Opinion

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Living Here, Feeling Israel

y husband was 18
when he went to fight
in the Lebanon war of
the early 1980s. Just six months
after enlistment, he found him-
self deep inside Lebanon.
When we met, he explained to
me with good humor, "I chose
the tank division because I want-
ed to serve in a combat unit but
I didn't want them to make me
run. In a tank you drive."
Lately I have been feeling that
he is back in Lebanon. Watching
the news all the time, seeing pain
pour out from the images of
broken people, he has returned to
the land of cedar trees.
I believe that my husband
represents all of us. In some way,
although we are far away from
Israel, we are there. Some part of
us feels the pain and the despair.
We all want salaam, shalom,
peace. It's so difficult to make
sense of the madness. Yet, there
are glaring truths and reali-
ties. They must be clarified and

learned from. This is
to control their own
what I know:
country, Lebanon will
• When the cat's
continue to be used by
away, the mice will
other Shiite nations. If
play. The negative
the Lebanese govern-
ramifications of
ment cannot
U.S. involveMent in
insure the sov-
Iraq widen. Iran and
ereignty and
Syria know that the
security of its
great Superpower's
own land, which
Rabbi T .amara
military is bogged
is obviously the
Kolt on
down in an ugly
case, the United
Comm unity
war. The big cat is
States and the
Vie w
busy. They correctly
U.N. will need
assessed this window
to get very involved in
of time as an opportunity to give Lebanon.
Hezbollah the green light.
• The true tragedy of any war
• Lebanon is being used as
is the suffering of people, espe-
a game field on which Iran
cially the children. In Lebanon,
and Syria try out their strate-
there are 350 families living in
gies against Israel. At no real
an underground parking garage,
cost to Iran or Syria, they arm
one family per parking space.
and endorse Hezbollah, watch
Hezbollah is supplying the
Lebanon burn and go home at
people with blankets, mattresses
night to sleep in their comfort-
and food.
able beds.
A child looks into the camera
Until the Lebanese army and
of ABC News and says, "I don't
government are strong enough
understand why the Israelis

hate us. Why do they want to
kill me?" The newsperson asks
the 10-year-old,"What is worse,
the bombs or the sirens?" "The
sirens:' he answers.

nature of war. As power descends
into smaller and smaller groups
with real or perceived grievances,
we increasingly will find our-
selves fighting terrorist groups.

A new generation of children is growing
up in a war zone. For them, war is a way
of life. Innocence has been drowned.

And just a few kilometers
away an Israeli 10-year-old girl
describes how she feels nauseous
when the sirens wake her from
sleep and she must go to the
bomb shelter. She says, "I grab
my dog Maid and I run down-
stairs. Sometimes I forget my
shoes."
A new generation of children
is growing up in a war zone.
For them, war is a way of life.
Innocence has been drowned.
• Hezbollah represents the new

Guerilla warfare is nothing
new. The United States was pit-
ted against very effective gue-
rilla fighters in Vietnam. But the
Vietnamese guerillas used dung
smeared on the tips of sharp
stakes to impale U.S. soldiers
and poison them. Today, guerilla
groups have missiles.
The survival of life on the
planet will be determined by
whether or not enriched ura-
nium and other weapons of
mass destruction are kept out of

extremist Shi'a armed militia,
possessing advanced weapons
and committed to Israel's death
and to the goals of radical jihad.
It observes no rules of engage-
ment or noncombatant immuni-
ty; it attacked after Israel with-
drew from southern Lebanon
and ended occupation.
This deserves repetition
— Israel is not an occupying
nation in relation to Lebanon
(or Gaza, for that matter) but
has withdrawn behind recog-
nized boundaries. Israel is justi-
fied in protecting its sovereignty
and the lives of its citizens
and in aggressively pursuing
Hezbollah's capacity.
If withdrawal is rewarded
with aggression and rocket
attacks and misread as weak-
ness, Israel has no alternative
but to reestablish a credible
power.

national law that states from
whose territory armed attacks
are mounted are responsible for
those attacks.
Israel is justified in :attacking
Lebanon and key infrastruc-
ture Hezbollah might use to
rearm with weapons from Syria
or Iran; Lebanon has failed
to disarm Hezbollah or deal
with it as required under U.N.
1559 and Hezbollah is part of
the Lebanese polity. Indeed,
Israel is as justified in attack-
ing Lebanon as the United
States was justified in attacking
Afghanistan under the Taliban.
Whether Israel has done so
effectively or with sufficient
attention to minimizing civil-
ian casualties or with sufficient
care to minimize the impacts on
world opinion is another ques-
tion, but the justness of its fight
is not at question.
Finally, fourth, Hezbollah
accounts itself part of a global
jihadist movement that seeks

Viewing The Left

East Lansing

T

here's a recurring view
in some left-liberal cir-
cles concerning Israel.
Although I am of the left, this
stance aggravates me deeply.
It seems a stock response and
fails to show any sympathy for
the project that is Israel. Neither
does it account for near una-
nimity in Israel for the current
war, including support by many
on the Israeli left.
The view was exemplified in
an article by Tony Judt, "The
Country That Wouldn t Grow
Up," which appeared in Ha'aretz
[May 5, 2006] before the current
conflict with Hezbollah erupted.
Israel, Judt argued, "comports
itself like an adolescent," is
quick to take offense and to give
it, thinks it can do as it wishes
and is indifferent to world opin-
ion.
Judt, a historian with a his-
tory of worrying disproportion-

'

34 August 17 • 2006

ately about what
Israel has become, as
distinct from what
its neighbors are
becoming, argues
that, since 1967 —
when Israel trans-
formed itself into
a colonial nation,
occupying others'
lands — Israel has
become increasingly
self-righteous, reck-
less and prone to
excess.
This thinking has also been
exemplified in many responses
by left-liberal journals and
newspapers that Israel's reaction
to Hezbollah is "disproportion-
ate" and that it has extended,
as the Guardian claimed
[July14, 20061,"far beyond the
legitimate right of a country to
defend itself."
Nation magazine characteriz-
es Israel's response as "collective
punishment" inflicted against

Lebanon.
But this thinking and
the claim that Israel's
response to aggression
is "disproportionate"
seems to me to be stuck
in its mindless way and
truly to be out of touch
with the conflict.
First, Hezbollah
attacked Israel across
a recognized inter-
national boundary
that, until now, even
Hezbollah respected; it also has
rained rockets down on civilian
towns and cities across northern
Israel, from Haifa to Sated and
Tiberias. These acts are interna-
tionally recognized acts of war
and the latter.are indisputably
war crimes. They clearly justify
and warrant massive reactions
by Israel aimed at defeating
Hezbollah's capacity to attack
again or send additional rockets.
Second, Hezbollah is not a
state but a rogue (if popular)

Who Attacked First?

Third, it is a.principle of inter-