Global Double Standard, As Usual -- and Its Repurcussions

The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that, "in Stockholm, about 60 governments and aid organizations were meeting in the hopes of raising $500 million to help Lebanon rebuild roads, bridges and homes left shattered by the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah guerillas".

I truly have sympathy for those innocent Lebanese who had their homes and lives destroyed by the Hizbullah-led war with Israel, though we also must not forget that many of these people were fervent Hizbullah supporters and, in their own minds (as repeated for media cameras), soldiers in their own right, and therefore somewhat deserving of the punishment meted out to them.

But lets go to the bigger issue. World leaders unanimously agreed that this was a war begun by Hizbullah, as it invaded Israeli territory (Israel proper, not the "disputed" Sheba Farms) to kidnap a soldier, and bombarded Israeli civilians with missiles -- purposely bombarded civilians, I might add, and not as collateral damage to an attack targetting military personnel. World leaders agreed that Israel had a right to fight back to defend itself. Like Lebanon, Israel suffered significant damage to civilian population centers in the north of the country, as over 4,000 rockets and missiles rained down on Israeli Jewish and Arab alike, with the physical damage running into the Billions of dollars. This was a war begun by Hizbullah that enjoyed the direct support of at least several Arab or Islamic governments (to be technical about it, Iran is not Arab), no doubt subsidized by the hefty oil tax that is exacted upon us by the market for energy. While I was in Europe last week I soaked in some Arab satellite TV on numerous stations, and, like the Jewish community worldwide, they are actively running aid-raising campaigns to "rebuild" Lebanon. Clearly, the Arab world can monetarily provide for itself, should it choose to. Shouldn't the world be re-considering, "Who is the David and who is the Goliath"?

So here is my question: Who should the world be raising money for to "rebuild roads, bridges and homes left shattered by the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah guerillas"? At the barest minimum, shouldn't the aid raised by these 60 nations be for the recovery of both Lebanon and Israel? The failure to do so undoubtably results from a variety of reasons, some tinged with anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic biases. Western liberal double standards undoubtably include the assumption that the sophisticated Israelis, backed by the all-powerful world Jewish community -- with Israel's only real friend, the United States -- are responsible enough to take care of itself, while the Arabs can't (even though they have all the money with $74 oil).

Against this background and trying better to understand the Israeli mindset, shaped as it is by the Holocaust and the world's treatment of Israel since at least the Six Day War, why exactly should Israel ever be expected to trust the world community's mouthpiece, the UN ,or its pieces of paper to protect Israel's existence? What other country is called upon constantly to rely upon the edicts of a world body to protect its existence?

I believe that this war has already led to a deep psychological groundshift in Israeli thinking across the spectrum, from the streets to the halls of power. Israelis are internalizing its perceived existential threat on the Israeli homefront, and the global political aftermath (reinforced by the blame game in Europe, calls for international peace conferences to be imposed on Israel, and finally, insensitive, one-sided actions like the aid conference issue raised above that treat Israel with the usual double standard). On one hand, some Western commentators will remind us that many Israelis "have come to realize" from this war that military action alone will never bring peace (but they never thought that -- after all, the Israelis withdrew from Lebanon in 2000 and Gaza in 2005 in order to attain peace -- but it did not work). On the other hand, Israelis have seen the future, and realize, once again, that their survival is in their own hands.

The result: No doubt about it, Israel will attack Iran militarily in 2007 over the nuclear issue, with or without Western help.