Mujahid Margolis writes

www.ericmargolis.com

DÉJÀ VU IN LEBANON

As Israel’s ferocious and relentless destruction of Lebanon’s infrastructure continues, veteran Mideast observers are experiencing a dismaying sense of déjà vu.

In early June, 1982, the Reagan Administration in Washington gave Israel’s then defense minister, Ariel Sharon, a green light to invade Lebanon. The inept US Secretary of State, Alexander Haig, told Israel’s Defense minister Ariel Sharon he could invade Lebanon, turn it into an Israeli protectorate, and crush the PLO once he had a suitable pretext.

The pretext came in the form of retaliation for the attempted assassination of Israel’s ambassador in London by the Abu Nidal group (which had nothing to do with PLO). Sharon’s real agenda was to crush the PLO and thus any hopes of a Palestinian state.

Twenty-four years later, the Bush Administration and Israel have provided the world – and this writer - a remarkable feeling of déjà vu as Israeli forces ravage Lebanon and threaten to once again invade its southern portion. Once again, a president totally ignorant of Mideast realities, a craven US Congress, and an incompetent secretary of state have created a disaster in Lebanon.

Americans have never been told by their government-guided media that in a speech, Osama bin Laden asserted that the 9/11 attacks on the US were payback for Israel’s cruel destruction of Beirut with artillery and bombs in which up to 18,000 Lebanese and Palestinian civilians died.

Ironically, we now see what may become a repeat of the 1982 invasion, regarded by all involved, including Israel, as a disaster. With further irony, we are now watching the democratically elected Hamas and Hezbullah governments battling Israel’s democratic government.

According to George Bush, wasn’t democracy supposed to solve the Mideast’s problems and end its violence?

In 1975, I arrived in Beirut for the first day of Lebanon’s 15-year civil war. Seven years later, I accompanied Israeli troops as they invaded Lebanon, and was with an Israeli armored unit in Nabatiyah when it shot its way through a procession of Shia worshipers marking Ashura. This notorious event, and brutal behavior by Israeli occupation troops, turned Shia’s against the Israelis and sparked the birth of Hezbullah.

Trained by Iran and aided by Syria, Hezbullah’s tough fighters became the only Arab military force ever to defeat Israel and shatter its record of military invincibility. Israel swore revenge. Hezbullah’s kidnapping of the Israeli soldiers provided the pretext for Israel’s new, untested government to unleash a long-planned campaign to destroy Hezbullah and try to draw into the confrontation its sponsor, Iran.

Claims by the US, Israel, and some Arab states that the abduction of two Israel troops was organized by Iran and ally Syria to divert attention from Tehran’s nuclear programs may have some merit. But Hizbullah is no mere cat’s paw of Tehran and often operates independently of its allies and there is no hard proof of Syrian or Iranian involvement. In fact, of late, both have been keeping a low profile for fear of an U.S. attach.

Sheik Hussein Nasrallah made clear that Hezbullah’s border operation, which also killed eight other Israeli soldiers, was done for two reasons. First, to support embattled Palestinians in Gaza, who are being ravaged by Israeli air, land, and sea attacks. Second, to secure release of some of the hundreds of Hezbullah hostages and 10,000 Palestinian political prisoners being held by Israel.

So far, Hezbullah is the only Arab force that has taken any concrete action to help the Palestinians suffering devastating collective punishment by Israel. Such collective punishment, now also being inflicted by Israel on a national scale on Lebanon, is a crime under international law and the Geneva Conventions. Switzerland, the repository and guardian of the conventions, recently accused Israel of violating them by its collective punishment of the Palestinian territories.

Hezbullah made its point by the border operation. Firing hundreds of inaccurate rockets into northern Israel was military and politically pointless as well as a violation of the Geneva Conventions. So, equally, was the firing of homemade rockets by Palestinian militants into Israel. Both acts gave Israel a perfect excuse to vent its fury and try to destroy Hezbullah and Hamas. Killing Israeli civilians only further enflames Israel. As Tallyrand said, `it was a crime; worse, it was a mistake.’

