Middle East Crisis

I have not written here for a long time, but the recent events (the last few weeks) in the Middle East are of such catastrophic effects that they necessitate some reflection and reporting.

The recent events in the Middle East started with the capture of an Israeli soldier by Hamas—a Palestinian political organization. In response Israel retaliated by unleashing a military operation. For weeks Palestine was under a constant military barrage. Palestinian infrastructures—electrical plants, bridges, roads, office buildings, among others—were destroyed. Additionally, Israel arrested many Hamas political officials, and killed others.

In the mist of the Palestinian and Israeli catastrophe, Hezbollah, an organization which operates in Southern Lebanon, went into Israel and captured two Israeli soldiers. As a result, for the last two weeks Lebanon has been under the worst military bombardment since Israeli’s invasion in the 1982. Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Prime Minister, has been “reversed fifty years,” in terms of their infrastructure. Israel has destroyed bridges, homes, roads, plants and anything that would isolate Lebanon from the world. The United Nations and other foreign capitals have deemed the recent Israeli operation as non-proportional; that is, the amount of damage Israel has committed in Lebanon does not equate to losing two soldiers. Initially the reasoning behind the non-proportional attacks was that Israel was afraid that Hezbollah would attempt to transfer the soldiers to Iran or Syria so it was necessary to destroy all physical connections to the outside world. Some political analyst have observed that the Israel operation is a classical military operation and one US committed against Germany and Japan during World War II. Essentially, destroy the country until the people turn on the government or until the aggressor gets an unconditional surrender. In other words, the political analyst suggest that Israel may simply want to destroy Lebanon economically and physically, and make the lives of the people so uncomfortable that the people will prefer surrender or will turn on Hezbollah and the government just to end the fighting.

Iran and Syria have been implicated as the partners of Hezbollah and their principal suppliers of arms. Both countries have denied the allegations, but it seems like most political analyst and international capitals are convinced that the connection is real. It has recently been observed that Iran has sent officials to Syria for a meeting on the recent events and that the leader of Hezbollah was present at the meeting—the credibility of that statement I cannot stand behind. Yet, Hezbollah does have unexpectedly sophisticated military arms for the type of organization that it is—the United States list Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. This is one of the things that US and Israel point to as evidence that Iran through Syria have been providing Hezbollah with arms.

The fighting in Lebanon is currently ongoing. Israel today called up 30,000 army reserves for the operation in Lebanon. Some believe that Hezbollah has been greatly hurt and that Israel will not stop until the group is nearly destroyed or completely destroyed—and they have the capability to do it. Additionally, once a cease fire is completed it looks like an international peace keeping mission will be sent to Southern Lebanon to make sure Hezbollah does not return and the state of Lebanon regains control of its country.

One can write a whole series of books in the recent fighting in the Middle East. It is sad. People on both sides are suffering and it looks like there is no “light at the end of the tunnel” for this madness in the near future.