The Localization Of International Politics

Ferozk, Urstruly & dost-mittar

Very nice article like always and thoughtful comments indeed!

Would any or all of you like to comment on the possibility that Israel is up for acquiring more land, which over the time may become a historical reality regardless just or unjust?

The motive for this expansion being the simple fact that population density in Israel is high as compared to surrounding Arab countries except Palestine; birth rate in Israel is 17.97 births/1000 population whereas death rate is 6.18 deaths/1000 population as estimated in 2006. Does it argue for the desire for more land and current conflict may end up Israeli occupation of some part of Lebanon on the pretext of defence and security?

Regards

Tahir Qazi

Feroz,
Thank you for raising this very important and immensely related subject to the atrocious events in Lebanon. The illogical, inexplicable, insane, and ``out of touch with the rest of the world`` support given by the US government, press, and people to the murderous Israeli actions can be easily understood by listing the following factors:

1. Many Israelis are actually American Jews
2. Israel, thanks to billions and billions of public and private funding from America, looks like an extension of the US
3. Blind support for Israel from the right-wing, fundo, whacko, bible-thumping evangelical Christians (Falwell, Robertson, etc...) due to their belief in Armageddon and the prophecies of the Book of Revelations.
4. Jewish influence in elections with money, publicity, and organized pressure (AIPAC, B`nai B`rith, ADL, etc...) - just look at poor Mel Gibson and you will understand.
5. Jewish influence on the media (TV, Radio, newspapers, magazines, Hollywood) that presents Israel as a free, democratic, western outpost besieged by crazy, violent, Islamic Ayrabs.
6. Stupidity of ``Islamic`` organizations such as ISNA, ICNA, CAIR, AMC, and others in not understanding American politics, endorsing and compelling Muslims to vote for George Bush in 2000, and engaging in useless and asinine interfaith nonsense.
7. Irrational, thoroughly stupid, and harmful statements, acts, and images portrayed by Muslim fanatics in US, UK, European and Muslim countries (bravado rhetoric, burning of US flags, beards, hijabs, men in shalwars, etc..)
8. Acts of terrorism (9/11, 7/7, 7/11), designed to increase hatred for Islam and Muslims among westerners and other non-Muslims.
9. Hypocritical and deceitful policies and actions of several Muslim governments in saying one thing to their public and kissing the western rump in private (Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Bahrain, UAE, Qatar, and Indonesia are the most notable ones)
10. Shia/Sunni divide, Wahabbi brand of Islam, Hindu/Muslim riots, treatment of women, etc all tend to combine and create an anti-Islamic culture everywhere, especially in US and the west.

Re: # 4 Dost

As for accepting the the verdict of history is concerned I always quote the truth, which is cast in stone ``A man can live upto erenity with half a loaf of bread as long as he is sure that he will get his half; it doesn`t matter if other is getting three or more, but same man cannot live one day without justice``. And that is the reason History is always fluid and everchanging and not stagnant and stillborn.

Hi Feroz:

I fully agree with your general statement but not with your hypothesis as it applies specifically to the US today. While the US politicians always have their eyes on the polling numbers, in this case, they are more persuaded by the geopolitical realities as they see them.

All US administrations in the post-Suez period have supported Israel fully. Bill Clinton may now seek to assume the mantle of an elder statesman and shed tears for the victims of Israeli bombings, but I do not recall his opposing the relentless expansion of jewish settlements on the West Bank under his watch. To his credit, he did arrange a summit between Barak and Arafat to seek a permanent solution to the Palestinian problem but when it failed, he put the entire blame for its failure on Arafat, not recognizing the pressure Arafat was facing from his own constituents following the Oslo agreement.

As for Bush, he is the original proponent of the doctrine of massive retaliation in the post 9/11 world and is in no position to criticise anyone else. Israelis may not be acting at the behest of Americans but Americans certainly have no love for Hezbollah or their Iranian mentors. As for bombing children, the US has been doing so in Serbia, Afghanistan and Iraq. And lest we forget, Clinton did his share of bombing of Iraq during his time in the White House.

