New Middle Eastern Conflicts: A Wake-up Call for Mankind
Michael Elliott of Time magazine asked some of the right questions: "What is it about the Middle East that makes the conflicts so intractable, such that one summer's guns ineluctably conjure up so many early spasms of violence? Why the hate and where's the healing?" (July 24, 2006).
by John Ross Schroeder
Your life will eventually be affected by events in Israel and the Middle East. This would be true even if you could not locate Lebanon, Gaza and Israel on a world map. This would be true even if you have absolutely no interest in current affairs. Important aspects of your future will be determined by what will occur in this volatile part of the world.
The focus is Lebanon
As we go to press, the focus of the political world is on tiny Lebanon, a victim nation that continues to be a battleground over issues not really its own.
The current crisis was begun in southern Israel by Hamas kidnapping an Israeli soldier, following almost a year of Hamas regularly raining down rockets on southern Israel after Israel's withdrawal from Gaza.
It widened to Lebanon when Hezbollah fighters launched a rocket attack and crossed the border, killing eight Israeli soldiers and kidnapping two others. Then when Israel retaliated, Hezbollah began firing rocket barrages that hit Haifa and other cities in the north of the country.
As the Lebanese crisis accelerated, the usual calls for a cease-fire and peacekeeping forces from the UN and NATO soon began in earnest. Condemnation of Israel soon followed. Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero censured Israel's Gaza and Lebanon strikes (El Pais, July 15, 2006). Other European nations were furious with Israel just as they were in the early '80s.
