The second invasion of Lebanon

It is absolutely clear that the kidnapping of the two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah was the perfect pretext for the Israeli plan to destroy the infrastructure of the Lebanese nation. Knowing full well that its three soldiers will be safe (Palestinians and the Lebanese have previously exchanged Israeli captives for their prisoners in Israeli jails), Israel has carried out such wanton destruction in Lebanon that UN emergency coordinator, Jan Egeland, cited Israel for the breach of humanitarian laws.

Latest estimates put Lebanese civilian deaths due to Israeli bombing close to 400, with thousands injured, and Israeli deaths due to Hezbollah rocket attacks at 37 with many more injured. It is now clear why Israel bombed Lebanon's military installations; to smooth the way for its ground invasion now underway. The Bush administration will give Israel as much time as it needs to "get the job done," a euphemism for destroying as much of Lebanon as Israel wants.

Time magazine's Andrew Lee Butters reported on CNN that Israel selectively bombs West Beirut, which is predominantly Muslim, and leaves predominantly Christian East Beirut unscathed! So far, according to UN estimates, over 500,000 Lebanese civilians have been displaced from their homes; Lebanese sources put the number at millions. A Lebanese American friend told me that his family in Tripoli left their homes and took refuge in the mountains to escape Israeli bombing. Lebanese properties worth billions and billions of dollars have been decimated. All this for the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers, which the Lebanese government had no knowledge of and had condemned? You got to be kidding me!

What is the Bush administration's reaction to all this? According to a front-page headline in The New York Times on July 22: "The Bush administration is rushing a delivery of precision (satellite)-guided bombs to Israel, which requested an expedited shipment last week after beginning its air campaign against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon." Israel needs bombs as urgently as Imelda Marcos needs shoes! Yet, as those laser and satellite guided missiles were being rushed to Israel, President Bush warned Syria and Iran not to fund Hezbollah to buy the vintage WW II unpredictable Katyusha rockets. Mr. Bush also played the Shia-Sunni card. According to Newsweek, Mr. Bush phoned the Sunni leaders of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan and convinced them not to blame the Israeli bombing, but to blame Shia Hezbollah directly and Shia Iran indirectly. They dutifully obeyed.

In Mr. Bush's simplistic and naive world of "cowboy diplomacy," things are either black or white. He labels nations evil or good, and believes that his categorisation makes them so. By his nomenclature, Israel, which many nations in the world accuse of state-sponsored terrorism, and America are the good guys and can do no wrong, and Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hezbollah are the bad guys who must be avoided and punished. He refuses to acknowledge that the organisations and nations he despises can have any legitimate grievances. Case in point: Mr. Bush refused to meet with the late Yasser Arafat.

As Robert Malley points out in Time (July 24), Mr. Bush's thinking is "that isolation, ostracism and if need be, sanctions are more likely to get troublesome actors to change their ways. And so the list of diplomatic outcasts only grows. Today, the US does not talk to Iran, Syria, Hamas, the elected Palestinian government or Hezbollah. And as the violence in the region clearly shows, that has hardly been cause for moderation." The Bush administration does not believe in rewards for good behaviour, other "than avoiding retribution if they do not," Malley adds.

The American president has enormous power. Wielded unwisely, it can do America enormous harm in the long term. Without any ideas of his own, Mr. Bush followed the agenda the neo-conservatives gave him: pre-emptive strike on perceived enemies, regime change and forcible installation of democracy in the Middle East. Any intelligent person can always list a litany of mistakes he has made. In a New York Time Magazine article few months back, neo-conservative theorist, Francis Fukuyama of Johns Hopkins admitted that the neo-con thinking was wrong. Not so, President Bush. Unfortunately for America, Mr. Bush refuses to acknowledge that he ever makes mistakes.

With the exception of conservative commentator Pat Buchanan, who criticizes Israel and defends America's interest, almost every politician, columnist, television commentator, blogger and radio talk show host are cheerleading for Israel, oblivious of the ill-will America may garner for championing what many consider Israel's atrocities in Lebanon. To their credit, in the letter to the editor columns of newspapers, many ordinary Americans are speaking out against Israel's excesses. While the gentiles spinelessly toe Israel's line, several brave, young Jewish Americans have defied their community and demonstrated against Israel's invasion of Lebanon and Gaza!

Only fools expect different results from doing the same thing over and over again. Uncomfortable with diplomatic niceties, President "I don't do nuances" Bush's instinct it to oversimplify, take sides, threaten and invade. America under Bush has invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. Are those two countries better now? Has the number of "terrorists" dwindled? Is America safer? Experts believe that American foreign policy in the Middle East gave rise to Al Qaeda. God knows what new terrorist groups are hatching because of American invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, and America's unconditional support for Israel's questionable actions.

Israel, too, has used force before without positive outcome. Its suppression of the Palestinians gave rise to Hamas and Islamic Jihad twenty years ago. Its invasion and occupation of Lebanon in 1982 spawned Hezbollah. Yet, it invades Lebanon again. God knows what terrorist group Israel's destruction of Lebanon will spawn.

As The New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof pointed out in his July 23 column, overwhelming force does not ensure peace, only patience does. Kristof gives examples of how tolerant the British were with the IRA and the Spaniards with the Basque separatists. Both nations have been rewarded with peace for their patience. The only two neighbours Israel enjoys peace with are the nations it has signed peace treaties with: Egypt and Jordan. It should do the same with the Palestinian government, even if Hamas is in power, and with Lebanon, even if Hezbollah is in the ruling coalition. Of course to conclude a peace treaty with Lebanon, Israel must vacate Lebanon's Sheba farms and pay compensation for the havoc it has wrought on the Lebanese people. For peace with the Palestinians, Israel must dismantle the illegal Jewish settlements on the West Bank and withdraw behind the 1967 border.