Israel’s ongoing country-wide punishment of Lebanon, we have been told, is meant to convince Lebanon to take-back their country from “the terrorists,” to divide those who want peace with Israel from those who support Hizbullah. As Helena put it here yesterday, Israel’s approach to “dismantling” Hizbullah “seems to be… to put such horrendous military and destructive pressure on the country’s people that they would move to dismantle it themselves.”
Yet the opposite scenario may be materializing. Israel’s “divide and conquer” strategy, to get Lebanon’s population and government to turn against Hizbullah, is, ironically, producing new degrees of unity inside Lebanon – against Israel’s actions.
To be sure, we can find limited, yet significant evidence of Lebanese frustration with Hizbullah for having ignited the latest cataclysm befalling Lebanon. The BBC World Service provided a few examples appearing in pockets of the Lebanon press just yesterday (July 18):
Al-Mustaqbal, a pro-late Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri daily newspaper, says that “one did not need to be God or a fortune-teller to foresee the looming crisis in Lebanon and the clouds gathering over the region’s skies, starting with ‘Hezbollah’, the first beneficiary of the recent escalation, and the demands by the various Lebanese political forces before the USA and Israel that it should disarm”. Hezbollah “has given itself a new lease of ‘military’ life by kidnapping the two [Israeli] soldiers and setting the region ablaze”….
Al-Mustaqbal says: “The regional situation is an opportunity for Hezbollah to (…) give itself a reason to remain an independent armed organization outside the state and the Lebanese legitimacy”. But “maybe, Nasrallah and his allies were not expecting this violent and angry Israeli reaction or it [Hezbollah] was expecting such a reaction and was seeking total war. It wanted to drag us all into a large-scale crisis, or even into a new political reality in the region,” says Al-Mustaqbal.
BBC doesn’t mention the paper’s close association with Saudi interests, relevant as Saudi Arabia too has been loudly praised by Bush spokesmen for fixing blame on Hizbullah’s “adventurism.”
Other BBC examples include the Independent Christian Al-Nahar newspaper which characterizes Hizbullah’s “open war” as “not in the interests of anyone.” The independent Christian newspaper L’Orient Le Jour likewise complains that,
“if there was something which is really irritating, it is this contempt for human lives that these adventurers have always had, without even guaranteeing to the civil population the minimum conditions to hold on, while the guerrilla, which have violated all the rules of the social contract and national consensus, reiterate on a daily basis their intention to go all the way.”
Yet the BBC analysis of the Lebanese media also notes Lebanese complaints aimed at Israel and the US:
“In the independent Al-Diyar newspaper, Nazzar Abd-al-Qadir notes: “It is not possible to say that the USA is not responsible” for the damage caused by the Israeli army to Lebanon’s infrastructure. “I hold the USA responsible on the basis that Lebanon has been put under the US umbrella since the withdrawal of Syrian troops in June 2005,…”
Independent daily Al-Balad reports in an editorial that “if Israel wanted to confront Syria and Iran, it was wrong to take Lebanon hostage. Hezbollah is a genuine Lebanese issue, even though it has a regional dimension”. It adds: “If Israel wanted to wage a war against Iran and Syria, it knows where these two countries are.”
Patriarch Sfeir
Focusing further on Lebanese Christian voices, Lebanon’s Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir paid a call to Secretary Rice in Washington yesterday, and judging by reports of his peace activism the same day, the Patriarch wasn’t singing the Bush Administration’s “give war a chance” tune. According to a brief, if mangled State Department transcript of their public exchange, the Secretary claimed that the US is “working very hard to minimize the impact of the current conflict on the Lebanese people…. And I want you to know that we’re not only working very hard, but we’re also praying for the people of Lebanon.”
One may plausibly wonder what “working hard” entails. At last check, Secretary Rice was still saying the time was not right for the US to push for a ceasefire. According to the transcript,
Sfeir tells Rice that Lebanon is weak, and that Israel was placing Lebanon under attack and that his country did not have the means to respond: “When some are having arms and the others have not there is no equality.”
Rice replies, “Yes, well, the international community has to help you.” By that, she apparently meant that he enforcement of U.N. Security Council resolution 1559 that calls on Lebanon to disarm Hizbullah.
