“Military intelligence, two words combined that can’t make sense†(Hangar 18, Megadeth)
Some Lebanese blogs are being flooded with comments directing them to All4Lebanon.org a new website offering monetary compensation for those who give any information regarding the Hizbullah. The offer is pseudo-anonymous and gives a satellite phone number and an inexplainable email address. However, as Mustapha points out, the site is hosted at Barak, an Israeli ISP. Though the owner of the domain is hidden, one can only estimate who initiated this website. Of course, one could read the news and find out…
The problem with the Israeli intelligence during this war (or “conflict†as the Israeli media likes to call it, since no war was waged). Were i the IDF, i would have never hosted such a website on an Israeli server, nor would i do the promotion this way. I would have set up a Drupal/Joomla installation of an aggregator, link to Lebanese bloggers who oppose Hizbullah, and start sending commenters to Lebanese blogs, and only after a few days do it. But this job is so amateur that it leaks out, and it leaks out big time, since they already published it yesterday in hebrew and were proud of it. (why?)
However, one good thing may come from Military Intelligence, should Israel use it wisely, it could refrain from killing innocent children and refrain from deprivation of food and humanitarian supplies from the Lebanese. Were i the Israeli government, I’d send humanitarian support there, even if not my humanitarian forces, but fund someone else’s, all in order to keep the civilians alive.
Intelligence is needed in this sort of war, for all the right reasons, but if not used discretely, it may damage Israel more than it helps it.
I think that the only real way to solve this conflict is to assist the Lebanese government in order to eradicate Hizbullah. And why should it eradicate it? Only for one good reason. A Sovereign country is the one who should hold the monopoly for the use of force; this is done in order to preserve order and to prevent other dissidents from taking power from the democratically elected bodies.
Israel must assist Lebanon to disarm Hizbullah as the UN resolution requires; it must do so in a manner that hurts as few innocent civilians on both sides as possible. That’s why i’m having a hard time today. At 18:30, 5 hours from now, there will be an anti-war demonstration in the Rabin Square. The same square which held the anti-war rally in 1982 with the attendance of 400,000 people. Today, i expect, there will be no more than 200, maybe 500 if there’s a better weather.
I don’t want to go there since i believe that deploying armed forces is bad, but not as bad as stopping the war now where there’s no peace treaty. During the last few days i’ve been trying to study both sides and to look for a solution, I’ve also tried to recall ends to other conflicts. However, all other conflicts which i’ve studied were not close to this one. Maybe i should check about guerilla wars in South America, i believe that’s the closest thing.
Hope to get back with an answer soon.
I agree with you that Hizullah should be disarmed, but I’d still go to that anti–war demonstration if I were you. The fact is that only 6 Hizbullah militants have killed, compared to atleast 312 civilians. Civilian infrastructure – such as churches, bridges, and residential blocks – have been targeted. 500,000 people have been internally displaced, 70% of them Shi’ites form the South.
The bottom line is that war is not an acceptable response to a kidnapping. It just isn’t. It’s worthwhile remembering here that Hizbullah only started firing rockets onto Israel *after* the Israeli offensive on Lebanon began.
Yes, resolution 1559 must be fulfilled. The Lebanese PM has called for international help to do this. That is a why an immediate ceasefire is necessary.
I think, or maybe know, that more than 6 of the casualities were Hizbullah, I know that a lot of civilians died, but i also know that Hizbullah prevents the civilians from leaving their towns in southern lebanon in order to enlarge the casualities.
About the refugees, i do agree that it is a problem, and i think that the IDF supposed to fix it.
But two things: (1) The Hizbullah have been firing quite a lot of missiles since 2000, and they did kidnap soldiers. they were the ones who started this conflict and (2) 1559 will be fulfilled. I hope that Israel will assist in it, but until a fully dedicated peace core will be there, i believe that we should continue the fighting.
I wasn’t sure till the last moment, but I am going to the demonstration. I don’t totally accept the organizers’ thoughts. I have a lot against the other side, and not only against my government, but I’d rather do something than anything.
See you there, whoever is coming…
Hi Blogger,
I am collecting views of bloggers about the current crisis in the middle east. I wonder if you have a view and would care to share it with us.
many thanks
Sure,
feel free to re-distribute my content as long as you keep the CC-BY-NC-SA license.
I agree with Jamie. This is not (to me) about not being allowed to defend yourself, but the measure of how and when. The end doesn’t justifies the means when more civilians get killed than the ‘enemy’. I also seriously doubt Hezbullahs’ capability vs Israel’s capability. Israel could blow up the whole region and be on top (figure of speech of course). Guerilla warfare is never won by regular warfare either, it is a never ending cycle of retaliation upon retaliation, until people lose track of what’s what and who started what first.. other countries have dealt and still are dealing with terrorism.. I honestly believe in another approach..
Nevertheless Jonathan, I hope you stay safe, and I hope this all will be over before long..
Ingrid
I don’t think that the end justifies the means. the question is whether the means are justified. whether killing Hizbullah soldiers is justified differs from whether killing children is.
Terrorism is not what is going on here, this is regular war, where rockets are being fired into cities by the thousands is harsher than just the regular terrorist bombing i’ve grown to.