Eric Margolis in the Toronto Sun on the current situtation in the Middle East:
All parties involved are to blame for this frightful mess: The Palestinians and Hezbollah for provoking Israel, and Israel for its continuing brutal repression of Palestinians and assassinating their leaders. But most at blame is the Bush administration whose catastrophically misguided Mideast policies have fed this crisis.
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict lies at the heart of Mideast troubles, and is the primary generator for anti-Western violence known as terrorism. It is a weary truism that no nation can bring about Mideast peace except for the United States.
But the Bush administration has been too obsessed by its losing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to pay attention to the Levant. U.S. Mideast policy is dominated by neoconservatives and Protestant fundamentalists aligned with Israel's expansionist right wing, leaving would-be peacemakers in Israel and the Arab World out in the cold.
The White House has given Israel a very public green light to go on pounding Lebanon. What deja vu. In 1982, the Reagan administration also gave Israel's Ariel Sharon a green light to invade Lebanon. The result was 15 years of mayhem, the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, and Hezbollah.
Israel and its enemies will eventually talk. It's only a question of how many civilians on both sides will die before this happens.
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OK, you didn't say that, but you have posted it so I assume that you agree with it. If not, please say so.
"The Palestinians and Hezbollah for provoking Israel"
That's the primary operative statement. Keep in mind that the Palestinians said they wanted Israel to pull out of the Gaza strip. Israel did. The Palestinians crossed the line and kidnapped an Israeli soldier. Six years ago Hezboolah said that Israel should get out of Lebanon. Israel did. There has been no Israeli activity there for six years. Now Hezbollah crossed the line, killed some Israeli soldiers and kidnapped two others.
Apparently you don't like Israel's response. So what do you think that Israel should have done? Should they just ignore what happened? For how long should they ignore these deliberate provocations? Remember that these are groups that STILL have an official policy to destroy Israel.
There are three "operative statements" as far as I'm concerned.
1. All parties involved are to blame for this frightful mess. [That includes the Bush administration.]
2. The Bush administration has been too obsessed by its losing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to pay attention to the Levant.
3. It's only a question of how many civilians on both sides will die before this happens.
It is fair to say that the Israeli response has be somewhat disproportionate and has lead to escalation. Few on either side seem to care about the innocents (on both sides) being killed.
Seeing this as a simple good/evil us/them issues - as many in Israel, Palestine and the US do - is simply false and can only lead to further escalation.
If you see this as a criticism of the Israeli government, that is because it is. They are hardly blameless in all of this.
That may all be true, but you didn't answer my question. What would you suggest that Israel should have done - at this moment, in response to two totally unaggravated attacks?
Israel pulled out of Lebanon, Israel pulled out of Gaza. They made two good-will gestures and now they are attacked again. What less aggressive responses should they have taken?
We are now seven days into this bloody mess. For what it's worth, I feel that a short, sharp retaliatory action followed by some attempt to work with the international community would perhaps have been more productive that the bloody morass that both sides are stuck in.
My point, such as it is, is not to blame Israel, but to point out that all sides are losing out here and the US administration needs to do more than just tacitly allow the hawks in the Middle East (which appear not to be the majority) have their way.
Truth be told, many in the Bush administration want there to be further chaos in the Middle East (and that's not to mention the end-timers in middle America). Witness, for example, this weekend's talk of World War III (or IV, whatever) and the ease with which Iran is being pulled into this toxic mess.
The losers here will be the non-combatants on all sides and, like the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, there will be no quick out.
Israel crossed the line when it started to systemicly destroy lebanon infrustructure. They are punishing all people of Lebanon. All connecting roads out of the country was bombed by israel. Foreigners are now being air lifted out. Power system and airport have being bombed. Israel is establishing a air, land, sea blockade of the country. The last time israel invaded lebanon, syria invaded as well. Strangely just as lebanon got rid of both israelis and syrians, the circumstances now brings both back.
"Iran is being pulled into" this conflict? Just how naive are you? Iran is *driving* it.
And the whole "Bush's fault" mantra applied to every ill of the world is getting *really* old, not to mention ignorant and childish. Shall we detail a) how far beyond the ability of any US President to resolve are these conflicts, and b) how the current whiners overlooked Clinton's failure to solve the world's problems?
As for this:
I don't even know where to start -- it's wrong from start to finish, and reveals a gross ignorance of the actual situation. The "Palestinian-Israeli conflict" is a favorite scapegoat, but has little if anything to do with the roots of Islamic terrorism outside of the West Bank itself. Don't take my word for it, read the writings of the terrorists themselves. Buying into this "it's the Palestinians" nonsense is as foolish as buying into Hitler's excuses about "Czech provocations".
And what idiot came up with the notion that "no nation can bring about Mideast peace" but the US? First, it's not within the power of the US to do it, period. Second, if it's possible at all, which is highly in doubt, it will have to involve the participants themselves making their own changes -- no externally imposed or brokered arrangement has a prayer of working.
And I hate to intrude on the starry-eyed fantasies of the Kumbayaa crowd, but peace won't occur in that region through treaties and ceasefires and handshakes. No matter how many concessions Israel makes (and let's face it, their enemies won't agree to *any* concessions, except as a ploy to buy time for the next intifada), it won't change the core problem -- jihadists who want to destroy Israel and commit genocide on its people. If peace ever comes to that region, and the prospects are doubtful, it will be as a result of one side utterly defeating the other militarily. Either the jihadists get their wish and and "peace" returns after another Holocaust renders the conflict moot, or Israel and/or its allies defeat the terrorists and, like in post WWII Germany, institute a new society that eliminates the madrassas which inculcate hatred of Jews into each new generation of Muslims.
Anything less is as doomed to fail as Neville Chamberlain's "peace in our time" appeasements of Hitler, and for exactly the same reasons.
Deal with it.
When was the last time you announced that Hizbollah or Hamas had "crossed the line"?
Israel is cutting off Hizbollah's supply lines, escape routes, and transportation for Iran and Syria's troops.
As a side benefit, they're causing Lebanon enough strife that perhaps they'll get serious about ridding their country of the terrorists within their borders, which is ultimately their responsibility. As long as they harbor Hizbollah, either actively or due to a desire to avoid the mess involved in ousting them, Lebanon will reap the consequences of allowing murderers to live in their garage.
As much as I enjoy the Israel bashing (trust me, it's much more fun when you're an Israeli), I have to disagree with the article on the fact that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the root of all evil. Fact is, Israel is simply the Emmanuel Goldstein (see, even the name fits) for the Arab and Persian nations. It is much easier to blame everything on the zionists then to actually improve living conditions.
Fact: Israel has nothing to do with the low level of education in Arab states.
Fact: Israel has nothing to do with the lack of education towards democracy in Arab states.
Fact: There will always be terrorism in any country, since there will always be nihilists who'd rather try to change the system violently then work from within it.
Fact: the cartoon riots, the pathwa against Rushdi, the Bali bombings, 9/11 etc. etc. were born from Islamic extremism which more often then not is turned against christians or moderate muslims.
Does anybody really believe that if Israel just disappeared one day all the swords will turn into ploughshares?
Don't think for a minute that I condone Israeli actions, or the occupation, i do not even think of them as necessary evils, but as inhuman evils which must be stopped. I just think that this is not the source but another symptom, since had the Arab nations accepted the 1948 UN resolution, the entire course of history would have changed.