Paul Larudee, in an article on Counterpunch, posits that Israel today is trying to realize the vision of Ben Gurion who believed that Israel’s natural northern border should be the Litani river. He points to attacks against civilian targets and the repeated massacres as a means of causing mass evacuation, the largest in the region since 1948, and thus clearing the way for Israeli settlements. He also points to cutting of roads and bridges to the south as a means of delineating an area of future Israeli control. All of this mirrors the actions taken by the Zionist forces leading up to the creation of Israel, sans the Palestinians.

I’m not sure if this theory provides a complete explanation behind Israel’s motivation for engaging in this barbaric assault, something that the author acknowledges. But I do concede is that there is a very good likelyhood that there are some in Israel who subscribe to this belief whether consciously or unconsciously. Expansionism is woven into the fabric of Israeli society and implanted into their psyches and it’s unlikely that they will divorce themselves from expansionist dreams since their very existance is based on usurping land from others.

I think a more reasonable explanation for Israel’s actions is to understand that their are several competing and intersecting interests, motivations and obsessions. Expansionism is definitely one of them, along with an out of control military-industrial complex both in Israel and the US, an ideology of racial supremacy and untouchability, as well as the Iran-oil theory proposed by Juan Cole and a few others.

Whatever the reality is, let’s just hope that we don’t have to launch a right of return campaign for the south lebanese refugee in the coming years.

-Tineen