All parties involved are to blame for this frightful mess and carnage: Palestinians and Hezbullah for provoking Israel at a time when its new leaders were anxious to show they could blast Arabs as effectively as Ariel Sharon, and Israel for its brutal repression of Palestinians and assassination of their leaders. But most at blame is the Bush Administration whose disastrous Mideast policies allowed this crisis to erupt and then encouraged Israel to bomb Lebanon back into the Stone Age.

The White House has been too obsessed with its lost wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to pay attention to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Under Bush, US Mideast policy has fallen into the hands of neoconservatives, and fundamentalist Protestants. Both groups, and President Bush himself, are closely aligned to Israel’s expansionist right wing, leaving would-be peacemakers on both sides out in the cold.

Little wonder the Muslim World -and much of Europe – believes Israel pulls the strings of US foreign policy. This view has become religious faith among Islamic radicals who see an attack on the US as an attack on Israel.

Mideast crises tend to follow a similar pattern. First, a bombing or assassination triggers off a fierce Israeli military response. Everyone involved screams no negotiations and no deals. After days or even weeks of destruction, the great powers intervene and force a return to the status quo ante bellum, often under the fig leaf of the UN. Prisoners are quietly swapped, ransoms discreetly paid.


After much more killing and destruction, Israel will eventually talk to its enemies. Prisoners will be exchange. It’s only a question of how many civilians will have to die before this happens.

copyright Eric S. Margolis 2006

#61 by bulleya on July 20, 2006 7:22pm PT


Thus, one is surprised that Israelis are attacking Lebanon and killing Lebanese civilians.


Why aren`t you surprised that the supposedly westernized Lebs are allowing Hezbollah to attack Israel from within their country and kill Israeli civilians?

Muslim outrage and logic only cuts one way..It`s the muslims ergo innocent victims school of jurisprudence..

What % of muslims are saying the root cause of the current conflict is the actions of Hezbollah? How about 0.000001%?

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I do not think American Rep can solve this problem. Pakistan as strongest Muslim Nation can help to bring solution. Pakistan can convey to Isarel through America that they better stop this war as they may be forced to deal Pakistan army if not cooled soon. They will have cold water on their actvities. That way we will gain both ways Arabs will feel better and Isarael will be happy to wind up and go to peace process. They know that Pakistan`s natatonal nuclear deterant assets which are keeping indians down will be used. Israels are too smart when know Pakistan enters and If assets used ( As Dr.Khan said to Indian newsman when he said pakistan can burn bombay city in few minutes) all israel will burn like bombay. One does not have to too much just moves national assets on moblie missile launchers and put on train and keep locomotive in motion. So america can tell Isarel that that they should wind up as revolution can take place in pakistan if too stretched as if take over takes place America will not be able to do any thing. This will also give Israel exscuse to withdraw as they can say mad man can fire from moving goods missile bogie and indtead of India Israel will burn. Then Amerca put pressure on Isarael to withdraw. America can tell Isarael we are trying but no control what can happen. Such trick only america can play.

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Re: # 69

As usual this is dense response fortified with maps, pictures and references and sharp logic which acts as Laser knife to take care of opposite point of view and demolishes israels position.
I hope people specially liberal type do good people will take time to go through all material and analyse and digest. Hope then only they can start usual character assinations and talking nonsense and personal attacks and tag teams attacking the writer.

I never agree completely with myself also.
I feel British Rule was best rule des had after long time. As I have said we need recolonization of Pakistan under UN and british should provide personnel like old times when british had made people to follow rule or get whipped and that system was far better.
I do not think American are not good as British only understands how desi can be treated. Also we can have our constitution but should be interpreated and military coups and successession problems will be over as they can cort marshall all corp commanders and send to English prison in England. All A to Z dictectors will be history. Now its hard just like doctors injection it hurts but good happen, no pain no gain.

Other than that I find Pro. M Asadi`s statement interesting to say the least its profound.

#68 by ahmedmadani

Pakistan as strongest Muslim Nation can help to bring solution.

Madani Sahib, please tell me you`re joking! A country that abandons its soldiers to die on freezing hills, a country that abandons its policies at just one phone call from the US, a country whose PM rushes to Washington on a 4th of July uninvited is the strongest Muslim nation? The Palestinians may not be nation yet, but they have what the ``strongest Muslim nation`` lacks: balls.

