Wiggin becomes a peacenik

Many of my readers have undoubtedly been wondering where I've been for the last few weeks. After all, I normally intersperse my normal posts with attempted analyses of crises in Israel... and the ongoing situation in Lebanon and Gaza seem to fit the bill rather nicely. Yet I've tried to stay away from blogging on the issue (particularly Lebanon) as it is being discussed to death on the internet. I normally try to present some slightly new idea in my analysis, but I honestly haven't had any.

Oh, I can still tell you about the crisis in exhaustive detail. I could explain to you why Hezbollah's unprovoked attacks were aided and abetted (both directly and indirectly) by elements of the Lebanese government. I could talk about differences between intentionally targeting civilians and unintentional civilian deaths as a result of collateral damage. We could discuss about the care and precision with which the IAF has been hitting targets, and their considerable successes with relatively few civilian casualties for an air war of this size against an enemy entrenched in the midst of civilian populations. I could talk myself blue in the face saying the same things that have been said everywhere else... heck, if I wanted to, I could even take the Lebanese side and exhaustively detail their arguments.

But I won't. I've spent too much time elsewhere doing exactly this, and far too much time reading other media/blogs/forums discussing these same issues. Do you know why? Because, while I do believe all of that stuff, I think it is irrelevant. On my blog, I feel I can share with you what I really think about the situation devoid of political sentiment, of the need to explain to the world about Israel's actions.

This war sickens me.

All this death, all this suffering, all this pain... it's just senseless. It didn't need to happen. No one wants this war, with the exception of Syria and Hezbollah. Not the Lebanese people, their government, the world... and certainly not the Israelis.

This is not a war about land, or holy sites, or refugees, or settlements, or any of the other issues that complicate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is not a war that can even be won, really. At best, Israel can destroy much of Hezbollah, but they will always be able to get resupply and new recruits. This war happened for the simple reason that Hezbollah and Syria could not leave well enough alone, and because Lebanon was too weak to stop them.

I'm not suggesting that Israel should have done nothing in the face of a blatant act of war and a clear and present danger to its civilian population - far from it. I just wish that there was some... sense, some logic to all of this mess.

Even more so, I wish there was a clean way to fight this war. Bloody as they were, I would almost prefer something like the Israeli-Egyptian front in the Sinai in years past - a combat zone relatively free of civilians, where countries settled irreconcilable differences on a battlefield. I won't romanticize the horror of those wars, but at least they aren't as... dirtying as this one.

The world has been second-guessing Israel's particular military actions in the last week. They allege that some of the attacks against infrastructure were merely punitive and not strategic in nature, that Israel is attacking civilians indiscriminately (or at the very least attacking without a great deal of regard for civilian losses), and that the IDF response has no chance of actually damaging Hezbollah, but merely hurts the Lebanese people (for fairness, I'll mention that others have attributed clear strategic and tactical necessity to nearly all of Israel's actions).

I think this analysis is a bit harsh, but I do have my own doubts. *steeples fingers in thought* It is not right that this war must be fought in a manner that causes so much damage and loss of life. I'll freely admit that the Lebanese people are not quite all victims in this fight, and that it was their responsibility to rein in Hezbollah (regardless of the threat of a civil war). But regardless, this level of suffering and destruction is simply horrible. I don't feel that moral equivalency arguments can work here. So what if Haifa and Natzeret and Tzfat and T'veriah have been under attack? Yes, that demands a response - but not an equal response, rather a response that will actually stop the attacks (whatever that is).

Yes, yes. I've made the arguments myself - about how Hezbollah is hiding behind civilians, blah blah blah. The arguments aren't wrong... it's just that rationalizations and 'ends justify the means' arguments are demeaning to Israel and to the Jewish people. Golda Meir had it spot on: "We can forgive you for killing our sons. But we will never forgive you for making us kill yours." This continual... slaughter... is not something the Jewish State is supposed to be engaged in, justified or not.

