The journey from there to here

As the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel continues on, I have found the liberal response compelling. They have been quick to judge Israel, to dictate Israeli foreign policy as if we had a right to do so, and yet, ironically, they have not seemed to have a problem with Hezbollah's daily barrage of rockets into Israel. The poor aim off Hezbollah doesn't negate the intent, which is clearly to kill as many Jews as possible. They certainly aren't trying to offer a free fireworks show to the residents of Haifa.

Dissecting the liberal response quickly reveals it for the bizarre, muddled mess that it is, and exposes a party desperately in danger of collapse from the lack of strong leadership. While they appear to have solutions, those solutions are no solutions, and are, ironically, only adding fuel to the fire.

In this conflict, we have two kids on the playground. One has been playing on monkey bars "claimed" by the other. The other boy begins throwing rocks at the child on the disputed monkey bars, and the child on the monkey bars comes back in and starts trying to beat up the bully. The teacher intervens, and sits the boys down together. When asked what the two boys want, the boy who was playing on the monkey bars says he wants to play on the monkey bars. The other boy says he wants to kill the boy on the monkey bars. In short, one set of demands is reasonable, the other is entirely unreasonable. The one with the unreasonable demands obviously doesn't deserve a place at the table. Our solution would be like the teacher turning back and trying to find a solution for the boy; eg, maybe he could simply maim or cripple the object of his hatred instead of killing him. Maybe he could simply excise his voice box with a pocketknife, if that's what annoys him. It is absurd to even think about a teacher offering these solutions, and it is equally absurd to think about us lending any credence whatsoever to Hezbollah.

Worse yet, the liberal "solution" revolves around having the United Nations police the area. Great. So now we've traded AMERICAN hegemony for INTERNATIONAL hegemony, and we've done so in the most ironic way possible, as it was the UN that started this whole conflict in the first place by the manner in which they "created" the nation of Israel (essentially, for the unschooled in this area, it was the ultimate example of eminent domain abuse). We're going to turn to an organization that planted millioons of Jews in the middle of a bunch of people that have been bred to HATE them from their birth, and expect a peaceful outcome?

The best solution for the nation of Israel is to let them fight their own fights, and to not be swayed by the propaganda of either side. It says MUCH about the nature of Hezbollah when they would WILLINGLY sacrifice their own children by using them as human shields and, posthumously, as propaganda tools. When our reporters are being led on guided tours conducted by Hezbollah's thugs, how can we seriously expect to have any point of view except Hezbollah's?


Comments
on Aug 05, 2006
Close.  But then Hezbollah never claimed the Monkey bars, but after that fairly accurate.
on Aug 05, 2006
Last time I checked I was a lefty liberal. That's why I don't understand all this liberal's hate Israel stuff. I actually agree with everything you've written Gideon, well except for the part were you indicate that teachers are fair, many of the one's I had were anything but, and have always defended Israel's right to defend herself when faced with an unprovoked attack on her borders and her people.

Maybe I'm not the same kind of liberal you're referring to. Maybe I'm one of those reasonable liberals.

Could happen!
on Aug 06, 2006
Maybe I'm not the same kind of liberal you're referring to. Maybe I'm one of those reasonable liberals.


Maybe. If so, you're going to find yourself ostracized from the left in short order. I know. It happened to me
on Aug 06, 2006
I didn't realize that there was even a liberal/lefty solution to this problem. I figured they were still too busy demanding that we (the U.S.A.) get out of Iraq and let the middle-east solve it's own problems.

The left -- at least in the U.S.A. -- would like nothing more than see us declare we're leaving and letting Israel deal with it's own problems. This of course would be from the same group that let Bill Clinton commit troops all over the globe for a variety of reasons, none of which really made that much sense.

Sadly we very well may wind up basically abandoning Israel to the hell hole which is the current middle-east. They very well may wind up smacking the bejeezus out of Iran and Syria, both of which are heavily involved with Hezbollah and both of which have continued to cause grief in Iraq. Can things be repaired with Israel? I doubt it, but perhaps it would all be for the best if we do just let Israel solve it's problems (and ours) on their own. The big issue will be containing everything once all hell does break loose. We don't need the likes of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt jumping into the middle of things too.