Sfeir is vaguely quoted as responding, “There’s a better way.”
Alas, in the hours and days after the Patriarch’s awkward appearance with Secretary Rice, Israel has been striking Lebanese Christian enclaves, including a hit on the St. Gregorius Church in Rachaya al-Fokhar. Coincidence? What possible connection does this church have to Hizbullah? Or did it too have a truck of any sort parked in front that might carry arms for someone?
The Daily Star
Whatever the levels of Lebanese “irritation” at Hizbullah, resentments are building within Lebanon at both Israel and the US. Take Beirut’s influential Daily Star, an English language paper in which the paper’s ordinarily “conservative” editor of its widely read opinion page, Michael Young, had initially laid partial blame on Hizbullah. By yesterday, (July 18) the Daily Star sharply editorialized that the “Israeli onslaught will strengthen, not weaken, Hizbullah’s popular appeal.”
“In the short-term, Israel may succeed in laying waste to Hizbullah’s arsenal of weapons. But even the complete destruction of Hizbullah’s military capabilities would do nothing to reduce the group’s political appeal. On the contrary, each slaughter only fuels the political sentiments that inspire resistance groups such as Hizbullah to take up arms – not only in Lebanon, but across the region. Bombs will not annihilate the desire for statehood, missiles will not force an acceptance of occupation, and shells will not wipe out the desire of refugees to have a place to call home. These are political sentiments that no amount of American-made weaponry can annihilate. In fact, over the last 58 years, Israel’s use of strong-arm tactics has consistently had the adverse effect of stirring these sentiments into a frenzy….
Failure to arrive at a political settlement will only ensure that this current conflict, which has been touted as a battle in a “war on terror,” will end up nurturing the exact same forces of resistance that it aimed to destroy.”
Today, 19 July, The Daily Star bitterly opines that:
“Seven days into Israel’s war on Lebanon, there is no hint of effective international diplomacy on the horizon. The Lebanese are being forced to accept that they are alone in the world, without a friend who can defend them against an undeserved onslaught….”
The paper blames all parties: The Syrians for being concerned only with “saving their own skins,” the Iranians for somehow using Lebanon to sweeten their nuclear dealings with the west, and the Saudis for “placing all of the blame squarely upon Hizbullah and Iran” and for
“not expressing a hint of outrage over the collective punishment and destruction in Lebanon. They apparently have adopted the belief that the more than 220 innocent civilians killed are among the “elements” in Lebanon who are responsible for the current crisis.”
Israel gets special condemnation for failing “to see the irony in the fact that their commanders have been pounding the very army that they expect to impose order over Lebanese territory.” And “the Europeans and the Americans” are chastised for “blindly following as the Israelis lead us all down a treacherous path.” The paper then concludes,
In these darkest of hours, with the skies of Lebanon and the brains of international leaders clouded by the haze of war, the Lebanese are desperately searching for an outstretched hand of diplomacy…. But the world has effectively abandoned the Lebanese people to their misery and turned a blind eye as they suffer the consequences of a decision that they themselves did not make. Instead of sending us their diplomats, the world is sending us its boats and buses for the refugees who hold foreign nationalities.
But for those Lebanese who cannot leave,
“their beloved homeland has been chosen as a battleground in which the Israelis will brutalize the Lebanese in order to teach the Iranians a lesson on behalf of the West. The war-weary Lebanese have no choice but to pay the ultimate price and once again bear the brunt of the consequences of world diplomats’ failure to resolve a crisis peacefully.”
YaLibnan
An even more bitter view of Israel is found on a popular Lebanese news site, YaLibnan, founded amid last year’s optimism over the “Cedar Revolution.” In a raw lament against Israel, Tony Nader writes,
“The only difference between the terrorist tactics employed by Israel and Hizbullah or Al Qaeda is the limitless access to weapons of mass destruction possessed by the state. The open vow of the Israeli premier to send Lebanon back twenty years demonstrates a severe lack of humanity….
While no one disputes the fact that Hizbullah started the fight, the ruthless attacks being waged have not harmed the militia in the slightest. On the contrary, it has done nothing but reinforce their very existence.
