An opportunity to make friends - with Syria

Syria, the pummelled

Syria for a while had become the poster child for what is wrong and unsettling about the Middle-East from the American perspective.

Having been implicated in the gruesome and explosive assassination of the ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri leading to the reluctant but coerced withdrawal of Syria from Lebanon, then their support for Hezbollah and the brick bats they received with Iran regarding Hezbollah’s attack of Israel, they have every right to be indifferent about American issues.

Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General visited Syria recently and extracted a cooperation where Syria would impose an arms embargo on its Hezbollah ally and even allow troops to patrol their border with Lebanon – my point – it is good to talk.

Syria, the brave

So, some cack-handed terrorists poorly executed a plan to bomb the US Embassy in Damascus – Yes, the US is accorded diplomatic recognition in Syria though with no one at ambassadorial level, despite what they have to endure from America – the Syrian security personnel spirited foiled the attack in which one of their number was killed.

Ironically, this “supporter of terrorism”, be it the insurgency in Iraq or the Hezbollah in Lebanon is a fighter of terrorism on its own land even if it pertains to the endangerment of life and property of it chief accuser, America.

America could not but acknowledge with grudging gratitude Syria’s efforts through Condoleezza Rice though that was soured with another comment from the White House that Syria should play a more constructive role in the war against terrorism – take a deep breath of despair.

To Teheran with love

Then switch to Teheran and it is Assyrian/Persian hugs and kisses between Ahmadinejad and Al-Maliki, the Iranian President and the Iraqi Prime Minister respectively.

The Great Satan (America) would be completed miffed with this visit to a possible abode of three – Iran in the Axis-of-Evil.

Despite all the American views about Iran stirring up the Shiite insurgency in Iraq, Iran has offered to cooperate in ensuring Iraq security and stability along with other extensive cooperation deals on oil exploration and export.

With all the American lives being lost in Iraq, the government does have to chart its own way and they are showing that regional cooperation matters regardless of who America counts as friend or foe.

As far as the Middle-East is concerned, Iran and Syria after the Hezbollah skirmish in Israel are the new brokers for regional hegemony in that region with Israel now being exposed as more vulnerable than they thought they were.

Talk and communicate

It is really time to start talking rather that flinging hateful words and vitriol from the White House and State Department like intercontinental precision ballistic missiles.

It is time to try and become friends and talk though your differences, this whole idea of the guarded self-importance of the President of America precluding him from meeting with other people just in case he offers them clout, recognition or legitimacy is self-conceited to the extreme.

It would do well to engage in high-level talks according each other a modicum of respect and courtesy; that said, it is not a team that should include John Bolton even under sedation.

Made in America - just in your backyard

Well, apart from losing credibility amongst the Arabs, the crocodile tears posture of America in investigating Israel’s use of cluster bombs in Lebanon smacks of rank hypocrisy to say the least.

The embarrassment of finding unexploded bombs in Lebanon with the proudly emblazoned “Made in America” label is just one muddle that America would require superhuman diplomacy to dig itself out of.

If you give a child a loaded gun and expect sensible usage, you’ll be dead before you think of ways of getting it back – the big morale of the story.

Read on …

The American-Israeli tinderbox that Hezbollah lit up

Surely, this cannot be true

This reads like a conspiratorial plot out of a Tom Clancy novel and if there is any truth in this, I would have to find my voice to condemn this without reservation.

The man who exposed the embarrassing Abu Ghraib prison scandal and the Vietnam My Lai massacre has a new scoop that would rock the diplomatic world to its foundations. Thank you – Seymour Hersh.

I have only had to listen to Mr Bush’s slant about the suffering of Lebanese being brought on by Hezbollah, Syria and Iran – well I have another view, it was Israel attacks with American bombs that wrecked Lebanon over the last month.

Prearranged and executed as planned

Now, it transpires that Israel had been planning the attack Lebanon with American knowledge and support long before the June 12^th kidnap by Hezbollah presented coincidental opportunity for Israel to carry forward and carry out their pre-conceived plans.

It might also explain why there was an urgency to deliver bombs from America as the war began because there should be no need for those kinds of sophisticated weapons if there was no plan to use them somewhere.

The more sinister twist to this tale is that America thought they could do the following:

· Turn the Lebanese against Hezbollah using the loss of Lebanese life and property to create a backlash against that movement. – Failed.

· Get to completely disarm Hezbollah such that when America attacks the nuclear infrastructure of Iran; Hezbollah would not be able to retaliate against Israel. – Failed.

· Strengthen the democratic forces in Lebanon, especially giving the government the ability to control the South of Lebanon. – Failed.

Probably some truth to this

It may be that Seymour Hersh is reading too much into this contact between Israel and America where they sought the support of Dick Cheney and gained the support of the US President and UN Secretary of State.

However, with what has transpired, I am wont to see more to what Mr Hersh has to say because it all seems to add up in trying to understand why Israel had such unstinting support from America in that bombing campaign.

The losers in this battle are mainly Lebanon in terms of the sacrifices, Amir Peretz, the Israeli Defence Minister in underestimating the possible resistance and United States for their conniving, colluding and conspiring gamble – Hezbollah has in some ways won and the Israeli soldiers are still bargaining chips in what would be become a diplomatic situation where America has no clout.

America has lost authority and respect

If there is anyone who can command the respect and authority to see progress on the Middle-East issues I raised in my last blog, it is probably Bill Clinton, failing him, Nelson Mandela.

I do not think it is in the power of the people in today’s American government to sufficiently redeem themselves enough to earn the epithet of arbiter to the Middle-East crisis.

Mr Blair unfortunately has eliminated the United Kingdom from a role where we could have really shown ourselves as power worthy of the status we hold on the UN Security Council and it in the world at large.

