Is Israel using this last conflict as an excuse to wipe out a nation they have hated for decades? Or are they?

Question

really simply defending themselves?

Answer 1

They were defending themselves from rocket attacks last week. Now it just looks like they are destroying the infrastructure of Lebanon.

Answer 2

It depends what you choose to believe. Israel has justified bombing civilian cars, ambulances, and milk factories on need for self-defense, claiming that Hezbollah is hiding within them. People here in the US seem determined to defend Israel and unable to conceive of Israel as hateful or vicious, determined to wipe ouot a nation.
Everybody who's been to Lebanon, including the British Foreign Affairs Minister, was apalled and declared the civilian casualties were probably targeted. Besides, there is only so much that humanitarian rules of war allows you to do, even if the other side started the conflict, and even if the other militants are hiding among civilians (assuming they are, and I don't believe there were any in the Red Cross ambulances). You can't blow up a people because some militants have hijacked them and you want the militants dead. And you can't keep going around telling those people that they should have stopped the militants from hijacking them.

Answer 3

The very suggestion that Israel might be using this 'conflict' as an opportunity to destroy another nation is beyond ridiculous considering that the current situation was created by and is being perpetuated by a militant terrorist section of the Lebanese government that is using its civilians as human shields. As a result of their hiding amongst women and children in Lebanon it has become impossible for Israel to avoid the many regrettable casualties of war we've seen in the past 13 days. This conflict is about the same thing that it has always been about. The outright refusal of the Arab world to recognize Israel's right to exist. The IDF stands for Israeli Defense Force. The very name suggests the mentality of the Israeli people. They aim not to attack other but to simply survive in a world that doesn't recognize their right to exist. Israel has never launched an offensive attack on a country unprovoked. Had US soldiers been attacked and kidnapped from within US borders there would be no question in anybody's mind of what was 'proportionate' use of force to get them back. The lengths the US would go to to defend its people and their right to live without fear of terrorist rocket attacks in their own homes would NEVER be questioned. Why is Israel to be singled out? From day one (1948; the creation of Israel by the United Nations) Israel has been under attack by its neighbours. As a result Israel has had to become a relentless force of power in order not to attack but to simply survive. It has been put most eloquently: "if Hezbollah put down their arms tomorrow there would be peace tomorrow, if Israel put down their arms tomorrow there would be no Israel." Am Israel Chai. Chazak v'ehamatz!

Answer 4

Israel is not trying to wipe out a nation; they are trying to wipe out a terrorist organization, founded by Iran in 1982, with the sole intent of destroying Israel. If Israel wanted to destroy Lebanon they could have done the job in a week, and would have mounted a full-scale invasion already. The problem is Hezbollah, which is so strong that the Lebanonise government can't control it, and like all terrorist groups they hide among the population and are very hard to root out; as the US is discovering in Iraq.

The last time that Hezbollah made such an attack on Israel, full-scale war was the result. Israel invaded and turned Beirut, the capitol of Lebanon, into a war zone of bombed out buildings and rubble: something that resembled the mass bombings of Germany.

The UN tried to stop the war so they sent in UN Peacekeepers lead by the US Marines. Hezbollah didn't want to stop the fighting so they drove a truck bomb into the Marine barracks killing most of them. That was the first major terrorist act carried out against the United States. So you will forgive the US if they don’t' want to stick their military into another fire just right now.

Hezbollah's mission is "to drive Israel into the sea." And nothing else. Israel has the right to defend themselves, which they are doing. They are only trying to attack a small group of people the TERRORISTS. They are not trying to attack anyone else. That's why one of the first attacks was against Lebanon’s airport where all the rockets were being brought in. Hezbollah was created by Iran and is supported by Syria to fight a proxy war against Israel. In the 1960s Syria and Egypt were mobilizing up to attack Israel, and Israel beat them both to the punch. It finished off the Egyptian military in the Six Day war and then clobbered Syria.

Iran got its fingers burned by Israel when they built their first nuclear bomb making plant. Israel precision bombed it out of existence, so Iran buried their new plant so deep that it will probably take a nuclear bomb to destroy it. This is why those nations don’t want to attack Israel directly.

What we are seeing here is a continuation of the Cold War and its after effects. We supported the French in Vietnam so Russia and China made it into a proxy war against the US. The US military could have easily gone north and beaten the North Vietnamese Army, but that might have started WWIII.