I think that the current hostilities are a grim reminder to all the sane civilians to understand the need to rein in the extremist and violent individuals who want to take up a cause on behalf of every peaceloving civilian. Hezbollah is indeed an extremist organisation which needs to be rein in by the civilian government of Lebanon.
As a citizen of the country which is under attack by the extremist organisations sitting across the border I would certainly prefer covert operations rather than overt operations. Israel must understand that it should not engage in overt operations which may draw flak from the international community. Although it may get a complete support from its internal population it should engage in gorilla style operations as a retaliation as well as deterrence.

However, I feel that the overt operations have been obviously done after clear calculations and in order to put the civilian government under the pressure to force the moderates to rein in the extremist Hezbollah which they obviously should have done a long time back.

Even if this gets done as a result of these hostilities I would say that the current operations of Israel would be successful.

A flip side to it would be that it would increase the fodder for the extremists and make the task of moderates even more difficult.....This should be countered by the moderates through their counter-propaganda.............However, in the long run I think the extremist Hezbollah stands to be isolated by the common man..........

Nasah - you are supposedly a `moderate Indian muslim`........ why do you people insist on the word `Indian` , when clearly the only thing that matters to you people is the word `muslim`. Save us the pretensions, okay. Israel is a strong ally of India. Majority of the India , who are thankfully neither Islamic nor leftists, are solidly behind Israel and we hope Israel wipes out its enemies. We want Israel to crush the Arabs.

You want the prime minister of Israel to be tried for war crimes ? We think he is a hero. Just like President Bush. They are both fighting our fight.

Israel and India have a lot in common. Common enemies. Rabid Islamist fanatics who want to wipe us out. Its just that while Israel`s enemies are outside its borders, our enemies are within - if you know what I mean. All 150 milion of them.

MashaAllah:

The great soldier & scholar: Sayyad Hassan Nasrullah.

Not like the canine from the cantonement kennel who yelps & whimpers (in english of course) when the big dog barks.



Adam Shatz
Thu Jul 20, 5:50 PM ET

The Nation -- In January 2004 Sheik Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, presided over a major prisoner exchange with Israel, in which the Lebanese guerrilla movement and political party secured the release of more than 400 Arab prisoners in return for the bodies of three Israeli soldiers and an Israeli businessman and alleged spy, Elhanan Tannenbaum, whom Hezbollah had kidnapped. Moments before the exchange was sealed, Ariel Sharon withheld three Lebanese detainees, one of whom, Samir Kuntar, had killed a family of three in the Israeli town of Nahariya in 1979. Nasrallah, having failed to release Kuntar and the two other men, declared that Hezbollah would ``reserve the right`` to capture Israeli soldiers until they were freed.


On July 12 Nasrallah launched the most daring assault of his tenure as Hezbollah`s leader: the capture of two Israeli soldiers in a raid that left eight other Israeli soldiers dead. He called the attack ``Operation Truthful Promise.``

Nasrallah is not a man who minces words. Still, questions linger as to the timing and location of Operation Truthful Promise, which detonated Israel`s most ruthless assault on Lebanon since the 1982 invasion. Although Hezbollah`s operation was apparently planned five months in advance, it occurred amid the Israeli siege in Gaza, which followed the capture of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian guerrillas and was inevitably interpreted as a gesture of solidarity with the Gazans, particularly the Hamas leadership, dozens of whose members were recently abducted by Israel. What is more, Hezbollah did not strike in the occupied Shebaa farms, a sliver of land in the Golan Heights, as it usually does, but inside Israel, a violation of international law that Israel--despite its own numerous violations of Lebanese territorial sovereignty--could invoke as a casus belli. In other words, Hezbollah undertook an audacious act of brinksmanship that was bound, if not designed, to escalate tensions with Israel.

