Israel Takes the Battle to the Terrorists

Fire of Liberty

As a great friend of Israel, I have to say that I'm very supportive of PM Olmert and the IDF's current operations in Gaza and southern Lebanon against Hamas and Hezbollah. One can't knock Israel for using the strength of its armed forces to take on these terrorist groups who fire hundreds upon hundreds of Katyusha and Kassam rockets, capture Israeli soldiers and take them to Lord knows where, sponsor suicide bombers who kill or maim women and children eating at various restaurants because their citizens of Israel(About a million Arabs are Israeli citizens). Though I'd argue that Israel should place a greater focus on the Hezbollah stronghold in the southern part of Lebanon rather than on the airport at Beirut and an Lebanese army base, I have to say the IDF is doing a good job via its uses of intelligence and manpower in taking on the monsters of Hezbollah and Hamas. Time and time again, Israel(As well as the US) has proven that a hard and steady operation against Islamic terrorist groups furthers the destruction of these deadly groups and greater tranquility in Israel. Now while taking out these terrorists in Gaza and Lebanon is a step in the right direction it is only the tip of the iceberg. What needs to be addressed is the 800 lb gorillas sitting in the room which is the support and command and control coming out of the governments of Iran and Syria. If the ultimate test is to ensure the survivability of Israel and the furtherance of peace in the Middle East then the terror-masters in Tehran and Damascus have to be held accountable.

After all these years of restraint and diplomacy in the Middle East, these terrorists have grown in strength and pose a enormous threat to Israel, the US and its allies in the Arab world. I'd say that today is the turning point with regards to taking on such terrorists and their terror-masters. In fact, the editorial board of the New York Sun pretty much sums up such an argument in today's featured editorial when they noted the following:

Damascus — and also Tehran, as the White House realized in a statement yesterday.The White House said it held Syria and Iran, "which have provided longstanding support" for Hezbollah, responsible. It said the actions of Hezbollah are "not in the interest of the Lebanese people, whose welfare should not be held hostage to the interests of the Syrian and Iranian regimes."

It was a more sensible statement than the one issued by Secretary of State Rice, who said, "All sides must act with restraint." It is "restraint," both Israeli and American, that put America and Israel and the people of Lebanon in this situation. How else to explain that nearly five years into the war on Islamic extremist terrorism that began in earnest on September 11, 2001, two terror-sponsoring regimes, at Damascus and Tehran, are in power and supporting terrorism?

As far back as 1994, the State Department's annual Patterns of Global Terrorism report said of Hezbollah that it is "Known or suspected to have been involved in numerous anti-US terrorist attacks, including the suicide truck-bombing of the US Embassy and US Marine barracks in Beirut in October 1983 and the US Embassy annex in Beirut in September 1984. Group also hijacked TWA 847 in 1985." The annual State Department report has given a similar summary, under both the Clinton and Bush administrations, for 12 years. How else but "restraint" to explain that Hezbollah is operating with impunity, waging new attacks against the West from a position within a Lebanon in which its representatives hold 23 in seats parliament and a Hezbollah official is minister of energy and water.

What else but "restraint" could explain that American Christian leaders have been meeting with Hezbollah officials? One such American, a Presbyterian elder from Pittsburgh, Ronald Stone, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, after such a meeting in 2004, "When you meet Hezbollah on a Sunday afternoon, they're not running around with guns. There are things that Hezbollah does that are a social service, such as health, education and social welfare."

We join the prayers of all Americans and Israelis of goodwill for peace. But the words of the Israeli prime minister who undertook the withdrawal from Lebanon — "No one knows better than I that the war is not yet over" — have never been more timely. The lesson of Lebanon is that restraint is no substitute for victory. In striking Iranian-controlled targets in Gaza as well as targets in Lebanon, Prime Minister Olmert is recognizing he is engaged in a broader war, a point he also made a few weeks ago when he sent warplanes to buzz the seaside summer palace of the dictator at Damascus, Bashar al-Assad.

I'd say the sooner the regimes in Syria and Iran fall to the wayside the greater the chances the West and Israel have in ending or reducing the scourge of Islamic terrorism in the region. So let's get the ball rolling!