OK

Submitted by Mordecai Segall (United States), Aug 10, 2006 at 18:48

Here's my (basic) opinion:

Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers on Israeli terrirtory. That constitues an act of war. Israel did nothing to provoke Lebanon; in fact, Israel and lebanon were in peace for many years. Hezbollah, which openly says that Israel does not have the right to exist, is an elected part of the Lebanese government. This makes the country of Lebanon responsible.

THEREFORE

Israel has every right to do what is neccessary to make Hezbollah surrender, just like any other war. Hezbollah knows that this is Israel's goal. It has engaged in many gun battles with Israel already.

Hezbollah continues to fire rockets at Israel from the midst of Lebanese villages and cities. It stores rockets in civilian buildings (the Human Rights Watch even admits this, read the report). It evacuates its soldiers in ambulances and civilian vans. However, these violations of the rules of war do not decrease Israel's right to destroy the army that attacked it. All they do is make it very hard for Israel to verify its targets. As such, Israel often ends up hitting innocent civilians because of questionable targets. When a civilian van is struck by an israeli missle, that is a mistake - All of Israel's targets are unverifiable because of Hezbollah's violations of human rights. The news only shows the misses - it doesn't talk about all the hits. If Hezbollah really cared about the lives of their civilains, they would not seek refuge in civilian areas and use them as military bases.

That is my basic view. There's more, of course, which will become apparent when you try to prove me wrong

One request: Please be civil, like I was. Talk respectfully. Thanks.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".