To recap, Hezbollah, following the Hamas playbook, kidnapped two Israeli soldiers, Israel demanded their return, and when that request was ignored, Israel attacked the kidnappers. Lots of people got hurt.
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It’s not like Hezbollah has been opaque in their motives. In fact, they’ve been very forthcoming about their rationale for kidnapping Israeli soldiers, as Tariq Ali suggested and as this piece in Le Monde demonstrates. They want their fellow terrorists out of jail. This isn’t a story about Israeli race-war or even a war over land. This story is a story about a prison break.
And the real question for those who want the redevelopment of southern Lebanon to cease isn’t the one they endlessly ask the Israelis: “When will the attacks have gone far enough?” Or the one they tirelessly ask the U.S. government: “When are you going to make Israel knock it off?”
It’s the one they should ask their Hezbollah tour guides: “Why don’t you release those guys you kidnapped?”
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