Destabilising legitimate governments

The quest to continue to support dissident and liberal groups in governments that are not friendly to the United States in order to foment civil unrest to destabilise legitimate governments is patently unacceptable if Iran and Cuba get special funding but similar authoritarian governments in Egypt and Saudi Arabia get no mention.

Like it or not, despite the theocratic organisation of the Iranian government, it has a better working democracy than that of either Afghanistan or Iraq, they are hardly the kind of examples of freedom we are told they are with all the bloodshed and insecurity that underpins their terrible lives.

Like I said in my introduction, if there is any truth in this allegation, the forked tongues I talked about over a month ago belong to slithering deceitful snakes that are up to one thing but proclaiming something else.

Seymour Hersh is in some ways a security risk if people in government have been up to no good.

References

Steppingstone to War - House passes 'Iran Freedom Support Act'

Israel, Defeated - Round one: Lebanon, 1 – Israel, 0

Bush blames Hezbollah for Lebanon fighting

Israel, U.S. are biggest losers in this war

A large body count with no ease as war ceases

The seeds of war

Just over a month ago when hostilities started with some Hamas faction seizing an Israeli soldier killing two others and the Hezbollah seized two Israeli soldiers killing eight, we now have a body count for the number that have perish in this senseless war. Does anyone remember Gilad Shalit? No, he has become an irrelevance in the whole scheme of things.

Gilad Shalit - refreshing your memory.

First of all, ostracising a duly and popularly elected Hamas by denying them funding when we all know that Palestine has no other means of income generation, in order to either force Hamas to abdicate the platform on which they were elected or create unrest to topple that government was definitely not the smartest thing to come out of the West.

Occupation is the problem

There are reasons why Israel finds little legitimacy in the Middle East, much of which stems from the occupation of Arab lands and the lack of progress towards the two-state solution of Israel and Palestine – that would remain the sticking point till a kind of grand solution is proffered that is acceptable to all – it would not be far from the 1967 lines and anything different would continue to fuel the extremism that seeks the destruction of Israel.

As the Palestinians seemingly crumbled under the onslaught of Israeli belligerence, Hezbollah launched their own raid which resulted in a large scale destruction of Lebanese infrastructure as well as the loss of innocent life.

This situation could have been arrested, but there is not politician presently in the world of the stature that can really bring the kinds of ideas that would command the respect of all affected parties.

The sad thing is, this war turned into a proxy war where America supplied sophisticated weaponry to Israel and Iran offered some weaponry and even men to Hezbollah turning Lebanon into the grass trampled on as a result of two elephants fighting.

The solution is not military

If there is any lesson to be learnt about this reckless gamble with human life in the quest for a military solution to a political and diplomatic puzzle, it is that guns might kill people but they cannot kill the aspirations of a people.

Hezbollah has been called every unprintable terrorist-linked name under the sun, they are however, victors in the eyes of their people, and they now garner a lot more support amongst Arabs than they ever did – they might have been curtailed but definitely not subdued.

Lumping Hezbollah together with the elements of Al-Qaeda is disingenuous at best and really a scandalous propaganda which should heap derision on America because their involvement in this war has earned them no plaudits from either Arabia or a good deal of the non-religiously biased world view of Israel’s status.

New occupations is not the answer

We now have a ceasefire or sorts, but we are still with the selfsame problem that has bugged the Middle-East for close to two generations – Israeli occupation of land that is not theirs.

The guns have stopped but Israel is in Lebanon up to the Litani River, this peace just cannot hold, neither would it hold if the Israelis are replaced with a UN peacekeeping force. The way forward is the legitimate return of lands to their proper owners, this affects Palestine – Gaza and the West Bank in its entirety; Syria with the Golan Heights and Lebanon with the Shebaa Farms.

The occupations must stop, if Israel then wants to build walls, the walls must only be built within the confines of the legitimate state of Israel.

The Middle-East in a nutshell

The Economist of August the 5^th, sums up the Middle-East problem in these topics – The bomb in Iran; the future of Iraq; the isolation of Syria; the Hezbollah state within Lebanon and the unrequited cause of the Palestinians – the amazing thing about these situations is that all this is linked up with the resolution of the Israeli-Palestine question.

This does even begin to address the issue of authoritarian religious governments, absolute monarchies with democratic trimmings and dictatorships.

The Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979 was a counter-reaction to American influence in the corrupt monarch of the Shah of Iran as well as the non resolution of the Palestinian cause. The Iran “bomb” which only really exists as an American suspicion rather than a North Korean reality takes up more diplomatic energy than more pressing issues of greater importance.

America backed Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war; however, Iraq went on to support Palestinian causes in supporting families of suicide bombers – hence, the ability for American government to link Iraq with terrorism.

Syria is isolated for its involvement in Lebanon, however, they were also instrumental in getting Israel out of Lebanon, and their support for Hezbollah is mutual, in the sense that Israel still occupies Syrian and Lebanese land whilst the unanimously adopted UN Resolution to return those lands languishes in the dormant basket.

Hezbollah has always justified its existence on the basis of the occupation of the Shebaa Farms, their legitimate purpose for bearing arms would be diffused if that land is returned as they are also already part of the political and democratic process in Lebanon.

No one dares take bold decisions

Land for peace would be the core requirement for peace in Israel, it would involve removing settlements in the West Bank regardless how they read their religious tomes, the world order should be a secular acceptance of the civilisation of man and the dispensing of justice for the good of all including that contentious division of the Mandate of Palestine into the state of Israel and the state of Palestine.

America must come in for sound criticism and condemnation for letting this war carry on for so long and for literally goading Israel into doing their dirty work of hopefully eliminating Hezbollah – we now know the better of this wishing thinking and drunken gamble.

The devaluation of human life

After the loss of about 4,000 lives in the World Trade Centre, America has become a blood-thirsty marauder that has have done much to foment war and done little to sue for peace. The value of human life has depreciated to basic collateral damage, we see much for damaged buildings than for loss of innocent life.

