What do you think of Israel-Hezbollah conflict last year?

Question

Do any of you think Israels bombings where a bit excessive?

They killed about a 1000 civilans, injured many more and destroyed Lebanons Infrastructure which is something i cant understand.

Can anyone tell me why did Israel have to bomb Beirute international and brdiges and roads and all the other stuff that is called infrastructure?

Does anyone else think Israels bombings where alittle excessive and that Israel should give repartions to the Lebanese government to take care of all the damage?

The killing of so called hezbollah people was a bit off to they bombed Hezbollah hospitals to get to Hezbollah imployed doctors...

Whoo i understand Israel was in a tight spot and soemthing needed to be done.

That doesnt justify the overwhelming civilan deaths though.

Yes the lebanon government was to blame, israel is not to blame wholy but lebanon should have not allow a militia seperate from the military to operate or attack onother country for that matter.

HOwever i think that Israels response was to much and you saying to bad civilans had to die is quite absurd that response was a "war crime" by some peoples standards.

An apartment buidling was bombed however killing and injuring in the hundreds.

I beleive some of the bombings by israel constitue a war crime.

And Hezbollahs firing of katyusha rockets is also a war crime in my opinion.

Answer 1

Michael J - you state that 'If a governmental party kidnaps soldiers and/or launches a military attack into a foreign country that is a declaration of war', and on this rare occasion I must respectfully disagree with you.

Hezbollah was only a small piece of the government coalition, so it was incorrect to instantly treat the entire government as being complicit with what Hezbollah chose to do that day.

Diana has asked what we should have done, so I will answer her. We should have offered Fouad Siniora twenty-four hours to decide whether to dismiss Hezbollah from his government and engage in strenuous efforts to have our soldiers returned to us, or to choose to stand with Hezbollah.

If he had acceded to such a request, I believe we would have had a much better chance of getting our soldiers back than by wildly blowing up roads and bridges in the hope that it would stop them from being taken too far away.

But if he would have been unwilling or too weak to stand against Hezbollah, which is quite likely the case, then at least the world would have seen that we offered Lebanon the chance to do the right thing before we went it alone.

Some Israelis may respond that we shouldn't care what the world thinks of us, but I fundamentally disagree. It matters a great deal

Londoner In Israel

EDIT: Yes Hezbollah may be off our immediate border now, but we are still very much within range of their rockets, and they have re-armed and their level of public support has advanced. The war resulted in hundreds of dead on both sides, huge economic and political damage, and our two soldiers are still missing and probably dead. In the eyes of the world this was the first war we fought but didn't win, so our deterrence was damaged, not enhanced. So I'm sorry, but I cannot concur with you on this.

As for Fouad Siniora, I do not know what if anything he could have done, but we should have at least offered him the chance.

EDIT to LadySuri: Your answer refers to 'the full backing of Canada'. What makes you so sure that Hezbollah acted with the full backing of Lebanon?

Answer 2

Yes the world has a conscious. The ones that don't are the terrorists. Firstly, I don't know where you live, but in England, the BBC are so anti Israel, it's unbelievable, and the rest of the world knows that its not just me saying that. Watch them, and you get a biased report..they never show the Israelies getting injured or dead..and why the hell are all the pics from Lebanon only shown of women and children?? where the hell are the men there? Btw, another point to point out...which not everyone knows. Hizbollah tend to hide themselves amongst civillians, that's why unfortunately many have died. It's terribly sad what's going on. But what choice does Isreal have? They were minding their own business..hell they keep giving back land to the bloody terrorists..for what?? to be bombed at? The palastinians isntad of using Gaza as a civilised place,build it up etc, no they use it as a military base. I don't see any sense in that. Lebanon have been firing rockets into Israel for years...just noone knew about it. But when they entered Israel and kidnapped their soilders..that was too much for the Israelis..they had to rightfully defend themselves. (Imagine Mexico kidnapped two soldeirs from US, or Scotland did that to England...what would their response be?) If you have Sky or in the States, watch Fox, it's much more balanced.

