The Chicken And The Egg

And on it goes. Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, the latest chapter in the Arab-Israeli conflict began this week with Israel's bombing of Lebanon. Apparently, Israel believes that the kidnapping of three or four Israeli soldiers, and the killing of eight others, by Hezbollah and Hamas justifies an invasion and bombing of Lebanon and Gaza. The current death toll of people -- mostly civilians -- killed in Lebanon is 100. In Israel it is 15.

Does this sound like a fair and measured response to you? Seriously, who are we kidding here? Israel is obviously using the kidnapping of its soldiers as a pretext to attempt to weaken, and hopefully destroy, Hezbollah. This face-off has been a long time coming, and Israel certainly has its reasons for wanting to put the smackdown on Hezbollah. Hezbollah, backed by Iran and Syria, is responsible for numerous terrorist attacks since its formation in 1982, including the bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1992, which killed 29 people and wounded 240, and the bombing of the AMIA building in 1994, which killed 85.

Hezbollah isn't exactly a force for good in the world and neither is Iran or Syria. No one can blame Israel for wanting to take care of business with these people. The problem is, its current actions are not going to accomplish that. All this is going to lead to is the killing of innocent people in Lebanon and Israel, more suicide attacks EVERYWHERE, and the destabilization of Lebanon, which just booted Syria out two months ago.

Unfortunately, history has shown that when the shit hits the fan like this, the only certain result is more Arab radicalization, more terrorism, and more killing of innocent people. The U.S. and Israel have to learn that this conflict is not going to be solved at gunpoint. It's a little more complicated than that. Hezbollah and Hamas are responsible for killing innocent people through acts that we consider terrorist, but which most of the Arab world views as legitimate in the face of an occupation by a more powerful enemy. Kind of like the American revolutionaries against the British in the 1770s. Or the North Vietnamese against the French and later, the U.S. in the 1960s and 1970s. Or Afghanis against the Soviet Union in the 1980s. Or Iraqi insurgents against the U.S. today. You get the picture.

You want democracy? How about this: both Hamas and Hezbollah, two groups that the U.S. and Israel have labeled "terrorist organizations," were duly elected into the Lebanese and Palestinian governments by voters in fair and free elections. Hmmmm. What do we call their governments now? Terrorist democracies?

As my Israeli political science professor once said in my college class on the Arab-Israeli Conflict: "Today's terrorist is tomorrow's world leader." Ironically, he was talking about Menachem Begin, whom most of the world considered a terrorist in the 1940s, when he and the Irgun were fighting British military occupation in "Palestine," as Israel was trying to attain its independence. The Jewish "terrorists," who were much weaker militarily than their British occupiers, used every means at their disposal to achieve their goal of an independent Jewish state. Bombings, assassinations, whatever it took. Now, the roles have been reversed, and it's Arab Palestinians who are weaker militarily than their far more powerful "occupiers," the Israelis, and who have resorted to "terrorist" tactics to achieve their ultimate goal of an independent Palestinian state and, for the more radicalized among them, the destruction of Israel.

Things are not black and white in the Middle East. They are gray. And while it might seem great when you're kicking ass, taking names, and making the bad people pay, it's not quite so fun when the chickens come home to roost, and the suicide bombers line up to die so they can pay you back in kind. Or, in Israel's case, when you bomb a relatively friendly country so that the very people you are trying to destroy -- who constitute a distinct minority right now -- end up becoming so popular that they take over the government. If you don't believe that Hezbollah is going to end up more powerful as a result of this attack, just look at what happened with Hamas, and check back with me in a year or two.

As for the U.S., the days when we could disassociate ourselves from the Arab-Israeli conflict are way gone. We are right in the middle of it, thanks to our blatant historical favoring of Israel, to a fault, and the utter mess we have made in Iraq. As Sonny said in A Bronx Tale: "Now yooz can't leave." In fact, for all of the bitching everyone is doing about the fact that Hezbollah is getting its missiles and training from Iran, let's remember one thing: Israel's planes and bombs are made right here in the good old U.S. of A. And don't think that this little detail is going unnoticed.

The Arab-Israeli problem isn't going anywhere, not in my lifetime. All we can hope for is some relative calm and maybe a few long periods of peace in between bloody showdowns. This view isn't too popular in this country, but I feel that the U.S. would be far better off if we adopted a more evenhanded approach in the region, started investing ourselves in the Arab world the way we have in Israel, and maybe, just maybe, if we took some of the trillions of dollars in loans and military aid that we have sent to Israel since 1967, and instead, spent some of it trying to better the lives of everyday Arabs. Just an idea.