America has lost so many soldiers in Iraq we have literally stopped counting, this war on terror is prosecuted in a way that terrifies all and brings little in gains to preserve our freedoms and way of life, it would appear world leaders could not really care less for how humanity suffers in the quest for their radical and unconscionable goals.

We do need strong leadership but not of the kamikaze sort which is what we experienced in this Israeli-Lebanon pseudo-war.

Blood on many hands

And there was no man to bring us the grand solution to the Middle-East problems, the life blood of terrorism as we are taught to know it. Great is the tribulation we suffer because they would rule are soaked in blood and like King David of old, that blood, even if shed in legitimate caused prevented him from building a temple for the Lord.

If no one values human life, thankfully, God up there does count human blood for something, good guy and bad guy alike. The religious guys had better listen up; you cannot fully participate in honouring God if you are complicit in shedding blood.

The body count – Israel 163, UN 4, Canada 8, Lebanon 1,000 and Nigeria 2 for 3 living Israeli soldiers and 10 dead ones. ‘Nuff said.

References

Hamas Isolation on Israeli recognition

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701

Lebanon's middle class is disillusioned with America

Hezbollah leader a hero to many Arabs

To King David – You are not to build a house for me

Israeli-Lebanon Body Count

Daytime television a cure for current news

Cannot stand the news anymore

Even I cannot believe it; I have not sought, desired or watched any news for almost a week. It is strange, I am your news junkie doped up on an overdose of every snippet of news from all the networks, especially with a digital channels that give me access to at least 10 stations including Al Jazeera.

I can only attribute my lack of interest in the news to the gnawing propaganda machinery that has slanted the required objective assessment of issues in the Middle-East and the way global leadership conveniently tags every legitimate aspiration to self-determination as part of the war against terror.

The meaning of the war on terror

In fact, we can redefine the war against terror as any situation where America and the West have no immediate financial gain as their interests are threatened by people who have another perspective to the issue.

This is because this broad definition is what is happening in practice, each issue is assessed in some self-interest monetary terms or the ability to exert hegemony to emasculate other nation states.

Nowadays, suspicion is enough cause for proof of guilt as is the case of Iran’s nuclear experiments.

The peace of apathy

It allows Lebanon to be leveled in the quest to humiliate Hezbollah militarily in a 19^th Century strategy that believes in military solutions to what is essentially a historical situation that needs bold diplomatic moves that take full account of the affected people.

Anyway, the news becomes staple that creates apathy, as if I now care about how many rockets land anywhere or the collateral damage counted in innocent lives extinguished in the facelessness of an American precision weapon or some Syrian-technology missile.

It is obvious, this is no Six-day-war and there would be no winners in this fracas; the reoccupation of Lebanon would entrench the forces that Israel wants to uproot, but, who is to say Israel does not like living dangerously.

Is Judah also Israel?

Somehow, I am coming to the view that the situation in the Middle-East cannot continue as it is, people have striven to plant the land of Israel within the confines of what was the smaller kingdom of Judah – the more this happens the more it appears like an aberration.

Biblical scholars had better start dusting their biblical history and ancient cartography.

I would suggest that there would be most likely, like in the ancient times, be another dispersal of the Jews – etymology of Diaspora - before they are resettled again in places that might not bear any semblance to what we have today.

Those given to eschatology had better read the signs of the times again and look for deeper interpretation of prophecy – Peace, will not come to Israel on the edge of a sword or the tips of sophisticated weapons.

Somehow, Israel can do no wrong

{All pictures courtesy of The Truth Would Set You Free}

Fine, the Jews are God’s Chosen People, however, I fear for the situation where this is also read as Israel can do no wrong.

The bomb that dropped on Qana yesterday came from Israel, probably beautifully autographed, blessed and prayed over by some God-fearing leaders of Jewish communities and their kids.

Saying a little prayer - Let there be carnage in Qana?

Hezbollah did start this war, but they definitely did not drop that bomb, it is also clear that Israel did not know if Hezbollah rockets came from any of the buildings targeted, nor is it clear if recently any rockets had been fired from that village.

It is all well and good that Israel had the wherewithal to drop leaflets calling on villagers to leave, but did not check if they had left, amidst their bombing of convoys, roads and bridges.

At night, one would also thing their night vision glasses would have indicated that their precision weaponry was going to obliterate so many civilian lives.

The tragedy of a second chaperoning of the angel of death to Qana by Israel in 10 years is sad enough, and then, it targeted people in a UN shelter.

Condi is not welcome in Lebanon

This represents the kind of propaganda we are fed about the Middle-East conflict. I read on CNN a headline, that Condoleezza Rice has cancelled her trip to Lebanon.

Well, the BBC television news, tells me Lebanon has snubbed Condoleezza Rice and told her not to visit Lebanon till a ceasefire has been agreed.

Indeed, Dr Rice would have had cancel her trip, because she has been told quite clearly, you are not welcome, I must say, that appears in the body of text.

Like I said in an earlier blog, regardless of the American aid which is a sop in expiation for seriously letting Lebanon down, Lebanon knows this for sure, America is definitely not a friend in time of need.

Unfortunately, the UN building in Beirut is now taking the brunt of a violent protest as Israel argumentum ad consequentiam passes the blame for bombing up civilians to Hezbollah.

As I am writing, the culmination of events had now lead Dr Rice to request an immediate unconditional ceasefire. So, much for doors and bolted horses – this doctor is some mean gambler.

References

Sky News: Airstrike 'Kills Or Injures Dozens'

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Dozens killed in Lebanon air raid

No talks with Rice before ceasefire

Rice says "time for ceasefire" after Qana bombing

A poker hand of unintended consequences

A snowflake fascination

I have ranted, riled and disparaged with vehemence the fight-on-till-victor-and-vanquished policy that has spewed forth from Rice, Bush and Blair, but wait a minute; it appears we might be reaching a case of seriously unintended consequences.

