August 02, 2006
Terrorism at Work
Many hold that Hizballah is a terrorist organization because it attacks deliberately civilians. Well, for me attacking civilians is not necessarily terrorism; for example the doctrine of total war implies attacks on civilians too.
But let's examine the situation of this conflict: for years, Hizballah has waged a low-intensity war against Israel (as whole, with no distinction between military and civilians): rocket and mortar bombardments, border incursions, ambushes to IDF patrols and so on. Israel has never responded with full force, but only with limited aerial and artillery fire.
But a few weeks ago, after another Hizballah incursion, Israel decided to respond much more vigorously and attack targets into Hizballah and Lebanese territory, followed by a ground offensive. These operations necessarily caused a certain number of civilian casualties - amplified by Hizballah's choice of using civilians as concealment and cover.
The worst case happened in Qana, where an Israeli airstrike killed from 30 to 60 people.
The dead of that tragedy have been mercilessly paraded around and exploited to exhaustion and beyond for propaganda purposes.
The objectives of this propaganda war are clear: portray Israel as a cruel, ruthless, murderous attacker (the bad guy); portray the general Lebanese population as innocent victims and Hizballah as brave fighters with no other option than to lash out at Israel.
In turn, propaganda has political purposes: increase hostility to Israel in the international field, and increase simpathy or at least indifference to Hizballah. On the home front, this is aimed to reinforce direct support, and possibly boost recruitment numbers, for the jihadis. And to deprive Israel of her will to fight.
The strategical goal is to force the international community to impose a ceasefire that would amount to a Hizballah's victory for all practical purposes.
Yes, indeed, it's terrorism and quite by the book. The najor difference is that the doctrine is being used offensively, not for liberation/revolution as usually occurs.
But let's examine the situation of this conflict: for years, Hizballah has waged a low-intensity war against Israel (as whole, with no distinction between military and civilians): rocket and mortar bombardments, border incursions, ambushes to IDF patrols and so on. Israel has never responded with full force, but only with limited aerial and artillery fire.
But a few weeks ago, after another Hizballah incursion, Israel decided to respond much more vigorously and attack targets into Hizballah and Lebanese territory, followed by a ground offensive. These operations necessarily caused a certain number of civilian casualties - amplified by Hizballah's choice of using civilians as concealment and cover.
The worst case happened in Qana, where an Israeli airstrike killed from 30 to 60 people.
The dead of that tragedy have been mercilessly paraded around and exploited to exhaustion and beyond for propaganda purposes.
The objectives of this propaganda war are clear: portray Israel as a cruel, ruthless, murderous attacker (the bad guy); portray the general Lebanese population as innocent victims and Hizballah as brave fighters with no other option than to lash out at Israel.
In turn, propaganda has political purposes: increase hostility to Israel in the international field, and increase simpathy or at least indifference to Hizballah. On the home front, this is aimed to reinforce direct support, and possibly boost recruitment numbers, for the jihadis. And to deprive Israel of her will to fight.
The strategical goal is to force the international community to impose a ceasefire that would amount to a Hizballah's victory for all practical purposes.
Yes, indeed, it's terrorism and quite by the book. The najor difference is that the doctrine is being used offensively, not for liberation/revolution as usually occurs.
Comments:
Amazingly, there seems to be little public outcry about the Israeli civilians killed by rockets that Hezbollah has been shooting into civilian areas for three weeks now. I suppose Israel is just supposed to absorb the losses and be "proportional" in its response to terrorism.
This was has good guys and bad guys, and the good guys are the ones wearing uniforms with six-pointed stars. I hope they don't back down until they can credibly claim victory.
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This was has good guys and bad guys, and the good guys are the ones wearing uniforms with six-pointed stars. I hope they don't back down until they can credibly claim victory.
