The Israeli aggression against Lebanon and Palestine continues unabated with open American support. The world has not condemned the Israeli aggression as strongly as it used to do earlier. The Arab regimes are bickering as ever. Indeed many of them are happy that Hizbullah, whom they regard as an ally of Iran, is being destroyed. Husni Mubarak went a step ahead and declared that the Egyptian army is to defend Egypt and not Lebanon and thus he hit the final nail in the coffin of Arab nationalism.
Meanwhile Lebanon and Palestine continue to suffer daily Israeli bombardment which has killed or injured hundreds of people and destroyed property worth billions of dollars. The Israeli-American thinking is that violence can bring them peace or get for Israel secure borders. Ever since humanity began its journey violence, brutal and mindless, has never succeeded in achieving peace. The violence of the unjust strong and powerful has specially failed, and yet the Israeli-American leadership has no other strategy except aggression to advance their interests in the Middle East.
Violence and aggression have failed in rooting out insurgents in Iraq. They have also failed in Palestine and Lebanon in suppressing the freedom-fighters. But the Israeli-American leadership is not willing to learn any lesson. They still believe that hitting the opponents hard would terrorize them into silence or make them surrender. As a result they continue pursuing their policies of aggression in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine.
It is obvious that the Israeli-American thinking is dangerously wrong. For over fifty years Israel has tried to suppress the Palestinians without success; and for over three years the U.S. is trying to bomb the Iraqi insurgents in to surrender but, as we see, the Americans too have failed miserably.
On the contrary the Israeli-American violence and aggression have strengthened the resolve of the freedom fighters from Iraq to Lebanon and Palestine. Of the three groups of freedom fighters, the Palestinians are the weakest as they have no worthwhile weapon with which to respond to the Israeli invasion and aggression. But even the Palestinian freedom fighters seem to be conveying the greatest message to Israel that you can break our hands and legs, you may completely paralyse our body, and yet we would refuse to surrender. This refusal is important. This would never give the Israelis the joy of being victorious, and would also not give them the peace of mind without which they can never think of being a safe and secure country.
There is another important point that deserves to be noted. Hizbullah was not as strong a few years back as it is today. Their missiles are no match to those of Israel and America, neither in technological sophistication nor in their capacity to cause destruction. And yet now they can hit targets over hundred miles away. Earlier the Hizbullah missiles could not hit their targets beyond a few miles. But now the militia is talking about hitting Tel Aviv and even beyond. There are several reasons behind Hizbullah’s growing military power. But the point to be noted here is that it is not Israel’s or America’s monopoly to be powerful; others too have mind which they can use to grow in strength. Hizbullah is the case in point.
The problem with Israel is that it always thinks in terms of power and strength which can enable it to unleash aggression against its opponents. It came into being by using violence and terror, and has always believed that only through this method it can survive as a nation. Yes, it has survived, but has never lived in peace. In fact, it can never live in peace, specially as long as it continues to believe in the “philosophy” of violence and terror. For, small-scale reprisal from Hamas or stray missiles of Hizbuallh hitting deep into Israel have the potential to disturb the peace which the Israelis need so desperately to lead a normal life.
It is time for both Israel and America to see the writing on the wall. Their long history of aggression in which they often succeeded militarily, and also sometimes reaped economic benefits, is no guarantee that they would always remain powerful. Hizbullah’s challenge to Israel is not like that of an equally powerful nation. But the way they have progressed militarily and the damage they have caused to Israel in the ongoing conflict should make Tel Aviv and Washington wiser than before. With its present military might Hizbullah can not defeat Israel but surely it can make their life miserable. Therefore both Israel and America must think that violence and aggression can give you temporary victory but not a peaceful country or secure borders within which you can sleep without fear of being attacked.
Yes, aggression can give a people temporary victory, but it should not be allowed to triumph for ever. In fact, it should be punished and repulsed so that humanity’s faith in peaceful international relations may survive, if not flourish. We also must realize that aggression is a violent expression of the rage within which ultimately devours the aggressor. And what succeeds ultimately is not aggression but resilience which Hamas and Hizbullah seem to possess in abundance.
[July, 2006]
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