Silenced are the Peacemakers

This newspaper unequivocally backs Israels right to exist peaceably and securely within internationally recognised boundaries. Whatever moral legitimacy assertions to the contrary may have, Israel is unalterably a sovereign state, bearing the rights and obligations that apply to all sovereign states.

Therefore, when Israel is under military or terror attack, it may legitimately defend its territory and citizens by appropriate and reasonable means.

Israels response to provocation by Hezbollah – a malevolent terror organisations operating from southern Lebanon-has been neither appropriate nor reasonable nor proportionate. By attacking a sovereign nation and killing and maiming hundreds of civilians -most of the victims cannot be explained away as collateral damage – Israels government has blown up the moral highground it has for so long claimed.

There can be no justification for Israels attack on Lebanon. If Israel felt that the Lebanese government was unwilling (rather than being unable, as seems more likely) to rein in Hezbollah, then the correct way to begin redressing this would have been by diplomatic means. Israel did not even consider this route, but elected to embark on a military response that will set back hopes for peace in the region for a long time.

Whatever the seeds of the present conflict, the scale of Israels military response has been disproportionate and excessive.

Israels actions are analogous to a situation where the British air force might bomb Derry and its people because IRA terrorists kidnapped two British soldiers.

The truth is that acts of hostility in the Middle East do not happen in a vacuum. After a month in which Israel assassinated Palestines interior minister, killed a family of seven in a missile strike on a Gaza beach and later 17 more civilians (including five children, two paramedics and a pregnant woman) in attacks on a range of Palestinian targets, and kidnapped two Palestinian soldiers before their Israeli counterparts were captured, the lines between aggressor and victim begin to blur.

The timing of this months escalation of armed conflict is significant. It came soon after Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas announced his plans to create a path towards a negotiated settlement by holding a referendum among Palestinians in support of recognising Israel and a two-state solution.

Negotiations and peace, however, are not in the interest of terrorist movements such as Hezbollah and Hamas, organisations that would lose their reasons to exist under peaceful conditions, and who cheerfully exploited whatever pretexts they could muster to engage in hostilities with Israel.

Nor are negotiations in the interest of Israels government, which has done nothing to dispel fears that it will unilaterally impose borders with Palestine, by force if necessary, driving deep into territory which is not Israels to seize.

The Israeli government, Hezbollah and Hamas are feeding each other in perpetrating an ideology of violence. None of them has shown much interest in finding peace by peaceful means. None of them has shown respect for innocent life, be it Israeli, Palestinian or Lebanese. They are not enemies; they are allies who need each other to justify the shedding of innocent blood.

Lebanese Cardinal Nasrallah P Sfeir has said: It seems that the world has lost its peacemakers. It is judged more desirable to fight and wage war than to make peace.

The world still has its peacemakers. Alas, their voices are being drowned out by the bombs, missiles and guns of those who have no interest in peace.