Deborah Weiss speaks truth to power in “A Consensus on Lebanon: Even for the Lebanese, there should be no question Israelis are the good guys,” in National Review:
he opened a humanitarian corridor, allowing numerous ships to Lebanon with food and supplies, and is planning to open another humanitarian corridor within the Lebanese borders. She does not celebrate the loss of innocent civilian life in Lebanon. Rather she grieves it because to her, life is precious. Above all, she believes in freedom. She wants Lebanon to be a free and independent country. She’s Israel.
The Israeli government is probably the only government that drops leaflets warning civilians to evacuate before bombing. She is taking every precaution possible not to kill civilians. She intends only to target Hezbollah. This is not an easy task considering Hezbollah is using civilians as human shields by shooting missiles from their homes. Israel’s goal is survival, peace, and freedom. Unlike many Islamic extremists, Israel is not seeking to expand her territory, kill those with differing religious beliefs, or oppress those who are not like-minded. By contrast, Hezbollah admits that if the U.S. intervenes, it will “welcome World War III.” Hezbollah is not taking precautions to avoid the murder of innocent women and children. To say they are careless is an understatement. Indeed, they are targeting civilians and rejoicing in their deaths.
It is a lie that the goal of Hezbollah is to free the prisoners held in Israeli jails, (most of whom are there because they are terrorists). Not that kidnapping soldiers to manipulate the release of terrorists is an acceptable goal. But, the true goal of Hezbollah is the destruction of Israel. Hezbollah doesn’t deny this.
Yet the press in Europe and the Middle East presents a biased view of the Middle East conflict. They present it as though the two sides are moral equivalents. They make it sound as though Israel started firing missiles into Lebanon out of the blue. In truth, Hezbollah has been firing missiles into Israel since Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon in the year 2000. Thus far, Israel has not retaliated. Hezbollah’s recent kidnapping of Israeli soldiers appears to have been the last straw. Were this to happen in the U.S. or any other country, the world would not demand that we look the other way. Yet there is a double standard when it comes to Israel. Even worse, there is international Arab support for Hezbollah’s goal of destroying Israel.
Read it all.