> > But I must mean something by it, so I suppose I
> > mean it in the sense that Hezbollah has not conducted attacks on
> > civilians in Israel until this war,
>
>That is patently false. Are you telling me this is the first time they
>have shot Katyushas at civilian targets in Israel? C'mon man, this is
>embarrassing. I seem to remember driving up north near Kiryat Shmona a
>few years ago when Katyushas started hitting the city, and had to divert
>my route, but I guess I dreamt it, because they have never done it
>before because you said so. And all the other news reports over the
>years, figments of my imagination? Granted they were often sent in
>retaliation for Israeli attacks in Lebanon, but we are talking about a
>long history of targeting civilians.
"During the course of Hezbollah's 17-year struggle with Israel along the Lebanese/Israeli frontier in Southern Lebanon, it has never been established by any party directly involved (including the United Nations contingent on the ground) that the Party of God has perpetrated a single terrorist act against Israeli civilians."
J. Palmer Harik, Hezbollah: The Changing Face of Terrorism (IB Tauris, 2005), p. 2.
Your embarrassment at the facts is irrelevant. Hezbollah has indeed responded to Israeli attacks by firing a few rockets. These were military reprisals, not terrorist attacks. No civilians died, moreover. Only in the recent war have civilians died on the Israeli side because of Hezbollah.
> > and even here it has responded to
> > Israel's attacks on Lebanese civilians and could be said to be engaging
> > in a military rather than terrorist strategy (hence the sinking of a
> > warship).
>
>Wait, I want to get this straight...because Israel is extensively
>targeting civilian infrastructure and populations (aka, committing acts
>of terror or whatever you choose to call it or not) and Hezbollah hit a
>military target such as the Israeli Navy gunboat, then this means that
>when Hezbollah targets Israeli cities in the north, they are military
>targets and not civilian targets?
No, you'll notice that what I actually stated (very clearly actually - I don't think I've licensed your befuddlement) was that Hezbollah was engaged in a military strategy not that the targets included no civilian areas. I personally don't defend those tactics, but I think they derive from military weakness and poor technology, whereas Israel's tactics derive from a desire to destroy and humiliate Lebanon and take as much land as possible.
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