Just like what would happen when you shake that fascinating Christmas snowflake glass ball, you deliberately and violently shake it, creating a chaos of flakes, then set it down and watch the snow settle, I see the same in this instance.

You cannot determine where the flakes would fall, though we assume it falls evenly on the Christmas landscape, it is probably a more sophisticated science than the simplicity belies.

It is a resolutions rat-race

So, back at the Middle-East where elaborate but historically futile plans are being put across in trying to introduce a new UN Resolution to bring about a ceasefire and the deployment of a multi-national peace-keeping force in the South of Lebanon.

We really should stop this circus of using resolutions to enforce or chase other resolutions and concentrate on the context that shaped the original ones and forcefully implement them.

Once again, the UN Security Council Resolution 1559 appears to be the gold-standard of implementing a ceasefire. That is fine, now, let us be honest, about implementing the totality of that resolution which is first really about Israel before it is about Lebanon.

Give back first

The first part refers to Lebanon having complete sovereignty over its territory, and then gradually exercising democratically managed military authority over their entire.

The bitter pill in this situation is Shebaa Farms; it is occupied Lebanese territory which Israel contends belongs to Syria as part of their annexation of Golan Heights in 1967.

That is beside the point, between Syria and Lebanon, they have agreed since 1964 that Shebaa Farms is Lebanese and Syria continues to abide by that 42-year old agreement. So, the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory in 2000, regardless of technicalities people might proffer was incomplete. Simple!

The Lebanese plan for peace leading a ceasefire which Hezbollah acquiesces to, includes the return of Shebaa Farms for a viable and enduring ceasefire. Any, right-thinking person would consider that, just and fair, I would suppose.

Stop the occupations

It also means we move on from this idea of new occupations; like a peace-keeping force to assure security, it would be expensive, fraught, dangerous and ineffective if the Shebaa Farms issue is not conclusively resolved.

That Shebaa Farms issue, would help in ensuring that Resolution 1559 is fully implemented to include the disarming of Hezbollah.

Before you heave a sigh of relief, the issue of Shebaa Farms is somewhat inter-twined with Golan Heights in the Israeli psyche. So, why just relinquish one part of illegally annexed and nominally occupied territory?

We have already been sickened and amused by the microphone tête-à-tête between Bush and Blair about Syria telling Hezbollah to stop all this shit going on in Lebanon.

Syria says

Well, Syria has given us the key to all this shit-stopping – the occupation of Arab lands. That would primarily be Shebaa Farms and Golan Heights, these fuel the frenetic activities of Hezbollah in that area, the Palestinian settlement is a distant allusion in this matter.

So, once again, the move is Israel’s – in accordance with UN Resolution 497, conveniently forgotten and dormant since it was unanimously passed in 1981; the return of Golan Heights to the rightful owner – Syria.

In two pre-existing resolutions we have the recognition and implementation of a ceasefire from the current hostilities; the end of Hezbollah’s militancy, such that they can be fully subsumed in Lebanese politics.

The child looks different

That, I submit is the unintended consequence of the “new Middle-East” as alluded to by Condoleezza Rice – the birth pangs would in the end bring forth a child in no likeness to the expected baby.

The bigger picture is more unsavoury for the West than it seems, because the price for peace exerts a serious climb-down from Israel in terms of its legacy of occupied Arab lands, and it also indicates that Western appeasement has continually allowed Israel to act with impunity when they should be adhering to their international obligations.

The Israeli protestations regarding Syria and Lebanon over the years would definitely become a shrill-sounding discomfort to all well-meaning people.

A poker hand bitter lesson in expected outcomes

Better still, if this becomes the final result of this 3-week war, you will have to give it to Hezbollah as they would have deftly out-manoeuvred all those crocodile-tear diplomatic efforts to bring about a just settlement for their struggles.

The other negotiations about the release of prisoners are just minutiae.

America, Britain and Israel, turned this issue into a game of poker thinking they had the best hands, methinks, Hezbollah only started with a Jack and might clear the pot with a Royal Flush – such is the life of gamblers.

References

A prediction of this war

US envoy foresees 'hard decision'

The Israeli conflict blog archive

Condi knows nothing about birth pangs

No clue about the pain of birth

When Condoleezza Rice visited the Middle-East earlier in the week, we were introduced to a supposedly new role of her being a midwife to a new Middle-East with the expression “Birth Pangs of a New Middle East”.

Birth pangs have pain, great agony and more, especially, if after so many hours of labour, the woman is exhausted in the breathing, pushing and panting. She holds her mate’s hand and crushes the bones as she probably curses that swears never to do this again.

If as the waters break, the baby is found in breach, that, could become a major complication probably requiring more that the regulatory epidural and definitely a Caesarean Section.

I am sorry to say, Condoleezza Rice just like me, a male, does not half know what a birth pang is, or else, she would to advocating an immediate stop to this labour that has already had the baby’s foot stuck somewhere in the pelvis – on the verge of killing the mother.

Not fooled with the supposed outrage

This is sufficient notice to Israel, reading between the lines and taking the cue which now has the US is expressing outrage that the strategic “no immediate ceasefire” concept is being read as an untrammelled sanction to Israel to continue bombing Lebanon.

We, we are not fooled, the non-imposition of a ceasefire in the light of the overwhelming disproportionate military force that seems to be achieving more in terms of humanitarian mystery and destruction.

In the light of this, we also learn that the tide of Arab opinion is turning towards supporting Hezbollah as neighbouring governments are beginning to sound more strident about Israeli aggression.

Dishonest and insincere

The lectures we received from Mr George W. Bush and Mr Tony Blair, left me askance in disbelief as they launched into the psychology and philosophy of Hezbollah trying to win people to their cause through playing the underdog.

These 2 men have not been entirely honest and sincere and this is an utter shame.

