As soon as the facts of the Bint Jbeil ambush, which ended with relatively high Israeli casualties (eight soldiers died there), became public, the press and television in Israel began marginalising any opinion that was critical of the war.
Marginalizing people who don't want to defend their own country is a perfectly normal survival instinct for a people who were just attacked.
The media also fell back on the kitsch to which Israelis grow accustomed from childhood: the most menacing army in the region is described here as if it is David against an Arab Goliath.
The fact is, David doesn't threaten anyone unless David is getting shelled. If Goliath doesn't make threats or kill Jews, Goliath gets to live in peace. It's a fact.
Yet the Jewish Goliath has sent Lebanon back 20 years
No, HEZBOLLAH has set Lebanon back. No country can call actions which put an organization like Hezbollah in office and to legitimize terrorism "progress."
, and Israelis themselves even further: we now appear to be a lynch-mob culture,
What hyperbole. I have yet to see a single lynching in this affair.
glued to our televisions, incited by a premier whose ‘leadership’ is being launched and legitimised with rivers of fire and destruction on both sides of the border.
Rivers of fire that are 100% Hezbollah sponsored on both sides of the border. For the terminally stupid : When Hezbollah launches rockets into Israel, Hezbollah chose to randomly murder whoever happens to be near the spot where they land. When Israel responds by targetting the spot where the rockets were launched, Hezbollah has chosen to sentence to death whoever happens to be in that spot. Hezbollah chose to initiate the war - or perhaps its masters in Teheran; all blood shed in it is on their hands.
Mass psychology works best when you can pinpoint an institution or a phenomenon with which large numbers of people identify. Israelis identify with the IDF, and even after the deaths of many Lebanese children in Qana, they think that stopping the war without scoring a definitive victory would amount to defeat.
The children in Qana died because Hezbollah started a war.
Quit putting the cart before the horse.
Not scoring a definitive victory is a huge mistake that will cost more blood later as the mass psychology thing takes hold on Hezbollah, who will assume that because they lived through the Israeli response they "won." That belief will cause Hezbollah and its allies to try to murder even more people next time the start a fight.
This logic reveals our national psychosis, and it derives from our over-identification with Israeli military thinking.
What BS. Israelis most likely identify with the IDF because it is Israeli. Same reason we Americans identify with our armed forces- they aren't our enemy, they are our protectors and family and friends. Get it? Do you seriously expect Israelis to identify more with the people who are trying to kill them or get them killed? The IDF are their family and friends who are also Israel's means of defense. They don't become strangers or enemies just because they put on a uniform.
Excellent post. Thank you.
But according to Haim Ramon, a person becomes a terrorist by living in the same village as one. Do you have any idea how demented it is to live your life believing that everyone is out to get you and so you must kill them before they kill you? Do you realize that all this does is dehumanize your enemy and lead to perpetual war? You're on the Catholic forum, are you Catholic or Christian? Do you think this is the gospel message? Do you believe that people are children of God and are capable of redemption? Or are they just mindless vermin that must be exterminated? Do you think that this endless tit for tat will lead to anything other endless hatred and violence? Do you realize that the children in Lebanon who lost their parents are scarred for life? Do you realize that the mothers and wives of those IDF soldiers are now left with nothing of their loved ones but a damn photograph? Do you think this carnage made anyone more safe? It did nothing. NOTHING. Nothing was gained. But many people paid for it with their lives. It didn't stop Hezbollah. It gave them more power!
When, O Lord, will we learn?!