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Written by Stephen Zunes
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Monday, 21 August 2006 |
How Washington Goaded Israel
"Foreign Policy In Focus" -- -- There is increasing evidence that Israel instigated a disastrous war on Lebanon largely at the behest of the United States. The Bush administration was set on crippling Hezbollah, the radical Shiite political movement that maintains a sizable block of seats in the Lebanese parliament. Taking advantage of the country's democratic opening after the forced departure of Syrian troops last year, Hezbollah defied U.S. efforts to democratize the region on American terms. The populist party's unwillingness to disarm its militia as required by UN resolution—and the inability of the pro-Western Lebanese government to force them to do so—led the Bush administration to push Israel to take military action.
In his May 23 summit with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, President George W. Bush offered full U.S. support for Israel to attack Lebanon as soon as possible. Seymour Hersh, in the August 21 New Yorker, quotes a Pentagon consultant on the Bush administration's longstanding desire to strike “a preemptive blow against Hezbollah.” The consultant added, “It was our intent to have Hezbollah diminished, and now we have someone else doing it.” |
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Written by Talal Salman
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Sunday, 20 August 2006 |
A guarantee of victory
Talal Salman appeals for unity, lest Israel be given by default what it failed to achieve through arms
Lebanon has not been defeated in the Israeli war against our country -- a war that is not yet over -- despite the heavy human and material wounds we sustained.
National unity, at both the popular and governmental level, has been one of the bulwarks of the Lebanese resistance in its valiant struggle against the Israeli enemy. The strength of the resistance, backed by national solidarity, has rocked Israel's belief that it is the only stable entity in a region where impotent regimes are the focus of popular anger, where they invite military occupation, as occurred in Iraq, or foreign domination, as is the case in most other parts of the Arab world. |
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Written by Mike Whitney
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Sunday, 20 August 2006 |
08/19/06 "Information Clearing House" -- -- One picture tells the whole story. The photograph shows a long column of Israeli soldiers, grimy and bedraggled, limping southwards towards the Israeli border. The lead soldier looks vacuously at the camera with an expression of pure gloom and fatigue. In the background a soldier is seen comforting another who is crying inconsolably.
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Written by Robert Fisk
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Sunday, 20 August 2006 |
A land reduced to rubble
'These places now look like French villages did after German bombardment during the First World War'
Sunday 13 August
A series of profound explosions from the south of Beirut; the Israelis "jostling the rubble" of the suburbs, as we now say, although who knows how many corpses lie in this pit? An Israeli calls me from Los Angeles. She thinks she has discovered a reason why the Lebanese Red Cross may have been targeted by the Israeli air force. "I will send you a fax proving that they are helping the Hizbollah," she says. |
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Written by Aluf Benn - Haaretz
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Sunday, 20 August 2006 |
Fight for survival / Empty-handed Olmert
Last Saturday night, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert spoke on the telephone
with President George Bush. Olmert thanked Bush for the American's assistance in pushing through the Security Council resolution that brought an end to the fighting in Lebanon. Bush commended Olmert as "a courageous partner in the war against terror," and then threw out a surprising question on the convergence plan.
"What about the plan you presented to me?" Bush asked. |
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Written by Lakhdar Brahimi - New York Times
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Friday, 18 August 2006 |
Start Talking to Hezbollah
WHAT a waste that it took more than 30 days to adopt a United Nations Security Council resolution for a cease-fire in Lebanon. Thirty days during which nothing positive was achieved and a great deal of pain, suffering and damage was inflicted on innocent people.
The loss of innocent civilian life is staggering and the destruction, particularly in Lebanon, is devastating. Human rights organizations and the United Nations have condemned the humanitarian crisis and violations of international humanitarian law.
Yet all the diplomatic clout of the United States was used to prevent a cease-fire, while more military hardware was rushed to the Israeli Army. It was argued that the war had to continue so that the root causes of the conflict could be addressed, but no one explained how destroying Lebanon would achieve that. |
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Opinion 