With the blessing of the U.S., Israel has waged the highest degree of terrorism upon the entire nation of Lebanon. Using American made fighter planes, warships, bombs and missiles, Israel has disregarded all compassion and reason in their unwarranted decimation of a sovereign nation.
Just 2 weeks ago most Lebanese were united in an effort to disarm Hizbullah and replace the militia with the Lebanese Army. Israel’s intervention into Lebanese affairs through the distribution of anti-Hizbullah propaganda and the current attempt to dissolve the militia by force is the worst possible way to solve this country’s dilemma…. All that Israel has done is reinforced their brutally tarnished image in the civilized world. The pro-Israeli lobbyists in Washington better stock up on lip balm as they continue their promotion of murder and destruction.”
Prime Minister Fouad Siniora
Perhaps the most important expression of Lebanon’s crystallizing bitterness towards Israel – and by extension the US – is found in stinging speeches by Prime Minister Siniora (who happens to be a Sunni Muslim). Amid Lebanon’s glorious “Cedar Revolution,” President Bush was all too happy to lionize Siniora’s leadership. As recently as 18 April 2006, after a meeting with President Bush, Prime Minister Siniora proclaimed on the White House South Lawn , that “I am really convinced that President Bush and the United States will stand beside Lebanon to have Lebanon stay as a free, democratic, united, and sovereign state.”
Siniora understandably now feels abandoned by his former American patron. Siniora’s speech today before a diplomatic audience, including the US Ambassador, deserves wide reproduction and contemplation. As such, I reproduce here in full: (text source is the Lebanon Embassy to the USA.
I have convened the diplomatic corps in Lebanon today to launch an urgent appeal to the international community for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and assistance to my war ravaged country. You are all aware that seven continuous days of an escalating Israeli onslaught on Lebanon have resulted in immeasurable loss: the toll in terms of human life has reached tragic proportions: over 1000 injured and 300 killed so far; over half a million people have been displaced; in some areas, the hospitals have been crippled and are unable to cope with the casualties; there are shortages of food and medical supplies; homes, factories and warehouses have been completely destroyed; UN facilities in Maroun El Ras and Naqoura have just been shelled, so have been army barracks and posts of Joint Security Forces; a civil defense unit has been wiped out and foreigners are being evacuated.. As I speak, the trauma, the desperation, the grief and the daily massacres and destruction go on and on. The country has been torn to shreds.
Is the value of human life in Lebanon less than that of the citizens of other countries?
Can the international community stand by while such callous retribution by the State of Israel is inflicted on us?
Will you allow innocent civilians, churches, mosques, orphanages, medical supplies escorted by the Red Cross, people seeking shelter or fleeing their homes and villages to be the casualties of this ugly war?
Is this what the international community calls self defense? Is this the price we pay for aspiring to build our democratic institutions? Is this the message to send to the country of diversity, freedom and tolerance?
Only last year, the Lebanese filled the streets with hope and with red, green and white banners shouting out:
Lebanon deserves life!
What kind of life is being offered to us now?
I will tell you what kind: a life of destruction, despair, displacement, dispossession, and death.
What kind of future can stem from the rubble?
A future of fear, frustration, financial ruin, and fanaticism.
Let me assure you that we shall spare no avenue to make Israel compensate the Lebanese people for the barbaric destruction it has inflicted and continues to inflict upon us, knowing full well that human life is irreplaceable.
You want to support the government of Lebanon? Let me tell you, ladies and gentlemen, no government can survive on the ruins of a nation.
On behalf of the people of Lebanon, from Beirut, Baalbeck, and Byblos, to Tyre Sidon and Qana, to each and every one of the 21 villages at the southern border, declared a no-go zone by Israel, to Tripoli and Zahle, I call upon you all to respond immediately without reservation or hesitation to this appeal for an immediate cease-fire and lifting the siege, and provide urgent international humanitarian assistance to our war-stricken country. I would also like to thank the international organizations and the friendly countries that have already extended their valued help and thank as well those who are preparing to do so.
Excellencies
We the Lebanese want life.
We have chosen life.
We refuse to die.
Our choice is clear.
We have survived wars and destruction over the ages.
We shall do so again.
