Publius' Forum

We see it daily in the anti-Israeli press; Israel should call a "cease fire" and stop the "killing of civilians" so that a "diplomatic solution" can be found.

This castigation of israel would be well founded if they had attacked Lebanese territory to get rid of Hizbullah all of a sudden, with no precursor causation. If they had launched a blitzkrieg of attacks on their neighboring state, it would make sense for the international community to be claiming foul and to be working for a cease fire in the interests of "peace".

But, Israel did not launch this incursion into Lebanese territory on a whim. Israel has not been left alone to live and work in peace by her neighbors only to leap to war without cause. Israel has been losing thousands of citizens for decades to state sponsored terror attacks by her neighbors and has, for the most part, not responded in kind.

Here are some numbers of just the last few years to ponder. Between the beginning of the year 2000 and November of 2005, 1,074 Israelis have been killed by terrorists and 7,520 have been injured.

The population of Israel is currently 6,276,883. The number of deaths is .017% of that small nation's population.

Now, if the USA had lost the same percentage to terrorism as Israel has, that would be over 5,000 American citizens dead. (The population of the USA is 295,734,134. .017% of that is 5,0601)

So, my question to you is this: do you think that we would be sitting around doing nothing if we lost over 5,000 citizens to terrorism as many are expecting Israel to do?

We had just under 3,000 die in the attacks on 9/11 and we deposed the governments of two nations, invading them and occupying them with our troops in response. Yet now, after Israel losing so many, we expect them to sit quietly after that loss and do nothing while the UN twiddles its thumbs and pretends to "diplomacy"?

Would WE sit by quietly and wait for the UN to pretend to diplomacy if we were in the Israeli's position?

We have already shown we would not. We have shown that we WILL not.

So, why do we expect the Israelis to do so?

If Israel calls a cease fire only one thing will result. Hizbullah will slink away like the rodent it is. It will burrow into the rubble to lick its wounds. It will then propagate and come back stronger at a later time. Israel is RIGHT to attempt to utterly destroy Hizbullah. And we should not stand in her way.