The Real Damage Caused by Hezbollah
Sheikh Hassan Nasserallah has wracked the entire prospects for a settlement in the Middle East if you look at the direction winds are now blowing in Israel. Most notably, he has wracked everything for Palestinians.
It took years to move the Israeli public opinion to where it was in Camp David 2000 (Arafat's costly missed opportunity). That shift was evident with the start of the Oslo process back in 1993, continued through Camp David 2000; and culminated with Sharon's disengagment plan. What years of violence could not achieve, diplomacy did. Winds were also blowing favorably in the direction of Prime Minister Olmert's version of the disengagment from the West Bank; yet then came Nasrallah and shuffled the cards.
Right Wing critiques of the various disengagment plans always played on Israel's biggest fear: security. They noted that every disengagment would be interpreted as a victory by the other side leading to more attacks. And they were right. So much right that whenever Hamas or Hezbollah presented it as such, Israel immediately retranched to the Right. So it was when Benjamin Netanyahu replaced Peres and Rabin; and so it was when Sharon replaced Barak. Instaed of capitalizing on the enormuos opportunity, Palestinains shot themselves in the foot with the help of Mr. Nasrallah. The pull out from Gaza brought the Qasam rockets; the pullout from Lebanon brought this recent catastrophy. Instead of proving Israel's hard right wrong, Hamas and Hezbollah have proven them right every time to the dismay of the people truly paying the price for this "bravado", ordinary Palestinians and Lebanese eager to make a living.
This is different from the situation regarding Israel's response. Many say that Israel's response brought much hatred on it; but no one can truy claim that the July 12 attck or the Qassam rockets were made out of extra love. For them there was no risk. Losing farvor with people who won't compromise is no threat. On the other hand losing farvor with people who will the way Hezbollah and Hamas did, is a huge loss that will send this region back quite a bit.
It took years to move the Israeli public opinion to where it was in Camp David 2000 (Arafat's costly missed opportunity). That shift was evident with the start of the Oslo process back in 1993, continued through Camp David 2000; and culminated with Sharon's disengagment plan. What years of violence could not achieve, diplomacy did. Winds were also blowing favorably in the direction of Prime Minister Olmert's version of the disengagment from the West Bank; yet then came Nasrallah and shuffled the cards.
Right Wing critiques of the various disengagment plans always played on Israel's biggest fear: security. They noted that every disengagment would be interpreted as a victory by the other side leading to more attacks. And they were right. So much right that whenever Hamas or Hezbollah presented it as such, Israel immediately retranched to the Right. So it was when Benjamin Netanyahu replaced Peres and Rabin; and so it was when Sharon replaced Barak. Instaed of capitalizing on the enormuos opportunity, Palestinains shot themselves in the foot with the help of Mr. Nasrallah. The pull out from Gaza brought the Qasam rockets; the pullout from Lebanon brought this recent catastrophy. Instead of proving Israel's hard right wrong, Hamas and Hezbollah have proven them right every time to the dismay of the people truly paying the price for this "bravado", ordinary Palestinians and Lebanese eager to make a living.
This is different from the situation regarding Israel's response. Many say that Israel's response brought much hatred on it; but no one can truy claim that the July 12 attck or the Qassam rockets were made out of extra love. For them there was no risk. Losing farvor with people who won't compromise is no threat. On the other hand losing farvor with people who will the way Hezbollah and Hamas did, is a huge loss that will send this region back quite a bit.
posted by The Middle East News Addict at 4:27 PM
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