The former army intelligence officer with an easy smile was busy as the face of Israel\’s foreign media outreach, giving more than 80 interviews to international media networks and newspapers during the war.
When tens of thousands of Israelis fled their homes as Hezbollah rockets began raining down on northern Israel, they left behind not only hastily locked-up houses but, in many cases, their pets. After days and weeks of being left to fend for themselves, many of the animals were found starving and dehydrated in the streets of northern towns and cities. Estimates put the number of animals in distress at about 8,000.
How is Israel\’s security served by the creation of a failed state on its northern border? This is the question that has fallen like a dark shadow across the landscape of stunningly unanimous Israeli, Jewish, and American support for Israel\’s ongoing attack on Lebanon. Has Israel truly attacked Lebanon, or has it merely attacked Hezbollah as a terrorist organization operating from within Lebanon? On July 23, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert seemed to answer that question for the benefit of his cabinet: \”We have no war with the Lebanese people, and we have no intention to harm their quality of life.\”
With the fighting along Israel\’s northern border showing no sign of letting up, Israel\’s most popular summer tourist region has been turned into a battle zone. Instead of the sounds of kids splashing in swimming pools and canyons, there is a constant booming of artillery shelling and tank fire. Instead of birds quietly hovering in the skies over the Hula Nature Reserve, attack helicopters and fighter jets streak across the sky headed north, into Lebanon.
Overall, though, Jewish-Muslim relations are strained, and tensions will likely worsen before getting better, predicts Rabbi John Rosove, senior rabbi at Temple Israel of Hollywood.
The border raid by Hezbollah that sparked swift and strong Israeli military reaction in southern Lebanon was not only an act of war by Hezbollah, but an act of war by proxy by Iran. It is inconceivable that such a provocative act could have been undertaken without the knowledge and approval of people at the highest levels of Iran\’s government.
After the Lebanon and Gaza experiences — sustained rocket attacks on Israel in the wake of unilateral pullouts — will Olmert still want to adopt last summer\’s Gaza model of withdrawal without agreement, or will he seek a different formula, such as bilateral arrangements with moderate Palestinian leaders or the introduction of international forces to keep the peace after Israel pulls back?
The most remarkable aspect of the war Israel is fighting now in Lebanon is not who Israel\’s enemy is, but who its friends are.
Fighting in the ongoing Israeli-Hezbollah standoff has been confined to two of the Middle East\’s smallest countries, but the outcome could have major strategic implications for the region as a whole.
With the distant booming of Katyusha rockets becoming louder and more frequent, only a few brave souls ventured out – and when one boom sounded particularly close, everyone rushed back into the shelter, some in near-hysteria.
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