Little Green Footballs

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

"This is not a conflict between Israel and Hizbollah over a piece of land...."

Shabtai Shavit, former director General of Mossad, explains Israel's war against Lebanon thus...

"This is not a conflict between Israel and Hezbollah over a piece of land on the Israeli-Lebanese border. Rather, it goes deep down to the core of the conflict that exists between Western societies and fundamentalist Islam. As politically incorrect as it might be to say, let's face it: This is a clash of civilizations. Or, as some euphemize it, a fight between the forces of order and disorder. One side does not accept the idea of coexistence but believes it has been ordained by God Almighty to make the rest of the world Islamic – or to eliminate it. Whenever I say this, it sounds like I'm describing medieval times. Unfortunately, it is the real story."
Strange. I thought it was a war started to retrieve to kidnapped soldiers, maybe I missed something? It seems no-one has mentioned those poor souls for quite some time.

Source: Herald Sun & Islamophobia Watch

2 comments:

Richard said...

"Whenever I say this, it sounds like I'm describing medieval times."

I'm afraid it is Shavit's ideas that are medieval--or is it antediluvean? Just more of the same tired old horse s(^t fr. an Israeli intelligence establishment which has failed so miserably to understand what is needed to protect and defend the State of Israel: negotiation & compromise.

Instead, they spout fire and brimstone which will only get even more Israelis killed as a result of the nation believing the crap they're served every day by people like him.

dawud al-gharib said...

medieval - "civilization vs barbarism" - Umm, are we talking about the IDF against HezboLlah, neither of whom show much restraint when firing at 'legitimate targets'? Or are we talking more generally about Israel and the Arab world, in which case we move on to extremely ugly generalities? Methinks the general is trying to appeal to both the neo-Christian "Right" [who may desperately want the 'medieval' period of the Crusades to be re-enacted in the Middle East] and simulataneously to call for sympathy from the neo-conservative secular ideologues.

Israel will have to decide itself which side it truly believes in it's agressive 'medieval' warrior [think Jabotinsky] or it's ethical and humane desire for co-existence [think Be't Salem and Rabbis for Human Rights]...

that a similar quarrel is going on in the Arab and muslim world - if submerged from Western view under ethnic, political, linguistic, cultural, and national tensions - may already be apparent to a few, but apparently not to the Likud clique of this general, to whom Bey't Selem and RfHR are probably on the side of HezboLlah and Hamas.