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Stop Israel: The Assault On Lebanon
Is An Assault On Peace
JNV Anti-War Briefing 92
19 July 2006
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250 LEBANESE DEAD, $2 BILLION-WORTH
OF DAMAGE
After seven days of Israeli bombardment,
the Lebanese Government estimates the damage to civilian infrastructure
at $2bn worth of 'roads, bridges, telecommunications, electricity,
ports, airports and even private sector facilities, including
a milk factory and food warehouses'. At least 250 Lebanese have
been killed, and over 50,000 people have fled from the heavily
Shia-populated south of the country. (Financial Times, 19 July,
p. 8)
Israeli forces attacked two Lebanese army
bases, killing 11 soldiers, 'marking another widening of targets'.
Jihad Azour, the Lebanese finance minister, told the FT: 'the
destruction is not targeting one group and it's not only making
Hizbollah pay. It's making all of Lebanese society suffer.'
He went on to say that, 'based on the pattern
of attacks, Israel was slicing the country in different parts
and isolating in particular the south and the eastern Baalbeck
region, a Hizbollah stronghold, in addition to a complete blockade
of the country by sea, air and land.' Mr Azour said the Lebanese
Government 'was struggling to organise food deliveries and services
to these regions'. (Financial Times, 19 July, p. 8)
The Guardian reported that 230 Lebanese civilians
and 65 Lebanese soldiers had died so far; and 13 Israeli civilians
and 12 Israeli soldiers. In total: 295 Lebanese deaths and 25
Israeli deaths. (19 July, p. 4)
GAZA CONTINUES TO SUFFER
106 Palestinians have died in Israel's Gaza
offensive since 28 June, and 300 have been injured, according
to Jomaa al-Saqaa of al-Shifa hospital. 'An Israeli airstrike
destroyed Gaza's main power plant, leaving 1.4 million people
dependent on Israel for electricity. The supply is erratic and
residents are left to guess whether they will have power from
one day to the next.' ('As the world looks elsewhere, death toll
rises in Gaza', Times, 19 July, p. 8)
CHILDREN! CHILDREN!
'Whatever the Israelis' intended target,
the bomb fell on a small water canal next to the Qasmia refugee
camp [near Tyre, in southern Lebanon], home to about 500 Palestinians.
Its victims were 11 children taking an afternoon swim in the canal.
The first blast left a crater nearly four metres deep, burying
many of the swimmers deep under the orange earth. Seven of the
children were injured, three critically. Three others have not
been found.
'The scene was littered with small plastic
sandals, several caked in blood. Ismael, the father of one of
the children, sat on the edge of the crater, his head in his hands
weeping. "Children! Children!" he roared through his
tears, "Children here! My son here." He stood and looked
down into the crater: "Is Hizbullah here? Only children here,"
he said.'
'Another man staggered around behind Ismael,
also unable to control his grief. The children were taken to the
intensive care unit, many caked in earth, having been buried deep
in the ground.'
'Asked how it compared to 1996, when Israel
launched an attack on the south, killing scores of civilians,
Dr Mrouwe [head of the Jabal Amal hospital in Tyre] said: "It's
incomparable, incomparable. In 1996, the majority [of casualties]
were fighters. This time we have yet to receive any fighters."'
(Guardian, 18 July, p. 4 <tinyurl.com/h6jn4>)
HOW LONG WILL THIS GO ON?
Two headlines: 'Battle will go on for weeks,
say Israelis'. (Telegraph, 19 July, p. 12) On the other hand,
'United States to Israel: you have one more week to blast Hizbullah'.
(Guardian, 19 July, p. 1)
'Amir Peretz, the Israeli Defence Minister,
said that his country was determined to create a buffer zone in
southern Lebanon. "We intend to complete this operation.
We have no intention of allowing anyone to stop us." ' (Times,
18 July, p. 7) In reality, Israel and the US are not omnipotent.
'Israel always fights its wars against the clock, rushing to achieve
its objectives before pressure for a ceasefire becomes irresistible.
Israeli military officials suggested yesterday they needed 72
hours more fighting.' (Guardian, 18 July, p. 30) 'An Israeli security
source said [on 17 July] that Israel believed that it had a week
to inflict as much damage as it could on Hezbollah [actually,
the Lebanese people] before the US, Israel's strongest supporter,
became unable to resist international pressure for a ceasefire.'
(Times, 18 July, p. 1) This will go on as long as the US can resist
the world.
