I was extremely dissapointed with Dr Abraham Constantin, spokesman for the Lebanese Community and Tariq Ali, columnist for the Age and their commentary on the Middle East Conflict. Constantin appeared on Ten's Meet the Press this morning, failing to condem a single action of Hezbollah, and indeed attempting to deflect the Australian Governments view of Hezbollah as a terrorist group. He instead concentrated his criticism on Israel:
From the transcript of Ten's Meet the Press;
STEPHEN SPENCER: But does Hezbollah bear any responsibility for this? Does Hezbollah, launching the rockets, kidnapping the Israelis, and, in short, do you think Hezbollah is a terrorist organisation? ABRAHAM CONSTANTIN: Well, Stephen, this is not the first time skirmishes happened on the border with Israel. Previously on various occasions Hezbollah took Israeli soldiers, Israel took Hezbollah militants. They've always negotiated. Why is it different this time? It gives the Lebanese a view that this is not a reaction, it's not an issue of two soldiers, it's a planned and systematic attack on the sovereignty of the Lebanese nation.
Now I'm not sure if the good Doctor has paid attention to the Israeli reaction to having a soldier taken captive by Hamas leading up the Hezbollah's raid that killed several Israeli soldiers and took two captives. If he thinks this was just 'the norm', he has seriously misread Israel's situation. This was a highly inflammatory act designed to result in Israel attacking Hezbollah in Lebanon, and allow Hezbollah to rebuild its waning support and power base with Lebanon. Hezbollah had seen the reaction to Hamas' operation, and used Israel's need to respond with a show of force as a catalyst to retake the initiative in an increasingly stabilising Lebanon.
As for a planned and systematic attack on the sovereignty of Lebanon, maybe the Doctor should be also applying that statement to Hezbollah - which after all in a non state actor that has operated outside the legitimate government and defence forces. The sovereignty of Lebanon is sevrely undermined by a non-state actor - a terrorist organisation that operates outside of any Laws of Armed conflict and has failed to obey a UN Security Council direction to disarm. This organisation makes decisions that are often contrary to the interests of Lebanon as a whole, and shows more loyalty to their Iranian backers than the legitmate Government of Lebanon.
Tariq Ali in his opinion piece published in the Sunday Age chose to focus again on the actions of Israel and failed to highlight how Hezbollah has greatly undermined the legitimate government of Lebanon (which it is a minor part - kind of like the Greens taking matters into their own hands in Australia). He summed up the current conflict as such;
"The latest Israeli offensive is designed to take the castle. Will it succeed? A protracted colonial war lies ahead, since Hezbollah, like Hamas, has mass support. It cannot be written off as a "terrorist" organisation. The Arab world sees its forces as freedom fighters resisting colonial occupation."
It is as if Israel instiagted this conflict with Lebanon without provocation - and once again, a pro-Arab commentator has failed to criticise Hezbollah - instead trying to relabel the terrorist organisation as freedom fighters resisting colonial occupation. Well Tariq Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 2000 - Hezbollah has for six years continued attacking Israel and has built a massive offensive arsenal. Hezbollah is not a freedom fighting organisation, but rather a terrorist organisation with the goal of destroying the nation of Israel and remaining the dominant player within Lebanon. The action by Hezbollah was actually met with criticism from Saudi Arabia and other Sunni nations who condemned the actions taken.
Lastly, lets get onto the criticism of Israel breaking Geneva Conventions Laws of Armed Conflict (LOAC) throughout the dispute. Sadly, Hezbollah has not recieved the same criticism, which is troubling considering the operating procedures actually greatly contribute to collateral damage. Lets now look at some of the LOAC principles also being broken. I have raised the fact that Israel has violated the principle of proportionality at several occasions throughout the conlfict - but the placing of key Hezbollah infrastructure in residential areas close to vital civilian infrastructure has seen collateral damage far greater than would otherwise occur.
As LOAC training we conduct in the Australian Defence Force teaches us, as a commander we must 'weigh the possibility and amount of collateral damage against the advantage gained in targeting a legitimate military objective'. Hezbollah is delibrately placing infrastructure in such a way that each military objective comes with increased collateral damage.
Hezbollah does not follow the principles of identification or distinction - that is, ensuring that combatants and non-combatants (along with infrastructure and equipment) are easily distinguished between. It instead seeks to disguise itself as part of the civilian infrastructure and peoples of Lebanon. As you can quickly see, LOAC quickly becomes a major military impediment when fighting against an enemy that does not adhere to LOAC and seeks to use these principles against you. Civilian and collateral damage is occuring less because Israel is delibrately seek this, and far more the fact that Hezbollah seeks to capitalise on media coverage and gain advantage by fighting in a dangerous way that actually puts civilians and infrastructure in increased risk. After all, Hezbollah 'wins' when Israel accidentaly kills Lebanese children - they win increased support, power and coverage. Hezbollah is more a parasite to Lebanon than a freedom fighting organisation.
Commentators and the international community need to get realistic. Hezbollah and Hamas need to be disarmed and have their militas disbanded to protect the best interests of Lebanon, Palestine and Israel. These extremists parasites are pursuing the interests of Iran and Syria, not their own countrymen - no matter what image they try to portray to sympathetic parties around the world.
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