http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14323.htm Hizbullah's attacks stem from Israeli incursions into Lebanon
By Anders Strindberg 08/01/06 "Christian Science Monitor" -- -- NEW YORK - As pundits and policymakers scramble to explain events in Lebanon, their conclusions are virtually unanimous: Hizbullah created this crisis. Israel is defending itself. The underlying problem is Arab extremism. Sadly, this is pure analytical nonsense. Hizbullah's capture of two Israeli soldiers on July 12 was a direct result of Israel's silent but unrelenting aggression against Lebanon, which in turn is part of a six-decades long Arab-Israeli conflict. Since its withdrawal of occupation forces from southern Lebanon in May 2000, Israel has violated the United Nations-monitored "blue line" on an almost daily basis, according to UN reports. Hizbullah's military doctrine, articulated in the early 1990s, states that it will fire Katyusha rockets into Israel only in response to Israeli attacks on Lebanese civilians or Hizbullah's leadership; this indeed has been the pattern. In the process of its violations, Israel has terrorized the general population, destroyed private property, and killed numerous civilians. This past February, for instance, 15-year-old shepherd Yusuf Rahil was killed by unprovoked Israeli cross-border fire as he tended his flock in southern Lebanon. Israel has assassinated its enemies in the streets of Lebanese cities and continues to occupy Lebanon's Shebaa Farms area, while refusing to hand over the maps of mine fields that continue to kill and cripple civilians in southern Lebanon more than six years after the war supposedly ended. What peace did Hizbullah shatter? Hizbullah's capture of the soldiers took place in the context of this ongoing conflict, which in turn is fundamentally shaped by realities in the Palestinian territories. To the vexation of Israel and its allies, Hizbullah - easily the most popular political movement in the Middle East - unflinchingly stands with the Palestinians. Since June 25, when Palestinian fighters captured one Israeli soldier and demanded a prisoner exchange, Israel has killed more than 140 Palestinians. Like the Lebanese situation, that flare-up was detached from its wider context and was said to be "manufactured" by the enemies of Israel; more nonsense proffered in order to distract from the apparently unthinkable reality that it is the manner in which Israel was created, and the ideological premises that have sustained it for almost 60 years, that are the core of the entire Arab-Israeli conflict. Once the Arabs had rejected the UN's right to give away their land and to force them to pay the price for European pogroms and the Holocaust, the creation of Israel in 1948 was made possible only by ethnic cleansing and annexation. This is historical fact and has been documented by Israeli historians, such as Benny Morris. Yet Israel continues to contend that it had nothing to do with the Palestinian exodus, and consequently has no moral duty to offer redress. For six decades the Palestinian refugees have been refused their right to return home because they are of the wrong race. "Israel must remain a Jewish state," is an almost sacral mantra across the Western political spectrum. It means, in practice, that Israel is accorded the right to be an ethnocracy at the expense of the refugees and their descendants, now close to 5 million. Is it not understandable that Israel's ethnic preoccupation profoundly offends not only Palestinians, but many of their Arab brethren? Yet rather than demanding that Israel acknowledge its foundational wrongs as a first step toward equality and coexistence, the Western world blithely insists that each and all must recognize Israel's right to exist at the Palestinians' expense. Western discourse seems unable to accommodate a serious, as opposed to cosmetic concern for Palestinians' rights and liberties: The Palestinians are the Indians who refuse to live on the reservation; the Negroes who refuse to sit in the back of the bus. By what moral right does anyone tell them to be realistic and get over themselves? That it is too much of a hassle to right the wrongs committed against them? That the front of the bus must remain ethnically pure? When they refuse to recognize their occupier and embrace their racial inferiority, when desperation and frustration causes them to turn to violence, and when neighbors and allies come to their aid - some for reasons of power politics, others out of idealism - we are astonished that they are all such fanatics and extremists. The fundamental obstacle to understanding the Arab-Israeli conflict is that we have given up on asking what is right and wrong, instead asking what is "practical" and "realistic." Yet reality is that Israel is a profoundly racist state, the existence of which is buttressed by a seemingly endless succession of punitive measures, assassinations, and wars against its victims and their allies. A realistic understanding of the conflict, therefore, is one that recognizes that the crux is not