Wednesday night. Now we're into three weeks of this "military operation," which has yet to be named as a war. We had two days of cease-fire and I was astonished at how different things felt -- you could relax! There were no sirens, no big booms from rockets falling somewhere in the vicinity. You could walk on the streets and go to the grocery store without having to think about your safety. But today was back to the sirens and the booms, only today is much worse. One of our friends from the synagogue has a soldier son in Lebanon and they haven't heard from him since last Shabbat. My friend Ori Segev got a "Tzav 8" (reserve call-up) last night and today he is beginning two days of training (!) and then he will go into Lebanon. He's a medic. The war is not "over there," it's right here, right where we live.
I've had so much confusion about this war. On the one hand, everything we are told here by the military and the government says that this is a justified war -- Hezbollah certainly provoked it. And it is justified because they sit on our border armed to the teeth and their stated policy is the destruction of Israel. And the line is, we have to give our army enough time to finish the job. At first "finishing the job" was getting rid of Hezbollah. It quickly became clear that this goal was not possible. Now the goal seems to be to drive them back to the Litani River and to destroy all their weapons and make it impossible for them to be provided with new armaments from Iran and Syria. And literally thousands of rockets and missiles have been shot into Israeli's cities and towns in the last three weeks. The arguments to continue fighting seems perfectly logical and acceptable and supportable.
But then there is the death and destruction that is happening in Lebanon. The fact that Hezbollah hides behind civilians so that there are many civilian casualties is horrendous -- but Hezbollah is not blamed for these casualties, Israel is blamed. So whereas there was great agreement at the beginning of the war that Israel was right and should continue, with the full support of the United States, now the support for Israel has vanished (except from the US) and Hezbollah's reputation is gaining ascendency all over the Arab world. And because Israel is not succeeding in stopping Hezbollah from lobbing rockets into Israel, it looks as though Israel is not able to do anything about it. Which is very bad -- Israel's reputation for deterrance is one of her strongest weapons. It is being undermined in this war, not enhanced.
And now Barak Frank and Ori Segev are in Lebanon at great risk. It is absolutely clear to me that no military gain is worth the price of their lives. It is bad enough that they will have to witness whatever there is to witness in Lebanon -- that they should be injured or ..... no.
We will not "win" this war. The end will be concessions -- we'll get our soldiers back and they will get some of their prisoners. Hezbollah will be held in check by some international force. There will be no "victory" beyond that. Hezbollah will not disappear, Iran and Syria will not become friends and allies. Israel will continue to be threatened by her enemies. The US will continue to support Israel. Israel will not occupy Lebanon. So let's just get to that point now, without any further fighting, without any more sacrifice of life of soldiers and civilians either here or in Lebanon. Let's push for a cease-fire immediately.
I can see that Israelis are being manipulated into supporting this war through fear, just as Americans were manipulated into supporting the Iraq war. I can understand now first-hand how this happens, and how hard it is to think at all about war in general and this war in particular. We all have experiences with wars and loss which make it hard for us to think clearly about what's happening now. We all want to believe that our leaders are honest, that they want what is good for our countries and our people -- we want to believe them and believe in them. But I think that the leaders get confused too, and mistakes heap upon mistakes and people get killed. Death is irrevocable. We must do everything we can to prevent it.
Well, maybe I'm not so confused tonight. It's Tisha B'Av, a Jewish day of mourning for the destruction of the Temple of Biblical times and other horrible things that have happened to the Jewish people. Frank is fasting (though he promises to drink). I am not. I don't think much of this day of mourning -- it's enough that we go to shul and read Lamentations. For me, that's the end of it. Israel and I have too many things to be grateful for to spend the day mourning over something that happened 2000+ years ago...
Love,
pat
I've had so much confusion about this war. On the one hand, everything we are told here by the military and the government says that this is a justified war -- Hezbollah certainly provoked it. And it is justified because they sit on our border armed to the teeth and their stated policy is the destruction of Israel. And the line is, we have to give our army enough time to finish the job. At first "finishing the job" was getting rid of Hezbollah. It quickly became clear that this goal was not possible. Now the goal seems to be to drive them back to the Litani River and to destroy all their weapons and make it impossible for them to be provided with new armaments from Iran and Syria. And literally thousands of rockets and missiles have been shot into Israeli's cities and towns in the last three weeks. The arguments to continue fighting seems perfectly logical and acceptable and supportable.
But then there is the death and destruction that is happening in Lebanon. The fact that Hezbollah hides behind civilians so that there are many civilian casualties is horrendous -- but Hezbollah is not blamed for these casualties, Israel is blamed. So whereas there was great agreement at the beginning of the war that Israel was right and should continue, with the full support of the United States, now the support for Israel has vanished (except from the US) and Hezbollah's reputation is gaining ascendency all over the Arab world. And because Israel is not succeeding in stopping Hezbollah from lobbing rockets into Israel, it looks as though Israel is not able to do anything about it. Which is very bad -- Israel's reputation for deterrance is one of her strongest weapons. It is being undermined in this war, not enhanced.
And now Barak Frank and Ori Segev are in Lebanon at great risk. It is absolutely clear to me that no military gain is worth the price of their lives. It is bad enough that they will have to witness whatever there is to witness in Lebanon -- that they should be injured or ..... no.
We will not "win" this war. The end will be concessions -- we'll get our soldiers back and they will get some of their prisoners. Hezbollah will be held in check by some international force. There will be no "victory" beyond that. Hezbollah will not disappear, Iran and Syria will not become friends and allies. Israel will continue to be threatened by her enemies. The US will continue to support Israel. Israel will not occupy Lebanon. So let's just get to that point now, without any further fighting, without any more sacrifice of life of soldiers and civilians either here or in Lebanon. Let's push for a cease-fire immediately.
I can see that Israelis are being manipulated into supporting this war through fear, just as Americans were manipulated into supporting the Iraq war. I can understand now first-hand how this happens, and how hard it is to think at all about war in general and this war in particular. We all have experiences with wars and loss which make it hard for us to think clearly about what's happening now. We all want to believe that our leaders are honest, that they want what is good for our countries and our people -- we want to believe them and believe in them. But I think that the leaders get confused too, and mistakes heap upon mistakes and people get killed. Death is irrevocable. We must do everything we can to prevent it.
Well, maybe I'm not so confused tonight. It's Tisha B'Av, a Jewish day of mourning for the destruction of the Temple of Biblical times and other horrible things that have happened to the Jewish people. Frank is fasting (though he promises to drink). I am not. I don't think much of this day of mourning -- it's enough that we go to shul and read Lamentations. For me, that's the end of it. Israel and I have too many things to be grateful for to spend the day mourning over something that happened 2000+ years ago...
Love,
pat
posted by Frank and Pat Fischer at 11:00 PM
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