For the past seven years the Bush administration has pursued an often ruthless campaign to impose and maintain a complete ban on any of its allies having dealings with the states and entities– labeled “terrorist”– that it has sought to quarantine and where possible overthrow.
Last week, we saw many significant fissures in the Quarantine Wall. Longtime US ally Fouad Siniora concluded a (Qatar-mediated) peace agreement with Hizbullah that led to the speedy end of Lebanon’s months-long government/constitutional crisis. The Olmert government in Israel revealed that it was engaged in a Turkey-mediated peace negotiation with Syria. More news emerged of Olmert’s ongoing attempts to conclude an Egypt-mediated ceasefire agreement with Hamas…
And this week, we have news of two additional breaches in the Bushists’ Quarantine Wall:
- 1. Israeli sources have revealed that their government is close to concluding a prisoner-swap agreement with Hizbullah; and
2. Palestinian Pres. Mahmoud Abbas reportedly met last night with a senior delegation from Hamas.
Oh my goodness, locally generated and (generally) locally mediated peace and reconciliation efforts seem to be breaking out all over!
Hallelujah!
And the US government, which for 35 years maintained a near-total monopoly over all the region’s diplomacy (a) is not involved in these new peace and reconciliation efforts– not surprisingly, since all of them involve serious dealings with movements and governments that Washington has worked to quarantine, crush, or overthrow; and (b) is suddenly incapable of reining in its allies and stopping this crumbling of the Quarantine Wall.
In the case of the emerging Israel-Hizbullah deal, Haaretz reports this:
- Israeli sources on Monday said that Israel and Hezbollah had struck a deal securing the release of two Israeli soldiers, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, captured by the Lebanon-based militant group in a July 2006 cross border raid that sparked the Second Lebanon War.
The sources explained that in exchange for the captives, Israel would release [Samir] Kuntar, a Lebanese militant currently imprisoned in Israel for the 1979 murder of a Nahariyah family, an Israeli citizen jailed for espionage on Hezbollah’s behalf and four other Hezbollah men captured by Israel during the 2006 war. The deal reportedly will also include the return of the remains of ten Lebanese, currently held by Israel, to Hezbollah.
Earlier on Monday, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah hinted that a prisoner swap would soon be completed, telling supporters in Beirut that Kuntar would soon be freed.
We should note that Hizbullah’s capture of Goldwasser and Regev was the casus belli that PM Olmert used when he launched his infamous, harmful (and very counter-productive) assault on Lebanon in 2006. The negotiated return of these two men– or is there a chance this will only be of their mortal remains? I am not sure if their being-alive has yet been established?– will therefore, when it happens, form an instructive coda to narratives of that tragic and unnecessary war.
we have news of two additional breaches in the Bushists’ Quarantine Wall:
Helena again your reading went far from the reality might your sympathy with Hezbollah drives your thoughts far here.
US/Bush flows weakening put that not means ME rulers are recovered their courage to rule their own countries.
As before Iraq invasion all these states have hand what happen in Iraq from invasion to the distraction of the state of Iraq in some way or another made US looks so ugly to the ME people. This made the ME rulers recover or they change their attitude to looks better for their own citizens by distancing themselves from Bush, the fact is NOT…
Bush and US still move these dummy rulers to do the job whatever things happen in Lebanon or elsewhere its because US in needs for this change to cover and to pick the attentions far from Iraq invasion.
This real scenario that US keep doing in ME it’s not for 5 years its long stand from the day Roosevelt met with King Abdulaziz Bin Abdulrahman al-Saud on board the USS Quincy in El Suas Canal
BTW, there is an article in Alsharq Alawsat by Ma’amon Findy about same issue good reading what’s happening recently with Dubai mandate and Lebanon drama
“Dubai mandate” should be Qatari mandate apologies.
Btw, Now new tension start rising between UAE and Iran about three Arab Islands that Iran invaded and still refusing any talk about them.
UAE aske Russia to be the medianition partner the Iranian refused this and aske for dialoge between UAE and Iran. UAE official replied that Iran continuing thier refusal to talk or to take the case to intrnation tribonal for deacdes.
Helena, if Samir Kuntar is released as part of this swap … among his convictions was one of having bashed in the head of a 4 year-old child …?
This would seem to give an extra dimension to the Israelis long term refusal to release prisoners with Israeli “blood on their hands”. Or has something changed?
What do you think the Israeli political reaction would be? Would it all but guarantee Netanyahu and Likud winning the next election with ease? Or has Israel’s domestic political scene changed that much that the Israeli public would be sanguine about this release?
Helena, if Samir Kuntar is released as part of this swap … among his convictions was one of having bashed in the head of a 4 year-old child …?
This would seem to give an extra dimension to the Israelis long term refusal to release prisoners with Israeli “blood on their hands”. Or has something changed?
What do you think the Israeli political reaction would be? Would it all but guarantee Netanyahu and Likud winning the next election with ease? Or has Israel’s domestic political scene changed that much that the Israeli public would be sanguine about this release?
Yes, the crimes that Kuntar has been convicted of were certainly very grisly ones.
The Israeli mantra about “not releasing prisoners who have Israeli blood on their hands” is of course quite understandable in human terms. It is also frequently actively used to whip up Israeli popular opposition to proposed prisoner releases. In the latter context, allegations regarding whether such and such a prisoner is thus tainted have frequently also been exaggerated.
And then, there’s the question of the concern of the Palestinians and Lebanese about the (very much heavier) casualties their own communities have suffered as a result of Israeli– generally Israeli security forces– actions. Is Palestinian blood or Lebanese blood any less valuable than Israeli blood? In the broad human scheme of things, surely not. So when Hizbullah is prepared to give up either the two soldiers (or their mortal remains), they, too are giving up individuals who, having been part of the Israeli security forces, can quite reasonably be associated with the shedding of large amounts of Lebanese blood over the 30 years that Israel has been undertaking aggressive military actions in and against Lebanon.
None of this is to excuse anyone’s bad actions.
Regarding whether giving up Kuntar might give added fuel to Likud in the governmental tussle, I’d say obviously yes, to some extent. But I imagine that for most Likud people the prospect of giving up Israel’s control over some portions of the West Bank is a much graver matter.
The difference between the arguably licit actions of the army of a sovereign state and a baby murderer is one that is not likely to be lost on the Israeli right, and, indeed, I suspect Olmert (yemach shmo v’zichro) will soon have a square named after him in central Tel Aviv if the deal goes through. The Israeli government lost any leverage it might have had by trading live terrorists for remains, and it will soon have to demand that the “grieving families” accept that, dead or alive, their sons are GONE and that negotiations will only lead to freed terrorists. The families of the missing have no right to demand that future innocent victims fall at the hands of released terrorists in order to assuage their uncertainty. I realize that this is a difficult issue for a democratic polity, but as such Israel must make the point that the lives of innocent citizens endangered by terrorist recidivism take precedent over the return of remains. And I have lost many, many friends in this conflict, some in known places, others in unknown, and a body to bury and a place to mourn never made such a difference that justice for the dead and security for the living should have been endangered.