If UN Security Council Resolution 1559 is the standard for ensuring peace by allowing Lebanon to have total sovereignty over its lands, then the disputed Shebaa Farms has to come into the equation as to whose territory it really is between Israel, Syria and Lebanon.

History would place that territory in the hands of Lebanon according to a 1964 border agreement with Syria, requiring Israel vacate that territory in entirety; then the need for any militia in Southern Lebanon would be obviated. Hezbollah can return home or move to Golan Heights where another land dispute still awaits action on the part of Israel in favour of Syria.

Partnership with “terrorists”

There is no point continuing to talk down to Syria and Iran, if they are critical to resolving the current crises then America and Britain would have to engage them in some sort of dialogue.

This stony faced mantra of terror, terrorism and terrorists is wearing thin; they are labels of convenience without addressing the core issues at hand. Hamas and Hezbollah are terrorists in the same vein as those that terrorise Iraq – to lump them in the same basket as Al Qaeda is disingenuous.

I find that exaggeration portrayed by the America, Britain and Australia quite offensive and far from the truth, these organisations have a political and democratic mandate and a militant dimension related to a struggle for justice for their people.

This should be incompatible with being in a democracy, but in a situation when Israel represents an untamed aggressive hegemony, occupying territories which fuel dispute and threaten Israeli security, we cannot have America delivering bombs to Israel and blankets to the occupied territories and naively expect these organisations to disarm to the point of complete defenceless.

It just does not add up.

With Condoleezza Rice returning to the Middle-East again, this midwife is probably not going to deliver a healthy baby, regardless of the hopes and fears, the “new Middle-East” is on to becoming a still-born baby, taking the mother along with it.

A double tragedy nursed by America – is there a real doctor in the house, before this gets seriously out of hand?

References

The battles each day

Birth pangs of a new Middle-East

Precision-guided resolutions that miss the target

Precision-guided and hitting the wrong target?

I hear the vehement protestations of Israel that the UN post in Southern Lebanon was not deliberately targeted.

That, indeed might be true, at least, the US Ambassador in the UN – John Bolton, exhorts us to take their word for it.

However, it begs the question how after all the communications with the Israeli army as that post came under sustained attack for hours, the attacks were not ceased to ensure the safety of the possibly rather terrified unarmed observers.

Then, we have the second unexplained issue, could a precision-guided missile have deviated from a purposed target to hit the post?

No, further questions …

The UN SC Resolution 1559

Agreed, Condi, we cannot return to status quo ante, that is fine, but let us look at the issue here.

The said United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559 has the following basic premises

· Calling upon Lebanon to establish its sovereignty over all of its land

· Calling upon Syria to end their military presence in Lebanon by withdrawing its forces and to cease intervening in internal Lebanese politics.

· The resolution also called on all Lebanese militias to disband.

It would appear Lebanon may not have been able to establish complete sovereignty over its own land. We are lead to believe that Israel completely withdrew from Lebanon six years ago, however, that might not entirely be true.

There is still a disputed region occupied by Israel and it given voice to the reason why Hezbollah has still maintained a military presence in the south of Lebanon. This place is the Shebaa Farms.

The Golan Heights which is also occupied Syrian territory annexed by Israel since 1967 and is the subject of United Nations Security Council Resolution 497 which requires Israel rescind that territory since 1981.

It is interesting how UN Resolutions are imposed with such ferocity against certain nations and ignored in entirety when it pertains to Israel fulfilling its obligations.

It must be said that unusually, Resolution 497 was unanimous and Resolution 1559 was a 9 to 6, in favour against abstentions.

In the end, the list of resolutions passed pertaining to Israel in which they have been condemned in half as many passed makes interesting reading about the lack of fairness in the implementation of international resolve.

The Red Cross marks the missile target - Updated

Surgical precision targetting

The madness portrayed as strategy by the axis of Israel and American continues adrift as the number of causalities progressively advances to unimaginable figures.

Two events especially make this whole situation dangerously precarious and unsustainable.

As I watched the news yesterday, we were shown patients bandaged up in hospital, having been wounded by some attack whilst they went about their duties.

These patients were ambulance men who at the time of attack were moving other wounded persons to hospital.

Many Israeli propagandists with a spokesperson tag for the army or some other function of government have stressed to distraction that they have been making their strikes as surgical as possible.

It makes one wonder how the crosses on two ambulances ended up becoming the bulls-eye for Israeli missiles. Two separate vehicles, with the internationally recognised Red Cross targeted and destroyed - with precision.

Courtesy of WhatReallyHappened.com

UN endangered in every place

Then, the UN Secretary General in the person of Kofi Annan lamented the killing of 4 UN observers, who can blame him? Hardly 3 years ago, he lost one of the best diplomatic brains in Iraq in the person of Sérgio Vieira de Mello, as the UN looked for ways to help the Iraqi War move towards probable solutions of democracy and peace.

If the belligerent parties cannot provide adequate protection for UN officials or observers, then they should not resort to the UN to help legitimise their activities.

In the advent of these killings, I would surmise Israel has already lost the battle for the hearts of many in the international community and it is unlike that they would do any better with the battle of the minds.

People of all nations including Nigerians killed

Once again the bomb was a direct hit on the shelter of the observers - surgical - which was clearly marked, in all 12 UN employees have been killed or injured, with a closer to home tragedy of a Nigerian civilian employee of UNIFIL being killed in Tyre along with his wife.

Obviously, Mr Annan is close to being vilified for jumping to conclusions at obvious and blatant unwarranted attacks on places and vehicles that should in any civilised endeavour be protected from the ravages of war.

They can investigate all they can, but the lives have already been lost and the trigger-happy sharp shooters in F16 planes are probably planning another precision and surgical strike on another clearly marked out structure - churches, mosques and hospitals better beware.

The stupor of delusion

Beyond this point one really has to try and phantom the logic of continuing these exchanges and onslaughts be Israel and the militants labelled as terrorists. Like Robert Fisk suggests, it is a complete delusion to expect that the stated goal of weakening Hezbollah and humiliating Iran whilst taming Syria is achievable by any means and definitely not by parading the best weaponry on the market.