It is, of course, possible that Nasrallah regards the Jewish state as a paper tiger, and did not expect it to seize upon Hezbollah`s raid as a pretext to pulverize his movement and to scrap the ``rules of the game`` that have governed the low-intensity conflict that Hezbollah and Israel have waged along the border since the latter`s withdrawal from southern Lebanon in May 2000. But this is to underestimate Nasrallah, a shrewd, calculating man who, as a careful reader of history, is fully aware of how Israel has responded in the past to cross-border attacks. Indeed, when I spoke to him at his (now leveled) headquarters in Beirut in October 2003, Nasrallah--sitting near a photograph of his son Hadi, who was killed in a clash with Israeli soldiers in 1997--seemed in no mood to ignite a war that would bring Israeli troops back to Lebanon. ``When you get something by paying such a precious price, you are more keen on safeguarding it,`` he told me. ``We will not accept anyone coming and squandering it. We are the sons of this soil, the sons of this country. We have no other place to go.``

If Nasrallah knew that Operation Truthful Promise might provide the Israelis with an excuse to invade Lebanon, something that could--and, briefly, did--make Hezbollah the target of Lebanese rage (even, evidently, among some of his Shiite followers), what does he hope to achieve and what is his endgame? Why risk the future of his movement, which has a significant bloc in Lebanon`s Parliament, a seat in the Cabinet and a vast network of social services and enterprises (the party is Lebanon`s second-largest employer)? The devastation of Lebanon, and of Hezbollah strongholds formerly occupied by Israel, would seem a rather high price to pay for a few prisoners, particularly if Hezbollah ends up sharing the blame for the destruction of the country`s tourism industry, the oxygen of its economy.

Nasrallah`s objectives most likely lie elsewhere. Since the 2000 Israeli withdrawal (``the first Arab victory in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict,`` as Nasrallah often notes), Hezbollah has faced mounting pressure, from the West but also at home, to lay down its arms and become a purely political organization--a fate the party dreads, since it prides itself on being a vanguard of Islamic resistance to American and Israeli ambitions in the Middle East. This pressure dramatically intensified with UN Security Council resolution 1559 (2004), which called for the disbanding of all Lebanese militias, and with the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon last year. By conducting a raid that was likely to provoke a brutal Israeli reprisal, Nasrallah may have gambled that the fury of the Lebanese would soon turn from Hezbollah to the Jewish state, thereby providing a justification for ``the national resistance`` as Lebanon`s only deterrent against Israel. So far, Israel (with the full support of the Bush Administration) has played right into his hands, inflicting more than 300 casualties, nearly all of them civilians, and pounding the civilian infrastructure, eliciting sympathy for Hezbollah even among some Lebanese Christians. By striking at Israel`s Army during its most destructive campaign in Palestine since 2002`s ``Operation Defensive Shield,`` Nasrallah must have known that he would earn praise throughout the Muslim world for coming to the aid of Palestinians abandoned by the region`s authoritarian governments, a number of which have pointedly chastised Nasrallah`s ``adventurism.`` And by bloodying Israel`s nose, Hezbollah could once again bolster its aura in the wider Arab world as a redoubtable ``resistance`` force, a model it seeks to promote regionally, especially in Palestine, where Nasrallah is a folk hero, and in Iraq, where Muqtada al-Sadr, the leader of the radical Shiite Mahdi Army, has proclaimed himself a follower of Hezbollah and has threatened to renew attacks against US forces in solidarity with the Lebanese.

Operation Truthful Promise was also, in part, a service rendered to Hezbollah`s patrons in Damascus and Tehran, whether or not Bashar al-Assad and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were consulted beforehand. The Syrian President warned former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, in their last meeting before Hariri`s assassination, that if he pushed for Syria`s withdrawal Assad would ``break`` Lebanon. With Hezbollah`s raid, Assad may have found a way to get Israel to break Lebanon for him--a wish that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz were more than happy to fulfill. Damascus may be facing renewed threats, but Assad can now bask in Nasrallah`s glow without directly engaging the Israeli military, which, as he knows, is divided on whether to depose him (since the only realistic alternative to the secular Baath regime is the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood); Lebanese anger has been redirected from Syria back to Israel; Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora looks on helplessly as the Israelis strafe his country; and the West has been warned that Lebanon will remain fractured, volatile and incapable of controlling its borders unless Syria`s interests (particularly in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights) are taken into account. President Ahmadinejad, for his part, can thank Nasrallah for diverting attention from the controversy over its nuclear program, and for burnishing the Islamic republic`s reputation as a staunch defender of Palestinian rights--and, not least, of Muslim Jerusalem--in a region whose other (largely Sunni Arab) governments have compromised with the enemy. And the spectacular display of Hezbollah`s Iranian-made weaponry, which have reached further into Israel than even the Israelis feared, and of the group`s sophistication in deploying them, have reminded Israel and the United States of the ``surprises`` (Nasrallah`s word) in store in the event of an attack on Iran.

