Today, for the first time in my life, I am deeply ashamed to be Canadian. Prime Minister Stephen Harper is publicly defending Israel’s destruction of Lebanon, so let me make one thing perfectly clear: he does not speak for me. (I sincerely hope he does not speak for most Canadians, but only time will tell.)
Any state which commits war crimes must be condemned in the strongest possible terms by all civilized nations. There are no excuses; no justifications; no rationalizations. There is no special dispensation for Israel (or America) which would permit it to systematically destroy nations, lives, and hopes in flagrant defiance of international law and common human decency. While I wish no ill on the people of Israel, they can freaking well defend their own actions without any moral cover from us.
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It’s worth noting that Hezbollah attacked Israel’s internationally recognized borders, and Hezbollah – like Hamas – is supported and participates in the government under which it resides. It’s defensible. Not good – death sucks – but defensible, even by the international community.
Why the double standard? Why not decry the attacks on Israel, too, which come from almost every surrounding country?
I am perfectly aware—as is the whole world—of the inexcusable actions of Hezbollah. However, the only double standard is the one which says that murder by Hezbollah is evil, while murder (on a far more massive scale) by Israel is righteous.
We will have to agree to disagree that Israel’s actions are defensible.
As for the international community, it is clearly split on the issue. Kofi Annan condemns Israel’s actions, as does Jacques Chirac, Putin, and others. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour also makes it clear that she believes war crimes are being committed by Israel in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon.
There are millions of people ready to excuse any and all behaviour by Israel in the name of “self-defense”. All I can do is add one more voice to those few who dare to question “why”?
It’s one thing to kill civilians directly, which both Israel and Hezbollah are doing, and it’s despicable.
But it’s entirely a different scale of cruelty to be destroying the basic infrastructure for a society to survive. Israel’s destruction of highways, airports, and power stations can and will cuause massive economic ruin in Lebanon and put millions of people in poverty (much like in Gaza). That is a far greater crime than killing of civilians, you are killing a nation.
I can’t see how destroying the basic economic infastructure of a country will in any way hurt the militants, if anything it will drive more people to the militants cause as more people will be desperate…
This is the true war crime…
The only reason Hezbollah is not dealing out more death and destruction is that they don’t have the same weapons and capabilities at the Israeli army. If they did, they would. Hezbollah has specifically said as much.
The truth is that no side in the Middle East conflict will ever lay down, be docile, or bend over – not Israel, not Hezbollah, not Hamas, nor any other group. There will be no peace in the Middle East. No treaty is sufficient. There will be perpetual bloodshed, and it will get worse and worse with each successive round.
At this point crying “war crimes” against any faction in the conflict is like calling “special sauce” against a Big Mac.