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The Mid-East Slugfest

"Recent events in Gaza and on the Israel-Lebanon border reveal the extraordinary value of symbols in the region. News of kidnapped Israeli soldiers prompts rejoicing in the streets of Gaza City and Beirut, as Arabs revel in the blow delivered to the powerful Israeli Goliath. Meanwhile, for Israelis, and many Jews around the world, the image of captured soldiers induces a kind of tribal rage that demands the use of overwhelming force. This force is intended, first, to return the soldiers, but no less important, to send a message that Israel's military might remains as potent as ever.

And so the power of symbols brings Israel and its Arab foes together again in a deadly dance. Driven by the need to protect these symbols, the competing sides have entered into yet another cycle of violence that threatens to plunge the region into a new abyss. Indeed, the current pair of conflicts could easily expand from two to four fronts, if Hamas' and Hezbollah's patrons, Syria and Iran, are lured into the battle."

So writes David Myers [a teacher of Jewish history at UCLA] in an op-ed piece [here] in the Los Angeles Times. Myers'piece is worth reading because it is a sober analysis of what is happening in the Middle East and doesn't follow the usual drum-beating and polemic of so many writers on the vexed subject of the ongoing conflict. Many Jewish readers and other supporters of Israel will not like Myers' conclusions.....

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