Rice leaves bloody footprints in Lebanon

Each of these “qualities” was prominently on display during the last 48 hours, as Secretary of State Rice descended on war-torn Lebanon, before continuing on to Israel. What Rice witnessed in Beirut was the product of policies that she herself had set into motion. But, aside from the hypocritical and token expressions of regret, she gave no indication of being particularly bothered. Quite the opposite. In the midst of a city that has been subjected to massive bombardment, in a country that has been utterly devastated by the actions of the Israeli war machine, where tens of thousands of men, women and children are homeless, and without adequate food and water, Rice proclaimed with evident pride that a new Middle East was being born.

One can only imagine what her Lebanese interlocutors must have thought as they listened to Rice insist that the United States did not support a cease-fire at this time. First, conditions must be created for a “lasting peace.” Translation: Israel must be given time to wreck further havoc, to continue its barbaric assault upon Lebanon and its people, until all internal resistance to the country’s conversion into a semi-protectorate of the United States and Israel, and an auxiliary base of operations for the overthrow of the Syrian government and future war against Iran, is completed.

Moving on to Israel, Rice’s basic message to the Olmert government was: Get on with it. Emboldened by the unstinting support of the United States, the Israeli military felt free to blow a UN observation post to smithereens.

As soon as Rice left the region, Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz announced that the Israeli military would establish an unspecified “security zone” in southern Lebanon, signalling a full-scale re-invasion of the area, which Israel occupied from 1982 to 2000. Israeli government sources estimated the width of the zone at anything up to 10km, but General Alon Friedman, one of Israel’s commanders for its northern region, earlier spoke of penetrating up to 70km into Lebanon.

Shortly after Peretz’s declaration, an Israeli air strike killed United Nations peacekeepers at an observation post in southern Lebanon. The UN in Lebanon said the four, from Austria, Canada, China and Finland, had taken shelter in a bunker under the post after it was earlier shelled 14 times by Israeli artillery. A rescue team was also shelled as it tried to clear the rubble.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said he was “shocked and deeply distressed” at the “apparently deliberate targeting” of the post. The UN post was clearly marked and its coordinates recorded with the Israeli military. The 2,000-strong UN mission has been operational in the border area since 1978.

The only conceivable reason to demolish the UN post was to prevent any monitoring of the Israeli offensive. The UN observers along the Israel-Lebanese border, known as the Blue Line, keep close track of major violence, as well as individual incidents, and issue daily press reports.

The UN figures, which do not include attacks further north, give a rare snapshot into the intensity of the onslaught in southern Lebanon. On July 24 alone, for example, Israel conducted 45 air raids and artillery strikes near the Blue Line, while Hezbollah launched 12 missiles. That was in addition to numerous clashes around the town of Bint Jbail, which Israel has pulverised and captured after six days of fierce fighting.

After the UN post was destroyed, Israeli warplanes destroyed two neighbouring houses in Nabatiyeh, which is 10km north of Bint Jbail and has been heavily bombarded in the past few days. In one house, a man and his wife and their son were killed, while three men died in the other house.

Israeli denials of a deliberate strike on the UN post to restrict the monitoring of such war crimes have no credibility. In fact, such an attack is perfectly consistent with its past record. Four days after Israel launched the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, its fighter-bombers and gunboats sank the USS Liberty, a US intelligence ship off the Sinai Peninsula, killing 34 US seamen and wounding 171. The only reason for the calculated attack was that the Liberty’s intercepts flatly contradicted Israel’s claim that Egypt had attacked Israel, and that the massive air assault on three Arab states was in retaliation.

In April 1996 over 100 Lebanese civilians were killed and hundreds more wounded when Israel shelled a United Nations compound. An independent United Nations investigation found Israel’s claim that the shelling was an accident to be unsupported by the facts.

Once Rice left Beirut, Israel resumed air raids, after a lull during her stopover. A string of huge explosions raised a pall of smoke from Beirut’s southern districts. Early Tuesday, Israel also renewed air strikes on its second front, in the Gaza Strip, wounding eight people, local residents and medics said.

Earlier, in another monstrous violation of humanitarian law, two Red Cross ambulances were struck by rockets fired from Israeli helicopters near the port city of Tyre, where refugees have fled to escape the assault on south Lebanon. Six people, including the two drivers, were seriously injured. At least 10 such ambulances, clearly marked with crosses, flashing blue lights and giant Red Cross flags, have been bombed in the past two weeks, killing more than a dozen civilian passengers.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2006/jul2006/rice-j26.shtml