Playing Chicken

This is not the time or the context to play “who blinks first”


Hezbollah has just killed 9 Israeli citizens in a rocket attack on Haifa, one of the largest cities in Northern Israel. Hezbollah-owned T.V, Al-Manar, which was physically destroyed but still broadcasts on from a secret location, issued a statement from Hezbollah that is meant to scare Israelis into stopping their government hostilities in Lebanon.

The Hezbollah statement said that if Israel doesn’t stop its “foolishness”, no target in Israel would be spared. The purpose of this of course, is to create a situation where the Israelis will be scared and tired and ask their government to go easy on Lebanon.

Hezbollah, your strategy is foolish for two reasons.

First, it completely misreads the Israeli collective Psyche. When Nassrallah made a speech two days ago to the Israeli people, he sounded exactly like Bin Laden asking the Americans to vote out “George Bush the Crusader”. What was he thinking? Doesn’t he realize that the Israelis are very united around Olmert’s actions? Don’t forget that Israelis are much more united around Olmert than the Lebanese are around Hezbollah.

Second, only players of equal size can play chicken. A mini-cooper can’t race towards a roaring truck hoping to scare it away. Israel has the capacity to crush Lebanon, but Hezbollah is relatively just an annoying mosquito.

Nassrallah, listen to Seniora, Hand in your weapons and quit your gang-ho stupidity.