On June 25, Hamas guerrillas tunnelled across the border into Israel, killed Israeli soldiers, kidnapped Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit, and brought him into Gaza. Then, this week, the Shia terrorist group Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers near the Lebanese border and brought them back into Lebanon.
Israel has responded to these provocations militarily, as any sovereign nation would. And who is condemned for breaking the peace? Why, Israel, of course.
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At a triumphant news conference Wednesday, Hezbollah's leader, Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah, said his group would not bow to pressure from the Lebanese government or the world community to release his two Israeli hostages, unless Israel agrees to a prisoner exchange.
"What do they want us to do? Hand over the soldiers and apologize?" he asked. "What kind of world are they living in?"
The kind of world we are living in, is one in which kidnappers hand over their hostages ... and are sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Failing that, such provocations can lead to war, an endeavor which never seems to accomplish much for the Arab fans of endless war, except to allow them to beat their chests, wail over their dead and play "victim" some more.
Like a sleeping dog that seeks only peace, Israel has backed away so as to give no offense, until there is no further room to retreat. This week, a Hezbollah missile -- possibly manufactured in Iran -- hit Haifa, on the seacoast. Israel now has every right to do whatever proves necessary to stop her tormentors.
Nor have they any remaining right to complain about her bite.
It is now clear what the Arabs mean by "occupied territories" -- to anyone who didn't get it, long ago. If the population of Israel were reduced to 10, and those 10 Jews were living on a houseboat moored in Haifa harbor, the Arabs would bemoan their ongoing victimization by the Zionists, and demand that the Israelis "withdraw from this occupied houseboat immediately."
The world has been patient with such murderous lunacy long enough. Maybe it's time to condemn someone new, for a change.
