How one might best deal with an organisation like Hezbollah is an interesting question, Slim, but it's one that, in my experience, is only every asked rhetorically. The implied answer is invariably that it must be destroyed militarily and that an indefinite number of civilian casualties are to be accepted in the process. Unfortunately there are few examples where such organisations were in fact destroyed by force. A previous Israeli occupation inadvertently created Hezbollah and a long series of military assaults since then on the part of Israel have failed to disable it. This conflict will fail again, and in doing so it will again make Hezbollah stronger. Perhaps it's finally time to take that question seriously.
Concerning the possibility that Israel is pursuing ethnic cleansing in south Lebanon, one can certainly argue that this action does not count because people will presumably be able to return to what is left of there homes when the conflict ends. One can hardly argue that they are not being driven en masse from their homes while those homes are destroyed on a very large scale, however.
The Israeli's leaders haven't learned from Yitzhak Rabin, who, during Operation Accountability in 1993 (see "Rabin Briefs Knesset Committee on Lebanese Operation," Qol Yisra'el, July 27, 1993, in FBISNES-93-143, July 28 1993, pp. 20-21) told the Knesset,
We want Lebanese villagers to flee and we want to damage all those who were parties to Hizballah's activities.
...
The goal of the operation is to get the southern Lebanese population to move northward, hoping that this will tell the Lebanese Government something about the refugees who may get as far north as Beirut.
This is more or less what the IDA and IDF are doing to the civilian population again.
Concerning the current "ceasefire," Israel has indeed greatly reduced it's air campaign. It has not however stopped attacking any target it considers a genuine Hezbollah target - yesterday for instance the IDA attacked a car containing a Lebanese army officer and two soldiers, killing one of the soldiers, because they mistakenly believed the car contained a high-ranking member of Hezbollah - they are still attacking rocket launch sites and are providing support for ground troops, who remain very active. The air campaign is greatly reduced, but they are nevertheless still attacking every possible legitimate target. The additional air strikes carried out on other days clearly aim to punish, terrorise and displace the civilian population.
Ethnic cleansing is the displacement of an ethnic group from a region they previously occupied, Dragon. It does not necessarily involve killing anyone, though obviously in effect it usually does. |
