It has become clear from statements by the Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak that on January 31, 2013 Israel carried out a raid on a convoy carrying advanced anti-aircraft weaponry from Syria to the Lebanese Shi’a militia Hezbollah. This is not the first time Israel has prevented weaponry from reaching the hands of terrorists, and it will likely not be the last.
The attack is an example of Israel’s continued efforts to stop the flow of sophisticated weapons to the Islamic militia group Hezbollah. Hezbollah has been designated a terrorist organization by Western countries including the United States, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. From the inception of Hezbollah to the present, the elimination of the state of Israel and pain for those that support it has been one of its primary goals. According to Hezbollah’s 1985 manifesto, “Our struggle will end only when the entity [Israel] is obliterated”. Furthermore, in the 2006 Lebanon War, Hezbollah was responsible for thousands of Katyusha rocket attacks that deliberately targeted Israeli civilian towns and cities in Northern Israel. Considering Hezbollah’s ideology and history of attacks on the West, Israel has a right and obligation to prevent the organization from attaining dangerous weaponry, even if it means carrying out raids beyond its borders.
Hezbollah has a long record of repeatedly anti-western violence including suicide bombings, kidnapping foreigners, malicious assassinations, and organized bombings on foreign embassies and targets. In 2012, Hezbollah carried out a suicide bombing in Bulgaria. They targeted a bus carrying over thirty-five children. Five were killed and the others injured. By preventing Hezbollah from gaining sophisticated weaponry, Israel has done the world a favor and carried out the dirty work that must be done, but no one else wants to do.
Israel was able to carry out this attack and countless others in efforts to fight terrorism as a result of the support of the United States Government. According to reports by Mitchell Bard, an American foreign policy analyst, there exists an extensive strategic political and military cooperation between the United States and Israel. This partnership has been a mutually beneficial relationship that has decreased terrorism in the Middle East and has greatly benefitted the United States military. Israel preventing Hezbollah from gaining lethal weaponry is but one example of the diminishment of terrorism in the region. Moreover, Israel has used foreign aid from the United States to invent new and innovative technologies that have significantly assisted our soldiers during the wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan. Israeli researchers have developed a highly successful recuperation method for United States soldiers with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, advanced unmanned aerial vehicles that have logged thousands of hours in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as reactive armor tiles that have protected American armored personnel carriers and saved hundreds or thousands of soldiers from potential death or injury.
I urge you, my fellow students, to thank and stand behind our State Representatives in Congress that support a relationship that makes us all a little safer.