Arab News,
Saudi Arabia
'Short-Sighted, Ill-Informed' Bush Fiddles as Lebanon Burns
EDITORIAL
July 14, 2006
Saudi Arabia - Arab News - Original Article (English)
Despite
growing international calls for restraint from the Europeans and Russians,
Israeli military aggression was last night threatening to unleash even more
chaos and bloodshed and ratchet up the tension in the region to a dangerous degree.
In harrowing scenes reminiscent of the 1982 build-up when it invaded Lebanon
for a second time, Israel has been bombing and shelling Lebanese sovereign
territory, has smashed the runways of Beirut Airport, and by blasting away bridges,
has effectively cut off the south of the country. The stage could be set for
yet another ground invasion, with all the misery and death that this will
bring.
Everything
about this Israeli response, first in Gaza and now in Lebanon, is utterly
disproportionate. Two weeks ago an Israeli soldier was seized by Hamas, who
demanded the release of Palestinian women and children held in Israeli jails in
return for the soldiers' freedom. Instead of talking, as has suited them in the
past, for two days the Israelis prepared themselves and then launched massive
punitive raids into Gaza, none of which brought them an inch closer to finding
the captured soldier.
Then
Hezbollah seized two more Israeli soldiers and made a similar demand for
Lebanese prisoners held in Israeli prisons. Almost immediately the government
of Ehud Olmert unleashed a string of assaults into Lebanese territory that had
clearly been planned long before. But if this was part of an attempt to save
the lives of its two soldiers, it was a misguided maneuver, since in the course
of these actions, eight Israeli soldiers were killed.
The truth
is that it suits Israel to destabilize its neighbors once more. After false
starts, Lebanon had finally achieved a reasonable level of economic and
political stability. The process of recovery after the long years of civil war
and occupation was well underway. But a newly confident, determined and independent
Lebanon is not something Israel wants. So when they had an excuse, the Israeli
military pushed the button on a well-oiled scheme to try and pitch the country
back into chaos.
Bush holds a German baby yesterday,
in Trinwillershagen, Germany.
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With the
Palestinians, as Israel's ruthless economic and political blockade
demonstrates, the task of repression is much easier. The speed with which
Israel stormed back into Gaza proves that the withdrawal never really took
place. It was just window dressing.
The only
response from Washington to Israel's military rampage has been to urge
restraint on its allies. Without serious protests from the United States, the
Olmert government knows that it can behave pretty well as it likes. By
characterizing any action against itself or its soldiers as terrorism while
insisting that its own murderous terror tactics are legitimate self-defense, it
has Washington firmly on side.
After all
hasn't the war on terror been the defining issue of the two-term Bush
presidency? A president as short-sighted and ill-informed as this one is not
about to learn from his grievous errors, no doubt in part because the greatest
human price is being paid in Arab blood and tears.
VIDEO FROM QATAR: PROGRAM ON TRAINING AND IDEOLOGY OF HAMAS
AL-JAZEERA TV, QATAR: A special program on the Hamas 'Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, July 4, 00:19:07, Via MEMRI
"The Jew who came to the land of Palestine is a murderous, criminal, plundering, and occupying Jew. This is the Jew we are fighting. As for the Jew who lives in his synagogue in Britain or American, we have nothing to do with him - over there. But if he comes to the land of Palestine, he is a combatant fighting us, and we will fight and kill him on the land of Palestine."
Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades In Training