Therefore, if Israel is foced to strike at “civilian” villages or towns that house Hizb military assets in odrer to defend itself from attacks coming from those villages, it is Hizb that is committing the war crime, not Israel.

Hizb knows that in a straight-up fight they have no chance against the IDF. Therefore, their only recourse is, essentially, to take hostages to prevent Israel (which, unlike the Hizb, is civilized) from defending itself. If these villages actually cooperate in allowing themselves to be militarized, then they are just as culpable as Hizb and are legitimate targets for retaliation.

Even if Hizb has forced themselves on the town, Israel will have no choice but to target them, and they will be completely justified in doing so.

Israel has to stop worrying more about the enemy than about its own soldiers. In Jenin, for example, the IDF stupidly decided upon a ground attack specifically to prevent “civilian” casualties. They paid for it with the lives of 28 soldiers who walked into a booby trap set by the very “civilians” they were trying to spare. There was nothing “moral” about this; on the contrary, I submit that in time of war it is downright immoral to worry more about the enemey than about your own troops. They should have used artillery or airstrikes to flatten the place, like any sane army would have done.

I think there is.

It’s just a hard one to digest.

If somebody is attacking you, you can do your best to avoid hitting those who aren’t involved. However, you have to defend yourself. Defending yourself sometimes entails very hard hits on these targets. Your responsibility as far as morality goes, is to do your honest and utmost best to avoid hitting non-combatants or causing unnecessary damage to their homes or infrastructure. But there is often no option available to you other than to take aggressive steps in order to come out ahead.

!!!!

“Do we have a right to bomb a village from which emanate attacks?”

Does the Palestinian village Asirya al-Qibliya have the right to bomb Itamar? imeu.net/news/...

It’s lovely when the methods of these guerilla and terror groups upset our imaginary barriers of civil and barbaric warfare. Do we have a right to bomb a village from which emanate attacks? If there is no such inherent right, how can one fight the enemy that uses civilians as cover? What is proportionality and is there such a term when it comes to war?

What do you propose, Xisnotx?

and how is this determined — if over 50% of the village votes to allow Hezbollah to operate?

Since presumably Christian villages Hezbollah operated from aren’t pleased about the militia’s presence, does that mean they get to retain their civilian status?

Besides, there will be a war if Iran or Syria deem it a worthwhile tactic. Hizbullah will never again take independent steps like the kidnapping a couple of years ago without permission from its sponsors.

Both sides are huffing and puffing right now, but Hizbullah has expressed its intention to commit some large scale attack to take revenge for the killing of Imad Mughniyah. This is despite some evidence that he was killed by Arab intelligence services, not Israel. It appears, from various reports, that Hizbullah are targeting targets outside Israel. Presumably this is because Israel is far less likely to go to war over an attack in another country.

What is certain, however, is that Israel isn’t quite ready to go to war against Hizbullah yet.

2. Before, during and after all Jews were removed from their homes in Gush Katif, Israeli leaders were great at threatening the Arabs in Gaza that rocket attacks would no longer be tolerated, or else….

One doesn’t not have to think too hard as to how Nasrallah comes to his conclusion regarding Israeli leaders being good at making threats and nothing else.

One can only hope that after the fiasco of the second Lebanon war that this threat from Major-General Gadi Eizenkot is real.

No Arab leader takes Israeli leaders threats seriously anymore, so this one better be real. Once upon a time Israel had different leaders whose threats were taken seriously. Hopefully we should be lucky enough to have those types of leaders again.

I hope Israel and the Jewish people are prepared to follow through with Eizkenot’s ultimatum, even if it means harsh international condemnation.

We are dealing with an enemy committed to unleashing unrestrained pain on Israel. Hizb’allah must understand the ultimate destructive end of its policies.