Look, guys! All I had to do is kill some innocent women and children and I got this awesome yellow flag!
I woke up this morning and groggily scanned the daily news. Upon seeing this photo, that quote (above) popped into my imagination. Regardless of motive, civilians of Lebanon have born the brunt of this invasion.
The photo above (credit Yahoo/AP) is of an Israeli soldier displaying his recently captured Hezbollah flag. From afar these confilicts seem so pointless, a painful way to argue that church and state really should be separate.
I know little about the situation in the Middle East, yet I feel the need to state some obvious things about this conflict.
Why does it matter that Israel is killing civilians?
Regardless of the reasons for this war, innocent people are typically not slaughtered in a civilized society. It's barbaric and counterproductive.
Americans are seen as collaborators with Israel due to our staunch support for their government. Even if we are "right" in our support, this fosters hatred in much of the world, giving us the appearance of murderers. This may be sound like a controversial statement to someone living in the US, but in many parts of the world, the perception is common.
Protesters shout slogans as they set fire to US and Israeli flags to protest the Israeli offensive in Lebanon in front of Istanbul University after Friday prayers in Beyazit Mosque in Istanbul August 4, 2006. REUTERS/Stringer (TURKEY)
Lebanese civilian burn victims from Israeli air strikes, 08/2006. AP/Kevork Djansezian
Poor lebanese families of fishermen depend on the daily catch for food. Israeli air strikes destroyed their boats. Both photos AP/Pitarakis.
Why does the US support Israel?
This is an excellent question. The answer is a mixture of religious, strategic, and emotional reasons. In Stephen Zunes' article
Why the U.S. Supports Israel (2002) he cites, among other reasons:
The Christian Right, with tens of millions of followers and a major base of support for the Republican Party, has thrown its immense media and political clout in support for Ariel Sharon and other right-wing Israeli leaders. Based in part on a messianic theology that sees the ingathering of Jews to the Holy Land as a precursor for the second coming of Christ, the battle between Israelis and Palestinians is, in their eyes, simply a continuation of the battle between the Israelites and the Philistines, with God in the role of a cosmic real estate agent who has deemed that the land belongs to Israel alone--secular notions regarding international law and the right of self-determination notwithstanding.
...
The arms industry, which contributes five times more money to congressional campaigns and lobbying efforts than AIPAC and other pro-Israel groups, has considerable stake in supporting massive arms shipments to Israel and other Middle Eastern allies of the United States. It is far easier, for example, for a member of Congress to challenge a $60 million arms deal to Indonesia, for example, than the more than $2 billion of arms to Israel, particularly when so many congressional districts include factories that produce such military hardware.
You'll notice that I've chosen to highlight religion and business as causes for the US support of Israel. For more reasons, read the whole article,
Why the U.S. Supports Israel.
Related Headlines
Israel intensifies airstrikes in Lebanon.
Israeli air raids kill 40 civilians in Lebanon.
Bridge bombing paralyses Lebanon aid pipeline.
Israeli attacks kill 55 LebaneseIsraeli firefighters examine the damage to a school building hit by a rocket during an attack on the city of Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel near the Israel-Lebanon border, August 7, 2006... Lebanese Health Minister Mohammad Khalifeh said the war had killed 925 people, mostly civilians, with 75 missing, presumed dead. The toll did not include Monday's casualties. About one-third of the dead were children under the age of 13.
Israeli strike kills 14Israeli air strikes killed 14 villagers in south Lebanon on Tuesday as Beirut pleaded for a swift end to
Israel's war with Hizbollah guerrillas that has cost around 1,000 Lebanese and 101 Israeli lives in four weeks.
