Coverage of the US/Israeli assault on Lebanon has evinced a casual disregard for Lebanese lives, and often an outright zest for killing the country’s people.
However, anyone targeting civilians is a villain, and requires no demonizing beyond what they’re already doing themselves. The US government, Russia, Israel, Hezbollah… there’s never any excuse to target civilians, full stop.
Hezbollah is targeting military bases and soldiers. Even a casual knowledge of the death toll on both sides confirm it.
That said, I argue that the concept of a civilian settler is contradictory. Settler colonialism itself is an act of war. Israelis never attempted to coexist with Palestinians or Lebanese, and they have plans to colonize Lebanon too.
Zionist founders never denied who they are or what they want:
[It is the] iron law of every colonizing movement, a law which knows of no exceptions, a law which existed in all times and under all circumstances. If you wish to colonize a land in which people are already living, you must provide a garrison on your behalf. Or else – or else, give up your colonization, for without an armed force which will render physically impossible any attempts to destroy or prevent this colonization, colonization is impossible, not “difficult”, not “dangerous” but IMPOSSIBLE! … Zionism is a colonizing adventure and therefore it stands or falls by the question of armed force. It is important to build, it is important to speak Hebrew, but, unfortunately, it is even more important to be able to shoot – or else I am through with playing at colonialization.
As quoted by Lenni Brenner, in The Iron Wall: Zionist Revisionism from Jabotinsky to Shamir (1984), where the quotation is cited as being from “The Iron Law”
“Israel isn’t massacring people in Lebanon because Hezbollah is attacking Israel; it’s massacring them so that it can go on massacring Palestinians.”
Yes.
However, anyone targeting civilians is a villain, and requires no demonizing beyond what they’re already doing themselves. The US government, Russia, Israel, Hezbollah… there’s never any excuse to target civilians, full stop.
Hezbollah is targeting military bases and soldiers. Even a casual knowledge of the death toll on both sides confirm it.
That said, I argue that the concept of a civilian settler is contradictory. Settler colonialism itself is an act of war. Israelis never attempted to coexist with Palestinians or Lebanese, and they have plans to colonize Lebanon too.
Zionist founders never denied who they are or what they want:
[emphasis mine]