AT: Israel Wars (From Terrorist Attack)

AT: Israel Wars (Other Countries)

In the 1967 Arab-Israeli war - and repeatedly since - Israel has shown its clear military supremacy. So dominant has been Israel's advantage in both technology and tactics that former foes such as Jordan and Egypt sued for peace in those wars, while Tel Aviv's avowed enemies - Syria and Iran - have turned to backing terrorists.

At this moment, the calculus doesn't appear to have changed. There is no coalition of Arab governments willing to unite militarily against Israel. Syria's military prowess has crumbled since the fall of the Soviet Union - its greatest benefactor - while Iran remains too geographically remote to strike effectively.

The result is a new paroxysm of the proxy war that has existed in the region for a generation - ebbing and flowing as Hizbullah, armed and financed by Iran and Syria, harass Israel without provoking a major Middle East war, military analysts say.

"No state is willing to deal with Israel conventionally," says Seth Jones, a terrorism expert at the RAND Corp.

The shape of the conflict so far - sparked by Hizbullah's raid into northern Israel and capture of two Israeli soldiers - reveals both the capabilities and limitations of each side.

Historically, Hizbullah has been able to do little more than nip at Israel's northern border with incursions and sporadic rocket attacks. By and large, its arsenal is primitive, comprising various short-range rockets that can destroy buildings only with a direct hit, yet are difficult to aim with any precision. It has continually fired rockets into northern Israel.

AT: Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

1. Israel Palestine conflict won’t escalate or spark other conflicts

Yes, it would be nice if Israelis and Palestinians could settle their differences, but it would do little or nothing to calm the other conflicts in the middle east from Algeria to Iraq, or to stop Muslim-Hindu violence in Kashmir, Muslim-Christian violence in Indonesia and the Philippines, Muslim-Buddhist violence in Thailand, Muslim-animist violence in Sudan, Muslim-Igbo violence in Nigeria, Muslim-Muscovite violence in Chechnya, or the different varieties of inter-Muslim violence between traditionalists and Islamists, and between Sunnis and Shia, nor would it assuage the perfectly understandable hostility of convinced Islamists towards the transgressive west that relentlessly invades their minds, and sometimes their countries.

As the situation in Iraq remains dire, various detractors of Israel have once again rolled out an old and long-discredited fantasy. The Israeli-Palestinian dispute is the core regional issue, they say; end it, and all other Middle Eastern problems - including Iraq - will resolve themselves. Known as "linkage," this theory fails the test of simple logic and is thoroughly refuted by history. It should be evident to the most casual Middle East observer that even if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were to be satisfactorily resolved, Sunnis and Shia would continue to fight each other in Iraq and in other countries throughout the Middle East. This conflict is a schism within Islam that stretches back to the seventh century. It has absolutely nothing to do with Israel. The Israeli-Palestinian problem isn't the reason why Syria is meddling in Iraq and seeking to re-assert control over Lebanon. It doesn't explain why Iran is attempting to develop nuclear arms and pursuing its age-old ambition of dominating the Persian Gulf region. And it has little to do with al-Qaeda's quest to topple Muslim governments deemed insufficiently committed to the principles of Islamic fundamentalism. Neither does Israel have any effect on the region-wide problems identified in the authoritatively documented reports issued by the U.N. Development Program: corruption, illiteracy, economic stagnation and a lack of political freedom. Only the most outrageous of the world's conspiracy theories could hold Israel responsible for imposing these problems on its neighbors. The emergence of a Palestinian state would yield no material benefit to the one in five Arabs who lives on less than two dollars per day. It wouldn't diminish the temptation for unelected autocrats to steal from their people. And it would not affect the region's staggering illiteracy rates or provide education to the 10 million Arab children who receive no schooling at all.