Let’s Arm Lebanon

Let me see if I get this right: Israel is trying to dislodge and disarm Hezbollah. It says it has to do this because Lebanon failed to do the job, thus allowing Hezbollah to continue to raid Israel. OK. So let’s arm Lebanon to the teeth with tanks, planes and lots of those precision guided bombs that seem regularly to be mistakenly guided. Hmmmm. Wait a bit. Wouldn’t that mean that Lebanon becomes a bigger threat to Israel than Hezbollah is? Especially if the democratically elected leadership of Lebanon turned out to be anti-Israel. Let’s say as a result of the carnage Israel “has the right” to inflict on civilians those civilians turn around and elect a government intent on revenge [revenge being a mid-east favorite]. Then what?

So maybe, just maybe, Israel really doesn’t want a strong Lebanon. It really wants to be able to control the territory of its neighbors and to be surrounded by weak, poor, nations who can never represent a threat. Israel does not want a strong Syria, a strong Palestine, a strong Egypt, or a strong Lebanon. It wants to lord it over the area.

Some things never change.