Kibitzing at the Corner of Sylvania and Talmadge

A fog of rhetoric has impeded clear public vision of the latest Middle East war. Israeli spokespeople and White House echoers punctuate "explanatory" sentences with the "t" word, to connote the root of current evil, and the necessary violent remedy as well: more terrorism, directed by the state of Israel. The barrage of words and images syncopates with the barrage of bombs and rockets. The cacophony of babble tends to erase precedents and obscure facts: Palestine, not terrorism, remains the central conflictive issue in the area.

On July 22, as Israel invaded Lebanon to crush the "Hezbollah terrorists"­ momentarily turning attention away from the "Hamas terrorists"--former Irgun warriors unveiled a plaque "commemorating the attack on the King David hotel in Jerusalem on July 22, 1946. On that day the Irgun 'resistance' to British rule in Palestine detonated a bomb inside the hotel." 91 people died, including 28 British subjects. (Harry de Quetteville, Telegraph July 22, 2006)

"The Hebrew Resistance Movement" ops planted explosives in the hotel basement, claiming to have warned the hotel's occupants to leave. For unknown reasons the hotel remained full when the bombs exploded. A mistake; regrettable! Indeed, the Israeli government has continued to regret subsequent civilian killings. These unintentional mistakes have cost thousands of mostly Palestinian lives. By late July, Israeli bombs on Lebanese cities produced more deaths and almost a million refugees--another regrettable but necessary consequence of the war on terrorism.

The media barrage of carnage reports from Lebanon and Israel--where Hezbollah rockets did considerably less destruction--obscures causes and possible solutions to the new Middle East war. Indeed, as the TV public wrung its collective hands in despair, none other than George Bush offered a way out. For W, the solution appeared as obvious.
"See?" he poked British Minister Tony Blair at the St. Petersburg G-8 summit, "what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing that shit, and it's over."

He didn't explain "they" or "shit." Nor did Bush seem aware that his recent epiphany on shit stopping clashed with his February 2005 epiphany after the assassination of Lebanese politician Rafik Hariri. Bush accused Syria of killing Hariri and demanded Damascus remove its forces from Lebanon. In his latest spiritual flash, Bush now apparently wants Syria to re-intervene in Lebanon to stop shit. (A UN investigation under Serge Brammertz found no evidence implicating Syria.)

Was Bush only kidding around? NY Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote that Bush "turns summit meetings into fraternity parties." At this kegger he even managed to give action--an unexpected back rub -- to German Prime Minister Angela Merkel, who proved by her negative body language that for all her conservatism, she was not a sorority girl.

World leaders may demean Bush's intellect, but not ignore US power, despite its seemingly capricious zig zags. In 1982, with US backing, Israel ousted the PLO from Lebanon. In the interim, a Hezbollah militia arose to fill the military vacuum.

In 1985, at the height of the Lebanese civil war and Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon, the Lebanese Christians asked Syria to send troops into southern Lebanon. The Israeli government responded with outrage. Defense Minister Shimon Peres "demanded that Israel deliver an ultimatum to the Syrians, to prevent them from reaching the Israeli border." Israeli journalist Uri Avneri recalls how "Yitzhak Rabin, the Prime Minister, told me then that that was sheer nonsense, because the best that could happen to Israel was for the Syrian army to spread out along the border. Only thus could calm be assured, the same calm that reigned along our border with Syria."

Rabin, however, did not follow the dictates of his own insight. The consensus at the time would not permit Syrian troops to mobilize near the Israeli border. Unlike Hezbollah, the Syrians, suggests Avneri, "are cautious, they do not act recklessly." Israelis might recall that under the misty cloud created by the utterance of the "t" word, there lies a cauldron of ugly facts. For 18 years, Hezbollah inflicted serious casualties on Israeli occupying forces as Israel unsuccessfully tried to "stabilize" Lebanon by creating a loyal puppet government. Even after they withdrew, the Israeli military made plans for another invasion. The expected "provocation" occurred on July 12 when Hezbollah fighters killed eight Israel soldiers and abducted two others near the Lebanese-Israeli border.

Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah claimed the two captured soldiers should signify a negotiated prisoner exchange. "No military operation will return them," Nasrallah told a July 12 news conference in Beirut. "The prisoners will not be returned except through one way: indirect negotiations and a trade."

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