The ironies of the Middle East are rich indeed. On Wednesday, Hizbullah head Sayed Hassan Nasrallah praised the work of Israel’s Winograd Commission, which on Tuesday issued an Interim Report that blasted PM Olmert, defense minister Peretz, and former chief of staff Halutz for taking Israel to defeat in last summer’s war in Lebanon.
Nasrallah praised the Commission’s report on two main grounds:
- 1. For saying forthrightly that Israel’s war effort had indeed resulted in a defeat– an outcome that various Israeli leaders and their apologists elsewhere in the world have been desperately trying to hide and/or fudge or reframe ever since both sides’ guns fell silent last August 14th; and
2. For acting in a responsible and publicly accountable way to hold Israel’s existing elected leadership to some form of effective public account.
Are you surprised about this apparent endorsement Nasrallah gave to the state of democracy inside Israel?
Don’t be. This is an ongoing twist in the long-running and big-stakes conflict of wills he’s been fighting against Lebanon’s own PM, Fouad Siniora.
Here’s what Nasrallah said in that general regard:
- “It is worthy of respect that an investigative commission appointed by (Israeli Prime Minister Ehud) Olmert condemns him,” Nasrallah told a crowd at the opening of a book fair in a south Beirut neighborhood complex that was rebuilt after being leveled by Israeli warplanes during the summer fighting.
“Even though they’re our enemies, it is worthy of respect that the political forces and the Israeli public act quickly to save their state, entity, army and their existence from the crisis,” the Shiite Muslim cleric added.
And here’s Siniora’s reaction to the commission report:
- Saniora… did not offer any praise for Israel and instead called on the deeply divided Lebanon to unite. He warned that Israel could be planning future attacks to restore its credibility.
“I call on my Lebanese brothers to unite in the face of what Israel might be seeking to launch against Lebanon,” Saniora said.
Saniora’s government has been facing a campaign by the Hezbollah-led opposition to force it to resign. Hezbollah officials accused the majority of conniving with the Israelis to destroy the pro-Syrian and pro-Iranian guerrillas.
Siniora is one of many Bush-supported, high-level pols around the world (think Olmert, Paul Wolfowitz, Alberto Gonzales… ) who are today desperately trying to hang onto their positions in the face of rising protests centered primarily on the roles they played in various Cheney-orchestrated war ventures around the world.
Regarding Olmert, yesterday he managed to beat off the challenge that his foreign minister Tzipi Livni had mounted to his leadership of the Kadima Party and also the government.
Evidently Livni had failed to do adequate homework inside Kadima’s leadership circles before she announced her challenge to Olmert in public. She failed to receive enough backing for her challenge to work, so she emerged from yesterday’s events looking a little foolish and whiny.
Meanwhile, all these political goings-on inside Kadima’s leadership circles allow Israel’s government to continue to avoid engaging in any serious way with any aspects of the Middle East’s urgently needed peace diplomacy. Or rather, they “allow” this to happen because, basically, the ever-permissive (to Israel) Bush-Cheney government allows them to allow it to happen.
Today, the big street protests against Olmert are coming together in Tel Aviv. Not sure yet what effect they will have, though my expectation is still that because of the widely mixed and still fluid nature of the demonstrators’ politics their effect will be unclear and most likely indecisive.
I have no patience for “Sayed Hassan” trying to leach off of the Winograd the same way NeoNazis have tried to leach off of the Mearscheimer and Wal report for their own warped agendas. In a perfect world Hezbulloh would be all by themselves in the middle of nowhere, and then the war would’ve been justified (if probably still bungled by the poor Israeli leadership). The loss of 1000 civilian lives and the destruction wrought upon Lebanon were the reasons to oppose the war.
If Nasrallah had a conciliatory message to go with his comments for the report, like say to redefine the mission of Hezbullah from the destruction of Israel to the defence of Lebanese territory and sovereignity, then his comments would be valid.
Inkan,
Give me a break; Israel went out of its way to bomb civilian targets in Lebanon. Their thought was that this would turn the Lebanese public against Hezbulloh. This is an old strategy for Israel.
Furthermore, Israel had planned this outrageous war long in advance of the specific incident that served as a casus belli.
I suppose your “leach” comment derives from some sense that this report gives aid and comfort to your enemy. That may or may not be true, but you can hardly take Nasrallah to task for saying what he wishes about it.
Hezbulloh is a far more legitimate group then the neo-nazis. As far as I am concerned the ones who resemble the nazis are the Israelis.
So what’s happening in Lebanon? A stalemate? Neither side having the ability to overpower the other? But is it just life goes on?
Edq, I did say that I oppose the war because of the endangerment of civilians, and I didn’t comment on when the war was planned. A war against Hezbullah would be justifiable in an ideal situation, because of Hizbullah’s stances rather than any capture of soldiers. But the risk of civilian lives made that option undoable.
And no, the leach comment derives from someone trying to construe aid and comfort from a very necessary report.
“A war against Hezbullah would be justifiable in an ideal situation, because of Hizbullah’s stances rather than any capture of soldiers.”
Kill them for what they say, not what they do?
“I didn’t comment on when the war was planned”
It’s amazing how the Lebanon war has caused so many otherwise intelligent people to forget the meaning of “contingency plan.” I suggest that edq actually read the Winograd report, which makes clear how very unplanned the war was.
May God Almighty bless and protect you, Sayyed al-Muqawwamah, Al-Mujahid Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
“It is regretful that we the Arab world and Lebanon are waiting for an Israeli commission to settle for us this dispute and to tell us ‘seriously you have won and we (Israelis) were defeated,'” Nasrallah said.
[snip]