I hope you will not let us down
Post Script:
Veteran Hizbullah observer Richard Augustus Norton outlined a similar analysis as the one presented above, on tonight’s PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. According to Norton,
It’s clear many Lebanese, including members of the Shia community in some cases, are very angry that Hezbollah has provoked this war. But at the same time, there’s a growing level of anger, I believe, based on reports from Lebanon and many discussions I’ve had with Lebanese over the last week — there’s a growing anger at Israel.
After all, Lebanese have already suffered more than 300 dead; most of those are civilians. A lot of the targeting that the Israelis are using to control lines of communications have made it effectively difficult for the Lebanese to have subsistence supplies.
Over the past two or three days, Israel has knocked out, for example, eight trucks, two carrying food, several carrying medicine. It was donated by the United Arab Emirates, others carrying water, equipment and so on.
So it’s going to be interesting to see how the mood, if you will, this bifurcated mood, in terms of Hezbollah on one hand and Israel on the other, develops. So I think this is a possible danger area
Indeed.
L in distress, just return the two soldiers that do not belong to you. Have your politicians talk to the Hizbullah politicians in your parliament and ask them to return the two soldiers. Pretty simple. Dying like insects is folish even by Menno Hert standards.
Maybe you can shed some light on the Daily Star editorial you quoted from:
Each slaughter only fuels the political sentiments that inspire resistance groups such as Hizbullah to take up arms…Bombs will not annihilate the desire for statehood, missiles will not force an acceptance of occupation, and shells will not wipe out the desire of refugees to have a place to call home.
What form of “statehood” is Hizbullah seeking for the Lebanese Shiites it represents?
“Occupation”? Does Israeli “occupation” of Shebaa Farms merit Hizbullah’s missile barrage on Haifa, Nahariya and today near the Christian holy sites in Nazareth?
“Refugees”? Huh? Shebaa Farms was unpopulated…what refugees?
Perhaps the newspaper was confusing Hizbullah (the Shiite junior partner in Lebanon’s current government) with Hamas (the Palestinian governing party).
No doubt Nasrallah sympathizes with Hamas but does he have the moral right to drag Lebanese, including his own Shiite Lebanese constituents, into a war with a neighboring country?
Does Lebanon have a mutual defense treaty with the Palestinians? Did the Lebanese parliament authorize the attack on Israel? the Lebanese Prime Minister?
“Israeli children sending gifts of hatred to their Arab counterparts in what is a systematic method of teaching children to kill others.”
Democracies Teaching for Israeli’s kids, “Peace Loving Nation” teach their kids Practical lessens on how to Hate, Kills Arabs……
http://www.aimislam.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=476
Salah, did you find this remark sickening?
May the zionists be wiped off of the face of the earth, InshAllah.
we could waste all day with pics like this:
http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/pictures/PalestinianChildAbuse/?imgIndex=2&autoShow=6
what on earth do you think it proves? It’s pornographic ethnic hatemongering. Judging from your links (neo nazis, holocaust deniers etc) you’re quite drawn to hateful sites like this. It’s sad and a total waste of time. It’s also likely to draw unwelcome attention to Helena’s site.
If Hizbulah dismantling happens, fine. If Lebanese uniting happens with Hizbulah ideas, also good. In the end there is an accountable Lebanon instead of non accountable militia ruling part of the country.
The Israilis action brings a good end in the end.
SamAdams, just return the hundreds of hostages and the land that does not belong to you and stop destroying things, and killing human beings as if they were insects. Start being a good neighbor instead of the neighborhood thug. You will be surprised how quickly Israel will be tolerated, and even accepted. Pretty simple, even by Israeli standards.
Of course, if you prefer eternal hostility over acceptance, then keep up the good work by all means!
“The current war, then, not only cannot provide a real answer to Israel’s problems, but also is being carried out by the same echelon of officers that was defeated in Lebanon, and with whom the accounts for that war have yet to be settled. Books were written, a protest movement arose, an investigative commission about one massacre was conducted, a defense minister who eventually became prime minister was convicted, and even though he is lying unconscious somewhere, his consciousness is apparently serving his pale shadows – Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Justice Minister Haim Ramon and Co. – and another generation of impassioned youngsters is growing up around us and screaming over the Internet: “Stick it to them.” Afterward, as they sit in the burning vehicles, perhaps in Syria, and the phrase “land mine” returns to the erased dictionary of the past, when they cry out “We want to go home,” they won’t have the sense to bequeath the recoiling from war to the next generation. That’s because on television there still will be the same generals, with the same conception, with the same short and limited range of strategic understanding, and they will win the same enthusiasm from the public that just wants to “stick it to them.”
