Michael Young of the Daily Star worries how a triumphalist Hizbullah could spark a new civil war in post-conflict Lebanon. Let’s hope he’s wrong.
Tag: israel/palestine
Fisk on the UN’s draft resolution on Lebanon
Robert Fisk on how the draft resolution is essentially an Israeli one:
You could almost hear the Lebanese groan at this draft resolution, a document of such bias and mendacity that a close Lebanese friend read carefully through it yesterday, cursed and uttered the immortal question: “Don’t these bastards learn anything from history?”
The Nation on AIPAC
The Nation on AIPAC:
On July 18, the Senate unanimously approved a nonbinding resolution “condemning Hamas and Hezbollah and their state sponsors and supporting Israel’s exercise of its right to self-defense.” After House majority leader John Boehner removed language from the bill urging “all sides to protect innocent civilian life and infrastructure,” the House version passed by a landslide, 410 to 8.
AIPAC not only lobbied for the resolution; it had written it. “They [Congress] were given a resolution by AIPAC,” said former Carter Administration National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, who addressed the House Democratic Caucus on July 19. “They didn’t prepare one.”
Other choice quotes:
“When it comes to the Israeli-Arab conflict, the terms of debate are so influenced by organized Jewish groups, like AIPAC, that to be critical of Israel is to deny oneself the ability to succeed in American politics.“
. . .
Former Middle East envoy Dennis Ross addressed a packed AIPAC-sponsored luncheon on the Hill, where, according to one aide present, Ross told the room: “This is all about Syria and Iran…we shouldn’t be condemning Israel now.”
. . .Ironically, during the 2004 campaign Dean called on the United States to be an “evenhanded” broker in the Middle East. That position enraged party leaders such as House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, who signed a letter attacking his remarks. “It was designed to send a message: No one ever does this again,” says M.J. Rosenberg of the center-left Israel Policy Forum. “And no one has. The only safe thing to say is: I support Israel.”
. . .
By blindly following AIPAC, Congress reinforces a hard-line consensus: Criticizing Israeli actions, even in the best of faith, is anti-Israel and possibly anti-Semitic; enthusiastically backing whatever military action Israel undertakes is the only acceptable stance.
There’s a problem here.
Related:
To Israel with love (Economist)
Hizbullah’s military prowess
Interesting story in the WaPo on Israeli soldiers’ perception of Hizbullah:
“You really can’t underestimate the Hezbollah,” said Tyler, 20, a member of the army’s Nahal Brigade. “They are the masters of the field. They know the area better than us. They know where to hide and when to move. They always know where we are.”
It’s shock-full of quotes like the one above that make Hizbullah soldiers sound like an army of Rambos. There’s a myth of invincibility being created that’s going to live way beyond this war and that probably gives an exaggerated view of what Hizbullah is capable of, which is really not that much — it’s just that the Israelis have not fought such a competent guerrilla group before.
Israeli comedy sketch on Mubarak
The Zionist conspiracy against Egypt, Part XXVII. (Hilariously accurate, the impersonator has to be Egyptian. For all we know he’s already replaced the real one and no one could see the difference.)
Via Sandmonkey.
Photographer caught doctoring Lebanon pics
The really stupid thing about the freelance photographer for Reuters who doctored his pictures is that his stupidity will discredit the thousands of real pictures out there that show what an ugly war this has been. And while the pro-Israel blogosphere probably rejoices, it doesn’t change that between 600 and 900 Lebanese people, for the most part civilians, have been killed.
And besides I don’t even see what he was trying to do.
I was interviewed by the German newspaper Stuttgart Zeitung (sp?) today about the Flickr pictures. Clearly a lot of people have picked up on the media side of this war and what a powerful (but ultimately still too weak) impact some of the horrible images we’ve seen have had.
How does Hizbullah define victory?
A sobering op-ed by Bernard Heykal:
Judging from Sayyid Nasrallah’s speeches it is clear that Hezbollah is not fighting Israel as much as the generalized Arab and Muslim feeling of defeat, humiliation and genuine incompetence. Pay attention, for example, to the way in which Sayyid Nasrallah has defined victory in his typically low-key style, which contrasts sharply with the old-style and bombastic claims of Arab leaders such as Jamal Abdul-Nasser and Saddam Hussein. Sayyid Nasrallah is very clear and precise that Israel cannot be defeated militarily. Hezbollah, he says, “cannot shoot down Israel’s F-16 fighter jets,” but what it can do is bleed Israel’s military forces, harm its economy and extract political concessions, any of which constitutes a victory. Victory, in other words, is a new psychological state for Arabs and Muslims, as well as for the “defeated” Israelis, and bears no relationship to the actual physical or material costs of war. This victory cannot be quantified or calculated and no amount of destruction and killing in Lebanon, or elsewhere in the Middle East, can outweigh its positive value and outcome. It is this psychological aspect to the present war that has so many Arabs and Muslims rallying to Hezbollah’s side—they finally see Arabs who are putting up a real fight against a formidable adversary who had acquired supernatural power in their collective imagination. But does Hezbollah’s resistance really count as a victory or is it merely illusory especially in the long term? Does it constitute anything more than al-Qaeda’s “victory” on 11 September 2001? How will the political map of the Middle East change if Hezbollah is seen to have won this round with Israel? And finally which forces in the United States are benefiting most from this engagement?
I see it a little differently — the Arab support for Hizbullah is not only about the psychological need for a hero, but also related to anger at the Arab regimes’ impotence or collaboration with US-Israeli policy in the region. But the op-ed raises some important questions and is worth reading.
Jaded journo in Beirut
Andrew Butters, freelance hack in Beirut, writes about the war. The tone will disturb some, but there are some great tidbits there about the Lebanese reaction to the war (well, in his neighborhood anyway), the media self-censorship, and more.
Former Leb PM al-Hoss: Bush is a terrorist
Former Lebanese Prime Minister Salim al-Hoss in an open letter to George W. Bush in the Daily Star:
You repeatedly claim that Israel is acting in self-defense. How preposterous! Self-defense on other people’s occupied territory is tantamount to one thing: blatant aggression.
You call Hizbullah a terrorist organization. We call it a legitimate resistance movement. There would have been no military wing of Hizbullah if there had been no Lebanese territory under Israeli occupation, if there had been no Lebanese hostages languishing in Israeli jails, and if Lebanon had not been exposed to almost daily Israeli intrusions into its airspace and territorial waters, and to sporadic incursions into Lebanese land and bombardment of civilian targets.
You cannot eliminate a party by demolishing a whole country. This would have been achieved peacefully by Israel withdrawing from the land it occupies, releasing Lebanese prisoners, and desisting from further acts of aggression against Lebanon.
Israel is the most horrendous terrorist power. And you, Mr. President, are unmistakably a direct partner, and hence a straight terrorist.
Pictures of attacks on Lebanon – early August
A new set of pictures has been uploaded to the Flickr account. They were sent by Hanady Salman of as-Safir and show some of the effects of the last few days of bombing in Lebanon.
An Israeli strike on a suburb of Beirut.
Fishing boats covered in ashes and surrounded by an oil slick in a port south of Beirut.
Rescuers inspect a destroyed vehicle on a bombarded road.