Some Thoughts...

Here is part of an e-mail I wrote to someone concerning Israel and Hizb'allah.

A lot of people, especially Lebanese, are angry that Israel is going after Hizb'allah, and not Syria or Iran. However, they fail to appreciate the fact that Israel can't go after Syria without dealing with Hizb'allah first. If Israel pushed straight at Syria first, it would leave their flank open from the west. They can't risk that. Hence, no matter what, they would have to deal with Hizb'allah first. The same applies to Syria and Iran. Iran is the far enemy, Syria the close enemy. Iran is the more dangerous of the two, but safety dictates that you deal with the close enemy first. Hence, even if Israel intends to deal with Iran, it has to deal with Syria first, which means defeating Hizb'allah in Lebanon.

Israel needs to be careful, however. Whatever "high ground" it has now can evaporate if it kills too many civilians.

This gives a basic view of the situation. Israel has to clean up Hizb'allah before it can go after anyone else. This sucks for the people of Lebanon, but, as the French say... c'est la vie.