Rein in Israel

These acts portend a dangerous future for the Middle East. The vestige of peace in the region that was so long hanging tenuously at best has all but gone and the blatant use of force has come to be the main arbiter. Regrettably, peace has very little chance of succeeding when the chief errant in the region is encouraged by the lone superpower in its acts of violence. This was only too evident when the draft UN resolution that had the backing of the ten members of the Security Council but opposed by the US fell through.

The excuse of self-defence has been carried to the extreme once too often. For the sake of an Israeli soldier the entire Palestinian population in Gaza has been subject to indescribable sufferings at the hands of the Israeli military. How is it possible to abduct representative of a sovereign state as Israel has done by capturing a number of Palestinian legislators? And in trying to wipe out Hezbollah it has killed innocent civilians in Lebanon.

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While no doubt the force applied by Israel has been disproportionate we wonder whether use of force that has led to the deaths of innocent civilians in Gaza and Lebanon and the destruction of Lebanon's airport and blockade of its seas is justified at all. To make the infrastructure targets of Israeli bombings only to free kidnapped Israeli soldiers has made the entire population of Gaza and Lebanon helpless hostage to Israeli aggression.

The international community must act with speed to rein in Israel. Not only will their inaction lead to more loss of innocent civilians, there is all the chance that the region will be plunged further into the boiling cauldron, stifling permanently whatever protagonists of peace left in the area.