Still Catching Up

I'm still a long way from mastering the wealth of information and ideas produced about the Lebanon war during the past week, but evidence keeps mounting that Hizbullah is using civilians as human shields, often against their will. Mark LeVine is also on board with this, and he knows people in Hizbullah and is far from an Israeli propagandist. Meanwhile, judging from Israeli blogs, that nation is still wholeheartedly behind the assault on Lebanon. I find this difficult to relate to, though I guess after being an American in early 2003 I should look at it as a mirror of what countries are like during the early heat wave of a war against an already hated enemy.

For those interested in something different, Mark LeVine has also proposed a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Finally, there was an unconscious historical parallel in my comments yesterday about Olmert's questionable decisions perhaps leading Israelis to turn to Netanyahu. One key result of the 1996 Qana attack was a boycott of the 1996 elections by Israeli Arabs, leading to a narrow victory for Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party over Shimon Peres's Labor. According to William Quandt, Peres and Arafat had already reached basic understandings about a peace agreement to be pursued after the election, though of course Netanyahu was less than kindly disposed toward the Palestinians and the peace process began seriously floundering, never to recover.