The
Crime Of Lebanon And Palestine: Are Iran And Syria Next?
By Stephen Lendman
24 July, 2006
Countercurrents.org
By
any interpretation of international law, Israel today is committing
massive and egregious war crimes and crimes against humanity against
the defenseless people of Palestine and Lebanon. It's doing it with
the full support and encouragement of the US and willful compliance
of the West, most of the Arab world, the UN and the dominant corporate
media worldwide acting as cheerleaders for the mass killing, crippling
destruction, and immiseration of innocent civilians in Lebanon and the
Palestinian Occupied Territories. Israel falsely claims its duel assaults
are in response to Hamas' capture of an Israel Defense Forces (IDF)
soldier near Kerem Shalom crossing, southeast of Rafah, on June 25 and
Hezbollah's cross-border incursion on July 12, killing eight IDF soldiers
in the exchange that followed and taking two others prisoner.
The three soldiers were captured,
not "kidnapped" as falsely reported. But nearly 10,000 Palestinian
and Lebanese civilians were forcibly abducted, are now held in indefinite
detention in Israeli prisons, many administratively without charge,
and are grievously abused or tortured according to Amnesty International
and B'Tselem, the Israeli human rights monitoring group. Amnesty, in
fact, reported in 1998: "By Israel's own admission, Lebanese detainees
are being held as 'bargaining chips;' they are not detained for their
own actions but in exchange for Israeli soldiers missing in action or
killed in Lebanon (during the Israeli occupation there). Most have now
spent 10 years in secret and isolated detention (and many are still
there or have been replaced by other abductees)." The "civilized
world" rails about the three IDF prisoners of war, yet is unconcerned
about 10,000 Arab victims because they're Muslims, not white enough,
and no criticism of Israel is allowed or tolerated publicly for whatever
it does. Still, no nation claimed it had a right to declare war on Israel
to free its prisoners unjustifiably held nor would the world community
tolerate it if one did.
But that's just what Israel
did and is getting away with it with the full support of the US and
world community. Clearly the events of June 25 and July 12 in no way
justify Israel's right to wage all out retaliatory war, and in doing
it Israel is grievously violating international laws and norms. Nonetheless,
it's known Israel planned to wage them long before it got the pretexts
to do it. Both "wars" were planned well in advance, Israel
intended to wage them all along and only needed an excuse to do it in
each case. Had not Hamas and Hezbollah obliged (insignificant as their
provocations were), Israel would have "manufactured" pretexts
as it's done in the past to execute the plans it had in mind. The result
since has been the mass suffering and death of innocent men, women and
children (in numbers far greater than reported as they always are) who
always pay the greatest price when conflicts begin.
But that's part of Israel's
plan as their strategy is always to deliberately inflict great pain
on the civilian population of its targets hoping the people affected
will blame their ruling authorities for it and turn against them. In
Palestine and Lebanon that means Hamas and Hezbollah that Israel intends
making every effort to destroy. The strategy never worked before, and
it won't now as evidenced by how events are now unfolding. Instead of
turning the people in the Occupied Territories and South Lebanon against
Hamas and Hezbollah, both these authorities are gaining support in response
to Israel's extreme and unjustifiable reign of terror that eventually
will come back to haunt it and its US ally as it always does.
Israel's Plan Is
to Wage a Scorched-Earth Reign of Terror Similar to What the US Is Doing
in Iraq
Israel responded quickly
and overwhelmingly to the Hamas and Hezbollah provocations. It initiated
"Operation Summer Rain" against Hamas and the Palestinians
and "Operation Change of Direction" against Hezbollah and
the people of Lebanon. Both IDF assaults continue unabated so far through
intensive attacks from the air and on the ground.
It's not the purpose of this
article to document the carnage inflicted thus far in each conflict
area. It's been brutal, unrelenting and excessive involving suspected
use of illegal weapons including chemical agents, depleted uranium (DU)
munitions that will leave deadly irremediable toxic radiation forever
over the areas struck and beyond, and white phosphorous bombs and shells,
known as Willy Pete, that burn flesh to the bone and can't be extinguished
by water that only makes it worse when used. The IDF is also reportedly
testing in real time some new terror weapons, possibly for the first
time. One of them is a thermobaric bomb reported being used freely across
Lebanon. This bomb contains polymer-bonded or solid fuel-air explosives
in its payload. It also has a fuse munition unit (FMU) used on the nose
of Israeli artillery shells able to penetrate buildings, underground
shelters and tunnels creating such a blast pressure that all the oxygen
is sucked out from the spaces and the lungs of anyone in th vicinity.
The Lebanese, and likely the Palestinians as well, are their lab rats
with consequences to them too horrible to imagine.
