Peacecamp 2006

Someone had to draw conclusions from the war in Lebanon eighteen years ago. It seems as no one did. Israel had to draw conclusions from the war they started in Gaza. In Gaza a terror organization kidnapped a soldier. Israel reacts in power in order to rescue him. Of course it didn’t succeed, and the situation only got worse. While you are reading this, Israel is still “rescuing” Gilaad Shalit by bombing innocent civilians in Gaza. But as in all wars no side had learned from history, as people say, “history repeats itself”. Israel thought that they would free the soldiers in Lebanon by bombing innocent civilians in Beirut and Hizbolla thought they would free captives in Israel by bombing innocent civilians in Hifa. Power struggles will not achieve anything. Violence leads only to Violence.
I’m not sure Israel’s immediate response to the kidnap was objectionable, but I am sure that what happened after that was. Instead of offering the Hizbolla to hold their fire and take the whole situation to the negotiation table we kept bombing Lebanon killing over 300 people and made about 800,000 lose their houses. The rockets from Lebanon didn’t stop falling because of our bombings, just like the rockets from Gaza didn’t stop. We didn’t get our two soldiers back from the Hizbolla, just like Gilaad Shalit didn’t come back home. We should have at least offered to hold fire; it is worth a try. If the Hizbolla would say no then we could always have returned to this crazy blood circle.
Ido Benbaji.