G8 powers sanction Israeli aggression in Lebanon

While the US media seeks to present the current crisis in terms of equal suffering—Israeli civilians hit by Hezbollah rockets, Lebanese civilians hit by Israeli bombs—the reality is far different. More than 200 Lebanese have been killed and a billion dollars worth of damage inflicted on their country, compared to 24 Israelis killed, nearly half of them soldiers killed in combat against Hezbollah fighters.

Hezbollah rockets are relatively crude and inaccurate, and far less powerful than the 500-pound laser-guided bombs which are destroying roads, public buildings, power plants, port facilities—the entire infrastructure of modern life in Lebanon. Israeli officials have publicly vowed to push Lebanon back 20 years—i.e., to the depths of the civil war which nearly destroyed the country.

The resolution adopted by the G8 summit Sunday placed the blame for the current Mideast crisis on Hamas and Hezbollah, for kidnapping three Israeli soldiers and firing rockets into Israel from Gaza and south Lebanon. This claim of provocation is rubbish. Israel has been preparing and rehearsing for another massive intervention into Lebanon for years, and simply utilized the Hezbollah attack as a pretext for carrying out its long-held plans.

There are two interconnected goals—one specific to the Israeli ruling elite, the other in conjunction with its American patrons.

As always, the Israeli ruling elite justifies its military actions by claiming that it is acting purely in self-defense and in response to dire threats to its security. But what Israel means by “security” is the complete prostration of every other state in the Middle East, not to mention the subjugated Palestinians, whose economic and/or military development might in any way impose restraints on Zionist regional ambitions.

More
http://wsws.org/articles/2006/jul2006/leba-j18.shtml