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Saturday, August 05, 2006
Libre: Bloodshed in a biblical place
By Mel Libre
Seriously Now
When the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah erupted, I had a chance to see on DVD the Steven Spielberg film, “Munich.” Though the movie failed to get accolades at the Oscar Awards, it succeeded in giving viewers a glimpse of how the Jewish nation’s policymakers respond to violence done against its people.
The film follows the murderous trail of an elite anti-terrorist group formed purposely to go after those believed to be behind the massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. The covert operation supposedly had the blessing of Golda Meir, the Israeli prime minister at that time.
While the group succeeded in killing its targets, attacks by the Palestine Liberation Organization and other terrorist groups continued. The film closed with a conversation between the retired “hero” who led the operation and his superior. When the latter asked the former to continue serving Israel, he refused, saying he saw no end to the conflict.
When the UN General Assembly agreed to put Israel in the map on Nov. 29, 1947, Arabs immediately went to war against the Jews. To their surprise, the fledgling state fought fiercely and even increased its territory in the succeeding decades, annexing the Golan Heights in Syria, West Bank in Jordan, Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt.
After a peace accord with Egypt, Israel withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula. Israel settled conflicts with its other neighbors, likewise returning occupied territories. Most historic was its acceding to the formation of a Palestinian state through an agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organization. Many thought that completed the peace puzzle in the Middle East.
But it didn’t. Others (like Hamas and Hezbollah) still have agenda against Israel. Hamas seeks the annihilation of the Jewish state, the same goal the Arabs used in the 1947 offensive. Hezbollah wants to expand Lebanon’s boundary further south.
It is easy to condemn Israel for the number of civilian deaths caused by its attacks on South Lebanon but we must denounce as well Hezbollah’s missile attacks on Israel. Hezbollah failed to calculate the ferocity of Israel’s response to its kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers inside Israel territory. The act provided Israel the excuse to destroy an enemy-of-long-standing north of its border.
Apparently, Israel’s leaders want to either demolish Hezbollah once and for all or keep it leashed tightly so that it won’t be a threat in the future. Once this is done, Israel can then concentrate its full force on Palestine and force the Hamas government to choose the way of peaceful co-existence.
If Hamas refuses, expect more misery, more bloodshed and more deaths in this Biblical place where Jesus started his ministry of peace and salvation.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (August 5, 2006 issue)
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