Can’t we all just get along?
BY VICTOR PENNEY
No peace in the middle east (BBC Online).
What started out as high pressure tactics to free a kidnapped soldier has grown into a much bigger conflict.
For a few weeks, Israel had been flexing its military might in the Gaza Strip, trying to convince several Palestinian militant groups to release 19-year-old Corporal Gilad Shalit. On July 12th, the tactics changed.
That morning, Hezbollah guerillas kidnapped two injured Israeli soldiers, 31-year-old Ehud Goldwasser and 26-year-old Eldad Regev. As you can imagine, that’s when some serious trouble went down.
Israel couldn’t take that sitting down, and it didn’t.
The kidnappings lead to some heavy fighting as Israel’s army moved in and out of Lebanon. We’re talking troops moving in on the ground backed by some serious shelling action going on by some heavily armed tank divisions.
I’M GONNA GET YOU, SUCKAH!
The push was on to stop the guerillas from taking their hostages any further into Lebanon, so Israeli forces were busy taking out strategic targets like roads and bridges.
In the original ambush, where the two injured soldiers were kidnapped, Israel lost eight soldiers. It was the worst military loss for the country along the border in several years.
Since then, the world has started taking notice.
Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has gone so far as to say the latest kidnappings amounted to a quote, ‘act of war.’ War is some serious business, son.
FALLOUT
As if on schedule, oil prices skyrocketed with news that the violence in the Middle East was spiraling out of control. A barrel of crude was trading at about $76 a barrel on the second day of the Lebanon crisis. There were a couple of other things that contributed to the spike, like explosions along a pipeline in Nigeria, but analysts say the Middle East crap is a big factor.
The G-8 leaders, with their summit in St. Petersburg hijacked by the conflict, issued a joint statement. They said Israel had the right to defend itself (which it does) and called Hezbollah to release the hostages (which they should). The group also said both sides should go easy on the violence and cut out the attacks.
So where does it go from here? Well, you can’t imagine that none of the sides will risk backing down and looking like a fool. There’s too much at stake. If one side gives in, they’ll look weak, so it comes down to saving face.
If you had any plans for traveling to the region, you might want to think twice about going there. Let this thing blow over. Tons of people have been getting the hell out of there as fast as they can.
Don’t be brave. Have a little common sense. As long as nobody nukes the hell out of that patch of desert, it’ll always be there, and you can check it out when there aren’t so many bullets flying around. Besides, there’s always Hong Kong Disneyland that just opened, and you know Mickey Mouse isn’t hiding bombs up his sleeves –or is he? iT!
Victor Penney is the producer for a national television station in Canada. He is also the Political Analyst for The Weekly Wanderer.
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