Hatred

A friend recently said he wished he understood more fully the latest Israeli/Lebanese bloodbath. My response was that it's fairly simple. It's about hatred. Religion, territory, race and water to some extent; but primarily about hatred, mutual and unquenchable. This was a slightly drunken men-in-a-pub conversation we were having, but I'll stand by that assessment. The only way to comprehend the motives of the main participants is to realise that they just hate each other, and probably always will.

My friend was also searching for an analogy. I'm also going for a simple one here: the school yard. One boy kicks a bigger boy without provocation. The big boy responds not with another kick but with a savage, unrelenting assault. That's what happened on the Gaza Strip. The Hizbullah attack on the Israeli barracks only varies in that it seemed to be an attempt to rescue the first boy as he fell bleeding to the ground. Interestingly, Hizbullah rejects this interpretation. They claimed they had been planning their raid for months. But then Hizbullah have never been easy with any justifications that a sane man might recognise.

The only strange part of this depressingly familiar cycle of events is that it's possible to sympathise with one of the governments involved. Lebanon can't have expected Hizbullah to suddenly strike after years of dormancy. They can't have expected the Israelis to respond by bombing not just Hizbullah positions but pretty much the whole of Lebanon. The excuse given for the second is that Hizbullah forms part of the Lebanese government and there's been no attempts to disband the organisation. But like it or not, Hizbullah remains very popular in south Lebanon and some of their representatives tend to get elected. And a direct move against them would have probably pushed the country back into civil war. I think Lebanon has had enough of that for the time being. Defending the Israeli reaction is like saying they would have been justified bombing Britain if the IRA killed any of their soldiers in the 1970's and 80's. Sinn Fein, after all, technically formed part of the British government; they had elected representatives in Westminster even if they chose not to take their seats.

The British and, especially, American response is another reason to sympathise with Lebanon. A democracy, a democracy striving towards peace, being bombed by a neighbour for actions it didn't carry out. They might have expected a little protection from America, the self-appointed guardian of peace and freedom. Not when the aggressor is Israel, however. Even though Lebanon is a largely Christian nation and the Bush administration contains some serious anti-Semites. Still this golden rule cannot be broken for America: Israel Is Always Right. This is one detail I do wish I understood better. Bush lives in a world of black and white, good and evil. So why does he side with Israel even when they blatantly break his own infantile rules? Perhaps the reverse of hate is being shown here. Love, which excuses and blinds whenever necessary. Or perhaps it's because this is the school yard. And nobody should expect the biggest kid of all to play fair.