There are those times and incidents that you watch and just hope that things will either end or look like they are getting better at the least. The current situation in Israel is just one of those situations. Unfortunately, the only direction for this has been down.
The problem started when Hamas militants kidnapped an Israeli soldier. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decided that the soldier needed to be returned and without the prisoner swap the militants wanted.
Thus the Israeli Defense Forces moved into Gaza. They bombed and shelled power stations. Imposed a lock down on areas they were occupying. Pursued people they suspected as helping the militants. They also took the extraordinary step of arresting members of the Palestinian Parliament. The thoroughness of this operation is breathtaking.
Yet, we hadn’t seen anything yet.
Yesterday, members of Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers near the border with Lebanon. Now the IDF have Lebanon in their sights. They just hit the runways of the international airport and a major Lebanese Army base near the Syrian border.
The question to ask is how much farther down can this go?
Given the current pace, I would not be surprised if Syria gets involved actively. I mean an actual war between the nations, not just the back door support they give to Hamas and Hezbollah. If Syria has not actively engaged within a week, if not a lot quicker, I’ll be very surprised.
Would Iran jump in too? Egypt? Nothing can be ruled out right now. I’m sure that somewhere in the depths of the IDF headquarters someone is even thinking of how to use their nukes.
Let’s hope that someone finally gets smart and brings all the sides to a table and negotiates an end to this. Otherwise, everyone all over the world will feel this problem at the pump.
