Wall Street Journal - August 1, 2006
In Israel, 'Mothers' Have Change of Heart On Hezbollah Fight
Ex-Leader's Bellicose Stand Signals Shift in Nation; Ms. Anteby Skips March
By GUY CHAZAN
<snip>
Seven years later, Ms. Anteby finds herself living through a new Lebanon war. But she backs this one to the hilt. "This time we're fighting for our survival," she says in her home here, a village overlooking the Sea of Galilee. Any Israeli who opposes the military campaign is just a "bleeding heart," she says. Ms. Anteby's transformation from peacenik to hawk shows how Israeli attitudes are hardening as the country's war on Hezbollah enters its third week, with no sign of the decisive victory its army promised.
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This is unsurprising.
Now, the question is, how can such people - and no doubt, there are many - be reached? That is, how can they be convinced to support a negotiated peace instead of this dream of victory via totalen krieg that so enchants them?
Moralizing appeals are useless. You can show image after image of bombed buildings and twisted corpses with little or no impact. The response is well rehearsed: "this is war!", "too bad, but it's the enemy's fault", "they shouldn't put their rockets close to homes" and so on.
No, moral lectures are almost completely ineffective. What must be found, I think, is an argument based upon self-interest.
In time, regardless of whatever gains the IDF makes on the ground, missile attacks will resume, violence will continue. There is no military solution to the problem - indeed, your dependence upon force creates a feedback loop of endless action and counter-action.
Again and again we're told about the skill and tenacity of the IDF. In the end, who cares? Your perfect military hasn't fought a real war against an equally equipped enemy in many years. You've over-matched all of your adversaries. Despite this considerable power, you're still burdened with worry. F-16s, Apaches, UAVs, Mossad super agents - useless, useless, useless.
Painfully honest negotiation is the only way forward.
But of course, even if Tel Aviv were to reach this conclusion there'd be the problem of Washington which would surely be loathe to lose its ME legions.
.d.
The most important isotope of plutonium is 239Pu, with a half-life of 24,110 years.
...................... http://monroelab.net/blog/