Monday, May 1, 2006

Virtual Visit to the Israeli Border

Have a look at two posts (part 1 here; part 2 here) by Michael J. Totten over at Winds of Change, on his recent visits to the Israeli-Lebanese border, mostly on the Israeli side. Here the Zionist Entity and Jihad are eyeball to eyeball. El Jefe likes travelogue posts like this -- they are descriptions of interesting places he is never likely to visit.

The photographs alone will make your look worth the time. On one side of this heavily fortified border, Israeli farmers work their fields and raise their children literally under Hizbullah guns, on the other, Lebanese farmers do the same under Israeli guns; but in a place with no law, or Lebanese Army, where all the guns are in the hands of the Hizbullah organization and their friends.

I cannot imagine living in such a place. The situation of Israelis on this border would be comprehensible to Romans who lived in Noricum or Rhaetia, hard along the border with hostile German barbarians; or Chinese living along the Great Wall worried about the next Mongol raid. Similarly, the plight of the Lebanese, caught between the gunmen in their midst who prey on them, when not harassing the Israelis, and the inevitable Israeli retaliatory measures – would be understandable to anybody who ever lived in a neighborhood controlled by drug gangs.

Mr. Totten is right, the place looks ready to blow up. One day very soon, Hizbullah or Whoever will do something really nasty to the Israelis. The Israelis will counter with air strikes, an artillery barrage, or a raid by paratroops or commandoes, or an assassination of some particularly bothersome Hizbullah boss.

The Usual Suspects will then ignore the Israelis’ problem, and complain loudly about Zionist aggression; and pictures of innocent Lebanese victims will fill the New York Times. The talking heads will have their say, and bloggers like El Jefe will do some pontificating. The whole thing will gradually die down, as the world moves on to something more interesting, such as whatever Britney Spears is doing that week…and the border will quiet down again. . .
Until next time.

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