Quote:
Originally posted by Kevin Andrew Murphy:
Well hearing this comes as a bit of a shocker, considering your past posts.
Anything you think Israel can/should do to win the love of the Lebanese populace? After the current war is over, I mean?
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Well, Kevin, since you raise the point:
After Hezbollah is eliminated from the south of Lebanon, Israel could work in joint teams with the Lebanese Army and international forces in discovering and destroying arms, tunnels, and other infrastructure of war throughout the country, if invited -- despite the fact that this is Lebanon's Hezbollah problem, not Israel's problem, and it has been made worse by the Lebanese government's inaction.
It would be at great risk to their own IDF personnel, and so this is nothing to undertake lightly. It is also the logical role of Israel in post-war Lebanon, assuming Lebanon is allowed by its Hezbollah masters to make this show of common cause with the Zionist enemy. Big assumption.
Very little else can be done in regard to the "hearts and minds" of those who subscribe to the Islamic Jihad/Hamas/Hezbollah point of view, that is, that Jews and the state of Israel are evil, and that exterminating both is the only solution to the problems of the middle east; so, in regard to the minority which believes this to be the case, I would suggest that Israel be prepared to defend herself against the inevitable attacks -- unless of course the Lebanese authorities once again need assistance in finding and destroying these groups, such as Israel provided in her most recent actions. Sadly, I think Lebanon is beginning to tilt that way already.
But Israel should also be prepared for the day that the other communities in Lebanon speak up -- again -- against their well-funded Hezbollah "fixers." Working to cut off Hezbollah funding, and insisting on
international funding to the
government of Lebanon,
so long as that government actually attends to both its internal and its international responsibilities, would be in Israel's interest. It would also be a logical extension of Lebanon's Cedar Revolution of 2005. But the idea, of course, cannot come from Israel. (Bit of a Catch 22 there.)
Anything Israel does is anathema to many communities in Lebanon, the Arab world, and the Muslim world. It's dressed up in lies, paraded across al-Manar and al-Jazeera in the worst possible light, and generally trotted out as another instance of Israelis continuing to have pulses and draw breaths, a grave offense against either the Arab people, the nation-state of ________, or God himself, depending on the institution reporting. Lately, Western liberals find it trendy to take the "Israel's existence is offensive" point of view, as we have seen here. So Israel's contributions will never look particularly chummy, until this sort of regionwide hate in the middle east, and classwide hate in the US among academics and some other elites, grow tiresome enough that they are disregarded.
In the perfect world, of course, it would be wonderful for Israel to take over the curriculum development in the now-abandoned Hezbollah "schools" (since of course, Hezbollah will not be in the south of Lebanon anymore.) I think you should campaign vigorously for this support, since Lebanon has had such trouble running a school system in the past, that it has turned over this function to an Iranian puppet group.
If these children are taught the truth about their neighbor and their history, perhaps they won't grow up to create new instances of violence, and these children come from the very population most supportive of hate-attacks, such as we have seen with the rockets, because they are being fed a steady diet of this drivel in the schools.
Maybe it would actually have an effect on the youngest, and probably a few who are cynical about their indoctrination thus far.
Now, can you think of a way Hezbollah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad can help win the hearts and minds of the Israeli people?
Thanks,
Dan
[This message has been edited by Dan Halberstein (edited August 20, 2006).]