    Gilad Atzmon

    Learn Math with Israel: 2 = 500,000

    This is obviously the outcome of the newly emerged Hebraic arithmetic
    laws. For 2 kidnapped Israeli soldiers who are still kept alive, 500,000
    innocent Lebanese civilians are displaced. For 2 abducted Israeli
    soldiers, Lebanon, a sovereign state, is brought back down on its knees.
    Its civil infrastructure is ‘gone’. Some of its capital’s residential
    quarters and southern villages are already wiped out. Indeed, ‘two
    equals half a million’ is the new arithmetic the Israelis insist upon
    imposing on the region. Is it that surprising? Not at all, as predicted
    by Gershon Sholem already in the 1930’s: once the Jews start to speak
    Hebrew, it won’t take long before they consider themselves to be God.

    In the Bible Sodom and Gomorrah were "brimstone and fire from the Lord
    out of heaven" (Genesis 13:13; 18:20; 19:24, 29; Hosea 11:8). The two
    towns where erased by God for the sins of its inhabitants. In the
    Biblical narrative (Genesis 18), God informs Abraham that he intends
    upon demolishing the city of Sodom because of its gross immorality.
    Abraham pleads with God not to do it. God is willing to agree as long as
    there were 50 righteous people in town, then 45, then 30, 20, or even
    just 10 decent people.

    While the Biblical tale is saturated with God’s fury and vengeance, it
    is Abraham, a morally orientated human being who insists upon saving the
    inhabitants of Sodom. Yet, not many contemporary Abrahams have been
    raising their voices within Israeli society. In a demonstration against
    the emerging brutal attack against Lebanon, less than one thousand
    Israeli showed up. But far more worryingly, not many Abrahams are
    noticeable amongst our world leaders. While Bush was clearly caught up
    welcoming the brutal wiping out of yet another Arab country, his twin
    ideological brother, PM Blair, supports Israel’s “right to defend
    itself”.

    One should ask the British PM the obvious question: if indeed Israel is
    solely engaged in merely “defending itself” how come there is no Navy
    rescue mission of Britons from Tel Aviv or Haifa? Somehow, Mr. Blair, it
    is rather apparent that Israel’s aim of ‘defending itself’ is so
    extensive in its brutality that it is actually Beirut and southern
    Lebanon that are wiped out.

    Following Sholem’s prophecy, it is rather clear that the almighty
    Israelis indeed endorsed the role of a cruel God. Flying American
    F-16’s, the Israelis ‘brimstone and fire’ Lebanese cities and villages
    out of existence. Last night, the IAF angels dropped 23 tons of
    explosives on a one single bunker in Beirut. They really want to kill so
    it seems.

    However, within the Biblical tale, even God is willing to bargain, “just
    present me with 50, 40, 30, 20 righteous people,” he tells Abraham.
    Seemingly, Israel, the almighty regional God, is far less willing to
    bargain. Till this point in time, it has rejected any ceasefire
    initiatives. The Israelis want to ‘finish the job’ so they say.

    One may wonder what exactly is that job which they want to finish.
    Indeed they spread collateral damage all over Lebanon but seemingly they
    do not touch the Hezbollah. Instead, rather murderously, they punish the
    entire Lebanese people. They flatten Beirut’s southern neighbourhoods,
    they destroy the Lebanese civil infrastructures, they destroy the
    state’s economy, half a million Lebanese are now displaced, hundreds are
    dead. And guess what, they don’t win. Ostensibly, the Hezbollah is
    gaining power. In fact, from this point onwards, the Hezbollah can only
    win. In other words, the Hezbollah has won the battle already.

    More than anything, it is the Hezbollah that made Israel reveal its very
    devastating notion of blood arithmetic i.e., 2 = 500,000. For those who
    fail to understand, people who believe in ‘two equals half a million’
    can easily nuke whoever they consider to be their enemies with out the
    slight hesitation. 2 = 500,000 is there to suggest that Israel isn’t
    just a regional danger, it is the biggest threat to world peace. This is
    something I’ve known for a while but now thanks to the Hezbollah this
    will become common knowledge.

    While in the history of the conflict, no Arab army has yet to defeat the
    Israeli military might, the Hezbollah, a tiny paramilitary group of
    patriotic warriors has managed to transform northern Israeli cities into
    ghost towns. They did it without a navy, without an air force, without
    tanks.

    For those who don’t know, Israel is all about ‘good life’. It is all
    about trading in the stock exchange. Having a BBQ party on the beach.
    Big imported pop acts in open-air concerts. Rather than Peace Israelis
    are after ‘Shalom’ which really means: one-sided security for the Jews
    only. The Hezbollah (as well as the Hamas) made it clear to the
    Israelis, you will never live in Shalom unless you dig into the notion
    of Peace.

    It is important to mention that Israel could never win this war, it
    could only lose and in fact it lost already. Israel’s power of
    deterrence is minced to pieces by a lightly armed paramilitary
    organisation. Considering the emerging humanitarian crisis in Lebanon,
    the world public attention from now on will be dedicated to the growing
    devastation the ‘God-like’ Israelis have left behind. Israel on its side
    is going to be left with a war of attrition. It took the Hezbollah 20
    years to get the IDF out of Lebanon. The Israelis know very well that if
    the IDF failed miserably in defeating the Hezbollah, no army in the
    world can do the job any better. Hezbollah is there to stay. Israel is
    now left with a very hostile neighbour and a very strong Hezbollah on
    its very vulnerable northern border.

    The Old Testament’s almighty God is indeed merciless at times, he acts
    with fury and vengeance but he isn’t vulnerable. In Genesis 18 the
    people of Sodom do not fight back, they just pass away. The one who
    looks back with awe is transformed into a salty statue. But the
    ‘God-like’ Israelites are rather vulnerable. One billion Arabs are
    waiting for them behind the corner. One billion Arabs who are humiliated
    daily by an Anglo-American Zionised west that backs ‘Israel’s right to
    defend itself’.

    One billion Arabs that are looking at stolen Palestine, smashed Gaza and
    torn apart Lebanon. Those Arabs have a good reason to be cheered by the
    Hezbollah. It is the Hezbollah that gives them a very good reason to
    look forward with pride. But the Hezbollah is not the only winner.
    Clearly, the Israeli attack leads towards a huge humanitarian crisis.
    While the Americans and British are concerned mainly with rescuing their
    citizens in Beirut (many of them indeed Lebanese by origin), Syria is
    there to offer safe shelter to a growing flood of thousands of Lebanese
    refugees. While Blair and Bush engage in giving the green light to
    Israeli brutality, it is Syria that gives a hand to the real victims. It
    is about time we shake off our views and admit that from a purely
    ethical point of view. It is Syria and Iran who support the oppressed
    people in this battered region. i.e.. the Palestinians and now the
    Lebanese. For me this is more than enough to suggest that at least
    ethically, Iran and Syria are the most progressive powers around.

    And just one final word about the God-like Israelites; indeed, it is
    very clear that they do not love their neighbours. But how to say it,
    people who inflict so much pain on others probably do not like
    themselves either. Even murderers don’t like themselves being murderers.