Pity The Lebanese

I am someone who cares deeply about people. I couldn’t work as a teacher if I felt ambivalent about my fellow human beings. When I teach, the only thing I care about is the overall success of my students. I honestly don’t care whether they are white, black, brown, green, yellow, purple or blue (well, that’s not quite true. If they were either purple or blue, I’d get medical help ASAP).

I teach kids whose religions and cultural background are derived from the four corners of the globe. It matters not a jot whether a child is Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Shinto, Rastafarian or even atheist. I judge them on the attitude they present to their work and the behaviour they display in my classroom and throughout the rest of the school.

I write this because there are some of you who might be wondering how I feel about the deaths of numerous Lebanese civilians are as result of Israeli bombing.

As an a person who has a strong belief in G-d and an innate sense of justice, I am aghast at the sad reality of women and children (in particular), being killed for simply residing in the wrong place at the wrong time.

If I could personally airlift every single innocent civilian out of the war zone, I would do so. I also know that Israel - a moral and just nation – is similarly horrified whenever a terrible and tragic mistake is made. Yet another innocent person pays the heavy price of being manipulated and used by the ruthless and bloodthirsty Hezbollah terrorists.

These individuals deliberately and cynically use homes and rooms belonging to the civilian population as a base from which to launch their rockets against both the Israeli Army and the citizens of Israel.

Note that the Terrorists make no distinction as to whom they target, as witnessed by the deaths of two Israelis in Haifa today.

Two Israeli Arab children.

When Israel fights, she does so in the open, away from the population centres and makes every effort to try and hit the terrorists and only the combatants. Often, it is impossible to take one of these out, without sacrificing the life of an innocent civilian or three.

A few days ago, Israel had the opportunity to finish off the killer that is Nasrallah. They chose to warn the Beirutis of an impending attack on the General Command building and a result, this most evil of men escaped and is now living like a scared rat, amongst the Christian Arabs in Northern Lebanon. Like Saddam, he’s not afraid to threaten Israel with “retaliation of a magnitude not seen before”, but when it comes to it, he hasn’t got the guts to stand up in the open and fight for his cause.

This is a war that Israel must win to ensure that her people are protected from the scourge of the rockets. It is also a tragedy that the innocent citizens of both Lebanon and Israel are being caught up in the conflict.

Look beyond the screaming headlines and you will see that the “humanitarian crisis” began long before Israel started firing.

Hezbollah has blood on its hands – and it’s not all Israeli.