Hezbollah Apologists are getting ridiculous

Okay, I am going to get the full-blown flamethrower treatment aimed at me but I am really getting unhinged by the ridiculous, conspiracy theories that are being tossed around this blog with zero evidence.   While Israel may be a flawed social experiment, it is also the only stable democracy in the middle east and it deserves the same secure borders as the autocratic fuedal states that surround it.   The devastation that Israel has brought on Lebanon is horrible and defies our pampered sense of humanity and time may prove the IDF has acted in an irresponsible and malicious way.  However, facts on hand clearly lead to the conclusion that Israel is fighting for it's very survival as we speak and is thus acting accordingly.   Some of us may not appreciate that this is "The Big One"...but I think it is and I am scared.

WHY LEBANON IS CULPABLE, NOT JUST HEZBOLLAH:

The facts are Hezbollah is the defacto government in southern Lebanon.  Hezbollah has two members in Lebanon's cabinet.  Hezbollah provides police and social services to up to 40% of Lebanon's citizens.   While U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559 states that Hezbollah is to be pulled from the southern frontier Lebanon has made no attempt to compell them to do so.    

WHY ISRAEL IS HAMMERING LEBANON AS IF THIS WERE A FULL-BLOWN WAR:

Israel is not involved in an "incident" - this is a war.   It is a war instigated by Iran with the goal being the final elimination of Israel.   While this assumption is largely based on the rhetoric of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Hezbollah's stated goal of the elimination of Israel there is also compelling circumstancial evidence to support this "Great War" theory.  
Hezbollah had no reason to believe that Israel would react any other way to the incursion of it's borders, the murder of 8 soldiers, the kidnapping of 2 soldiers and the unsolicited launching of rockets into Israel.   Clearly Hezbollah wanted to precipitate a conflict and they obviously had thousands of rockets in place to counter Israel's response.  

Hezbollah has made no noise regarding a negotiated settlement.  All calls have been for a unilateral ceasefire from the IDF but no offer has been made by Hezbollah to halt their rocket attacks or return the kidnapped Israeli soldiers.  

Finally, no less connected a source than Ted Koppel says it's so in a NY Times article.  It is stuck behind pay op-ed firewall but this  HuffPo piece summizes the well connected liberal journalist's discoveries:

 

When Sheik Qaouk talked about Israel and Hezbollah, his organization's ambitions were not framed in purely defensive terms. There is only harmony between Hezbollah's endgame and the more provocative statements made over the past year by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's president. Both foresee the elimination of the Jewish state.

Are the Israelis over-reacting in Lebanon? Perhaps they simply perceive their enemies' intentions with greater clarity than most. It is not the Lebanese who make the Israelis nervous, nor even Hezbollah. It is the puppet-masters in Tehran capitalizing on every opportunity that democratic reform presents. In the Palestinian territories, in Lebanon, in Egypt, should President Hosni Mubarak be so incautious as to hold a free election, it is the Islamists who benefit the most.

But Washington's greatest gift to the Iranians lies next door in Iraq. By removing Saddam Hussein, the United States endowed the majority Shiites with real power, while simultaneously tearing down the wall that had kept Iran in check.

According to the Jordanian intelligence officer, Iran is reminding America's traditional allies in the region that the United States has a track record of leaving its friends in the lurch -- in Vietnam in the 70's, in Lebanon in the 80's, in Somalia in the 90's.

WHY ISRAEL IS SHITTING IN THEIR PANTS AND WE SHOULD BE TOO:

This is as if the northern states of Mexico were run completely by a drug cartel with the complete blessing of Mexico City.   The Mexican drug cartel has now crossed into Texas, killed American soldiers and taken 2 back into northern Mexico while shooting rockets into San Antonio. DSo Rather than demuring our Mexican drug lords are  demanding the release of thousands of tried and convicted drug dealers.   Does this tell us that these guys either are divorced from reality or don't really expect us to except their terms?

Iran and Hezbollah sees this as the best chance in decades to drive the Jews into the sea and they are latching onto the opportunity with vigor.  Hamas was an opening salvo intended to stress Israel's psyche and resources, the Hezbollah draws them into a war with acts that defy moderation.  Now both actors are in a war of attrition, expending ordainance and blood hoping to extract more of the same from their enemy.  Expect Syria to be "accidentally drawn" into this conflict soon.  Street insurgency will crop up in Cairo, Amman and Riyadh as Shiites try to paint this as Israeli hegemony and it will be an easy sell.  Soon the entire region will be in flames and we can only hope that Tehran or Tel Aviv doesn't decide to unleash a nuke somewhere.

Flaming paranoia?  Well, if you have been under attack for sixty years you might tend to believe in conspiracy theories.   People thinking Israel would risk this end game for water rights or just to be bastards should think beyond the headlines.   It is good that we are debating the issues of this war but we should also be hoping that the leadership in Tel Aviv has a more competent plan for this war than we have shown in Iraq because this is a war we need Israel to win decisively.