Much of this is being well
covered daily with graphic pictures of destroyed bodies (including of
young children) in the alternative media online, in print, on Aljazeera
and in other independent media sources uncorrupted by their governments
or corporate affiliations. Sadly, as usual, it's impossible to have
any understanding of what's going on or why through the US corporate
media, so-called US National Public Radio and TV that have sunk as low
as Fox News in their corrupted one-sidedness, and the "vaunted"
and "venerable" BBC that's about as bad. As it always is,
especially in time of war, the first casualty is truth that's being
suppressed in the mainstream and replaced with Israel and US-friendly
propaganda.
Nonetheless, those seeking
alternative sources of news and information to learn and understand
the truth know that Israel's response to two minor incursions against
it has been disproportionate in the extreme. But it's part of Israel's
long-standing strategy to provoke conflict deliberately, to get the
PLO in the past and Hamas and Hezbollah today to respond, falsely label
them "terrorists" for doing it, and then claim a justifiable
right to strike back with brute force in "self-defense" that's,
in fact, an act of aggression. It's always done to avoid a political
solution with them which Israel has no intention of accommodating ever.
In executing its current plan, the IDF has now maliciously and willfully
attacked innocent civilians in Palestine and Lebanon and created a humanitarian
disaster in both countries. The world response to these atrocities has
been tepid, shameless and disgraceful, and hundreds of thousands of
defenseless people are paying a dreadful price as a consequence. Israel
is being alowed and even encouraged to get away with murder and mass
destruction, and most world governments through their acquiescence are,
de facto, willing co-conspirators. As a result, nothing is being done
to help the innocent victims whose suffering continues daily with no
letup.
Israel's assaults on the
Occupied Territories and Lebanon were planned well in advance with the
full knowledge and approval of the US. It was reported earlier this
year in Israel's Maariv daily that the events now underway in Gaza and
the West Bank were in the works for months. It was explained in an interview
the paper did with IDF Southern Command General Yoav Galant, responsible
for Gaza, who said that "we (Israel) have a plan to (re) occupy
the Strip" (and) "We are in advanced states of preparing forces
for readiness" to do it in response to "increased (Palestinian)
attacks." Another IDF official confirmed what the general said
and added that the IDF completed its training to reenter Gaza and informed
its soldiers to prepare and be ready for orders to move in. Neither
the general or other IDF official explained, however, that the Palestinian
"attacks" were with crude weapons and only in response to
Israel's daily assaults against them with the most sophisticated weapons
the IDF has other than its nulear ones.
The story in Lebanon is very
similar and the predictable outcome from Hezbollah's justifiable responses
to Israeli instigated intermittent conflict, cross-border incursions,
freewheeling abductions, and repeated violations of the country's airspace.
It's brought us to where we are now and Israel's plan and intent to
destroy Hezbollah as a political entity as well as the military strength
it's built up since the IDF withdrew from South Lebanon six years ago.
Hezbollah publicly admitted
receiving military aid from Iran and Syria in the Arab press, and the
Syrian defense minister confirmed his country helped supply some of
it. This was just reported on July 21 by Matthew Kallman of the San
Francisco Chronicle Foreign Service - a most unexpected venue. Kallman
quotes Israeli professor Gerald Steinberg of Bar-Ilan University who
said: "In a sense, the preparation (for the Lebanon assault) began
in May, 2000, immediately after the Israeli withdrawal, when it became
clear the international community was not going to prevent Hezbollah
from stockpiling missiles and attacking Israel. By 2004, the military
campaign scheduled to last about three weeks that we're seeing now had
already been blocked out and, in the last year or two, it's been simulated
and rehearsed across the board." The professor forgot to mention
that Hezbollah attacks were justifiable and in response to frequent
Israeli cross-border ones against them, the Lebanese people and the
Palestinians, as expained above. It's called self-defense, but not by
the Western media or this Israeli professor.
Kallman reported further
that over a year ago a senior Israeli IDF officer (unidentified) began
giving "PowerPoint presentations" off the record to US and
other officials and unnamed journalists and think tanks explaining the
plan now underway "in revealing detail." The officer described
a three week campaign to destroy Hezbollah's "long-range missiles,"
rocket launchers and weapons stores, its command and control centers,
and disrupt transportation and communication in the country. He said
IDF ground forces in large numbers would then invade Southern Lebanon
in the third week of the campaign to destroy targets identified through
reconnaissance but not to remain on a long-term basis. It turned out
the IDF did it after 10 days and are now in the south of the country.
Kallman also quoted Eran
Lerman, a former colonel in IDF intelligence who said the Israeli military
debated how to accomplish what it's now undertaken. There were two sides.
"One is the air power school of thought, the other is the land-borne
option......the air force concept is very methodical....and slower to
get results. A ground invasion that sweeps Hezbollah in front of you
is quicker, but at a much higher cost in human life and requiring the
creation of a presence on the ground." Moshe Marzuk, former head
of the Lebanon desk for Israeli Military Intelligence, added "Israel
has learned from past conflicts in Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza.....that
a traditional military campaign (on the ground) would be counter-effective.