It’s not too late to say enough
By Yitzhak Laor
“The current war, then, not only cannot provide a real answer to Israel’s problems, but also is being carried out by the same echelon of officers that was defeated in Lebanon, and with whom the accounts for that war have yet to be settled. Books were written, a protest movement arose, an investigative commission about one massacre was conducted, a defense minister who eventually became prime minister was convicted, and even though he is lying unconscious somewhere, his consciousness is apparently serving his pale shadows – Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Justice Minister Haim Ramon and Co. – and another generation of impassioned youngsters is growing up around us and screaming over the Internet: “Stick it to them.” Afterward, as they sit in the burning vehicles, perhaps in Syria, and the phrase “land mine” returns to the erased dictionary of the past, when they cry out “We want to go home,” they won’t have the sense to bequeath the recoiling from war to the next generation. That’s because on television there still will be the same generals, with the same conception, with the same short and limited range of strategic understanding, and they will win the same enthusiasm from the public that just wants to “stick it to them.”
It’s not too late to say enough
By Yitzhak Laor
And if the CNN and other polls are anything to go by it’s also uniting another polity. Slowly but surely.
The Likud uber alles crowd will be frantically pumping out chaff galore – the propaganda equivalent of the strips of tin foil to thwart radar – but a time lapse photograph would surely show that the “mood” is changing. A case of common sense and fundamental decency fighting back and beginning to overcome obscene amounts of money, special interests, spin, prestidigitation, etc.
In which connection, see this observation from Walt and Mearsheimer’s interview in Mother Jones:
“In essence, America’s present relationship with Israel could not withstand public scrutiny.”
I don’t think we can talk about any kind of unification in Lebanon under the Israeli pressure. Quite on the contrary, PR aside, what Israelis want is to launch a civil war in Lebanon between Hizballah and anti-Hizballah forces. In fact, this is exactly their position in WBG where they want Fatah to fight against Hamas.
Deatails are here:
http://inplainview.monitor.us.tt/comm.ME06.htm
2006-07-19 Will Turkey invade Iraq?
2006-07-17 Why Lebanon has blown up?
2006-07-14 Hizballah uses the attack drone
And other entries
The Likud uber alles crowd
Maybe you mean “Kadima uber alles” as Likud makes up less than 9 percent of the knesset, and the defense minister is from Labor.
it seems that Helena’s blog is important enough for the aipac crowd to read and respond to it – as seen by the entries of samadams and truesdell – maybe they will learn something, but i doubt – they will never learn
it seems that Helena’s blog is important enough for the aipac crowd to read and respond to it – as seen by the entries of samadams and truesdell – maybe they will learn something, but i doubt – they will never learn
Tony, I am not paid by any one, and I am always willing to learn, what can you teach me?
I learned today on the radio on the way to work that except for 9/11, Hizbullah is the terrorist group that has killed most Americans. Maybe you can teach me how to supress the satisfaction of seeing Hizbullah get some deserved payback.
ah, yes, when you are at loss to attack the argument, attack the poster – “Likud uber alles crowd” – as vadim pointed out, it matters little that Likud is a small minority of the Knesset, or “aipac crowd” – no doubt with the discredited Walt and Mearsheimer conspiracy screed in mind…at least noone here yet has been dismissed as a Jewish International Banker (is that redundant?) or a Zionist Hegemonist.
SamAdams had it right…
http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/05/30/iran.barracks.bombing/
I’ve read that Israel have attacked UN troops, and I’ve read that they’ve attacked Red Cross ambulances. Do they see these entities as their enemies too? Do they think actions like that will help them with their stated objective[s]?
http://rickwrites.blogspot.com/
And, now I hear that ‘all’ Americans are behind Israel. Well, that certainly says an awful lot about ‘all’ Americans, as far as the rest of the civilised world is concerned — if it’s true.
