He started by asking me if I knew a whole lot about the history of the conflict. I confessed I did not (I truly don't).
He asked me about the civilian casualties caused by Israel. (Aside: Since when has any warring party, Israel or otherwise, ever been overly worried about civilian casualties?)
I answered that I am greatly pained by the civilian casualties and wished that it would stop, but what I thought or felt probably didn't matter. I added that my only hope was that at least some good will come of this whole sorry mess if Hezbollah disintegrates and as a result, the world sees a little less Islamic fundamentalism. The alternative--looking at it in a zero-sum way--was to wish for a dissolution of Israel. Since the dissolution of a country is bound to be more painful in human terms than the dissolution of a non-state actor like Hezbollah (Extinction of Hezbollah is not the same thing as the extinction of Lebanon), I said that I would, on balance, prefer to see the dissolution of Hezbollah. I said that I thought this was the most positive way of looking at a very negative situation.
I also think that there is probably no positive-sum way of looking at the situation given the unfortunate reality that the parties to the conflict themselves subscribe to a zero-sum view. Hezbollah publicly calls for the destruction of Israel and Israel in turn wants to wipe out Hezbollah.
The prof didn't like what I said. He went a little red in the face and suggested that everybody, including I, should roundly condemn Israel. I replied that if I did any condemning of any kind, I would condemn both sides equally. And since equal condemnation of both sides would have the net result of canceling each other out and be politically and philosophically indistinguishable from condemning no one at all, I would rather save my breath than engage in a philosophically meaningless exercise.
Then we had dinner and went home.
4 comments:
I condemn both sides because I condemn this war.
Sougata, try this short history on the UN site. I couldn't find a more reliable resource on the internet. I am a bit divided on the issue now, as it seems there's an aggression from Israel all along... and Islam is only being used as a political tool to incite the Muslim folks.. Let us know what you find out.
The UN Report deals with Palestine mostly and with Lebanon in one section. I do know that in 1982, Israel invdaded Southern Lebanon. The motivations and triggers for that war were very similar to this one, only that the aim that time was to eliminate the PLO. The PLO had launched artillery attacks against populated areas in northern Israel, and also attempted the assassination of Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom. Those were the triggers. Note though that in both that war and this, Lebanon simply acted/is acting like a willing wet nurse. You or I may have sympathy for the Lebanese civilians, but do you actually have any sympathy for the Lebanese government?
Coming back to this war. Personally, if Hezbollah was simply a resistance organization with the aim of liberating Southern Lebanon, I would probably have been swayed one way. But they are not only that. They also have the extremely noble goal of spreading Shia Islamic revolution in the world and also aim to wipe Israel from the map. Supporting them is tantamount to supporting both those goals. I personally cannot do this. Also please note that those goals are not suprising, since they are Iran-backed [Did you catch the item of news today where the Iranian president proposed the destruction of Israel as the final solution to the Middle-East's problem?]
Sougata,
It wasn't really your reasoning, but your tongue-in-cheek manner, which probably turned him off. The academic world is littered with stuffy self-important men and women like these who predate on the lay man's ignorance to air their "educated" views. In any case, I'll bet you didn't really give him that opening which probably did nothing for his inflated opinion of his opinions.Besides grey hair/beards, a PHd and even a few published books are not a sure sign of intellegence
Carry on reasoning :). personally i find it thought provoking
Jyoti
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