In recent days I've shifted my employment from the halls of CET to the basement of a consulting firm run by an elderly Jewish fellow who also has a medical-relief charity. Most of his business and philanthropy is centered around the middle East, and with children and grandchildren having served or currently serving in the IDF, the situation there is of keen interest to him.
When he saw the recent Reuters article on Hezbollah's effort to rebuild Lebanon, he got mad:
"The Israelis have been outwitted again... Hezbollah is ten times as strong as they were before this conflict started. We can't be afraid of lessons like this."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060817/wl_nm/mideast_usa_rebuilding_dc_1
Israeli society is more than a little disillusioned about the war which was so widely supported only weeks ago, and governmental heads are set to roll.
Any further invasion of Lebanon would further weaken the country's infrastructure and almost certainly strengthen Hezbullah.
Mr. Kramer's idea is that the U.S. and Israel ought to take the lead on Lebanese reconstruction. my knowledge of Lebanon is quite limited and I have my doubts about whether such a plan could ever get off the ground.
But really, what fair-minded perosn would expect Israel to do such a thing? This isn't the Marshal Plan; Lebanon never surrendered. Hassan Nasrallah was never tried at Nuremberg. The idea that they (Israel) might be expected to pour billions of dollars into a country which not only recently attacked them and still holds several of their soldiers hostage, and has every intention of doing so again, sounds like a bad joke.
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