Is Israel trying to provoke a military response from Iran, Syria?

[Postman]

It seems its total war at this point. Juan Cole reports Israel is bombing hospitals now.

I wonder if their destruction of Lebanon is part of trying to provoke Syria or Iran to act militarily...

Or is it to allow Israel to occupy Lebanon and conduct guerilla warfare as per what the insurgency in Iraq is doing to US troops ...

[SlipperySlope]

1. Israel wants neither

Israel wants neither to provoke Iran or Syria, nor to occupy Lebanon. Israel wants Hezbullah to go away.

[Behind the Aegis]

2. Ding, Ding, Ding! We have a winner!

:) Well said, and very concise! :applause:

[smtpgirl]

4. Bush and the administration have a say in it too

US is ass deep in this

[manic expression]

9. No

Israel wants to assert its dominance over others. It has to do with showing up Lebanon and making them "pay", not with any shred of justification, because there is none.

Provocation is one of Israel's most time honored tactics. Just look at the history.

[CuteNFuzzy]

10. Israel occupied southern Lebanon for 20 years

What makes you think they don't want to occupy now?

[The Magistrate]

11. Becaise, Sir, They Retired From It

The retirement was popular in Israel, and certainly the wisest course it could take. It is still wisest not to attempt an occupation of southern Lebanon, though it may be necessary to raid the place briefly to achieve the objective of neutralizing the Hezbollah, but there is no particular reason to imagine Israel is eager to repeat an earlier mistake it has already corrected once.

[Erika]

3. Israel bombing innocent Lebanese

will get them no where. They've destroyed the infrastructure of Lebanon who had a duly elected democracy.

Israel is fulfilling their reputation as the bully of the MidEast.

[DELUSIONAL]

5. I'm a sane person trying to understand the insanity of war

how can people be safer if they are creating more people to hate them?

I just don't understand the logic of war -- war is insanity.

Now -- defense of one's home or country -- I can understand. Self defense -- is a logical response to aggression.

By no stretch of the imagination can the bombing of hospitals, airports, sea ports, blockades of ports, bombing of civilian structures be called defense.

If I were in charge I would follow the money -- this would be slower and not as "sexy" as dropping tons and tons of bombs and turning huge buildings into rubble -- and creating piles of dead bodies (and then debating the number killed). Oh and how about "buying" the hearts and minds of the people through aid?? Finance (fund) clinics, food banks, education -- you know social good works. This is what hizbolla has done -- learn from the damned enemy -- don't go out trying make new enemies.

For a people who are so intelligent --who have produced some of the best minds -- the current Israeli leadership is extraordinarily dumb.

[Solo_in_MD]

8. Those who say violence never solves anything should tell that to

the people of Carthage and Troy.

The facts are that Hezbollah is an illegal militia being supported by outsiders. It takes serious money to do what they do and they sure as hell aren't getting it from Lebanon. They run the southern end of the country as an Islamic state in defiance of the UN and the national government. Nasrallah recently stated that he would scorch all of Lebanon before Hezbollah would disarm and let the national government take over the south. Acting as a surrogate for Iran and Syria they poke at Israel in much the same way they did while Israel occupied southern Lebanon. They obtain weapons from Iran and Syria and then store and launch them from populated areas into Israel. This time the lion came out of his cave, and the devastation is terrible. However, what the IDF is doing makes sense from their objectives. Still a terrible price is being paid by the people of Lebanon now and for at least a generation to come. Hezbollah and its sponsors should pay the bill for it, but somehow I don't think they will.

[6000eliot]

12. Israel gets a lot of outside money too.

From US.

[hang a left]

6. The thought just occured to me that Israel is quash border issues

that may cause them trouble once they bomb either Syria or Iran.

[radwriter0555]

7. Yes. And they'll be recruiting US troops any moment now. I give it

a couple of weeks.