Use your strengths

About the 'Middle-East' crisis, and I refer to the current crisis, the one between Israel, Hezbollah and Lebanon.

When you are in a negotiation, you are always told to use your strengths.

And that is what Israel is doing now.

Many 'people' are saying that Israel is 'over reacting' and I think is truth. But not for the same reasons they think it.

I think Israel got a 'strength' in Its dealings with their neighbours and the 'International Community'. And I mean 'strength' in two senses:

First they are the wealthy and, more important, the ones which have more 'guns'.

But secondly, this is also a strength in negotiations. This is 'the' point in which Israel is strong: they have more fire power than anyone in the region and the only one that have more fire power and can deploy it in that region is their main ally (the United States).

So they need to use their strength, in both senses (and now reversing them in the argument) they first need to make sure the conflict is mainly based on fire power and second, they need to use their fire power against their enemies.

If they are driven again from open fighting they will loose the conflict, not because they are bad diplomats, but because they have bad advertising advisors and the everybody is or against them or with them so they cannot use someone that it seems is neutral, but in really is with them as a mediator. The whole of Europe is openly with the Palestinian, the whole ex-communist countries are in the same situation, mainly because they provided weapons to the Palestinians to fight against Israel, China is in the same situation, and the United States is openly with them, so they are not going to be accepted by the Palestinians.

So they can not negotiate and win, or at least to impose their terms, so the best way to impose their terms, no matter how bad is for public image, is to fight openly, they already have the worst image they can have.

And the problem It was when there was an opportunity, and I don't mean an open gate, just a window (Hamas was going to open the gate of recognition of the State of Israel), of a peace process in the Palestinian problem, they just over reacted and began a major conflict after the kidnap of two soldiers by an splinter group.

I know their motives: they just don't want to negotiate with those groups and they want to show them It's bad to make that sort of actions.

But they knew before that, those attacks would diminish the power of the Palestinian Authority and would not show those groups to stop that kind of acts, but encourage them to do so. Those groups does not care about the well being of the Palestinian (or Arab) people, they just want to make politics. And the best way to make politics is to let the Israelis get into Gaza to attack and destroy, and watch as the Palestinians (and many other people around the world) does not blame for the destruction to the terrorist group which made the first move, but the Israelis who over reacted.

So later another group, not so splintered, kidnaps others Israeli soldiers, and wait for the Israeli response. More destruction, more bad publicity and more politics.

The right answer of Israel is not to over react, just react.

And look up for new strengths in their dealings in the Middle East. Their neighbours are getting closer to those strengths, just ask the people in Haifa.