Israel wants an end to aggression against its people and property, and to live in established borders without external threat. It is the same thing that any country wants and most get.

To end the fighting happening between Israel and Hezbollah (I cannot even say Lebanon any more because the Lebanese government is totally out of control) Israel wants some simple things. Return the kidnapped soldiers, disarm Hezbollah, and conform to UN resolutions established years ago. This is not unreasonable, it is what should be expected, so why is everyone so surprised that Israel is reacting the way it is?

Critics will say that Israel was planning this bombing for years, and you know what, they are right. They planned this assault on Lebanon years ago so that if/when the Lebanese or Hezbollah broke the UN agreements they would have a plan and execute it without delay. Why are we surprised, the US military does this all the time, it is part of the peacetime military planning.

Israel is bombing targets with regard to infrastructure, roads, airports, ports, factories, military (as related to Hezbollah), C’n’C and other sites that could aid Hezbollah. This is really basic military tactics, ones that the US military has used for decades. Israel is not attempting a demoralization campaign by subduing a citizenry, no carpet-bombings of towns or cities. In fact, with all the military might Israel can bring to bare it is amazing the civil death toll is so low. You can credit the low death count to Israel’s extreme accuracy. In fact it would be much safer for the Lebanese to NOT try to shoot the incoming missiles down because if they do hit, the maimed rockets could do more damage to civilians than if it actually hit its target.

Israel is showing some pretty good restraint in all this. Now that they know that Hezbollah is being supported by Syria and Iran I am sure there are some hardliners that would love for Israel to break out the really big guns and take on these two annoyances. They would be within their rights to attack prophylacticly, but that would put them on three or even four fighting fronts and that may be stretching their abilities. Besides, Israel will wait for Syria or Iran to take the first swing and then get into it. Israel rarely initiates actions, but usually ends them.

But the really interesting thing going on now is that while some of the neighboring Arab countries do not outright support Israel’s action on Hezbollah, they are definitely not against it. Could this be a turning point in the Arab/Israeli conflict? No, not at all. You see, Iran (the backer of Hezbollah) has Hezbollah sects in many of the other countries, and the Arab nations are scared of this. They are scared of Iran and what it may do. Each of these other countries knows that if Iran starts to look their way they could be a target for trouble in one form or another, be it civil unrest or military action. Let’s face it, these Arab countries are not very strong in terms of military and will to fight each other. Besides, fighting a Muslim foe would not go over well. It is one thing to fight “the American Dogs” but completely different fighting their Muslim brothers. The Arab countries are hoping Israel faces down Iran takes out a common enemy. In this case “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” is in action although very tersely.

Interestingly though these same Arab countries are toning down the rhetoric against Israel simply because they do not want the fight any more. They are facing an interesting crisis, and that is they know that they do not have that much longer to be the kings of oil and thus do not want to spend money on a cause that will get them nowhere. They are instead pouring their money into infrastructure for the time when the oil runs out. In short, it does not pay to hate Israel anymore. Sure they can say all sorts of things, words are free, but they will not be putting their money where their mouth is.

One curious interview I saw the other night was Chris Mathews interviewing the Syria UN Ambassador, Dr. Jafar Ja’afari. There was one simple question that Chris put to him over and over again and he refused to answer, and that was “How small does Israel have to get for Syria to leave it alone?” Dr. Jafar Ja’afari would not answer the question because he did not want to say that Israel should not exist at all, the same line that Hezbollah takes. He did not want to tip the fact that Hezbollah is calling the shots and these instructions are coming from Iran.

So, what does Israel want? To left alone to do its thing and not bother anyone. It wants this because it knows the issue is all moot in the coming years as the oil goes away. It knows that regional support for a fight against Israel is waning because it is not fiscally responsible to be concerned over 8000 sq/m that have no oil reserves. And at this point as the money goes, the religious arguments will go too. After all the Koran tell of respect for Israel, not its demise.