Hizbullah's attacks stem from Israeli incursions into Lebanon

This articles explains that the current crisis is not as black and white as some like to see it. It’s not just a simple matter of attack and counter-attack, not just terrorists fighting for their freedoms against a heavily armed and (US) backed conventional army engaging in self-defence. Against the backdrop of the now three-weeks-and-counting conflict, there are historical wounds that have not healed but continued to be ripped open time and again:

“Hizbullah's capture of two Israeli soldiers on July 12 was a direct result of Israel's silent but unrelenting aggression against Lebanon, which in turn is part of a six-decades long Arab-Israeli conflict.”

Why is it that Israel can openly discriminate against Arabs and Palestinians—in practices reminiscent of the Apartheid regime—but cry foul and anti-Semitism and invoke the suffering of the Jewish people during the Holocaust whenever it is condemned? The complacence of the international community, namely the ‘west’, adds to the insult, and does not bode well for the Arab states in the region who see Israel’s existence and behaviour as a black sheep which everyone else has been forced to coexist with, despite the continuing harassment and dehumanising treatment of the Palestinians:

“Is it not understandable that Israel's ethnic preoccupation profoundly offends not only Palestinians, but many of their Arab brethren? Yet rather than demanding that Israel acknowledge its foundational wrongs as a first step toward equality and coexistence, the Western world blithely insists that each and all must recognize Israel's right to exist at the Palestinians' expense.

Western discourse seems unable to accommodate a serious, as opposed to cosmetic concern for Palestinians' rights and liberties: The Palestinians are the Indians who refuse to live on the reservation; the Negroes who refuse to sit in the back of the bus.”

And this article suggests that the conflict is not just simply about religion. Religion may be a torch to garner support and awe, but in the Middle East of today—and the global war on terror for that matter—religion is a side issue, overshadowed by the other materialistic (as opposed to spiritual) motivations:

“All fighting parties in the Middle East appeal to God. By this, the impression existst that the conflicts in the region are religious conflicts: Jews against Muslims, Muslims against Christians, Shi’tes against Sunnites. These conflicts revolve in fact not around theological differences, but around land and power.

Arabian politicians have raised the manipulation of religion to a form of art."
>>Dirk Vlasblom, ‘Conflicten Midden-Oosten zijn niet religieus’ [Conflicts Middle East are not religious], 21 July 2006, NRC Handelsblad

"Let us leave the anti-Semitism, which indeed existed in Europe, out of it. In many centuries and in many countries Jews and Arabs have lived together peacefully. Now that European anti-Semitism has led to the establishment of the state of Israel, I see the war between Lebanon and Israel in the same light as for example the war between Iraq and Iran. The way in which Shi’ites are now suddenly painted as dangerous devils is laughable if you think about how the American invasion in Iraq was argued for by pointing to the way Saddam Hussein persecuted the Shi’ites in that country. Countries have inhabitants and inhabitants have religion, but that is no reason to give every war a religious tint.”
>>Grijs, ‘Vergissing’ [Mistake], p79, 5 August 2006, Vrij Nederland

“Enduring Freedom” has become synomynous with ‘enduring chaos’. There is no solution to ending the daily car bombs, suicide attacks, attacks and counter attacks, even with the newly installed governments that the US seems all too naively want to believe would placate the local populations in Iraq, and beyond. It is an illusion that neocons in Washington invest in the faith that regime change will cure all of the ills in the Middle East:

“[…] the democratic tinkering, that the ‘war against terror’ would have to be concluded by installing pro-western elites from bourgeois social backgrounds in power, has in most countries where free, or half-free elections have taken place, lead to reasonable gain for anti-western, Muslim fundamentalist parties. This has happened from Iran up to and including Pakistan, through Kuwait, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Bahrein. The electorate refused to approve of a one-sided American politics, [the results of] which the Arabic satellite broadcasters show the meaninglessness of daily: the chaos in Iraq as a result of the occupation.”
>>Gilles Kepel, ‘Eind van de unilateral illusie’ [End of the unilateral illusion], p82, 5 August 2006, Vrij Nederland

The stance the US is taking towards the current conflict—ie no stance—exposes the very selfish and hypocritical interests the world’s military superpower and advocate of freedoms.

“[…] democratisation [is for] Washington no longer priority, to the relief of the authoritarian regimes and to the embitterment of the democrats of the Middle East. The latter feel especially betrayed because the US has done nothing in Lebanon, the only country where elections did not lead to a Muslim fundamentalist victory, to protect the country against attacks from Israel. [Not] even in demanding a ceasefire.”

And then there is the ongoing maltreatment of the Palestinians, which is a rallying cause for all Arabs, regardless of their religious faith. Anneke Mouthaan--co-founder of 'Een Ander Joods Geluid' [A Different Jewish Voice], which is concerned about the absence of peace and justice in the region, and critical of Israel's continuing oppressive behaviour-- says:

"Gaza, which Israel has now pulled out from, isone big prison with 1.4 million people inside. The Palestinians may not rebuild their harbour, not use their airpor, the borders are cordonned off by Israelis. They cultivate flowers and fruits there, but if Irasel hinders the exports thereof, the whole lot rots. In the past past two years the economy there went further down the drain. For many Israelis Palestinians are people you do not need to take into consideration. I heard children say: Palestinians are cockroaches."
>>Malou van Hintum, 'Volgens Anneke Mouthaan' [According to Anneke Mouthaan], p6-8, 12 August 2006, Vrij Nederland