Israel's path to total war

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Israel's path to total war
By Kaveh L Afrasiabi

One of the most malignant aspects of the new chapter in the Arab-Israeli conflict is the myth of Israel as the assaulted party, lavishly propagated by the White House and the infinite pro-Israel pundits in the US media, including the editors of the New York Times, who have labeled Israel's blatant aggression against the nation of Lebanon as "legally and morally justified".

Never mind that the rest of the world, including the European Union, does not share this perception of who is mainly at fault for the deadly cycle of violence that has gripped the Middle East again. The irony is that one can detect greater voices of dissent and opposition to Israel's massive, disproportionate response to the token kidnapping of a few of its soldiers than is the case in the "pluralistic" US media, nowadays sheepishly toeing the official line.

This line was expressed by President George W Bush in his press conference alongside President Vladimir Putin on Sunday when he stated firmly, "In my judgment, the best way to stop the violence is to understand why the violence occurred in the first place. And that's because Hezbollah has been launching rocket attacks out of Lebanon into Israel."

Sure, Hezbollah conducted a raid across the border and kidnapped two Israeli soldiers, and that as a show of solidarity with the much-repressed Palestinians, but the rocket attacks on Israel were in response to Israel's massive bombardment clearly pre-planned to attain the dual objective of defanging Hezbollah and creating a regime change in Lebanon, perhaps as a prelude to a wider war on Syria and Iran.

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A war to create Pax Israelica?

A disconcerting truth, revealed recently by two prominent Jewish American political scientists, about the extraordinary control of United States' foreign policy by the pro-Israel forces, has now been fully confirmed by the empirical realities of this brutal war.

Despite dire warnings by certain US politicians, such as Senator John Warner, the Bush administration has failed to call on Israel to halt its offensive, opting instead to focus on Syria and Iran - reminding one of the Vietnam War when Moscow or Peking (Beijing) were often blamed for the efforts of the North Vietnamese....

Indeed, Gideon Levy and other Israeli liberals currently bemoaning Israel's "war of choice" miss this crucial point that long ago was articulated by the likes of Maxime Rodinson in his writings on Israel as a post-colonialist, expansionist state, for the very motif of this state militates against anything short of a "Greater Israel".

The key question is, of course, if the present architects of this state will ever settle for the less-than-grandiose notion of a tiny Jewish state in a sea of Arabs.

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http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HG18Ak02.html
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I don't know if this is the case or not - an Israel that wants to grow. It would explain why it's not content with the '67 borders - If the idea is to expand beyond what most people are even thinking about.

Based on the arguments that I have seen here - there would be no reason why Israel could not take over Lebanon, Syria, Jordon - if it could manage to "win" them in a war.

Is that what the Arabs are worried about?

If the borders were clear and undisputed and unchallenged - there wouldn't be a problem - would there?

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2. This would make sense as as motive -- more land -- reinstating

the historic or Old Testament boundaries.

I am trying to read all sides of this issue -- also the historical perspective. As long as I can remember battles and wars have been raging in the middle east -- and all the while the evangelicals have been saying -- THIS battle is THE one that will bring the second coming of Jesus. Even as a child I though this was a selfish, self-centered response to the death and destruction happening -- so called "christians" responding with joy and happiness.

As has been pointed out -- the magnitude of the response to the kidnapping of ONE soldier in Gaza and TWO soldiers on the Lebanon boarder indicates that the Israel army has been planning for an expansionist campaign for some time.

And what we are seeing is the beginning of a new thousand year war -- because this will not be settled in our life time. (and I hope to be wrong in this prediction)