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Israel’s present conflict in both Lebanon and Palestinian ‘ruled’ areas adjacent to it is being called by a number of terms, including: Crises in the Middle East (CNN’s favorite), Armed Conflict with the Palestinians and Hezbollah, military reprisal operation, etc. All of these terms appear to be a way of glossing over what the ongoing events have really become; and that the correct term is really that age-old, three letter word: WAR. Most dictionaries, including time tested Webster’s Dictionary, define the conflict as follows:

War: Open armed conflict between countries or between factions within the same country. Another definition: Any active hostility, contention, or struggle. And a third definition: Military operations as a profession or science.

While a formal declaration of war has not been made by either Israel or the sovereign country of Lebanon; both the leaders of the Palestinian Authority AND the Secretary General of the Hezbollah, have openly declared that they are at war with Israel. And Israel’s government has more or less said similar words regarding its conflict with these two entities.

Since the conflicts began more than twenty days ago (and it is two conflicts, not just one) large parts of both the Gaza part of the P.A. and many parts of Lebanon have been literally pulverized, with hundreds of thousands of Lebanese displaced and turned into refugees. Israel has been cascaded by nearly two thousand Katyusha, Kasam, and other types of rockets, and Israel’s entire northern region, including its third largest city has been turned into a war-zone with more than a million Israelis living in underground shelters or reinforced security rooms. Israel’s war casualties have now exceeded 50 and Palestinian and Lebanese casualties, both civilian and militant, must be well over the two thousand mark. Even that pristine international peacekeeping body, the UN, was suffered 4 casualties as well; it’s monitoring station in southern Lebanon being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The Hezbollah, and it’s increasingly ‘changing’ leader, Sheikh Narsrallah, still claim to be gaining the upper hand, however, and as long he is still calling the shots for his people (probably from the safety of the basement of the Iranian Embassy in Beirut) the blood letting and destruction will continue, he is simply not willing to admit, either to his followers, or himself, that carrying on this ‘war of the wills’ will only cause his host country more misery and human suffering. Nasrallah’s further declarations that his missile strikes will now reach “beyond Haifa” is also very detrimental to both himself and the very people his organization claims to want to help. Israeli governmental and military leaders, already steadfast and dedicated, despite increasing military casualties, will simply not tolerate larger Scud-type missiles striking major Israeli population centers like Tel Aviv. Even once such missile strike will result in a fearsome reprisal that will set back Lebanon even further: “to the stone age” as quoted by Israeli military Chief of Staff, Dan Halutz.

In the end, war creates no glory, only death and destruction. As noted by deceased author Ernest Hemingway, who covered the carnage of the 1936-38 Spanish Civil War as an American war correspondent: “There is no glory to death in war. You die like a dog – for no damn reason”. Hemingway’s words were never truer, particularly in this present conflict, in which both Palestinian and Hezbollah militants think it is glorious to die for their beliefs.
In the end, there is no honor or glory to this terrible waste of life. A song which came out during the Vietnam War by the American Soul-Rock group WAR sums it up very well : “War, good God, Lord! What is it good for - absolutely nothing!”