I am grieved by the death of Sayyad Hassan Nasrallah. He was a voice of reason and restraint. First it was Ismail Haniyeh – not Hamas’ military leader but their lead negotiator – and now Nasrallah! As Jonathon Cook recognises in his article, reprinted in part below, this is Israel’s desperate attempt to draw the entire region (and perhaps the whole world) into their conflict. I suspect they will be successful. 

Father Dave

In killing Nasrallah, Israel chose to open the gates of hell. We’ll all pay the price

by Jonathon Cook

Israel’s decision to assassinate Nasrallah, using some of the enormous bunker-busting bombs the United States has been arming it with, is beyond foolhardy. It is outright deranged. Israel has removed – and knows it has removed – a moderating influence on Hezbollah.

Israel’s action will achieve nothing apart from teaching his successor, and leaders of other groups and countries labelled as terrorist by western governments, several lessons:

* That Israel, and the West standing squarely behind it, do not play by any known rules of engagement, and that their opponents must do likewise. The current restraint from Hezbollah that has been so baffling western pundits will become a thing of the past.

* That Israel is not interested in compromise, only escalation, and that this is a fight to death – not just against Israel but against the West that sponsors Israel.

* That Israel’s ideological extremism – its Jewish supremacism, and its endless craving for Lebensraum – must be met with even greater Shia-inspired extremism.

Read the full article here.