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Israel: One Nation Under Attack

[Los Angeles Times] Michael B. Oren - Israelis today are overwhelmingly supporting their army's actions. And apart from expressing regret over the loss of civilian lives, they show no sign of wavering. What makes this Lebanon war different from the last one? To begin with, Israelis, too, are under fire this time. During the last few weeks, Hizballah has shot more than 2,500 rockets and mortars at Israel, killing at least 17 civilians, wounding 500, and forcing more than half a million people to flee. The attacks from Lebanon coincided with aggression from Gaza, where Hamas terrorists fired about 1,000 Kassam rockets at Israeli towns and farms. On both fronts, Israeli soldiers were the victims of unprovoked ambushes and kidnappings. And these attacks have come despite the fact that Israel is no longer occupying any part of either Lebanon or Gaza. The war, Israelis now know, is not about borders but about the existence of the Jewish state. The writer, a senior fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem, is currently a reserve officer serving in northern Israel.
2006-07-26 01:00:00
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