Iran times

I was born in southern Lebanon and have lived there my entire life—for more than 35 years—I was born in wars, lived through wars, and worked in their midst of these wars in relief and diplomacy. Arresting Netanyahu is not the be-all, end-all. The problem is Israel. I have lived through 8 different Israeli Prime Ministers and different extremist government; while Netanyahu's right wing extremist government is the most horrendous, but they are all cut from the same cloth. Promoting the blame on Netanyahu for the genocide and ecocide in Lebanon is misleading. The reality is, Netanyahu is not the disease, he is a symptom of it. The same things were said when Shimon Peres committed massacres in Lebanon in 1996—most horrific the Qana Massacre, when Israel bombed a United Nations center sheltering around 800 displaced Lebanese civilians. The same was said when Ehud Barak, Ehud Olmert, and Ariel Sharon committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Lebanon. Now, the same is being said about Netanyahu. If Netanyahu were arrested and removed today, would Israel suddenly stop being so problematic and a threat to world peace? No! The problem is not Netanyahu alone; it is Israel as a whole. It is not the fault of one war criminal leader or a specific warmongering political party. It is the system. Israel kills children as a hobby. This violent Israeli culture and mentality is not new. The Israel we see today is a byproduct of nearly 80 years of dehumanization and normalized violence against people in the Middle East. Israel has killed nearly 100,000 people—including 25,000 children—in 1,000 days in Middle East. That means Israel killed about 100 people every day for 1,000 days with complete impunity. They believe that Israelis must inflict violence on others in order to survive and thrive themselves. Israel does not want peace, Israel wants Palestine, a piece of Lebanon, and a piece of Syria—until now... Peace through strength is not peace. Peace through mutual respect is. Peace without justice is an illusion. And diplomacy can be made only with countries that respect international law. It's extraordinary that Israel can go on a mass murder and steal land from three neighboring countries simultaneously while you will look us dead in the eye and say Israel wants peace. We know who the enemy of peace is. it has a name, it is Israel.