Nasrallah is under no illusions that his small guerrilla movement can defeat the Israeli Army. But he can lose militarily and still score a political victory, particularly if the Israelis continue visiting suffering on Lebanon, whose government, as they well know, is powerless to control Hezbollah. Nasrallah, whom the Israelis attempted to assassinate on July 19 with a twenty-three-ton bomb attack on an alleged Hezbollah bunker, is doubtless aware that he may share the fate of his predecessor, Abbas Musawi, who was killed in an Israeli helicopter gunship attack in 1992. But Hezbollah outlived Musawi and grew exponentially, thanks in part to its followers` passion for martyrdom. To some, Nasrallah`s raid may look like a death wish. But it is almost impossible to defeat someone who has no fear of death.

Re: # 66 Arjun

Garbage. The only reason Israel destroying the hell out of Lebanon is because of the two kidnapped soldiers. It makes ``Mighty Israel`` mad, how someone kidnapped two of its brilliant soldiers. And in the process they will bomb Lebanon back to Stone Age.

Whats worse, jerks like you actually support that action. No one is saying that Hezbollah is great, but what the Israelis are doing is absolutely unjustified.

Massive Protest in London, England this weekend: BE there & call e-mail


By taking to the streets in mass numbers this weekend and at the mobilisation in Manchester in September, we can speed the day when Britain is detached from Bush’s “war on terror”. It is our responsibility to make a breakthrough here in the fight against imperialist subjugation

George Galloway:

Blair is Israel’s ally

The British prime minister is going out of his way to block any criticism of Israel, writes Respect MP George Galloway

Imagine if Lebanon destroyed every bridge in Israel, blew up the international airport, blockaded the ports, severed every arterial road, ordered people to leave their homes and then bombed them to pieces when they did... Do you think any Western leader would utter the words “Lebanon has a right to defend itself”?

This is the basic truth that every news bulletin seems designed to obscure. It is the reality that is enraging hundreds of millions of people across the globe as Israel launches its barbaric action against the people of Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

And it is not just Israel, of course. Barely commented on in the British media is the fact that it was Britain and the US that prevented the G8 summit from calling for a ceasefire.

Tony Blair and his ministers were again instrumental on Monday in preventing the European Union from issuing a condemnation of Israel’s aggression. No one should be in any doubt why - George Bush and Blair want Israel to continue its assault on Lebanon.

Green light

The US state, with the craven support of Blair’s government, is giving Israel a green light. This is not because of some imagined stranglehold on Middle East policy exercised by a supposedly omnipotent Zionist lobby.

It is because Israel is doing what it has always done - serving the interests of US imperial power in the Middle East.

Israel is cloaking its attack in neo-con rhetoric about an axis of evil linking Iran and Syria to Hizbollah in Lebanon. Its claims are dutifully repeated by a media which never once stops to point out that the Israeli missiles and bombs raining down on Lebanon were supplied by the US.

There is a link with Syria and Iran, but it is not the lie that Syrian and Iranian troops are in Lebanon. It is that the US has made no secret that it is preparing for an attack upon Iran, which has signed a mutual defence pact with Syria.

Israel’s attack on Lebanon serves the purpose of a pre-emptive strike on Hizbollah, which would respond militantly to any US attack upon Iran.

There is an axis of aggression. It links Tel Aviv and Washington, and Blair has placed London on its midpoint. But it is at that midpoint that those of us who live in Britain must strike a blow.

By taking to the streets in mass numbers this weekend and at the mobilisation in Manchester in September, we can speed the day when Britain is detached from Bush’s “war on terror”. It is our responsibility to make a breakthrough here in the fight against imperialist subjugation.

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