Time's Up, Israel

I am absolutely disgusted by the vastly disproportionate and indiscriminate response Israel has meted out against Lebanon in retaliation for the abduction of Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah. Israel will tell you that it has a right to assert its sovereignty and defend itself and its citizens from attack. Apparently, this right also extends to the inadvertent slaughter of vacationers in Aitaroun, including seven Canadians.

I think that the Western democracies need to acknowledge that the Israeli experiment was a horrible mistake. The US provides Israel with direct foreign aid of $3 billion, amounting to nearly 20% of the government's revenues (see my post Must There Be Foreign Aid To Israel?). Israel can only continue to act so belligerently because it is allowed to, and enabled to, by the US.

When I was young, I was fascinated by maps. I memorized the world's geography as fully as I could, and I thought the world was immutable. I didn't realize that nations could reunite (like East and West Germany), that they could splinter apart (like the former Yugoslavia), or that whole bodies of water could simply evaporate (the Aral Sea) or be created (Lake Nasser) if men willed it.

What about a world without Israel, as we know it today? A world where the wall is torn down and a new nation is created in its place, integrating Palestinians and Israeli Jews? Would that be worth protecting? Would that nation be more accommodating of and acceptable to its neighbours? Would that nation be truly democratic, rather than denying the vote to Israeli Arabs in Israel, or leaving governing to the farce of Palestine? What if the religious zealots were completely circumvented, so that a secular constitutional democracy was created? Wouldn't that be a better world?

With the bombing of Lebanon's airport, Israel effectively severed the most efficient way for foreign countries to secure their citizens trapped in Lebanon. Now they are all subject to the nightmare of being in Israel's gunsights.

Change can't happen when 'leaders' like PM Stephen Harper say things like "We don't intend to single out Israel" while Israel kills innocent Canadians. It can't happen when bloodthirsty Moslems unleash their venom on what they perceive as Israeli vermin. It can't happen when billions in 'foreign aid' pour into Israeli coffers without restriction. Millions are under threat everyday. The region is in a constant state of unrest. The stability of the world is undermined with every embargo, blockade, missile test, bombing and helicopter attack.

I think Israel's time is up. It's a do-over. Enough blood has been spilt.

Technorati tags: Israel, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Palestine