“I’ve read that Israel have attacked UN troops, and I’ve read that they’ve attacked Red Cross ambulances. Do they see these entities as their enemies too? Do they think actions like that will help them with their stated objective[s]?”
Are you surprised? These kinds of war crimes are nothing new at all, and Israel always gets away with them, thanks mainly to the USA. Don’t you know about their infamous murderous attack on the UN compound at Qana that killed so many Lebanese men, women, children and elderly who had sought refuge there from their bombing? If not, just google Qana and I am sure you will find plenty. As for attacking Red Cross and other ambulances, this is standard practice for the Israels, and also for the Americans in Iraq.
“I’ve read that Israel have attacked UN troops, and I’ve read that they’ve attacked Red Cross ambulances. Do they see these entities as their enemies too? Do they think actions like that will help them with their stated objective[s]?”
Are you surprised? These kinds of war crimes are nothing new at all, and Israel always gets away with them, thanks mainly to the USA. Don’t you know about their infamous murderous attack on the UN compound at Qana that killed so many Lebanese men, women, children and elderly who had sought refuge there from their bombing? If not, just google Qana and I am sure you will find plenty. As for attacking Red Cross and other ambulances, this is standard practice for the Israels, and also for the Americans in Iraq.
Don’t worry, Sophia, you’re not alone here. As John C. reminds us in another thread:
“Most popular support for Israel in the U.S. is rooted in paternalism, racism, xenophobia, superstition, tribalism and ignorance.”
“Americans” are barbarians, ignorant, xenophobes, stupid, etc. etc. Still, why oh why don’t they take our opinions seriously? Big mystery there!
To bad Arabs ain’t embryos.
Israeli aggression on Lebanon
Gruesome pictures, not work friendly.
The reason there is little real pressure on Israel to desist until they degrade Hizbollah’s terrorist potential is that it is well known that Hizbollah is an Equal Opportunity terrorist organization serving the Mad Mullahs in Teheran…In just one night in 1983 alone, for example, Hizbollah suicide truck bombers took the lives of 58 French and 241 American members of the international peacekeeping force dispatched to keep the peace in Beirut.
“The real problem with Israel’s tactics is they won’t, and can’t, work,” one former consul general in Jerusalem said. “They do the same thing over and over, and it always ends up the same, in more violence and more insurgents created.”
“Iran?” another man, a former ambassador, interjected. “Iran had to know. The Hezbollah strikes against Israel were planned well in advance. This was not a spur-of-the-moment thing.”
“We’ve had no direct relations with any of these Islamic and fundamentalist groups, or Syria and Iran,” another ambassador added, “and it’s always been said that the only thing worse than having contacts with the Syrians is having no contacts. So now we are out of the picture diplomatically. Ironically, now we have to depend upon third parties and the U.N. to make contact for us, when we should have been the fair-minded negotiator and mediator.”
MIDEAST CRISIS TOOK ADVANTAGE OF REGION’S INSTABILITY
As for the attacks, the level of infrastructural damage exceeds that of the 1982 Israeli invasion:
“srael is attempting to scare the Lebanese into submission by forcing us to remain in the country and not “escape.” This is terorism – in its purest form. Israel is attempting to besiege every major community in the country, to isolate us so that eventually we will “surrender” when there is a lack of food and medicine and other basic necessities. Already, numerous villages and the major city of Sour/Tyre have spoken about the lack of basic goods.”
Rania Masri
http://zennobia.blogspot.com/2006/07/from-lebanon.html
It all really comes down to this:
Lebanon can have peace/prosperity or an armed Hizbollah…it can’t have both.
Helena,
You knew Hezbollah and south Lebanon well, what surprised me that Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah he did not say nay word about what’s happing in Lebanon, so what your thoughts about him and why he chose to be silent?
Well, that certainly says an awful lot about ‘all’ Americans, as far as the rest of the civilised world is concerned — if it’s true.
Well Sophia, there are those that stand up to the Islamic agression, and there are the lap dogs that get slapped once by Islamic bombs and quietly sit down, like after the Madrid bombing. So far the Americans are standing up. As for the others, I hope Dante’s observation is correct: “The hottest places in hell are reserved for those that during great moral crises, maintain their neutrality”
Are there looting in Israel right now, its Farhud there in Haifa?!