To quote the man more clearly - "The problem, surely, is that the United States sees this bloodbath as an 'opportunity' rather than a tragedy".

The world cannot abide a situation like this any longer.

References

Robert Fisk: Israeli missiles had clearly pierced the very centre of the red cross on the roof of each ambulance

Annan accuses Israel over attack on UN post

Israeli bomb kills UN observers

Pay up or get bombed up

More to the evacuation deal

When I wrote Peace Eludes Our Time with Appeasement exactly a week ago, I received feedback about my oversimplification of rather complex issues.

I can only apologise for getting carried away with the tide of questioning the rationale of events that lead to the evacuation of citizens of Western democracies from Lebanon.

My concern was that this evacuation was looking like a carte blanche raze-and-destroy license to Israel; as the departure of foreign citizens might excite military adventures that would make the then attacks with impunity child's play making current events too unbearable for countenance.

Sue the pants off this lot

Well, a federal suit has now been filed in the United Stated by an Arab-American civil rights group naming Condolezza Rice and Donald Rumsfeld as part of the administration that has not worked to secure the safety ofUS citizens in Lebanon.

The beef is more about a less than efficient and effective evacuation, leaving people in great harms way, and it goes on to request that an injunction be placed on the delivery of US weaponry to Israel until US citizens have all been evacuated.

I suppose these points are quite valid.

Pay up or get bombed

The grating part of this whole debacle was the speed of evacuation was held up because the original policy was to demand that American citizens promise to pay up for their evacuation.

That, I would say is the face of the American Enterprise; they acquiesce to Israel's foray into Lebanon, offer to evacuate American citizens who would pay up, whilst they ready a delivery of weapons to Israel which might end up blowing up their poorer citizens, all to get rid Hezbollah.

Sickening beyond vomit

This terrorism elimination prime objective is really looking like an untreated case of rampaging, stark-raving rabid madness. Talk less of foaming from all orifices.

It really makes me sick to my core.

You might call these people ungrateful, my heart goes out to people who cannot expect a better duty of care in times like these from their great country.

Condolezza condoles with aid

Another American security quagmire

Having paid generous if not effusive and concerned lip service to the protection and support for the fragile and fledgling Lebanese democracy, which was still trying to garner the benefits of Syrian withdrawal and a new coalition government; America put its money far from where its mouth is yesterday.

There are only two other places where American dignitaries use Star Trek teleportation to make unannounced appearances to media excitement. Baghdad and Kabul, we can now add to that Beirut.

Having, in all those places allowed security to deteriorate to the state that a pre-notification might endanger the chief of the entourage and their retinue, surprise is the only strategy they have in pretending to becalm the storm they have nurtured.

Take more pain and have some pills

So, as Condolezza Rice make a surprise call on Beirut and the Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, all she could offer was deep concern, no ceasefire, more pain for now and the balm of American aid.

Many might think that was a deft diplomatic hand, hardly, it was a complete sell-out of an almost defenceless people against an onslaught carrying out a scheme that America hopes would weaken Hezbollah and humiliate both Syria and Iran.

The wrecking of Lebanon would bring respite to no one, especially Israel where losses are beginning to mount in what is becoming a war where the victory would at best be Pyrrhic.

More to the terrorist and their aims

The cost to each side can now only be recouped through some negotiated settlement and this would be a test of Dr Rice's ability to really cool the tensions in the Middle-East.

The inordinate quest to get rid of the "terrorism" without resolving the underlying Israeli-Palestinian problem is a fallacy and the sooner that is realised, the earlier we can stem the flow of blood and begin to work on bandaging the wounds.

As for Lebanon, they might have a friend in America, but they are in need of better friends - the lesson here is, indeed America is no friend in the time of need, when Israel features in the matter.

We can all agree that the Lebanese have not been impressed.

Attaching the burden of history to the Middle-East

The Middle-East conflicts

I have been fielding comments on some of my write-ups about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the current events in Gaza and Lebanon.

I am concerned that most commentary fails to gather the sense of history in this conflict that dates back at least 58 years at the creation of the state of Israel, but has it roots in quite a number of earlier events in Europe from the first Aliyah (migration) around 1881 after extensive persecution of Jews around Europe.

Israel and the Jews have a longer history than the events of the last 130 years with biblical and historical commentary about their living in the Promised Land but never exclusively.

The conflict could even date back to the times of Abraham between mother-child Ishmael and mother-child Isaac – that is a completely different story for now.

I have written a series of blogs on the Israeli-Palestinian issue - it would be difficult to read the context of my views from that one blog or my most recent blogs.

The quest to annihilate Israel is as a result of a long-running scenario where Israel was carved out of the then Palestine without due consideration the displaced people.

New organizations for old problems

Hamas (1987), Hezbollah (1982) and Islamic Jihad (Used by different organisations since the 1980s) are relatively new organisations, which have developed as a result of no movement or inadequate leadership required to resolve that issue of the displaced people and the occupied areas.

Up till when Pope John Paul II visited those lands, I did not know that the largest refugee camp of internally displaced people was really in Palestine.

People have been living in camps in their own land since 1948, it is no wonder that Israel can never be at peace till some justice and movement is seen on the part of Israel.

That agenda unfortunately is mostly hijacked by religious interests that are usually not indigenous and political interests that are neither pragmatic nor diplomatic.

It is important that reviewers and commentators get a general overview of the whole historical context on this matter, fork-lifting current events out of that context provides a poor balance of perspective.

I am not claiming to be an historical expert on the conflicts, but my views, I hope, do attempt to review the whole picture for a perspective on today.

Regardless of the strong religious persuasions on the bless-Israel/curse-Israel divide, having a good critique of that situation from all perspectives is essential and it should not preclude seeking a fair and just resolution even if it does not favour the Jews.