I honestly don't know what can be done. I hope most fervently that Israel has done everything in its power to look at other options before continuing on this bloodbath. I wish that the Lebanese people had done everything in theirs to keep this from happening, and that the rest of the world had put more pressure on Syria and Iran to keep things quiet. Oh, I wish, I wish.

Where will this end? I don't know. Perhaps Israel will have to take the war to Syria (some suggest they should have done so a long time ago)... initiating more bloodshed, but hopefully mostly against the military and government, and not suburbs of Damascus. Perhaps the world can step in and finally do away with Hezbollah. Or perhaps Lebanon can come to an agreement with Israel where they unite together to get rid of foreign-supported militias in their borders. Who knows? Unfortunately, what seems most likely is that Hezbollah will be seriously damaged (after a long, protracted, bloody war), and things will go back to their status quo.

*sighs* It's times like these when I am reminded of the words of hope that others have said in other trying circumstances. I have a dream... That magnificent poetry from Martin Luther King, Jr. conveys a beautiful image. It conveys a world without chains, without boundaries, a world without senseless strife... a world where people can live together in recognition of the things that make us all the same and in celebration of the things that make us different.

I have a dream... that someday, Israel and Lebanon will live side by side in harmony. Vacationers from Tel-Aviv will relax on Beirut's beaches, and Beirut denizens on Tel-Aviv's. Northern Israel and southern Lebanon will live in peace and quiet, cultivating their farmland and tourists with equal fervor, making the landscape green and beautiful to cover the scars of war. There won't be a 'border fence' patrolled by heavily armed Israeli soldiers, but rather an open border 'patrolled' by friendly neighbors helping each other build a better future. I have a dream that Lebanon and Israel "will be transformed into a situation where little Israeli boys and Israeli girls will be able to join hands with little Lebanese boys and Lebanese girls and walk together as sisters and brothers." Someday... someday.

We need to find a way that ensures the safety of our people yet at the same time does not compromise the principles of that same people. We need to find the majority of good people in each of our enemy's populaces and cultivate them, building unbreakable bonds of trust and loyalty and peace. We need... to make the world a better place, rather than adding to chaos and strife.

I'll leave you with a thought from another poet who dreamed of peace:

אני מביט מהחלון
וזה עושה לי די עצוב
האביב חלף עבר לו
מי יודע אם ישוב
הליצן נהיה למלך
הנביא נהיה ליצן
ושכחתי את הדרך
אבל אני עוד כאן

פזמון:
יהיה טוב
יהיה טוב כן
לפעמים אני נשבר
אז הלילה הו הלילה
איתך אני נשאר

ילדים לובשים כנפיים
ועפים אל הצבא
ואחרי שנתיים
הם חוזרים ללא תשובה
אנשים חיים במתח
מחפשים סיבה לנשום
ובין שנאה לרצח
מדברים על השלום

פזמון

שם למעלה בשמים
עננים לומדים לעוף
ואני מביט למעלה
ורואה מטוס חטוף
ממשלות וגנרלים
מחלקים לנו את הנוף
לשלהם ולשלנו
מתי נראה ת'סוף

הנה בא נשיא מצרים
איך שמחנו לקראתו
פירמידות בעיניים
ושלום במקטרתו
ואמרנו בוא נשלימה
ונחיה כמו אחים
ואז הוא אמר קדימה
רק תצאו מהשטחים

פזמון

עוד נלמד לחיות ביחד
בין חורשות עצי זיתים
ילדים יחיו בלי פחד
בלי גבולות בלי מקלטים
על קברים יפרח העשב
לשלום ואהבה
מאה שנים של חרב
ועוד לא, לא אבדה התקווה

That last stanza can be roughly translated as:

We will yet learn to live together
Between the lines of olive trees
Children will live without fear
Without borders, without boundaries
On the graves grass will grow
To peace and love
[After] one hundred years of the sword
We have not yet - not yet lost the hope...