TimesOnline.co.uk says Israel Preparing for Potential Attack Iran

TimesOnline.co.uk says Israel Preparing for Potential Attack Iran, originally uploaded by thepetecom.

TimesOnline.co.uk is reporting that Israeli warships are positioning themselves in the Suez Canal in preparation for a possible invasion of Iran.

Speaking strictly as the fiction writer and the observer of world events that I am, I must say the timing of this does make some amount of tactical (if I'm using the word correctly) sense from the Israeli standpoint. Iran is a mess after its government cracked down, rather oppressively, on protestors (mostly students, apparently). There's been talk for the past month of a complete revolution in Iran--the leaders can't seem to decide if their recent election counts or even if the ballots were properly counted and it's not the easiest thing to get an accurate account of the state of things inside Iranian borders due to a crackdown on foreign press.

So, with that kind of chaos--a stumbling government and a rather large contingent of their citizens feeling pretty rebellious, Israel may have picked a perfect time for invasion--one that just might catch the Iranian military at a place where they simply will not have their shit together enough to defend against an attack.

The theory before the recent Iranian crackdown was that even though the populace didn't seem to generally care for the leadership, said leaders could still rally the Iranian people to rise up and defend the country from any outside attackers. After showing such bloodthirsty instincts on it's own people, Iran's leaders just might find it harder to get support from those people--at least, that's what I bet Israel is thinking.

Does this mean an Israeli attack on Iran is moral or even legal? No and no--not from my perspective, anyway. Iran would have to attack Israel in order to make an attack on Iran legal in the eyes of the UN Charter (aka international law). On a moral level (think the Golden Rule) Israel can't invade a country that may be talking shit, but isn't doing shit to mess with them--so how could Israel feel the need to attack? But then, Israel is the country that's been occupying a people for decades for no easily discernible reason, so anything is possible.

No, I don't hate Jews, nor do I hate Israel. I just don't like what their government is doing. Drawing first blood is never a good thing--end of story. PR, rhetoric, even blatant threats do NOT justify an attack on another country. ONLY an unprovoked attack from that country justifies an attack on it.

Let's hope Israel is just going for a sail.

Fingers crossed!

OK, For the LAST TIME, Israel Needs to CHILL.

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io Read the latest as of this blog post at CNN.com here.

So, here's the deal.

I've been writing about this shit going on in Israelistine, or Palestisrael (which ever you prefer), for many, many years. So, let me break it down to the simplest terms I can think of:

Israel can bring peace if they want to.

That's it. Now, please, consider the following:

1) Is Hamas, or anyone in the occupied territories a real threat to Israel? Or are they just a bunch of pissed off people with crappy, unreliable weapons.

No and yes.

2) Did Hamas even exist before Israel occupied the occupied territories?

No.

So, doesn't that mean Israel is the root cause of this strife?

Let's keep going:

3) No one ever asks the question: What does Israel want by occupying these chunks of land?

Jerusalem? They have it. Now what are they doing with all of those Palestinians?

3) Does anyone really think pounding a house, a mosque, or even a neighborhood with weapons like the kinds Israel can afford will do anything but make people hate them more?

Terrorism is the result (generally) of a person or people feeling they have no other options--they have no voice, no control and think hurting people or destroying things is the only thing they can do. Keep reacting that way and you'll never stamp out terrorists--but you will create dozens more.

In fact, some might see the Israeli government's actions as part of a terrorist-making machine. In fact, if I were a corrupt leader who was more interested in keeping my citizens rallied behind me and less with their well-being, I'd say "kudos" to the Israeli government for doing what the Nazis did by giving the citizenry a unified enemy to always be afraid of. Well done!

So, in the end, who has the real power to create peace here?

The Palestinian terrorists who keep shooting their useless little rockets into Israel killing almost no one? Or the big guys with the undisclosed nuke program?

Israel can take her lumps--that's all they'll ever be. Hamas and anyone else in the occupied territories have limited resources. They'll never be a formidable foe or threat to Israel. So, the violence stops when the government of Israel stops acting like an abusive parent and starts acting like a civilized governing body. They need to treat the handful of terrorists in the territories as criminals because that's what they are.

When hundreds are killed in the name of stopping a handful, you have to wonder: who is worse?