References

The Nation of Israel

Palestine

Israel related blogs

Palestine related blogs

Peace eludes our time with appeasement

Peace eludes our time

Almost 78 years ago, Neville Chamberlain returned from Munich, a perfect English gentleman with a paper signed by Adolf Hilter which was a non-aggression pact securing peace in Europe [1]. We now view that supposed pact of peace as appeasement.

Today, amidst the propaganda and rhetoric that fuels the problems in Lebanon and Gaza as viewed from Israeli eyes, the blanket war on terror is appeased by everyone who can exert influence to halt these hostilities.

Looking like a military state

Each time I view my television an army spokesperson from democratic Israel comes on air, not speaking of their deployments and military activities but dabbling with the politics and wherefores of the conflict.

This is the type of speech one should hear from their political masters, but it appears the politics is becoming militarised and the military is becoming politicise, not of which bode well any democracy.

All weapons break the peace

Besides, we hear time and time again about the thousands of rockets the Hezbollah has, well, are we being naïve here? Israel has helicopter gun-ships, laser guided weaponry and nuclear weapons still undeclared.

Israel is seriously militarised that region in that quest for its defence, that has also lead to the regional militants arming themselves such that when Israel moves with aggression they and not just left with slings and stones to roll over and die.

The main part here is Israel really believes the Middle-East conflict can be resolved with their military might as world leaders pay lip service to the call for restraint and the lack of a determined purpose to see an end to that conflict.

The flytrap of implications

More and more we hear about Syria and Iran being called upon to rein in Hezbollah and Hamas, why they should escapes me.

In fact, I believe there is a more sinister ploy at hand; the need to find a way to implicate both Syria and Iran so that it can become a free-for-all battle royale, this would allow for nuclear sites in Iran to be targeted and destroyed and a possible assassination of the heads of government in those two countries.

The picture looks nasty and I fear for the ultimate effect of this situation.

It can now been argued that the Palestinians and Lebanese have already paid too high a price to return the soldiers unharmed and that is if the Israeli bombardments do not already crush the soldiers in some levelling escapade.

An eruption to wipe out hopes of peace

The world has looked on as the festering Middle-East conflict has ebbed and flowed like an indecisive volcano; it is about to rain lava and pyroclastic flows [2] that would engulf more than we have dared to imagine possible.

Back to the appeasement talk, rather than call to order the parties involved and get this situation to stop forthwith every influential nation has sent boats and evacuation teams to Lebanon to evacuate their citizens.

That, in my view is the license for this conflict to escalate, it says Israel can now maraud with impunity and as long as Hezbollah can still fire its rockets they would continue to descend like mega-hailstones on Haifa and beyond if they find the range.

If anyone should stop doing shit [3], it should start with the world leaders and their flimsy idea of sending in a Lebanon Peace Keeping Force [4] – how does that resolve issues on the ground today?

You need peace to keep it, and for now there is no peace but appeasement that is leading to the untenable, maybe when oil hits $100/barrel somebody might just feel the pinch enough to nip this Middle-East crisis in the bud.

References

[1] BBC ON THIS DAY | 30 | 1938: 'Peace for our time' - Chamberlain

[2] Pyroclastic flow

[3] BBC NEWS | Business | Bush lunch chat is caught on tape

[4] BBC NEWS | Middle East | UN calls for Lebanon peace force

Appeasement

Appeasement is a policy of accepting the imposed conditions of an aggressor in lieu of armed resistance. Since World War II, the term has gained a negative connotation, in politics and in general, of weakness, cowardice and self-deception. - Wikipedia

Forked-tongues fuelling the Middle-Eastern fires

Where is the Genesis of the Middle-East conflict?

I have just had my fill of the fork-tongued diatribe masquerading as diplomacy coming from all quarters regarding the situation in the Middle-East.

When the Hamas militants blew a hole in the wall bordering Gaza and Egypt to allow in Palestinians who had been stranded at the border for weeks the hapless but relieved people thanked Hezbollah for giving them the kind of reprieve that has given them respite.

Let us look at the issues on the ground, indeed militants including Hamas supported personnel have been firing rockets into Israel over the last few months, but all as a result of the occupied situation that the Palestinians find themselves in.

I am not trying to condone or support the struggle which gets conveniently branded as terrorism; there is a serious problem of land conflict in the Middle-East with Israelis and Palestinians in the middle of that muddle.

The fear of 1967 sees no end to this problem

If only we had leaders with conviction who addressed the matter head on and the see the results – Israel completely pulling back to the 1967 lines and Palestine a state within the bounds of what is left – this includes the Jerusalem question – that is the resolution of this conflict.

However, this bizarre occupation where Israel has at will be able to maraud through Palestinian lands with impunity could only exact guerrilla and terrorism type activity where the opponent cannot match the aggressor bullet for bullet and man for man. It would be naïve to expect another situation.

So, the raid on Israel that left 2 soldiers dead and one captured was hardly the Genesis of this situation, the inability for the west to accept the democratic will of the Palestinians allowed Hamas to remain recalcitrant about the right for Israel to exist.

I would contend that if Israel existed within its legitimate pre-1967 borders, Hamas and all other opponents of Israel would have not foot to stand on with their rhetoric.

Recognition should precede calls for influence

Once the West refused to acknowledge democracy because it yielded as it were the “wrong” result, it meant that Hamas would be a weakened and ineffective governing machine unable to command the influence to contain rogue elements.

Then that beach bombing to which we cannot conclusive assign blame still leaves many thinking Israel was responsible – the impunity of Israel had reached a point that certain elements rose to show that Israel in all its might is vulnerable.

Israel’s response to the capture of its soldier-recruit has not only been overly disproportionate, it lacks purpose or the kind of objective that can guarantee the return of the soldier and the earlier someone laments that fact than acquiesce to the hope that reason would prevail on the part kidnappers the better for the poor soldier’s life.

