08/21/2006
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The guns are silent, but problems remain
The weapons are silent, and that is good news. Now it falls to us to compute,
for each side, the cost of this conflict. News sources show pictures of celebrations
among Israeli soldiers and among Hezbollah supporters, as both sides proclaim
themselves winners of this war. These festive images falsify one of the few certainties
there are these days: modern warfare has no winners.
The Israeli front. The picture of Israeli military celebrations does not correspond to widespread
general opinion as is confirmed in an editorial in the prestigious daily Haaretz, published on August 16: “First [Chief of Staff] Halutz Must Go.” The editorial
accuses Halutz of having botched just about everything. Furthermore, it charges
him with taking time out to sell some of his stocks a few hours after the capture
of two Israeli soldiers last July 12th, while the whole country was holding its
breath and believing itself under attack. But the real problem is that Israel
has not achieved the only objective it had in opening a second front in Lebanon
at the same time that it was scaling up the “summer rain” operation in Gaza: the
objective of destroying the Hezbollah network. During the last days of combat
the Shiite movement, instead of winding down, was actually escalating the number
of rockets launched into Israel. Images of Haifa and other cities of northern
Israel being hammered by a constant rain of missiles have thoroughly dismayed
the Israelis. The Hezbollah militias have obviously suffered a serious blow,
but they have also been able to close ranks, protect their leader Hassan Nasrallah,
and gain esteem and support in the Arab and Islamic world. As a result, Israel’s
reputation has suffered severely, and international public opinion has turned
against the country. Images of slaughter in Cana cannot be erased. Like Sabra
and Chatila in 1982, Cana may well become emblematic of a nation that seems unable
to guarantee its own safety without committing acts that cost a steep political
and emotional price. And this is not even counting the losses to the Israeli
Defense Force, which have been notable and for which the icon will be young Uri
Grossman, son of the writer David Grossman, who for the first time has taken the
side of armed response.
The Lebanese front. Things are no happier in Lebanon. It is estimated that some thousand civilian
deaths are the terrible price paid in this war, but images of refugees returning
home are emblematic of an utterly prostrate nation. A million people have lost
homes and jobs; they need help, help that the Lebanese government is in no condition
to provide. After the bloodbath of a fifteen-year civil war, Lebanon was finally,
laboriously, returning to life, though a far cry from its glorious days of the
60s. Then, all of a sudden, once again--a slaughterhouse. John Sfakianakis,
an economist at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai, writes in the Lebanese.
The Israeli front. The picture of Israeli military celebrations does not correspond to widespread
general opinion as is confirmed in an editorial in the prestigious daily Haaretz, published on August 16: “First [Chief of Staff] Halutz Must Go.” The editorial
accuses Halutz of having botched just about everything. Furthermore, it charges
him with taking time out to sell some of his stocks a few hours after the capture
of two Israeli soldiers last July 12th, while the whole country was holding its
breath and believing itself under attack. But the real problem is that Israel
has not achieved the only objective it had in opening a second front in Lebanon
at the same time that it was scaling up the “summer rain” operation in Gaza: the
objective of destroying the Hezbollah network. During the last days of combat
the Shiite movement, instead of winding down, was actually escalating the number
of rockets launched into Israel. Images of Haifa and other cities of northern
Israel being hammered by a constant rain of missiles have thoroughly dismayed
the Israelis. The Hezbollah militias have obviously suffered a serious blow,
but they have also been able to close ranks, protect their leader Hassan Nasrallah,
and gain esteem and support in the Arab and Islamic world. As a result, Israel’s
reputation has suffered severely, and international public opinion has turned
against the country. Images of slaughter in Cana cannot be erased. Like Sabra
and Chatila in 1982, Cana may well become emblematic of a nation that seems unable
to guarantee its own safety without committing acts that cost a steep political
and emotional price. And this is not even counting the losses to the Israeli
Defense Force, which have been notable and for which the icon will be young Uri
Grossman, son of the writer David Grossman, who for the first time has taken the
side of armed response.The Lebanese front. Things are no happier in Lebanon. It is estimated that some thousand civilian
deaths are the terrible price paid in this war, but images of refugees returning
home are emblematic of an utterly prostrate nation. A million people have lost
homes and jobs; they need help, help that the Lebanese government is in no condition
to provide. After the bloodbath of a fifteen-year civil war, Lebanon was finally,
laboriously, returning to life, though a far cry from its glorious days of the
60s. Then, all of a sudden, once again--a slaughterhouse. John Sfakianakis,
an economist at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai, writes in the Lebanese.Christian Elia
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