As for the Christian Right, I am not aware of any strong voices in support of Israeli bombing. Indeed, Pat Buchanin, a prominent member of the Christian Right, has condemned both the Israeli action and the US support for it (See behram`s post#547 on the Gill board). To the extent that domestic politics and the coming elections are playing a role, it is more via the influence of the powerful AIPAC lobby. Several US politicians depend upon the AIPAC lobby for financial and media support during the election and can ill afford to antagonise it at this time. While hubby Bill is expressing his support for the victims of the Israeli bombings, wife Hillary Clinton, with an eye on the White House in 2008, is fully supporting the Israeli actions.

As for the timing, I do not think that the bombings will last till November. The Israeli war machine is quite capable of achieving its objectives long before then, at least in the short run, unless the war expands to include Syria and other players.


Urstruly#2:

Good post. However, a time comes when people have to accept history`s verdict which is not always just. A big part of the Middle East problem is the inability of the Arab world to truly accept the reality of the presence of a Jewish state in their midst. While Israel may be persuaded at some point to return more or less to its 1967 borders plus Jerusalem, it will not accept any solution such as the rights of the refugees to return which would endanger its Jewish majority status at a future date.

AMERICA EXACTS THE REVENGE UPON LEBANON



``A year after 9/11, Richard Armitage, then the Deputy Secretary of State, was asked at a Washington forum whether the Bush Administration had plans, in its war on terrorism, for the Lebanese Islamist group Hizballah, factions of which the U.S. believes were responsible for the 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 U.S. service members. Armitage, a bear of a man, gave a chest-thumping reply. ``Their time will come,`` he vowed. ``There is no question about it. They have a blood debt to us, and we`re not going to forget it.`` - Time

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1220505,00.html

There are two immediate outcomes of the Judo-American invasion of Lebananon and they are going to effect not only the domestic politics of many states in the world but international politics as well.

The first outcome is the awareness of the fact without the shadow of doubt that US and West have absolutely hijacked and monopolized the world institutions like UN, IAEA, ICJ and many many more. No other nation in the world can even call a Security Council session unless it gets a nod and wink from Western nations. On the other hand Western nations can make any international institution to `fall in`, as it is termed in military, at moment`s notice.An example, to support this is issue of Iran.

The second outcome of this invasion is the failure of the institution of the ideal of the nation state. As the global sedition against this abduction of truth and justice by West is on the rise, and as the the West responds to it by deimating and occupying nation states on one hand and blocking their access to justice on the other hand, the failure of nation state becomes inevitable. In other words, there will be an emergence of the lawless and vigilante bands of societies and cultures with in the geographical boundries of many many nation states. It is a vicious circle. The people who are wronged will do vigilante justice, West will respond in kind at nation state level, nation state is further weakened, and people will see more reason to have vigilante justice.


The core reason for the inevitability of this future is the failure of West to establish rule of justice while they have the power. Instead they try to fill up te vacuum for justice with more exploitation, more injustice, more terror, and more oppression. In any society, strong does not need law to protect itself because it is already powerful, the law in fact protects the weak because it cannot protect itself. The only way a society can exist is when strong feels that it is of greater good to abide by the law. Unfortunately, Western civilization has utterly failed to fill this vacuum. And nature hates vacuum.

re: HP, Asadi, tahmad32 and Hamidm

I have read the posts/replies and will respond in detail, as soon as I have some time.

As to my analysis/post, the situation in the Middle East is very fluid right now and with events creating a dynamic of their own, nothing can be stated with any certainity. The point of the post was to suggest that people look at the domestic politics as one of the reasons, but not necessarily the only reason for this war and since we live in a global neighborhood, all politics do become local issues and there is no such thing as American or British or Pakistani politics, because all national politics have global implications.

Ciao