Answer 3

Well let's think about this.

WWAD? If a terrorist group operating out of Canada had kidnapped American soldiers with the full backing of Canada for basically no reason, what would America do? Especially if Canada had been firing rockets into say, Chicago. Now let's say that those terrorists had set up in Canadian civilian homes--what would America do? I think we all know the answer to this question, and it goes for basically every other country in the world.

Edit: Lebanon is the host to the parasitic Hezbollah. Lebanon hasn't done anything to deter Hezbollah, to stop them, to thwart them--that alone is backing enough.

Answer 4

Hizbullah is not just some terrorist group in Lebanon. They are a member of the government! They lead the opposition! If a governmental party kidnaps soldiers and/or launches a military attack into a foreign country that is a declaration of war my friend. Furthermore, Israel's tactics were completely justified. Israel attacked launch sites located in civilian areas. By the rules of international engagement, those who fire the rockets are responsible for those casualties. A nation has the right to take the fight to where it's attacked from, and because of Hezbollah's terrorist tactics, that means civilian casualties. "Hezbollah emplyed hospitals"? All that is a front - the terrorist aspects of Hebollah are indistinguishable from the supposed humanitarian aspects. Weapon caches have been found in hospitals for example. The infrastructure was bombed because all of it helped support Hezbullah.
How do you propose to fight an enemy who fires rockets from civilian areas? That is a member of the parliament? Simply put, this is war in modern times - there is no way to engage an enemy of this caliber without causing civilian casualties.

EDIT: Siniora has no power to evict Hezbollah. They were a democratically elected party and thus a member of parliament whether the acting prime minister approves or not. A parliamentary party launched an attack is my point, and Siniora has nothing to do with it. Furthermore, asking Siniora to pick sides wouldn't have made getting the soldiers back any easier. He has no influence over Hezbollah, and rather is just another obstacle to the latter's power. Secondly, the fighting was not only about getting the soldiers back - it was also about getting Hezbollah off the border. Bartering is all well and good, but if it doesn't get them off the border than it is only a temporary respite before something happens again. And lastly, everything in the ME is about deterrence. Israel's position is assured by showing its hostile neighbors that it has the power to do what it will. Not attacking back is interpreted as a sign of weakness, and that is an impossibility in this present climate. Showing power once means not having to use it many times, whereas showing weakness forces one to later use the power.

Answer 5

Well its no secret that Israel's military interventions in all its neighbouring countries consisted at some point of time pure war crimes... It was documented even before 1948 when Jewish paramilitary Militias were targeting Arab Civilians to drive them out of the land.

Later on more war crimes were committed by Israel in 1967, 1973, 1982 and in the latest intervention last year in Lebanon.

And to all our Israeli friends who have answered this question using erroneous and skewed terms to create false impressions here are some corrections:

Lebanon and Israel are practically at war since 1948... So I don't understand how would the actions of any party (including Hezbollah) can be considered a declaration of war... Wake up, the war has never ended in the first place in order to declare a new one.

Second: enemy soldiers are not "Kidnapped" they are taken as prisoners of war (POWs), which is a legal action under international law. So what makes Israeli soldiers different from all others in order to be called "Kidnapped" or abducted" to the end of this pathetic vocabulary used to describe their situation?

Israel did warn civilians to leave their homes but only after destroying all the ways out... Are you serious?

Israel militarily occupies Lebanese territories (Shebaa farm) and resistance is a liegitimate action untill those territories are free... So before asking Hezbollah to stop its attacks on Israel don't you think giving up occupation and colonization would be a good first step?

How do you expect anyone to talk peace with Israel when Israel insists on occupying Arab lands... I find a serious flow of logic here. How can we think of Israel as a peace loving country when it insists on military occupation and targetting mostly civilians while they describe Arabs as terrorists for resisting occupation using legitimate ways targeting mostly military personnel? What a biased world!!!

