US Isolated as Rift Grows with UK
Even the British Foreign Office has now broken with the Washington consensus on the Israeli assault on Lebanon, which is basically that the Israelis should be able to destroy the whole country if they want to, over their two kidnapped soldiers. AFP reports:
' Britain's junior foreign minister Kim Howells, visiting Beirut, Saturday questioned Israel's military tactics and slammed its killing of "so many children and so many people".
"These are not surgical strikes," he said of the air and artillery bombardments since July 12 that have killed more than 300 civilians in Lebanon.
Photo courtesy as-Safir
"If they are chasing Hezbollah, then go for Hezbollah. You don't go for the entire Lebanese nation," he told a media conference after meeting Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.
Howells's boss, Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, echoed those concerns in an interview with the Financial Times and said a ground invasion that Israel appeared to be preparing would create "a very dangerous situation". '
Howell gets "the Understatement of the Year" award. Not surgical strikes, indeed.
posted by Juan Cole @ 7/22/2006 03:53:00 PM
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10 Comments:
Juan Cole, i have lost all respect for you after reading your article justifying Israeli terrorism on Lebanon, people can easily criticize the US gov't and rightfully so for its war in Iraq but nobody dares criticize Israel, Israel has a "right" to defend itself, why? Israel is a colonialist nation that came into existence through force, through colonialism, through theft, through mass expulsions of indigenous Palestinians, the vast majority of so-called Israels are from outside Israel, them and their parents and grandparents were all born in either Russia, Germany, Austria, Poland, New York, New Jersey, so please, they have no right to be there and have no right to defend stolen land.
You want our freedom fighters in Hizballah to be defeated, they represent a large part of the Lebanese people and not only shiite, they get support of many other Lebanese, the only way to defeat them is through genocide of the Lebanese people, do you support that?
The reason i am mad at you is because you fall for the trap of blaming Hizballah for supposedly starting this, that is not true one bit, Israel started this, they have been provoking Lebanon, violating our airspace for years now, the Lebanese gov't and army busted an Israeli mossad ring in Lebanon that was behind terrorist acts in Lebanon, such as car bombings and assasinations, is this not a violation of Lebanon, is this not terrorism on Lebanon? Does Lebanon have a right to defend itself? Does Lebanon have a right to bomb Israeli bridges, airports, residential buildings, roads, trucks, civilians, powerplants, etc.
If Lebanon would have responded like that to Israeli violation of Lebanese soveriengthy the world would still blame Lebanon for attacking Israel and Israel would still have a right to defend itself, we would have been condemned for defending our rights.
Please like Sayyid Hasan Nasrallah (May God protect him) said, just leave us alone.
Professor Cole,
I think it is beyond the pale for anyone to criticize the strikes (air and ground) that Israel is conducting against Lebanon.
After all, CNNMSNBCFOXABCCBSNBC have all reported them as "pinpoint", "surgical", "intended to avoid civilian casualties" and to prove the point they have had a steady stream of Israeli and U.S. officials verifying that "fact" (pictures and footage be damned).
Israel, and the U.S. (in Iraq and elsewhere), have the most professional killing machines and lethal weapons that are set to only destroy that which is intended to be destroyed.
For instance, in Lebanon, Israel identified Lebanon and has been extremely careful not to cause damage in Russia. In Iraq, the U.S. identified Iraq, and has been extremely careful not to hit China.
See!! No "Collateral Damage"!! Frankly, all "peace- loving, non- warring 'democracies' should be proud of this exercise in "restraint" (aka: futility).
Best wishes to all who manage to survive this latest geo- political faux pas on the part of once thoughtful, now addled, world players.
Understatement of the year? I think the minister deserves more credit than that.
Would anyone be able to enlighten me as to what the Hell intifada is talking about when he says, 'your article justifying Israeli terrorism on Lebanon'?
What is being born in the ME?
As Ms.Rice said on 07/21/2006, "What we're seeing here, in a sense, is the growing -- the birth pangs of a new Middle East and whatever we do we have to be certain that we're pushing forward to the new Middle East not going back to the old one". The question is, what is the difference between this statement and recent Gingrich's outburst on the start of WW3? I don't see any, clearly, that's two sides of the same medal - complete determination to proceed with the current course whatever it takes.
Simultaneously, WaPo clarified that it is all over with the traditional US role of the "honest broker" between the sides of the ME conflict. Basically, this means that the US is allied with Israel against the "terrorists".
We also know that back in May, Israeli PM Olmert declared that Abbas is irrelevant to peace. Sure, this is not just empty rhetorics, this means that Israelis do not make much of a difference between moderate and radical Palestinian factions aka "terrorists". It is clear that now scenario is being played in Lebanon where Lebanese moderates are made to choose: fight for Israel against Hizballah - or fight with Hizballah against
Israel.
From the other side, moderate ayatollah Sistani clearly condemned the Israeli invasion in Lebanon which, according to this logic, puts his followers, not to mention the Iraqi anti-Western radicals and the Iranians, on the collision course with the neocons.
All this suggests that the neocons have not abandoned their "my way or highway" / "those who are not with us, are against us" principle. Basically, they promise not to wink in the confrontation with Hizballah, Hamas, Iraqi rebels. Also, there are no reasons to exclude the Iranians and N.Koreans from this list.
