Overstepping

You can count me in with those who believe Israel has overstepped in its response to Hezbollah's initial attacks from Lebanon. While I firmly believe Israel has the right to defend itself, the heavy handed response they have used is a bit over the top. I see no reason to destroy a civilian airport, especially when the enemy has no air force and destroying food stores is really a bad idea as well.

What is really occurring here is that Ehud Olmert has decided that he has to play his hand as heavy as possible. I believe that Olmert, who is the first Prime Minister in years to have not served in Israel's military, feels that he has to prove to the electorate that he is "tough enough" to handle the job. In a lot of ways, it's classic George Bush politics. Olmert is sacrificing long term policy initiative for the sake of short term gains, a sort of band-aid approach to the problem. It's easy, popular, and in the long term will result in a negative outcome. Sharon would have probably had the juice to hold off the dogs, Olmert does not.

That being said, only Hezbollah at this point has the ability to stop the violence, which they seem to have no intention in doing at this time. Israel's problem is that conventional military force is pretty ineffective against the hit and run tactics Hezbollah is employing, however, the rockets that Hezbollah is firing into Israel aren't very effective either so what we have is a stalemate with the Lebanese citizens stick in the middle.

We'll have to wait and see how long it takes Israel to change tactics in this latest fight with Hezbollah, what they're doing right now is only bound to increase Hezbollah's stranglehold on the power vacuum in Lebanon right now.

Ah, I see that while I was writing this Israel is planning on creating a buffer zone in southern Lebanon.