Vindicated, vilified and lauded, few countries prompt so much scrutiny and heated debate as Israel. Shaped by a confluence of geography, politics and religion, Israel has always generated an intensity that is disproportionate to its size or influence.
For its critics, Israel is readily categorised as an aggressive coloniser, flexing its military muscle and oppressing the weak. For the six million people within its borders, this perception of strength is contrasted with an understanding of their homeland as a young, small nation surrounded by large and populous neighbours vigorously calling for its destruction; neighbours who find little to unite them apart from a shared loathing of the Jewish state. Israeli insecurity is perhaps incomprehensible to those of us living in lands with hundreds of years of history, where the question of whether our country will remain in existence for our lifetime does not even cross our minds.
This understanding of the threat that has always faced Israel throughout its short existence has motivated much of the support for Israel in its campaign against Hezbollah. It is not that supporters do not share the outrage at lives lost in the conflict. It is a consequence of a passionately held belief that, despite the devastation being inflicted on children, women and men across both sides of the border, it is critical to combat the threat Hezbollah poses to the safety of Israel’s civilians.
There is no longer anyone who can argue with conviction that Israel will be able to rid the world, or the region, of Hezbollah. But Israel does have the burden to cripple them, to counter the resources and strength that Hezbollah have so evidently built up since Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon. While Israel may have received international approval for withdrawing from Lebanon, six years later as Hezbollah launched up to 200 rockets a day into northern Israel and showed no signs of running out, the extent to which Hezbollah had taken advantage of the absence of Israeli troops to replenish its weapons supply became evident.
As the world observed the outbreak of war, reports circling in the media criticised Israel’s response as ‘disproportionate’. Indeed, the term was thrown about as if there existed a tacit understanding of what would have been a justified response; an invisible equation that stood in judgment over Israel’s actions. The concept of proportionate and disproportionate sits uneasily with the chaos of the fog of