Remember how we said it’s hot?
Apparently it’s getting hotter. The world seems to be on fire.
Heat’s gripping the Midwest and a tropical storm is bearing down on the East coast. The Missouri governor even asked the National Guard for help as hundreds of thousands lost power in 100-degree heat.
On the other side of the world, Iraqis are dying at the highest rate yet – around 100 per day – and Hezbollah and Israel are embroiled in a rocket war.
Blame Jesus
Okay, not literally. But making sense of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict (and consequently Lebanon, where Hezbollah hides) may require a Ph.D. It certainly requires more space than we have here and in fact may be unexplainable.
But in a nutshell, when Israel was formed by the United Nations in 1948, it was given the land it now occupies – land that was at the time in the hands of Palestinians. That made every other group in the nearby vicinity extremely mad, and they’re still mad. It’s partly territorial, partly religious, partly political (the U.S. is the biggest financial supporter of Israel), and partly functional (Israel sits along coveted coast line).
So, what is Hezbollah?
It’s just one of the groups mad at Israel. Technically Hezbollah means “party of God.” They’re a political organization in Lebanonwith seats in Parliament and they’re made up mainly of Shiite Muslims. [Shiites believe that their leaders should be descendants of the Prophet Mohammed, Sunnis do not.] The U.S.considers Hezbollah a terrorist group and believes Syria and Iran fund and arm them. Most definitions I’ve read say the group opposes Israel and the West.
Israel has a lot of military force to combat any attack, including Hezbollah’s. Bottom line, it’s all very complex. And sad, too.
