We sort of talked about this in class on Friday, so I did some research and found this article. It really did take some research, because like we discussed, the international community has largely forgotten that these two soldiers are still being held. Barely anything has been written on them until today, when it came out that they may soon be officially classified as "dead". It's unfortunate that no one seemed to put much sustained pressure on Hezbollah to release them. These are the two soldiers that were kidnapped during a cross-border raid in July of 2007. They are the reason that Israel attacked Hezbollah, and the fact the they are still being held is the reason Hezbollah is claiming victory, while Olmert struggles to stay in power in Israel.
4 comments:
Until our class discussion, I didn't know that Israel didn't have their soldiers back yet. It's amazing to me that after all that effort and the war that Israel was unable to negotiate the return of their soldiers. You'd figure that they could have occupied southern Lebanon for a while or something to have leverage to get them back. What is perhaps more shocking to me is that the Israel has seemingly let the world forget that Hezbollah still has two of their soldiers as prisoners. Why they're not putting more pressure on Hezbollah to release them is surprising.
Yeah, it is really strange and unusal that Israel has let the information and knowledge of their imprisoned soldiers drop off of the global radar. Israel is often trying to gain sympathy and recognition for their cause, whatever it may be at the time. It is interesting that not only have they not been making a very strong effort to get their soldiers back, but they have also failed to make an effort to receive help from others to get their soldiers back.
It's definitely disappointing that these two men have largely been forgotten, but the international community does have a lot of tragedies to keep track of. There are countless kidnappings and conflicts throughout the world, not that this justifies the failure to rescue the soldiers. But can't our shock at discovering this help us understand a little more the frustration that people around the world feel when the violence directed at them doesn't turn a head in the international community? Last year I overhead a Palestinian and an Egyptian student discussing ethnic violence in the Middle East. One of the girls said there are murders everyday that people never hear about, that never get reported on the international news--Jews killing Palestinians and Palestinians killing Jews. Yes, it seems that Israel and the world have kind of forgotten about these soldiers, but no one's forgotten about the reason they're gone. I think there are just so many specific atrocities that not every one will hold attention.
Sadly, these two soldiers are only two more casualties (they are probably dead) in the war of terror. They are not the first nor the last. I am sure Israel also hold war prisoners as well.
Post a Comment