Debate II: Israeli and Lebanese

A Lebanese man in Beirut and an Israeli living in the border town of Shlomi exchange emails on the conflict in their countries. This is the second instalment of their correspondence.

SALEEM KHOURY, BEIRUT, LEBANON

Dear Gordon,

You ask "what option did Israel have?" Well, it could have behaved like a civilised nation. It could have allowed a little time for negotiation.

Instead, it started bombing us the same day those two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped.

Israel has so far killed 200 civilians, destroyed 13 bridges, a power station and our airport runways. Why? It is a childish, irresponsible way of approaching the problem.

In any war there is negotiation. When the Americans bombed Vietnam they were still holding talks in Paris. We've been under siege nearly a week and the first envoy only arrived in Beirut yesterday. The UN talks started 24 hours ago.

Israel knows as well as anyone that Hezbollah in Lebanon is a state within a state

On Hezbollah there are several points to make. Israel should treat Hezbollah's military force in the same way the West is dealing with the Iranian nuclear issue, on a regional scale, not locally.

Israel knows as well as anyone else that Hezbollah in Lebanon is a state within a state. Hezbollah didn't build those rockets. Syria and Iran are fighting their wars against the West and Israel through Lebanon. Syria should be fighting in the Golan, not here.

The international community should start twisting Iranian and Syrian arms. It spends hours arguing over Iran's nuclear reactor. And they want the least powerful authority, the Lebanese government, to tackle Hezbollah on its own.

Gordon, you say it's difficult to see that Nasrallah [Hezbollah's chief] has the interest of the Lebanese people at heart. Hezbollah is not just a kidnapping and rocket-launching organisation. It runs schools, social services and hospitals. It supports farmers and the needy within its Shia society.

Hezbollah does all the things the Lebanese government can't. So the Shias, who are traditionally underprivileged here, support its leader.

Bombing dairy factories and electricity plants will only make Hezbollah supporters depend on Hezbollah more.

This war could go on for another six months and no-one would admit defeat.

Yours,

Saleem

GORDON ORR, SHLOMI, ISRAEL

Dear Saleem,

I hope you believe me when I say that I hope you and your family are safe and will remain so, and that all of this confrontation ends soon.

You say that Israel should have first negotiated, instead of immediately reacting. But the Hezbollah already have their negotiating card... they wilfully started a shelling campaign, came over the border and killed and kidnapped Israelis.

Is this a negotiating strategy? Is this someone who can be a partner to negotiations?

I fail to see how Israel is to blame for the lack of action by the UN or other powers

And why did we target the airport and the Beirut-Damascus highway? Because these are the routes through which Syria and Iran supply those very arms that the Hezbollah used to attack us, including the missile which fell only a few hundred metres from my house this morning.

I fail to see how Israel is to blame for the lack of concerted action by the UN or other powers. I can only assume that it is now understood that reckless actions undertaken by extremist groups harm the whole world, and now they must be defeated.

There is no argument that Hezbollah, like Hamas, operate wide-flung social and educational services. The problem is these are used as an ideological springboard to imbue all those who use these services with a hatred of Israel and a desire to wipe Israel off the map.

Educate them while they are young, the belief will always stay. And neither Syria, Iran or Hezbollah will ever accept that we are here to stay.

What do we want from Nasrallah and Hezbollah? Under normal circumstances, nothing. We lead our lives , they lead theirs. But what do Hezbollah want from us? They want us out of here. So they carry on a war of attrition against us by proxy, through Hezbollah.

But that does not remove the responsibility of the Lebanese government for actions undertaken from its soil.

If the Lebanese government had lived up to its obligations to send the Lebanese army to the border area, all of this might have been avoided. If Hezbollah had not undertaken its rash and provocative action, all of this would definitely have been avoided.

How will it all end? In the short term, I feel that things will start to wind down in a few days, when Israel is reasonably confident that the ability of the Hezbollah to undertake such a wilful and capricious action has been curtailed, at least for the time being.

But in the long term, and I say this with a very heavy heart after years of apparently misplaced optimism, probably never. Not as long as extremist groups are allowed or encouraged to continue acts of pure aggression and terrorism, and then say, "That's it, no more, let's negotiate", and feel themselves free of any responsibility for the consequences.

Yours,

Gordon

Click here for Part I of this debate.