Jordan Times,
Jordan
For U.S. and Israel, It's 'Mission Unaccomplished'
By George S. Hishmeh
August 11-12, 2006 Edition
Jordan - Jordan Times - Home Page (English)
Whatever
course is taken to end the carnage after Israel's bloody and disproportionate
overreaction and destruction of southern Lebanon, the high-sounding objectives that
the Bush Administration has set for itself in the Middle East - democracy and
freedom - will remain unaccomplished, if not a laughing stock. If there is any
hope of a sound regional settlement, it will not come before a new U.S.
administration takes over three years hence.
The
fumbling that took place, particularly over the past month, underlines the
failure of the Bush Administration (and its Israeli partner, Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert) to learn from the experiences of its predecessors. The most important
lesson goes as far back as the Vietnam War when all of America's might couldn't
break the back of the Viet Cong, which successfully evicted the Americans from that
Southeast Asian nation. Indeed, similar Hezbullah's performance when it
compelled Israel to unceremoniously withdraw from southern Lebanon.
Had
Washington digested this historic lesson, it wouldn't have given the "green
light" to Israel's inexperienced prime minister, and his defense minister, Amin Peretz. Both were bent
on showing their mettle but were instead humiliated in the process. According
to some reliable accounts, Olmert promised the Americans that he'd subdue Hezbullah
in a week's time.
Hezbullah's
performance in showering northern Israel with rockets and creating havoc in
Haifa, the country's third largest city, speaks volumes and cuts down to size
the world's fourth largest military power - something no Arab regime has been
able to do since the founding of Israel in 1948. In fact, Arab governments which
were initially critical of Hezbullah's daring actions, which could have been
resolved diplomatically as was the case in the past, have in the end come
around to support their kith and kin.
But it is
the rationale of President Bush and his Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, as
enunciated at their impromptu press conference earlier this week at the
American leader's vacation home in Crawford, Texas and which
baffled their audience. They left no doubt that through their lopsided U.N.
draft resolution, their intention was the elimination of Hezbullah as a
fighting force. The resolution, surprisingly supported by the French
government, calls for an "immediate cessation of all attacks by Hezbullah,"
while Israel was only asked to cease "offensive military operations - a
point the two American leaders stressed repeatedly. They also used the words "root
cause" eleven times to describe Hezbullah's capture of two Israeli
soldiers as the incident that triggered the war, but not once did they recognize
Israel's colonialist policies, whether in holding Lebanese and Palestinian
prisoners or the occupation of Arab lands in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon for
almost 40 years, as the main factor.
'Hezbullah rockets demolish the myth of Zionist invincibility.'
[Al-Khaleej, U.A.E.] (above).
'Chirac collaborates with U.S.-Israel against Lebanon.'
[Ad Dustour, Jordan]. (below).
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Even the
abduction last week of patients from a hospital in Baalbek (one allegedly a Hezbullah operative), a barbaric action in itself, or the
kidnapping of the speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Aziz Dweik, from his home in Ramallah, was not met with condemnation from the White
House or the State Department.
Even if
one compares the death toll on either side, it is noteworthy that the Lebanese
suffered more civilian deaths. A third of the more than 1,000 Lebanese killed were
children under the age of 12. Only about 30 Israeli civilians lost their lives
in the artillery exchanges while the Israeli military lost 60 soldiers since
the fighting began on July 12.
In any
case, Hezbullah is there to stay, certainly as a major political force inside
Lebanon, and the sooner the world adjusts to that fact the better it will be
for all. Whether it keeps its arms should be a matter for the Lebanese
government. Prime Minster Fuad Siniora's offer
(backed by the two Hezbullah Cabinet members) to send 15,000 Lebanese troops to
the border area north of Israel was a masterstroke. There is no excuse for
anyone to turn down his proposal, which hinges on Israel's willingness to
promptly withdraw its troops from the areas they managed to hold after four
weeks of fighting.
It's high
time that the United States and Israel abandon their ill-conceived arm-twisting
approach to resolve international problems as attempted in Lebanon, which so
far have yielded no results for either. History, no doubt, will bear me out.
VIDEO FROM QATAR: BRITISH MP GALLOWAY SAYS
ARAB RULERS IN BED WITH FOREIGN OCCUPIERS
Al-Jazeera, Qatar: Excerpts from an interview with British MP George Galloway, August 8, 00:06:24, MEMRI
"Two of the Arab world's beautiful daughters, Jerusalem and Baghdad, are in the hands of these foreigners, these occupiers, and nothing can be done by the Arab rulers, because they are in bed, fornicating with the foreigners, who are occupying and using these beautiful Arab daughters as they will."
British MP George Galloway
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