The conclusion is, further escalation of the ME conflict is all but inevitable, we are looking for a big regional war. Those who now do their best to avoid getting involved in the hostilities - from Saudis to Europeans to the Russians need to prepare for a tough ride.
Knowing the global character of the ME crisis, this means further escalation in other regions - from the Turkish-Kurdish tensions to the conflicts in the post-Soviet space starting from the Caucasus. No, it is hard to believe that recent Bush's jibe that Russians need to learn "democracy" from Iraq was just a nasty joke. Quite on the contrary, it is all too serious.
It appears from information provided and quoted in several posts, that there is a strong possibility that Hizballah fighters did not capture the Israeli soldiers inside Israeli territoty, but rather Lebanese territoty. At the least there is ambiguity about the location of the event. Yet somehow nearly the entire set of Western chiefs of state, elected representatives, diplomats, news media, and pundits accepted Israel's version immediately.
Not only did they accept it, but they also bought into the narrative that this was a major attack on a sovereign, benign nation - the security of Israel was at stake. Therefore, the West told Israel it was ok to do whatever needs doing. Certainly the Bush administration was working the phones day and night to sell the Israeli narrative.
So lets get to the Middle East crisis. Its not about Israel's security, and its not about Lebanon's destruction. Israel has the military might and the assured support of the US to fend off the weak states that surround it, and none of these states are threatening to attack Israel. As far as Lebanon goes we all know that the lebanese ingenuity, true grit, and ability to withstand pain will pull it through. Some papers are running articles about nightlife not completely dying.
What the crisis is about is the West's and significantly the US's signal to Israel to go ahead and destroy as much of Lebanon as you want, without much advice other than to watch out for women and children.
The crisis is that all these sophisticated governments and representative bodies are forced to watch in horror the destruction of Lebanon knowing that they gave Israel no opposition. Not only can't all the kings horses and all the kings men put Humpty Dumpty back together again, they also helped push him off the wall.
Their pennance will be to send food and medical supplies, and speak in very complex sentences about future security arrangements. The US will try to find its solace by repeating the words "terrorism" and "terrorists" several thousand times a week.
I am almost to the point of believing that this was is according to a pre-arranged plan between the US and Israel.
"If they are chasing Hezbollah, then go for Hezbollah. You don't go for the entire Lebanese nation," he told a media conference after meeting Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.
Someone needs to tell Alan Deshowitz. He draws a distinction between two year old dead babies. whose deaths he regrets, and "someone letting Hizbollah store rockets in their house," whose deaths he deems acceptable.
"The Israeli army has given well-publicized notice to civilians to leave those areas of southern Lebanon that have been turned into war zones. Those who voluntarily remain behind have become complicit. Some — those who cannot leave on their own — should be counted among the innocent victims," wrote Dershowitz.
The problem with Dershowitz's thinking is that he assumes a sanctimonious position where his own political aspirations for Israel are beyond reproach, and all enemies are deemed "less worthy." He is too eager to allow there to be innocent victims so long as they are not Israeli innocent victims.
This pro-Israel racism is the root of all the problems between Israel and her long suffering neighbors.
Hi all. As an aside. Have you ever gone to a conservative blog and had a "discussion" with it's inhabitants. Its amazing how little desent is tolerated. You can get yourself banned within a few posts. I tried it today at three different conservative blogs. I used good e-etiquette and made strong arguments
in regards to the middle-east. Within three posts on each site ... banned. It's interesting to watch them circle the wagons as their demise nears. You would think they would see the utility in reaching out when in trouble but it's simply not in their nature it would appear.
One of the previous comments threw a righteously sarcastic shiv into the rear ends of our propaganistic news networks. Coincidentally, that is why I logged in - to deliver my own rant on the subject.
God knows I do not watch Fox but I have been tuned to MSNBC and CNN for hours of droning background noise.
I listened all day. I actually heard one "expert", I can't recall his name who actually intimated that Bush's cut Syria away from Hezbollah/Iran was an absurd negotiating strategy. He even faulted Bush for his complusive obsession with "rogue states".
Not a word about Britain or US isolation or Russia's volte face on the UN Iran Resolution. Anderson Cooper thought the week's diplomatic theatre was "a hopeful sign"
But the other 8 hours? Coverage of the massive wanton destruction of Lebanon has begun to creep in. To his credit Tucker Carlson not only has a fine mind, he also has a soul. Tucker, in a reprise of his Katrina Shock and Awe from NOLA, did not mince words. Still the scant minutes devoted to honest journalism were quickly balanced with interviews with IDF spokesmodels and retired US Military officers who explained the intricacies of collateral damage. Did you know that Israel's 155 mm howitzers hurl iron 20 miles to an infitessimal Circular Error Probable?
Someone made of sterner stuff than I should do a content analysis. It would drive me mad
NewsHour delivess the best of any of them, just barely. Finding solid reporting and a modicum of journalistic integrity in US media coverage of Middle East issues is like finding the proverbial "pearl of great price". When you find it, run, sell all you have so that you might can buy it. Mt 13:45-46
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