Answer 6

The main problem with the conflic last year was the Israeli media who created news instead of reporting news. Slowly very slowly the world media are realising the amount of damage the Israeli's inflicted on the Hezbollah which has turned out to be an advantage for the Lebanese Goverment. One thing for sure Hezbollah will not try their luck again they are still licking their wounds . If there should be a next time God help the Hezbollah .

Answer 7

Israel took action to bring down an evil regime and to free its soldiers that were kidnapped by Hexboolah. In my opinion that tells me that Israel cares about all of its people and soldiers and wants to keep Israel a safe place. When Israel went after Hexboolah to stop them from killing Israelis and to return the soldiers, Israel send fliers in Arabic to warn the Lebanese people so they could evacuate and not be harmed. This is very noble and humanitarian of Israel because they wanted to spare innocent Lebanese's lives; unlike Hexboolah who purposely endangered Lebanese lives. Hexboolah is to blame in that they had camped out near civilian homes and Israel was merely targeting the source of the rockets. Tell me why did Hexboolah hide behind civilians? The Lebanese army has no backbone otherwise they would not have allowed Hexboolah to run the country.

Answer 8

Israel is never portrayed for what many psycho zionists believe....war crimes,wanton destruction of homes with occupants still inside. They violate EVERY resolution the UN passes. They have no respect for resolutions so therefore they can kill whom they wish to restore Israel to the entire middle east regions even as far as Egypt. They murder and kill many....there was a massacre in Lebanon by the Israeli's worse than this in the seventies or early eighties mass civilian casualties but you never hear the word "Israel Terrorists". They killed Prime Minister Rabin for meeting with Arafat at a peace summit. Come On. They are violent bloody killers too. They wish to genocide and are currently actively and have been trying to genocide the Palestinians since 1949...Palestine has nothing...Israel has Nukes...which crazy extremist would you be more afraid of?

Answer 9

I thought it was fair. This people must be stopped and instead of just keep on repeating it, Israel actually did something about it... until the stupid U.N. came in between.

EDIT- It's unbelievable what war has come to. It a war. I know many of these people were possibly innocent, helpless people, but if you have cowardly terroists hiding among them then what are you to do??

Hopeless- The UN is crap.
Hopeless- In a sense that they got their noses in where they did not belong, then yes, in that sense the UN is crap. They should have stepped aside and let Israel finish them off. Hezbollah could have been throughly extinct had they not stepped in.

Tabatha- I agree completely w/ you there. And I really didn't mean that other answer disrespectfully.

The Seeker- Have you been living under a rock?? The IDF is most definetly the most pwerful army in the world.

Answer 10

Excessive Force? No. Israeli soldiers didn't hide among women and children. Israeli soldiers operated from military bases and targeted legitimate areas that were used by Hizballah terrorists. Have you forgotten that Israel did everything it could to warn all civilians to leave the area at least a week before striking?

Here's an excerpt from an article by Allen Dershowitz:
It is virtually impossible to distinguish the Hezbollah dead from the truly civilian dead, just as it is virtually impossible to distinguish the Hezbollah living from the civilian living, especially in the south. The "civilian" death figures reported by Lebanese authorities include large numbers of Hezbollah fighters, collaborators, facilitators and active supporters. They also include civilians who were warned to leave, but chose to remain, sometimes with their children, to serve as human shields. The deaths of these "civilians" are the responsibility of Hezbollah and the Lebanese government, which has done very little to protect its civilians.

Lebanon has chosen sides--not all Lebanese, but the democratically chosen Lebanese government. When a nation chooses sides in a war, especially when it chooses the side of terrorism, its civilians pay a price for that choice. This has been true of every war.

We must stop viewing Lebanon as a victim and begin to see it as a collaborator with terrorism. Nor is there any excuse for this choice. Lebanon was not "driven" to support Hezbollah by Israel or the U.S., as some Lebanese leaders falsely claim. Lebanon included Hezbollah in its government, knowing that it is a terrorist organization. It abdicated the responsibility for providing social, economic and police services in the south to Hezbollah.

You can read the whole article here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-dershowitz/lebanon-is-not-a-victim_b_26715.html
.