in this or that incident or policy, but in Israel's foundational and per- sistent refusal to recognize the humanity of its Palestinian victims. Neither Hizbullah nor Hamas are driven by a desire to "wipe out Jews," as is so often claimed, but by a fundamental sense of injustice that they will not allow to be forgotten. These groups will continue to enjoy popular legitimacy because they fulfill the need for someone - anyone - to stand up for Arab rights. Israel cannot destroy this need by bombing power grids or rocket ramps. If Israel, like its former political ally South Africa, has the capacity to come to terms with principles of democracy and human rights and accept egalitarian multiracial coexistence within a single state for Jews and Arabs, then the foundation for resentment and resistance will have been removed. If Israel cannot bring itself to do so, then it will continue to be the vortex of regional violence. Anders Strindberg, formerly a visiting professor at Damascus University, Syria, is a consultant on Middle East politics working with European government and law-enforcement agencies. He has also covered Syria, Lebanon, and the Palestinian territories as a journalist since the 1990s, primarily for European publications. Copyright © 2006 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights reserved. *** The Independent - Jul 30, 2006 http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article1204523.ece Straw breaks ranks on Middle East in revolt against Blair Francis Elliott in San Francisco and Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem The Cabinet revolt against Tony Blair intensified last night as Jack Straw broke ranks to condemn Israel for causing "death and misery to innocent civilians". As the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, arrived in Israel for talks, her former British counterpart, Mr Straw, bitterly condemned Israeli military tactics, saying they risked destroying the Lebanese government. The public attack is the most direct so far on the authority of the Prime Minister, who still refuses to join calls for an immediate ceasefire or rebuke Israel. Instead Mr Blair will today make the case for pre-emptive strikes against Islamist militants when he addresses Rupert Murdoch's senior executives in California. Downing Street had hoped that pressure on Mr Blair would be relieved by his joint announcement of a peace plan in Washington on Friday with President Bush. But he was looking increasingly isolated last night as the depth of the anger among senior ministers at his failure to rebuke Israel became clear. Mr Straw, now Leader of the House, said that he grieved for innocent Israelis but also the "10 times as many innocent Lebanese men, women and children who have been killed by Israeli fire", adding: "It's very difficult to understand the kind of military tactics used by Israel. These are not surgical strikes but have caused death and misery to many innocent civilians." In a TV interview last night Mr Blair denied that there had been a row in Cabinet about his support for the US and Israel. "There was a perfectly good discussion at Cabinet and it wasn't a divisive discussion. What they were saying is, let's make sure with urgency we stop this situation which is killing innocent people." In another interview he also denied that he wanted Israel to win the current conflict, and defended his relationship with Mr Bush: "I'll never apologise for Britain being a strong ally of the US." An Israeli air strike yesterday on the southern village of Nmeiriya killed a woman and six children, according to Lebanese medics. Officials there say 750 people have been killed since the conflict began. *** ----- Original Message ----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, August 02, 2006 5:05 PM Subject: Fri., Aug. 4, Noon - 1 PM, LA Jews for Peace Ceasefire Vigil at Israeli Cons. Join LA Jews for Peace Ceasefire Now! Vigil Fri., Aug. 4th Noon- 1 PM Israeli Consulate 6380 Wilshire Blvd. (Just east of La Cienega) Please wear black. If you have a religious artifact, like a menorah, please bring it. Be prepared to hold both a sign and an artifact. Also a digital camera if you have one, so we can post a story on laindymedia afterwards. RSVP: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (I'd like to know how many of you and your friends can make it.) No Flags, Please -- Except for United Nations and Peace Flags Suggested Signs (I will have around 15) & Banners NOT ALL JEWS SUPPORT ISRAEL'S ACTIONS LA JEWS FOR PEACE ISRAEL, YOU DO NOT SPEAK FOR US LA JEWS WANT AN IMMEDIATE & UNCONDITIONAL CEASEFIRE ISRAEL, CEASE FIRE NOW! ISRAEL, DO NOT SHAME THE JEWS OF THE WORLD ISRAEL, WHY ARE YOU USING CLUSTER BOMBS? THOU SHALT NOT KILL A SHANDEH UN A CHARPEH - A SHAME AND A DISGRACE JEWS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN GAZA AND LEBANON VIOLENCE BEGETS VIOLENCE ISRAEL, WHY ARE YOU BOMBING CHILDREN? START THE TALKS, STOP THE BOMBS Thanks, Marcy --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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