ISRAEL'S GOALS
The current onslaught is not to recover
the two abducted Israeli soldiers. 'Avi Dichter, the [Israeli]
public security minister, said Israel would eventually have to
contemplate a prisoner exchange.' (Telegraph, 19 July, p. 12)
In 2004, Hezbollah traded one Israeli colonel (captured in 2001)
for '30 Lebanese and 420 Palestinian prisoners'. (Sunday Times,
16 July, p. 2)
The Israeli Government says it has a larger
goal: the disarmament of Hezbollah. Realists such as Shlomo Brom,
former strategy chief for the Israeli army, are less ambitious:
'What is feasible is a buffer zone in southern Lebanon where the
only presence allowed is the Lebanese army and an effective international
force, like the NATO force in the Balkans.' Hezbollah largely
neutralized as a defence force/political party, in other words.
Another Israeli goal is 'the assassination
of Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the Hizbollah leader, who the Israeli
military recognizes as a charistmatic and intelligent foe.' '[P]lanners
admit that there is a limited amount Israel can do to put Hizbollah
permanently out of action... an air campaign cannot hope to destroy
the [weapons] supply lines nor all of Hizbollah's well hidden,
well distributed weapons stockpiles'. (Telegraph, 19 July, p.
12)
AGAINST PEACE
More fundamentally, just as with Hamas (see
Briefing 90: The Gaza Siege), Israel is frightened by the growing
moderation of Hezbollah, and its highly successful turn from violence
to politics: 'Hezbollah has become the biggest of Lebanon's many
political factions, commanding the largest single bloc in parliament.'
(Sunday Times, 16 July, p. 2)
The pounding of Lebanon will strengthen the
militarists within Hezbollah, and harden its support base - while
alienating non-Shias and destabilizing Lebanon's fragile political
settlement. These are clearly foreseeable consequences. Logically,
they are therefore desired outcomes.
David Clark, former Labour special adviser
at the Foreign Office, notes that Western politicians assume that
'when Israeli ministers complain of having no "partner for
peace", they actually want one. A much more sensible approach
would be to credit them with having the intelligence to know exactly
what they are doing and to work backwards from there. If so, it
might become become apparent that far from wanting a partner with
which to negotiate, the Israeli government is acting with the
specific intention of forestalling that possibility.' (Guardian,
17 July, p. 25)
BRITAIN'S SHAMEFUL ROLE
The G8 statement named Hamas and Hezbollah
as 'extremist elements' who initiated the crisis, and who (with
'those that support them') were trying to 'plunge the Middle East
into chaos and provoke a wider conflict'. Israel, on the other
hand, was merely asked to 'be mindful' and to 'exercise utmost
restraint'. The Arab groups were to cease their military actions
'immediately'. No such urgency was required of Israel. <tinyurl.com/s6nqz>
'The US and Britain insisted.. at the G8
summit in St Petersburg that criticism of Israel be removed from
a joint communique.' (Guardian, 18 July, pp. 1-2) 'The Bush administration,
backed by Britain, has blocked efforts for an immediate halt to
the fighting initiated at the UN security council, the G8 summit
in St Petersburg and the European foreign minister's meeting in
Brussels.' (Guardian, 19 July, p. 1) '[C]riticism of Israel in
an original draft [of the EU statement] was diluted after pressure
from Britain and Germany, Israel's closest EU allies.' (Guardian,
18 July, p. 1)
BLAIR'S SHAMEFUL ROLE
Tony Blair said 'an immediate ceasefire
by Israel' was not possible until 'the underlying reasons why
this violence has broken out' had been addressed - the 'extremists'
who 'believe in fundamentalist states and are at war not against
Israel's actions, but against its existence'. <tinyurl.com/p4ob5>
Conservative MP Sir Peter Tapsell once again
gave the appropriate rejoinder, asking whether Mr Blair had attempted
to explain to President Bush 'that one of the root causes of the
spread of chaos in the middle east has been the failure, over
40 years, of successive American Administrations to persuade Israel
to accept United Nations resolution 242, which requires it to
return to its legal frontiers of 1967? That failure has caused
an inevitable degree of bitterness, which has led to the creation
and sustaining of various guerrilla militias which are now increasingly
regarded as part of an Islamic jihad.' (Hansard, 18 July <tinyurl.com/oexwv>)
'Campaigners have demanded that Britain impose
a ban on arms sales to Israel after figures showed that the Government
licensed £23m worth of weaponry to be shipped to the country
in the past year... Equipment included components for naval guns,
military helicopters, submarines and electronic equipment.' (Independent,
15 July, p. 22)
We are witnessing Israeli state terrorism.
We are complicit in it.
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