Where Do We Go From Here?

So we have a cease fire in the middle east. The Israeli/Hezbollah conflict is over. Well, not exactly. Yes, the fighting has stopped, but the hearts and minds of those in the region have not changed one bit.

Under enormous international pressure, the Israelis agreed to the terms of the cease fire as mandated by the U.N. The Lebanese begged for it since their country was being obliterated and Hezbollah agreed because they knew they could declare victory for simply having survived. The terrorists could literally stand on the pile of rubble that was once Lebanon, plant a flag, and scream to everyone that they are the victors.

A major probelm is that the world media eats this up. No matter what PR campaigns are mounted by Israel, you will continually see counterfeit images on BBC, SKY, and CNN that are distributed by Arab photographers employed by Reuters which portray Israel as the aggressors and war mongers. These images sway world opinion, portraying the Lebanese and Hezbollah as the victims. The 500 million Arabs surrounding Israel are continually harassed by the 5 million Jews living on stolen land. That is what the media tells the world and that is what the world believes, over and over again. It is hard to understand, but this is the case.

And today, what do we have? The Lebanese army is deploying south but Hezbollah is not disarming. The French are coming to the rescue with their laughable commitment of 400 soldiers. Muslims from Malaysia and Indonesia are going to protect the Israeli border. This is not very reassuring if we are hoping for peace in the region. Meanwhile, Syria and Iran have gotten off free as birds, not implicated for one iota of the current conflict. The situation is unstable at best and down right dangerous at worst.

And where do we go from here? It seems clear that this temporary equilibrium will not last. Expectations are not if Hezbollah will break the cease fire, but when. At the moment, Israel and the U.S. and the west, for that matter, will have to decide; to live and survive or to be destroyed. If this cease fire breaks down, Israel will need the strength to go all the way to Beirut, to Damascus, and to Tehran. The U.S. will need to join the battle in a proactive way. This in the only way to secure the future of peace in the middle east, with a decisive victory. Without this, we are all doomed to a much darker future.

How Public Relations Killed Logic

The Israeli-(Hezbollah) Lebanese conflict has demonstrated something critical in modern day thinking and perception. It is that logic is no longer a measuring device utilized to determine what is right and what is wrong. Actually, what is right and wrong today has somehow become a blurry concept. As if to say, '1+1 is approximately 2' or that "No" really means "Maybe". At what point during the last 40 years did the obvious become the oblivious?

The current middle-east conflict is a perfect example of what I am talking about. Lets review the sequence of events:
1. During the first weeks of July, all was quiet on the Israeli northern border with Lebanon.
2. Hezbollah, with a desire to gain a negotiation position to free terrorists from Israeli prisons, unilaterally attacks an Israeli army patrol on the Israeli side of the border, kidnapping 2 soldiers in the process.
3. Israel responds by attacking Hezbollah in Lebanon.
4. The conflict expands and drags on.
5. Civilian casualties increase on both sides - On the Israeli side, because rockets are not precision guided, Hezbollah is aiming at civilians. On the Lebanese side, because Hezbollah hides in between its civilian population hoping Israel will attack and inadvertently kill non-Hezbollah personnel.
6. The world forgets Israel was attacked in the first place.
7. The world forgets Hezbollah is a terrorist organization.
8. The world fogets that Lebanese take no responsibility for what goes on inside its own country.
9. The world blames Israel.

How can this be? Country A is attacked by Country B and Country A defends itself. The current talk about proportional response is ridiculous. Should a country forego its right to defense because it was only attacked a little bit? Israel is 100% correct with its level of response. Why? Because Israel understands Arab culture and how it works. A 'proportional' response would be viewed in the Arab world as weakness. Although the Arab world generally hates Israel, there is a hidden level of respect because of Israel's strength. Israelis understand this. Furthermore, this is the way to achieve peace in the middle-east. When Arabs finally understand that they can not attack Israel without severe reprisal, they will slowly sway toward peaceful solutions.

Unfortunately, the western world foregoes logic and is buying into the public relations nightmare of mass media. All we see now are dead Lebanese children, Lebanese homes blowing up and Lebanese women crying. And when logic would dictate that Hezbollah and the U.N. should be blamed for the mess, it is of course somehow, Israel's fault. How one arrives at that conclusion, I do not know but both the European and Arab world does this all the time as they continue to live in Never-Never Land, holding their breath until they turn blue and refusing to ever grow up.

It seems that lately the patients have temporarily taken over at the asylum. I certainly hope that in the near future we can return to a world where '1+1 = 2' and "No" really means "No". This will most likely occur through a decisive victory, both with the current Israeli/Lebanese conflict and with the problems of Syria, Iran and North Korea. Simply put, a life where logic fails to work and where rational thought falls prey to the absurd and insane is just not a palatable life for me.