A proposal

Elder of Ziyon has a recent post that spots one of those really annoying liberal essays about the Lebanon war which is not exactly anti-Israel, but which manages somehow to bury Israel's right to defend itself under a load of nuance. The author, Tim Dickinson, writes:

Now don’t, please, purposefully misunderstand me. I do not believe that Israel intentionally targets civilians. (I reserve judgment, however, about the intention behind the strike on UNIFIL). But Qana happened because Israel has opted for a strategy of collective punishment of Lebanon for the sins of Hezbollah. And in so doing it has debased itself.

Yes, Hezbollah hides out among the civilian population. But, under all but the most extreme of circumstances, that does not excuse bombing apartment buildings and towns that are home to desperate civilians unable or unwilling to abandon their homes. Israel’s apparent indifference to the “collateral damage” that is the inevitable consequence of its urban bombing campaign might — might — be excusable if these attacks were sure to produce a swift victory: three weeks of death and destruction to eliminate a pernicious threat once and for all.

Don't you love those two "mights"? Dickinson timidly inches his way out onto what apparently counts as a perilous limb in Leftist circles: an Israeli right to self-defense that includes collateral damage. Never mind that collateral damage is also incurred in wars where the enemy wears uniforms and shows up on a battlefield.

One might paraphrase Dickinson's argument as follows: Yes, we will admit that you are morally superior to Hizbullah, but we aren't satisfied. You aren't sufficiently morally superior. We want you to be really, really, really morally superior. Would you mind dying in larger numbers?

I have a proposal for Dickinson. Israel needs something modeled on the French Foreign Legion, in this case, an Israeli Foreign Proportionate Warfare Battalion. If Israel is right to defend herself on some level and in some way, then her cause is just. Why shouldn't the Jim Dickinsons of the world fight for her? Right is right and just is just. An International Peacekeeping Force is unlikely to accomplish anything--there is no peace to keep. So let's have an International force in order to demonstrate the just and proportionate way to defeat Hizbullah. I'll send them pizza too.

Tags: Israel, Lebanon, Hizbullah, liberalism