Posts on Israel's Attacks on Lebanon & Gaza, July - August 2006

--- Thursday, July 20, 2006 ---

--- 11:42 ---

Une Guerre Oubliée

"We have a forgotten war in Gaza and in the West Bank," declared Saëb Erekat, the Chief Palestinian Negotiator.

- from Le Monde

--- 10:40am ---

How to "Bolster the Moderates"?

“The Hezbollah attack on Israel and kidnapping of its soldiers was totally unprovoked. Israel left southern Lebanon six years ago – just as it left Gaza -- and their mutual border was endorsed by the United Nations. Under Security Council Resolution 1559, Syria was supposed to withdraw, the Lebanese Army was supposed to deploy to the border, and Hezbollah and other militias were supposed to disarm. The Administration pushed hard for the first requirement, but did little to advance the other two. Meanwhile, Iran outspent us by as much as 5 to 1 in Lebanon, giving Hezbollah the resources to out-compete the Lebanese government in building social services and military might.

“Hezbollah is not just holding two Israelis hostage. Along with Syria and Iran, it is holding all of Lebanon hostage. The Lebanese people want to enjoy a normal life in a normal country. That can only happen when the Lebanese government controls its own territory and Hezbollah gets rid of its weapons.

“As bad as the situation looks, there is an opportunity for an outcome that weakens the extremists and bolsters the moderates. The Israeli military campaign must be complemented by an American-led diplomatic strategy.” Biden said.

Biden added that the Administration should be working now to build a strong international consensus – including countries in the region – to do three things:

1) Get the Lebanese Army to the border, with the possibility of an international/UN force in the interim to augment it. To prevent a repeat of 1983, there has to be a political context for an international force. It also has to have the ability to physically prevent Hezbollah from coming back.

2) Set up a mechanism to begin disarming Hezbollah of its rockets and missiles.

3) Build up the Lebanese government and army and decisively shift the balance of power away from Hezbollah.

“If we do these things, we can deal a setback to Iran and Syria,” Biden said.

Senator Biden suggests in his statements that the US was out-maneuvered by Iran in Lebanon, and points to diplomatic options for preventing further conflicts. There are other ways to deal with violence than by slaughter and wreaking disaster upon Lebanon and in Gaza.

In this case, the U.S. Congress should not be voting its support of Israel and its bombing of Lebanon and destruction of the Gaza territory. In this situation, Israel is resorting to excessive force to address the crimes of Hezbollah and Hamas.

The US should get re-involved in trying to bring peace to the region - what can we do to "bolster the moderates"?

--- Wednesday, July 19, 2006 ---

--- 4:20pm ---

Palestinian Implosion

According to an article in today's NY Times, 103 Palestinians have been killed in fighting in Gaza and Israel arrested 8 of 24 ministers in the Hamas-led government, as well as 20 members of the Parliament.

--- 12pm ---

Lose Your Moral Legitimacy, Lose the War

A good article by William Pfaff in the French paper Le Monde.

He paraphrases from a new manual for US Troops in Iraq on how to confront the type of insurrection they're facing in Iraq, written by a General David Petraeus and military historian Conrad Crane.

This is a translation from the version in Le Monde.

"Traditional armies must un-learn a good amount of the standard doctrine. In circumstances where there's an insurrection, operations must be oriented toward the reconstruction of the society. The manual reminds us that that a war of insurrection is by definition long, that it demands a firm political will, extreme patience, and necessitates enormous amounts of time and money. The key of success resides in the understanding of the political and social environment of the country in question [in this case Iraq]. Lose your moral legitimacy and you lose the war. The French, the authors point out, failed in Algeria because they employed torture.

The manual explains that the more one puts the emphasis on only military protection, the less security you obtain. The more you resort to using force, the less it is efficacious. An operation that kills five insurgents is counter-productive if its collacteral effects are the recruitment of fifty new rebels. Other instructions recommend that soldiers not fall in to a cycle of violent reactions to provocations."

As part of our moral legitimacy or moral authority in trying to bring democracy to Iraq, given our investment and presence in the Middle East as a whole, both monetarily and our long diplomatic history, it would seem to also be our moral obligation to articulate an equally idealistic vision of a Middle East that can live with itself. That is, a Middle East where Iran and Syria and Israel can accept each others' existence, where the Palestinians can live in peace and stability alongside Israel, where commerce and economic development take precendence over animosities and conflicts, where states determine relations not radical fringe parties.

President Bush is in the middle of his second term and might want to consider how he wants the next two years to play out in the Middle East. If Bush's administration is going to invest hundreds of billions of dollars and 129,000 American troops (and probably others in Afghanistan) in the region, his rhetoric should be about a future peaceful, stable, and prosperous Middle East, not a rhetoric of finger pointing at Syria and Iran, and more rhetoric about terror and terrorists. That's Mr. Bush giving Syria and Iran and small radical parties like Hezbollah - and the terrorists - more power. Now Mr. Bush could change gears and begin articulating an eloquent vision of a future peaceful and propserous Middle East - and combine that with a renewal of some type of a Peace Process.

The more you resort to using force, the less it is efficacious. Let's resort to using some brilliant diplomacy.

--- Saturday, July 15, 2006 ---

A Peace Initiative for the Middle East?

I'm reading about this new small war of Israel's upon Lebanon (the blog Informed Comment has very good reporting on this) - whether Hezbollah is the instigator, the country Lebanon is suffering the bombardments. Prof. Juan Cole points out on Informed Comment that Israel's expressed desire to "finish off" or "rout" Hezbollah departs from realism, since Hezbollah is a group made up of 1.35 million people, with, according to conventional wisdom, support from Iran and Syria. However, The Council on Foreign Relations website says of Hezbollah, "Its core consists of several thousand militants and activists," according to US Government estimates. Hezbollah also holds more than twenty seats in Lebanon's parliament.

Meanwhile, violence in Iraq continues. According to the NY Times this week, Shiite and Sunni militias in Iraq have traded murderous attacks. The U.S. is pressuring Russian and China to support sanctions against Iran for its nuclear enrichment activities. The polarizing politics in the Middle East has certainly never seemed more unstable. This policy has largely been designed by President Bush, his neo-con advisors, and the departed Ariel Sharon. The American occupation of Iraq with 129,000 U.S. Troops is hardly fathomable, such a massive military presence in the region (number from the Associated Press). Though our goal is democracy in Iraq, our foreign policy in the Middle East is a hard-line, militaristic policy against the enemies: "terrorists," in Iraq, Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories - and Iran.

It would seem that some sort of diplomatic peace-promoting effort, especially for the Middle East, might be warranted. Peace Talks or a Peace Summit focused on the region. Such a forum could be used to peacefully combat groups like Hezbollah and their use of guerilla tactics, through multi-lateral negotiations. It might also be used to elevate and improve relations with Iran, which is growing new democratic institutions, underneath its hard-line regime. It could also serve as a venue for puting forth a new vision of post-Saddam stability in the region.

American casualties from the war and occupation of Iraq total as of July 14th report by the Department of Defense: 2,858 killed and about 9,000 wounded who have not returned to duty. Iraqi deaths are estimated to be around 40,000.

-- Updated:3:30PM