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Israeli attack on Lebanon threatens to engulf entire Middle East in war
The Israeli onslaught on Lebanon, with bombings and missile strikes and the imposition of an air and sea blockade, has brought the Middle East to the brink of all-out war. The attack on Lebanon, fully endorsed by the Bush administration, coincides with Israel’s ongoing assault on the Palestinian population of Gaza, 1.5 million people who are enduring the fourth week of a siege, with electricity cut off and food supplies running low.
The Olmert government in Israel has seized on two incidents involving the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers, first in Gaza on June 25, and then on Wednesday on the Lebanese border, as pretexts for an enormous military operation that was clearly prepared long in advance. It remains to be seen how far the Israeli offensive will go—to Beirut, or even to Damascus—but it is clearly aimed at accomplishing strategic objectives that have no relationship to the incidents that supposedly provoked it.
No one can seriously suggest that bombing Lebanese towns and villages, imposing a naval blockade and attempting to assassinate Sheik Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, are methods likely to win the freedom of the captured Israeli soldiers. The two soldiers taken by Hezbollah are far more likely to die as a result, killed either by their captors or by Israeli bombs.
Likewise in Gaza, the indiscriminate killing of dozens of Palestinians with bombs, shells and air-to-ground missiles will do nothing to win the release of Galid Shalit, the private seized by Islamic militants in their raid across the Gaza border into southern Israel.
There is a long history of Israel using such events as the excuse for carrying out military actions that have a far broader strategic purpose—going back to 1978, when a full-scale invasion of Lebanon was launched using the shooting of the Israeli ambassador to Britain by Palestinian militants as a pretext. Only much later did it emerge that the invasion had been long planned, awaiting only the proper incident to provide a suitable official justification.
The same pattern is repeated in Gaza and Lebanon today. The Israeli regime has made no secret of its desire to smash up the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority. The economic blockade imposed in January, after Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections, has been escalated into a full-scale military blockade of Gaza, where Hamas has its main political support.
More
http://wsws.org/articles/2006/jul2006/mide-j15.shtml
No one can seriously suggest that bombing Lebanese towns and villages, imposing a naval blockade and attempting to assassinate Sheik Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, are methods likely to win the freedom of the captured Israeli soldiers. The two soldiers taken by Hezbollah are far more likely to die as a result, killed either by their captors or by Israeli bombs.
Likewise in Gaza, the indiscriminate killing of dozens of Palestinians with bombs, shells and air-to-ground missiles will do nothing to win the release of Galid Shalit, the private seized by Islamic militants in their raid across the Gaza border into southern Israel.
There is a long history of Israel using such events as the excuse for carrying out military actions that have a far broader strategic purpose—going back to 1978, when a full-scale invasion of Lebanon was launched using the shooting of the Israeli ambassador to Britain by Palestinian militants as a pretext. Only much later did it emerge that the invasion had been long planned, awaiting only the proper incident to provide a suitable official justification.
The same pattern is repeated in Gaza and Lebanon today. The Israeli regime has made no secret of its desire to smash up the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority. The economic blockade imposed in January, after Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections, has been escalated into a full-scale military blockade of Gaza, where Hamas has its main political support.
More
http://wsws.org/articles/2006/jul2006/mide-j15.shtml
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Why are you blaming Israel for bringing "the Middle East to the brink of all-out war"? Hezbollah (with the blessing of its Syrian and Iranian supporters) attacked Israel. Where is your condemnation of Hezbollah that started the war by invading Israel and targeting her civilians with an onslaught of missles deep into Israel? Israel is acting in self-defense to Hezbollah's attacks. Hezbollah is unmistakably a proxy army of the Syrian's and Iranians. They receive money, training and weapons from these oppressive and extremist regimes. Hezbollah is known through out the region as thugs and violent Islamic extremists that are unlawfully occupying a wide swath of land in Southern Lebanon. Their stated goal is the elimination of the State of Israel. Israel withdrew from Southern Lebanon and they no longer have any reason to attack Israel other than to provoke a war and give purpose to their existence. They are clearly attempting to thwart UN resolution 1559 which calls for their disarming. Hezbollah does not want peace. They want the elmination of Israel. There is nothing that Israel can do to satisfy them other than to perish.
Israel clearly does want peace. They are willing to trade land, prisoners and take all reasonable steps to do so as is evidenced by their negotiated peace treaties with Jordan and Egypt. They gave back the Sinai to Egypt. They withdrew from Southern Lebanon. They withdrew from Gaza. They agreed to a peace settlement returning 98% of Palestinian territory to a Palestinian state, which was rejected by Yasser Arafat. It is important for the world to recognize this and to pressure the Arab world to accept Israel's right to exist and to negotiate peace treaties based on this major assumption. As long as the Arab world rejects Israel's right to exist then it is impossible to negotiate a lasting and regional peace treaty.
Israel clearly does want peace. They are willing to trade land, prisoners and take all reasonable steps to do so as is evidenced by their negotiated peace treaties with Jordan and Egypt. They gave back the Sinai to Egypt. They withdrew from Southern Lebanon. They withdrew from Gaza. They agreed to a peace settlement returning 98% of Palestinian territory to a Palestinian state, which was rejected by Yasser Arafat. It is important for the world to recognize this and to pressure the Arab world to accept Israel's right to exist and to negotiate peace treaties based on this major assumption. As long as the Arab world rejects Israel's right to exist then it is impossible to negotiate a lasting and regional peace treaty.
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