At this stage in
the war with Hezbollah, Israel cannot achieve anything except further
international condemnation together with visceral hatred from Arabs and Muslims
everywhere.
There are few in
the Arab world today who are in the mood for forgiveness and reconciliation
after they have gazed in disbelief at tens of tiny corpses being
unceremoniously thrown into mass graves, including a one-day-old baby whose
parents didn�t even have time to give her a name.
During an emergency
summit held in Rome, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora was driven to ask
delegates �Are we children of a lesser God? Is an Israeli teardrop worth more
than a drop of Lebanese blood?�
Israel�s Defense
Minister Amir Peretz wants America�s blessing to continue hostilities for a
further ten to fourteen days. He might have got it except for the Israeli
bombing of Qana that took the lives of 60 civilians, including 37 children. He
may still.
Qana had already
entered the Lebanese lexicon as a euphemism for �massacre� following a
devastating Israeli strike on that southern Lebanese village in 1996. The
resulting carnage was thought to have triggered a close to Israel�s Operation
Grapes of Wrath.
It is
understandable, therefore, that incensed Lebanese demonstrators sought to trash
the United Nations headquarters in Beirut, although such behavior cannot, of
course, be condoned.
After all, their
government had been begging that body for a cease-fire for weeks to no avail.
This is because the US has staunchly refused any condemnation of Israel,
leaving the world body open to criticism of being ineffectual, America of
extreme pro-Israel bias and Britain of being led by the nose.
As messages of
condolences and outrage flooded in from nations around the world on Sunday,
Lebanese officials told US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to cancel a
scheduled visit to Beirut unless she came armed with an immediate unconditional
cease-fire. The time for toothy smiles, kisses and crocodile tears is over.
The strongly (or
perhaps formerly) pro-American Lebanese prime minister told CBS, �The Israelis
are committing state-sponsored terrorism.�
In a total
departure from the Bush party line, Siniora heaped praise on Hezbollah�s
fighters and its leader Hassan Nasrallah �who are sacrificing their lives for
the sake of Lebanon.�
It is in the Bush
administration�s interests to see Hezbollah pummeled and rendered impotent.
Rather than perceive the conflict in the context of feuding neighbors, the US
has deliberately subsumed it into its �war on terror.�
To this end, Bush
and his British sidekick have branded Hezbollah a terrorist organization that
must be stamped out in order to birth �a new Middle East� � one in which
feuding states live contentedly under the American/Israeli boot.
Now that Siniora
has given Hezbollah legitimacy by publicly patting on the back, Bush will
increasingly find this argument a hard sell. Although I should add Fox News
viewers and their ilk have already bought into it hook, line and sinker.
A new �terrorist�
foe was thought to be just what the doctor ordered for George W. Bush�s
dwindling popularity rating. Bin Laden has disappeared into the ether. Saddam
Hussein awaits the outcome of his kangaroo trial in an American jail. Abu Musab
Al-Zarqawi was duly assassinated and his so-called successor spotted in an
Egyptian prison where he�s been languishing for the past six years.
The new foe had to
be destroyed and humiliated so that the policies of the self-acclaimed leader
of the free world could be seen to be working.
Unfortunately for
Bush, Hassan Nasrallah doesn�t exactly fit the bill. He�s too softly spoken for
one, doesn�t engage in outlandish rhetoric or speak longingly of Islamic
caliphates from Spain to goodness knows where. Instead, he represents over 40
percent of all Lebanese, so if he�s a terrorist they must be too. Moreover his
people haven�t been producing snuff videos when corpses are divorced from their
heads.
Those pesky
Europeans haven�t been much help either. They�ve refused to add Hezbollah to
their list of terrorist groups, and so has Russia.
Israel�s inability
to crush what its spokesmen inevitably refer to as �Khizbollah� has further
ruined Bush�s plan. The Israelis were meant to pull a quick, decisive victory
out of their hat. After all, they have had years of experience fighting
militant groups in occupied Palestine.
And, most
importantly, they are the ones with the big American bombs, the deadly American
F16s and Apache helicopters and the impervious American tanks.
Yet almost three
weeks into the conflict, Hezbollah is still firing an average of 100 rockets
into northern Israel each day and has driven a succession of elite Israeli
units out of its southern strongholds. The resistance has further downed an
Israeli drone and several helicopters, not to mention achieving a direct hit on
an Israeli warship.
The result has
opened a can of worms. Israelis commentators are turning on their military,
accusing it of being ill prepared and ill trained. Defense officials fret over
Israel�s diminished deterrent capability.
The Bush brigade is
said to be disappointed at Israel�s military ineptitude and embarrassed by its
attacks on civilians. The international community is up in arms over Israel�s
brutality and America�s intransigent stance in the face of calls for an
immediate cease-fire.
Syria, once
considered an irrelevance or even �a low-hanging fruit� has re-established its
importance in the region with all roads once again leading to Damascus.
The Palestinians
have been reinvigorated by Hezbollah�s military successes and progress toward
their state has adopted a renewed sense of urgency.
As for Hezbollah
fighters, they have achieved an almost mythical quality throughout the Muslim
world due to their stealth, stoicism, self-discipline and courage under fire.
Most importantly,
Israel has unwittingly opened up a discussion that was verging on taboo in
mainstream Western media. In yesterday�s Guardian, David Clark writes: �How can
�terrorism� be condemned while war crimes go without rebuke?� How indeed!
However, the outcome of this conflict isn�t ready to be written in stone. With
its back against the wall there is a danger that Israel will embark on a
scorched earth policy in southern Lebanon. Alternatively, Syria and Iran could
get dragged in when Bush�s evangelical support base will merrily prepare
themselves for �end times� rapture.
The most favorable
outcome for Lebanon would be an unconditional cease-fire followed by a prisoner
exchange, a return of Sheba Farms to Lebanon and a non-NATO international force
with a UN mandate swiftly brought in to police a cordon sanitaire.
For Israel, there
isn�t one. It arrogantly overplayed its hand and lost the game. Unless, of
course, it equates winning with how many children�s coffins it can notch up in
the shortest time.
Linda S. Heard is a British specialist writer on
Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted by email at heardonthegrapevines@yahoo.co.uk.