Why Is Israel's Response So Disproportionate?
There are at least two possible answers to this question:
(1) "Who cares?" As we've been insisting, this is a war (perhaps the most just war that Israel has ever faught), not some sort of tit-for-tat anti-terrorist retaliation. If we can burden you, our overly patient audience, with this example one more time: after Pearl Harbor was bombed, the Japanese didn't get to say "now you get to bomb one of our bases, and then you have to stop because that's all we did to you". When you 'respond' to something, you have to be proportionate. But this is not a response, it's a warfighting situation. No country would ever suggest that, once war has been initiated, it has to give the other side a sporting chance. If someone thinks that Israel is commiting war crimes, let them make that precise accusation - otherwise, people should shut up about proportionality.
(2) "Because Hezbollah is making it that way". Maybe this has something to do with it:
The IDF has found that Hizbullah is preventing civilians from leaving villages in southern Lebanon. Roadblocks have been set up outside some of the villages to prevent residents from leaving, while in other villages Hizbullah is preventing UN representatives from entering, who are trying to help residents leave. In two villages, exchanges of fire between residents and Hizbullah have broken out.
Hezbollah: the party of human shields.
(1) "Who cares?" As we've been insisting, this is a war (perhaps the most just war that Israel has ever faught), not some sort of tit-for-tat anti-terrorist retaliation. If we can burden you, our overly patient audience, with this example one more time: after Pearl Harbor was bombed, the Japanese didn't get to say "now you get to bomb one of our bases, and then you have to stop because that's all we did to you". When you 'respond' to something, you have to be proportionate. But this is not a response, it's a warfighting situation. No country would ever suggest that, once war has been initiated, it has to give the other side a sporting chance. If someone thinks that Israel is commiting war crimes, let them make that precise accusation - otherwise, people should shut up about proportionality.
(2) "Because Hezbollah is making it that way". Maybe this has something to do with it:
The IDF has found that Hizbullah is preventing civilians from leaving villages in southern Lebanon. Roadblocks have been set up outside some of the villages to prevent residents from leaving, while in other villages Hizbullah is preventing UN representatives from entering, who are trying to help residents leave. In two villages, exchanges of fire between residents and Hizbullah have broken out.
Hezbollah: the party of human shields.