When Russia tried to move into Afghanistan the US sent in support. We helped the Kurds and supplied them with Stinger Missiles; which just about ruined any Russian air cover. There were other things happening in the Middle East besides just drilling for oil. Where do you thing Iraq and Afghanistan got all their Russian tanks, RPGs and other equipment? One of our allies in the region was Iran. The Shaw of Iran was a brutal dictator; he had to be to stop the civil war between the Sunnis, the Kurds and the Shiites. When the Shaw of Iran fled the country the Moslem extremists took over. The same thing happened in Afghanistan after the Russians left. The US supported Iran so the Moslem extremists hate the US. When Russian and US influence left Afghanistan more Moslem extremists got into power and hated the US. That’s why the World Trade center was bombed and then attacked by the hijacking of 9/11. Ben Laudim actually wanted the US to invade Afghanistan. He thought that he could beat the US like the Afghanis beat Russia.

Through all this Israel has been a staunch US ally. They know that we can’t overtly support them or our problems in Iraq will double. So the US is holding the position that every country has a right to defend itself. In Israel everyone, who is able, must serve in the military when they reach the age of 18. So the Israel population was seriously affected when their soldiers were kidnapped. If Israel didn’t fight against Hezbollah then the Israel government would soon fall.

Do you think that the timing of this attack is a matter of pure chance? When Y. Arafat died he left a power vacuum. Hamas filled that void. Hamas has long been known as a terrorist group with the sole goal of…you guessed it “to drive Israel into the sea.” When Hamas came into power the world waited to see if they would reform or continue their terrorist activities. They continued to act like terrorists and launched attacks against Israel. Then when Israel fought back, when things got too rough for Hamas, Hezbollah suddenly started their attacks. It is all part of the same struggle.

Answer 5

it is such an offencive question Israel does not choose to be at war but has no choice she did not order the kidnapping of her solders. for six years the Hezbollah have been launching out missiles onto Israel and civilian cities for six years Israel did nothing to defend itself. i think that enough is enough , yes Israel wants to get rid of the Hezbollah for good and what Nation wouldn't want to get rid of a terrorist organisation that its only purpose of existence is to get rid of the Nation of Israel for good. and that's taken out of the mouth of their leader nasrallah.
Israel is not again ts Lebanon but again ts the hisballh who are such evil beings they made sure to hide themselves between civilians washing their brains with their ridicules ideas that the Nation of Israel must be destroyed, by the way they hate America too. and imagine if a terrorist group suddenly shoes up by the borders of Mexico and stars launching missile attackers towards California , do you think that America will sit quietly and do nothing . i dint think so. America went all the way as far as irak ot fight terrorism. so really their is nothing more to say , Israel is not an ex use it is a surviving country that has been trying to exist for the past 58 years, defending the only land that the Jewish people have that was given to them from god himself.
may god help the Jewish Nation win its war....

Answer 6

They are defending them selves. Read the following links

Who is the Hezbullah
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/hizbullah

Hezbullah Leader
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imad_Mugniyah

Who is the Ayatollah Ruhollah
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9045329
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9045329

Arab & Israeli Conflict
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab-Israeli_conflict

Jewish Exodus From Arab Lands
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_exodus_from_Arab_lands

What is a Dhimmi (Note: Neutrality Disputed, I still suggest reading it and then glance at the disputes.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/dhimmi...


The Israeli government has launched a military attack on Lebanon in response to a bombing by Hezbollah guerrillas near the border of Israel

Answer 7

defending theirselves. If you was president of a country and soldiers get kidnapped and you gonna neogotiate? Hell no! Your gonna do what it takes to being your guys home from being tortured. Do some research buddy you know you would fight back if you was Israel and blow Hezbollah off the map which is GONNA happen!

Answer 8

Defending them selves. Why not look at all of the terrorist actions that they have had to endure over the last 20 years. Do some research.

Answer 9

I think it's got a lot to do w. Ariel Sharon being on his death bed and an emerging militancy.
They probably figure now is the last chance to get a US president to fully back them to the hilt in the name of fighting 'terrorists.'

Answer 10

I think they had a plan for attacking Hezbollah (as any country does when it has hostile neighbors). I doubt they would have carried it out if they had not been provoked so often. But I have to say that this reaction seems extreme.