Israeli options

Submitted by joe (United States), Jul 18, 2006 at 15:01

I basically agree with your observations and conclusions. But what actions to take next. Even if the stated goals are the return of the soldiers, disarmament of hizbollah and the establishment of the Lebanese army along the border, Israel still could not achieve anything useful from these illusions.

First, return of the soldiers. It would take massive damage to Syria and Iran to ratchet the level of pain needed to acheive the simplest of objectives.

Second, disarming hizbollah. Israel could recreate their previous 18 year buffer zone in Southern Lebanon in order to mitigate some of the range of the rockets, but this will not stop their ability to continue to wage war. Reducing their arsennal would be a temporary measure at best and would not stop their entrenched support from the native shia community or from abroad, short of the annihilation of Syria and Iran, hizbollah is not going away.

Thirdly, deployment of the Lebanese army on the Israeli border under the UN resolution. Get real. Will the real Lebanese army please stand up. Even without the shia component, the sunni moslems, also hostile to Israel, constitute the rest of the moslem majority in Lebanon.

Conclusion: push Israel outward to natural, rational and defensible borders. North to the Litani River, West to the Jordan River/Dead sea. Eliminate the Gaza strip debacle and reconsider the entire Sinai.

Re-ignite the Lebanese civil war, but this time do it right. Create an Israeli backed protectorate for Christians,Druze and Lebanese Jews. Displaced moslems can go to Syria. West Bank moslems can go to Jordan. Gaza moslems can go elsewhere. All moslem populations must be relocated to another Islamic paradise. Isreal must separate itself from these disgruntled populations, send them to soveriegn states that bear responsibility for their actions or suffer the consequences. If not, Israel will continue to engage itself in endless asymmerical warfare against stateless or quasi-state enemies for no good reason.

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