Hague responds to criticism over his Israel comments

William Hague has written an opinion piece in the Times this morning that is clearly a direct response to the criticism directed at him by Lord Kalms in this weeks Spectator. Kalm's has said: "Criticising Israel for being disproportionate without serious consideration of the alternatives merely mouths the buzzwords of the ignorant armchair critic. Think again, William, for whom you speak."

It seems that Hague has indeed thought again, and in the second paragraph is clear that "[t]he origins of the current conflict lie in Hezbollah’s aggression. As terrorists they should be condemned, rather than enjoy the encouragement and assistance of Syria and Iran.... Israel’s demands for the return of captured soldiers, an end to rocket attacks and the complete disarmament of Hezbollah in accordance with UN Resolution 1559 are wholly legitimate."

However, he does again repeat the charge that the response of Israel has been "disproportionate". I'm not sure I personally agree with this. After all, such a term seems to be predicated on a belief that military conflict is somehow like World GP, where the equipment competing sides use must be the same and the skill of the drivers and team strategy are what helps you win. If Hizbollah fire only missiles into Israel, then Israel should fire only missile into Lebanon. You can bet though that the pictures showing the afternmath of an Israeli missle would be in the paper and people would call it "disproportionate" still.

What genuinely bothers me about this situation is that Lebanon are the ones that started the crisis by firing rockets deep into Israel, and yet nearly all comment or coverage appears to portray Israel as the agressive initiator of the crisis, rather than the injured party of an unprovoked missle attack on it's territory by a failed state run from afar.

Boris Johnson summed it up beautiful in his commentary in the Telegraph today when he said: "Whatever the hideous shambles of the past few days, it is still true, in principle, that when Israeli rockets kill civilians, they have missed their targets, and that when Hizbollah rockets kill civilians, they have scored a deliberate hit.