Brothers joined up in arms

But Israel has been unrelenting, so who else would be touched by that intemperate overrun of Palestine but the brothers in arms of Hamas who could divert Israel’s attention – The Hezbollah.

Just as anyone would eventually act if in the presence of great an injustice none of those who can sue for justice actively play the part of arbiter.

So, Hezbollah which happens to be located in Lebanon entered Israel, killed a number of soldiers and captured two as hostage. Where a negotiated settlement might have yielded better results, Israel raced into Lebanon bombing every important structure they could find and killing many innocents.

So, Hezbollah with better weaponry – Katyusha rocket not matching Israel’s manpower however, better than the Qassam rockets has rained disruption but not yet carnage on Israel and the blockade on Lebanese waters has resulted in at least 4 Israeli Navy men being overboard.

A UN debacle and a hissing Bush

So, at the UN as calls for calm and restraint echoed from the chambers the Ambassador to the UN from Israel had the temerity, gall and effrontery to address his Lebanese counterpart in terms that suggested he should in honesty and truth support Israel in the attack on his country which would free Lebanon from the influence of Hezbollah. The is the most warped diplomatic logic I have ever heard from that esteemed chamber and it is amazing that Syria was refused the opportunity to comment on the floor.

So, when Mr Bush from St Petersburg insists that the escalation of violence is primarily due to Hezbollah’s activities; it shows that the warped logic is not only disingenuous; it is dishonest, disgraceful and disheartening. There can be not solution in sight.

Why should Syria care?

Then calls are being made to Syria to rein in Hezbollah – Fat Chance! – Why should Syria get involved no matter what influence they can peddle – Syria’s Golan Heights has been annexed by Israel since 1967 and nothing is being done to resolve that issue conclusive.

However, if Lebanon continues to suffer an onslaught from Israel with the increasing loss of life and the destruction of infrastructure, it would not be long before fraternal ties with Syria have them pitched against Israel.

That would create a domino effect of Iran moving up to support Syria and then the Arab World leading to the Muslim World – simply the makings of World War III.

With Iraq and Afghanistan being simmering cauldrons of violence, the ramifications of Israeli belligerence are far from fully appreciated by all concern and that is scary to say the least.

Israel will never be big in this matter

There are no simple solutions to this matter, but it would take the magnanimity of Israel to do something dovish and materially ground-breaking to bring an impasse this deteriorating situation, unfortunately, Israel does not have the maturity to bring about that quality of statesmanship.

If, those soldiers eventually get returned alive, what a hefty price would have been paid for that and if anything has been lost from all this is the perspective – a quality of far-sighted leadership.

References

The Summary of the Middle-East Conflicts

US and Russia differ on Middle-East

Israel hits Lebanese Ports

Terrorism was a part of the struggle

Dummies guide to removing thorns

Doves know war seek peace

When the Iraqi War was being planned in the first term of the second Bush presidency, it was quite interesting to see that the only dove of the hawkish belligerents was a general who had been to war.

Blood, guts, men killing men, men maimed for life and unspeakable things that make flashbacks a horrific reminder of your survival - war marks men, in some cases it makes demons of men and it other it makes them that loudest advocates for peace and diplomacy.

Colin Powell exemplified that reality, the reality that war only brings peace when one side has been completely exhausted of the resource of men, weaponry and the will to continue.

Then we look at those who have made the decisions for war in this day and the worst that they have seen of the horrors of war is probably out deer hunting like Dick Cheney and he almost killed off a man in that setting.

Runners but not gunners

However, none, not Bush or Blair have seen real combat though politically they have the power to send young men into war to yield their lives to a cause that suffers continuous contentious debate.

Now, we have in the leadership of Israel a Prime Minister and Defence Minister who have no credible military experience setting alight the Middle East in the search for 3 soldiers - there is no telling where this would end but the picture looks nasty.

In both Gaza and Lebanon, the logic has been to blow up bridges and other transport channels like the airport runaway with the intent that this would stop the militants from moving the captured soldiers out of reach of the Israeli search missions - if any.

What price for release?

Unfortunately, I am yet to be convinced that these extreme military incursions which definitely would not have happened if the occupied areas had equivalent weaponry and manpower would yield the captured soldiers in any form than in body bags.

The fundamental that Israel has not understood is that their might in military and manpower terms might destroy live and property in Palestine and Lebanon, but that same might would not secure life, property or the peace for Israel.

The solution is a settlement agreed between the sides involved in this conflict and ut is a shame that America continually loses its moral muscle to bring this to bear by continuously blocking every sanction of Israel at the UN and still failing to exact the requirement of restraint on Israel.

Thorns and splinters need careful extrication

For the sake of analogy, Palestine is like a thorn in the flesh of Israel and the Hezbollah is like a big splinter, in both cases, no matter what power tools and equipment you have got, if you were a carpenter you would not use a hammer nor would you use a shovel if you were a farmer to extract that thorn or splinter.

Rather, it would gentle prising away of the skin with a sharp pin or a small pair of tweezers to extricate the foreign object without causing too much damage to the host body-part.

So also is this Israeli-Palestine issue, all the big guns and massive military firepower and incursions are like taking a hammer to the thorn, it can only cause greater hurt for Israel. The whole concept of defence has been stretched beyond reasonable acceptance to the context of a chess game where attack is considered the best form of defence.

Armageddon kindles as G8 filddles

It can be argued that the best defence for Israel is really within the borders the of same country limited to where those lines were in 1967 - that is a fact that needs to be looked at in a matured acceptance of the reality of the conflict.

If, in fact the bomb that landed in Haifa yesterday did not come from either Gaza or Lebanon, the next possibility is Syria, now, that would be the tinder box to Armageddon.

And what do we have, whilst the world burns, the G8 leaders are fiddling in St Petersburg. History has a way of repeating itself.