon supposedly has terrorist ties ( the Palestines ) so it wouldn't be surprising if other terrorist groups will be on their side-- Israel is the only Mid -East country with a structured democracy, which is why the US is siding with Israel

Answer 5

Lebanon has been harboring the Hesbollah group of terrorists for years, and has also sheltered Hamas suicide bombers and others. Connected with this, Gaza has also been a hotbed of anti-Israel terrorists for years. My guess is that Israel has gotten fed up with these people crossing their border to abduct people, blow themselves up in public places, or lob bombs over the border, etc. You need to keep in mind that Hamas officially declared war on Israel during the Intifada in the 1980s and has never renounced the war or recognized Israel's right to exist. Hamas merely abided by an uneasy "cease fire" at times, which they feel free to break anytime they please. So, as far as Israel is concerned, they are still at war. Hesbollah apparently took the election of a Hamas government in Gaza as a signal that it was time to step up their violence against Israel. So they did.

Unfortunately, I do think the violence will escalate. The tragedy of all this is that both sides missed an opportunity for peace. Once Hamas won the election, they should have renounced violence, turned to diplomacy instead, recognized Israel and begun negotiating peace. Israel should have recognized the Hamas government as the leigitimately elected government, then made it clear that, since Hamas had declared war on Israel, it would take a peace treaty to open the borders and normalize relationships. But instead, both sides dug in and escalated the war (sigh).

Answer 6

Lebanon hasn't done anything but sit back while Israel bombs the countries infrastructure, killing it's civilians, and terrorizing it's population by non-stop aggressions. While Israel has the most powerful military and could easily deal directly with Hezbollah it chooses to humiliate and practice collective punishment with Lebanon instead.

It's sad how people scrape for any reason to kill civilians. Nothing justifies it. So far over 40 Lebanese have been killed and over 100 wounded. Families in villages who have nothing to do with this.

How is Israel any safer by doing all this?

Answer 7

I suspect that Lebanon is following orders from Syria in an attempt to involve the E.U.in the mix.
Israel only has one friend in the world,her brothers in the U.S.
Yes it will escalate.

Answer 8

Better to ask: "What did Lebanon NOT DO to deserve being attacked?"
My answer: They allowed a terrorist group to exist in that nation whose sole aim is to destroy another nation (Israel) and who ,most likely at this very moment, is dropping rockets on Israel. In the same situation YOU may choose not to defend your country by all means possible. Israel does not. And I'm glad they don't.

Answer 9

Israel never needs good reasons to attack other countries in this area. The agressoin of this Country i just disgusting. They want to be recognised and act like barbarians. The last time I saw a country act in this way was the germans 60 years ago. The Israelis are not better today.

Answer 10

Because Lebanon is allowing terrorist groups to operate from their territory to launch attacks against Isreal and others.
The Lebanese government has asked the UN for help in negotiating a cease fire,
The UN Ignored their request.
Because there is no Lebanese Government.
There is Hezbollah...the terrorist organization...that is who is calling the shots in Lebanon.
Lebanon getting what it deserves.
A sound thrashing from Isreal.

Answer 11

Um I suggest you get this right Lebanon attacked Israel. As for the UN that bunch of inept crooks have already contemned Israel for defending its self. The UN should be disbanded and tried for war crimes.