Middle East Escalation
By Denise Best | Related entries in In The News, IsraelHezbollah guerrillas stage rocket attack within Israeli territory in response to Israel’s bombing of a Beirut airport.
Two rockets struck the northern Israeli port of Haifa Thursday as the crisis over the abduction of two Israeli soldiers deepened.
The missiles were fired from inside Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces said, in a sharp escalation of attacks launched by Hezbollah guerrillas.
The attack on the city of 280,000 was the first time Hezbollah rockets have hit so deeply into Israeli territory.
Ambulance services said no one was hurt in the attack, which had been threatened by Hezbollah.
The firing came hours after Israeli warplanes bombed Beirut’s international airport and its navy began a blockade of Lebanon’s ports.
Looks like the heat’s been turned up in the Middle East — yes, that’s probably an understatement.
Both Israel and Lebanon have said the violence amounts to “acts of war.”
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Wednesday’s attacks by Hezbollah when guerrillas killed eight Israeli soldiers and captured two more were an “act of war.”
Lebanese Interior Minister Ahmed Fatfat called Israel’s retaliatory attack on Beirut airport a “general act of war,” saying the strikes had nothing to do with Hezbollah but were instead an attack against the country’s “economic interests,” especially its tourism industry.
Is Israel taking an unnecessarily hard-line or is their response justifiable as deterrence against Hezbollahan aggression?
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 13th, 2006 and is filed under In The News, Israel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 13th, 2006 at 1:48 pm
This, I think, is too much.
Escalation of this sort is not justified, as Israel is essentially defining Lebanon as a terrorist state.
July 13th, 2006 at 2:33 pm
As soon as the Lebanese prime minister comes out in support of Israel’s persecution of Hezballah and provides assistance in destroying Hezballah strongholds and hunting down the kidnappers, Israel should back off.
Until that time, the infrastucture that Hezballah uses to support their terrorist activity is fair game.
July 13th, 2006 at 7:49 pm
Hezbollah are putting the Lebanese people at risk. They are fighting a war amongst the civilians and when civilians get killed they “martyr” them and exploit their deaths in their propoganda. The Lebanese government and people have to decide whether or not they want to support Hezbollah’s war. I feel sorry for the Lebanese, they just want to live their lives in peace. But this is their situation, be it fair or not.
Israel left two occupied areas and now they’re being attacked on both fronts. I can understand the response, even if I don’t understand the strategy.
July 13th, 2006 at 8:23 pm
Israel should receive strong condemnation from the UN Security Counsel, and ordered out of Lebanon or face military action from the UN (same stuff we are expecting to happen to Iran and North Korea). There is too much double-standards in the world.
Bombing civilian airports, sectors should not be tolerated.
July 13th, 2006 at 8:38 pm
Big Daddy –
I almost thought you were serious until you wrote “or face military action from the UN”. Funny :-)
July 14th, 2006 at 7:38 am
Monica,
Don’t you think it’s a double standard? Israel is in violation a a number of UN resolutions. Do you only condone UN means when it supports your cause. Since Israel has attacked Lebanon, shouldn’t Lebanon (not Hezbolla) have the same right to bomb sites in Israel, even civillian targets. Israel did not attack a millitary base, they bombed a civillian airport.
July 14th, 2006 at 9:14 am
The airport was bombed, as well as the road to Damascus, because the IDF learned that Hezballah was trying to exfiltrate the kindnapped prisoners to Iran.
Imagine if you saw a hostage video coming from Iran next week showing the 2 Israeli soldiers in blindfolds. It would be World War 3. Israel is trying to prevent this. Public infrastructure can and must be targeted in times of war if it is used by the enemy to make war on you.
July 14th, 2006 at 9:37 am
John -
I think if the Lebanese people want to go to war with Israel then their government should make that decision, not Hezbollah.
No – I don’t care about UN resolutions. There is a resolution that says the Lebanese are supposed to disarm Hezbollah. No one is fulfilling resolutions and all that happens is the creation of another resolution. It’s not working.