” Why didn’t you call me? He can’t leave his house because of the hole in the roof; he’s afraid of looting.”
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/740950.html
It all comes down to this:
Israel can have peace, and acceptance by its neighbors or it can continue to be the neighborhood bully, stealing land and lives at will. The choice is Israel’s.
Well, yes, Shirin, I agree that this is Israel’s side of the peace equation. Pledge no agression to neighboring countries and shut down the settlements.
But the rhetoric on the opposing side also has to change. To convince Israel it can live in peace and acceptance by its neighbors its neighbors have to explicitly say they’re offering peace and acceptance. The rhetoric that has come from Hezbollah, Syria and Iran has usually said the opposite. Anti-Israel parties need to renounce “destruction of Israel” rhetoric to make it plainly obvious that peace and acceptance is only hampered by Israeli expansionism.
I have one question for those defending Israel actions. When are you going to admit becuase of the policy of invading Lebanon in 1982 they created Hezbollah? Do you remember the reason why they enter Lebanon and then how the mission changed (remember Mr Abu Nidal and the PLO in Lebanon) from erradicating the terrorists to an occupation of the country? Start owning your share of responsability of the problem.
Hey Hector, the west also created the cold war with communist Russia by defeating the Nazis. The next challenge is always the result of overcoming or surviving the previous one. So what? Hezbullah is 90% Iranian creation, and thus a result of Carter’s failure in dealing with Iran and France’s role in returning the triumphant Khomeini.
Check your history Squire Adams. (You might start with say, Robin Wright’s Sacred Rage or even Tom Friedman’s From Beirut to Jerusalem) But for the moment, it indeed was no less than former Israeli Prime Minister Rabin who later ruefully admitted that it was Israel – not Iran or anybody else – who “let the Shia genie out of the bottle.” Alas, such candid self reflection helped make a martyr out of him too….
“To convince Israel it can live in peace and acceptance by its neighbors its neighbors have to explicitly say they’re offering peace and acceptance.
Ummmmmm – they have. Many times. Better yet, they have made very specific proposals – a lot of them – and made it very clear what Israel has to do to gain peace and acceptance. Specifically, Israel has to withdraw from territories occupied in 1967, and it has to stop attacking other countries. That is what is required of Israel to gain peace and ultimately acceptance in the region.
Specifically, Israel has to withdraw from territories occupied in 1967
Bullfeathers. Up to 1966 Israel was in pre 1967 borders. What is exactly the meaning of Naqba? The problem is 1948 Shirin, stop deceiving yourself and others. Hamas wants everything, same message rrom Iran and Hizbullah. Be honest.
Shirin, please find me a reference to 1967 in Iran’s position:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/07/21/iran.letter.ap/index.html
BERLIN, Germany (AP) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made no mention of his country’s nuclear program in a letter to Chancellor Angela Merkel, but made statements about Israel and the Holocaust that are “not acceptable,” the German government said Friday.
“The letter contains … no statements on the Iranian nuclear program” and also does not address the current fighting in Lebanon, Merkel’s spokesman, Ulrich Wilhelm, told reporters. He said it was devoted largely to criticism of Israel and its right to exist.
“It contains many statements that are not acceptable to us, in particular about Israel, the state of Israel’s right to exist and the Holocaust.”
Dying like insects is folish even by Menno Hert standards.
Sam Adams, would you ever describe the Israeli civilians who have been killed as “dying like insects”?
Shirin, please find me a reference to 1967 in Iran’s position :
The best reference with you there living and supporting by your administration he is Shah Iran son he will tells you.
Can some one give us reference Iran helped and participated in Palestine front 1948 till now?
Where is Ahmadinajd fiery speeches and talk about Israel? It all fighting and support by words, like the millions he said to be send to Hamas…
Sam Adams, would you ever describe the Israeli civilians who have been killed as “dying like insects”?
I don’t want to speak for Sam, but I would say yes they are.
here is a website that is trying to help the situation in lebanon:
http://www.saveleb.org
here is a website that is trying to help the situation in lebanon:
http://www.saveleb.org