Reply #39: I'd go about it in a sligthly different way....maybe

[Ravenseye]

I think everyone can agree that Hezbollah is the big problem when it comes to Lebanese AND northen Israeli security. The thing is to make them criminals, not martyrs.

That's one thing that often gets overlooked in Israeli analysis which is just how effective these groups are at playing the martyr card. Then Israel plays their game and bombs a missile emplacement killing children. The problem is that the LOCAL people don't blame Hezbollah for that, no matter what Israel or the rest of the world says or thinks. All they see are dead kids and babies and women. Next thing you know those kids fathers brothers, cousins, etc, are blowing up busses in Haifa or Tel Aviv because they've been literally made insane from their loss. All it does is create more terrorists.

Now, i'm not saying they can't defend themselves from rockets raining down on them, but they need to have perspective too, which is hard when you're under fire. The goal is to not necessarily stop the rockets RIGHT NOW, as much as stop them PERMANENTLY. That's the tough part. It's easy, or at least easier, to stop them now...IT's much more difficult to stop them in the long run.

The goal should be empowering the Lebanese people, as the world HAS been doing. The more prosperous the poeple in the south are, the less likely they'll get tied up with Hezbollah or worse, actually attack Israel. A man with a good job, healthcare, safety for his family, food on the table...he generally won't go out of his way to hurt someone else. It's because these areas are poor and oppressed (by Israel, Syria, and Hezbollah) that the violence continues.

So my point is yeah, you're right. Hezbollah needs to be gone. The thing is I just don't see the current action doing that. I see it strengthening them in the long run. Like cutting one of the heads off a hydra, they'll just grow two more. That kind of action by Israel, will never win the peace. It'll just create more problems for the future.

Solution? I'm not sure. Any reasonable solution would require international, and particularly Lebanese assistance. Without those two I'm not sure an easy solution exists. It would be interesting to see though what would happen if instead of returning Hezbollah's rockets with bombs, they sent aid packages.