As Israeli bombs and missiles rain carnage on Lebanon, world’s major powers still decry Hezbollah’s provocation. The capture of two Israeli soldiers and the subsequent deaths of six more as they entered Lebanon to free the two, has been widely accepted as a justification for Israel’s relentless air, sea and air attacks and blockades.
There are major holes in this justification. One, there are 10,000 Palestinian and Arab prisoners, mostly civilians, in Israeli jails and there is no legal or political route to their release. But the world doesn’t care.
Two, stonewalled by Israel’s intransigence on the prisoner issue the Hezbollah militia devised their own method for the release of Lebanese prisoners. Use captured Israeli soldiers, swap them for Lebanese prisoners. And it had worked in the past. Ariel Sharon and Ehud Barak had both agreed to such arrangements. For example in January 2004, Israel released about 400 Lebanese and Arab prisoners while Hezbollah returned an Israeli colonel and the bodies of three soldiers under a German-brokered deal.
Three, Israel was intent on destroying the Hezbollah at an opportune moment. Israeli’s military strategists claim that Hezbollah’s rockets arsenal has been growing. Zvi Shtauber, former head of strategic planning for Israel’s armed forces and now head of Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv told the Economist (July22-28) that, “It was clear we couldn’t live with the missiles...the question was when to do it.” Israel opted to use the arrest of soldiers as a pretext to remove what it had concluded was a threat to its security.
In search of security Israel resorted to state-terrorism in Lebanon that produced the carnage. Instead of engagement and compromise, death and destruction of the opponent has been a key element of Israel’s security strategy. Palestinian and Lebanese guerrilla leadership is routinely assassinated, causing death to innocent civilians — “collateral damage.” On July 23 BBC reported that Jan Egeland, the chief of UN Emergency Relief was shocked that in southern Beirut “block after block” of buildings had been leveled by Israel’s bombings. England said Israel’s “disproportionate response” was a “violation of international humanitarian law.”
Moreover the mass-scale destruction of roads, bridges and trucks will make aid distribution difficult even when Israel allows docking at the Beirut port.
The world has facilitated Israel’s continuing crime. As always, the muted Arab and Muslim response is inconsequential. UN’s early murmurings about “disproportionate” response were initially ignored.
Led by the United States, the international community has given Israel a carte blanche to do whatever the Jewish state considers necessary to promote its security. This was conveyed by the mildly worded G-8 Summit statement. Unfortunately Israel will never be held accountable; nor is it expected to abide by any international norms.
Washington has emerged as the chief accomplice as Israel seeks security by inflicting mayhem on another people. Surely this is a disservice to a close friend. The attempt to discuss the Lebanon situation in the UN Security Council was vetoed by the US. The US Congress, the House and the Senate both, passed resolutions supporting Israeli action. What is more, the US is reportedly rushing precision-guided bombs to Israel.
Equally shocking has been US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s handling of the situation. Israel’s relentless bombing and land attacks killing hundreds of Lebanese civilians, displacing half a million plus and reducing parts of Lebanon to rubble, according to Rice, signifies “the birth pangs of a new Middle East, and whatever we do we have to be certain that we are pushing forward to the new Middle East, not going back to the old one.” Her words would make for parody, if the backdrop weren’t unstoppable blood spilling in a region stretching from Afghanistan to Palestine.
Another Rice statement that “a cease-fire would be a false promise if it simply returns us to the status quo” conveys Washington’s position that the problem with the “status quo” is the presence of an armed Hezbollah. History’s lesson is different. The primary problem with the status quo is the unresolved Palestinian problem. Rest is the inevitable secondaries.
America’s promise of a brave new Middle East is increasingly being reduced to a ghastly joke. The list of blunders is endless. The US invasion has turned Iraq into a death zone. In Afghanistan, the New York Times has finally conceded, all is not well.
Meanwhile, the “Project democracy” in the Middle East too has gone sour. Washington welcomed the first democratically elected government in the region, the Palestinian government, with sanctions and censures. Lebanon, the other country with a democratic government, is being pulverized by Washington’s key ally.
Washington’s “ostrich with its head in the sand” attitude will not solve any of its Middle East problems. No matter what their problems, countries including Syria and Iran and groups like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Taleban, will have to be engaged. They constitute part of the current reality. Washington will ignore them at its own peril. A nuclear-armed Israel, a pacified Arab elite and a Palestinian people under constant siege can only provide the illusion of peace and stability.