A big invasion is not suitable here. We are not fighting an army, but
guerrillas.....If we are to be on the ground at all, we need to use
commandos and special forces." So far, the script outlined above
is playing out about as planned. But Kallman was also told what any
militay observer knows well. The best of plans don't always work out
as intended which the daily Haaretz military analyst, Daniel Ben-Simon,
indicated when he said: "I have no idea how this movie is going
to end."
No one does, but it's the
purpose of this article to address why these operations were undertaken,
what Israel and its US ally hope to achieve by them, and what may follow
next, hard as that may be to know. Still, it's important to try as the
danger of an expanded conflict is possible with untold consequences
should it happen.
Israel's Intent and
Goals and Those of Its US Ally
The US is always fully aware
well in advance of any significant operation Israel intends to undertake.
As that small but powerful nation's paymaster and benefactor, Israel
wouldn't dare under most circumstances not keep its most valued ally
fully in the loop and most concerned about having its full compliance.
That's rarely ever a problem though as both nations share a common interest
in the Middle East. For Israel it's primarily security against potentially
hostile neighbors, its intent to assure pro-Israeli regimes in the region,
and its ability to expand its undeclared borders beyond where they now
are to wherever it's able to do it and get away with it. Israel already
controls the choicest parts of the West Bank, the Syrian Golan Heights
it captured in the 1967 war and never returned, and the 25 square kilometer
Shebaa Farms area of South Lebanon it never relinquished after seizing
it as well in the 1967 war. It's maintained its occupation of both areas
after the end of hostilities with Syria nearl 40 years ago and its withdrawal
from Lebanon in May, 2000, 22 years after it first invaded this defenseless
country.
Like Israel, the US also
has a clear interest in the Middle East that's elementary to a grade
schooler with any intelligence. The region has about half the world's
acknowledged oil reserves and for over half a century has been viewed
by US officials as a treasure of almost unimaginable strategic and economic
value. That view has prevailed at least since the historic meeting on
the USS Quincy in early 1945 near the end of WW II between Franklin
Roosevelt and Saudi King ibn Saud to begin a relationship that would
later assure US access to Saudi oil and the beginning of its dominance
in the region in return for this country's agreeing to provide security
for the monarchy.
Ever since, the US has pursued
a policy to establish and support client states in the region and to
conduct hostile covert actions or wage war to install them in nations
important enough like Iraq where they didn't exist. Despite our rhetoric
concerning the Middle East or anywhere else, this country has no interest
whatever in removing dictators or establishing democracies. It's only
interest everywhere, but especially in countries with great strategic
importance, is to have in place client states run by leaders subservient
to US wishes and aims. Independent-minded leaders like Saddam, the Iranian
Mullahs and President Mahmoud Armadinejad, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad,
and three-time democratically elected Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez,
beloved by the great majority of his people, are prime targets for regime-changing
removal by force if necessary - only because they chose to run their
countries independently of US authority. Imperial powers like the US
never tolerate that.
Israel's well-planned actions
against Hamas and the Palestinians and Hezbollah and the people of Lebanon
are part of the same regime-changing strategy. In the Occupied Territories
it's to destroy Hamas as an independent-minded political entity and
replace it with a compliant one like Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas willing
to serve Israel's interests and not those of the Palestinian people.
In South Lebanon, it's essentially the same thing - to destroy Hezbollah
as a political and resistance force, remove its resilient threat to
Israeli hegemony in the region, and replace it with an Israel-friendly
Lebanese government in full control of the country.
The Evolution of
Israeli-Hamas Relations
Israel wasn't always hostile to Hamas it now views as an enemy it intends
to destroy. In the 1980s, the Israeli government lent it support to
check the growing authority and legitimacy of the PLO that had suspended
retaliatory attacks and wanted to pursue a political solution with Israel
that Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir at the time explained Israelis would
never agree to and, in fact, said he went to war with Lebanon in 1982
to prevent. But once established, Hamas rose in prominence largely due
to its well organized and effective social service network that provides
such essential services as food assistance, health care, education,
daycare and other charitable aid to Palestinians in great need of them.
But Hamas also has a military or resistance wing that has engaged in
attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians in retaliation for Israel's
war of attrition against the Palestinian people that's caused decades
of immiseration with little relief or outside support to offset it.
Because of that, Israel was
horrified when the January, 2006 election didn't turn out the way it
thought it had carefully arranged and Hamas won a clear majority of
the seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). Without the
larger than life figure of Yasser Arafat to lead it, the Palestinian
people finally rejected the dominant Fatah party and its post-Oslo history
of corruption and subservience to Israeli authority. From the start,
it was clear Israel had a single aim - to destroy Hamas as a political
entity by any means. The Ehud Olmert led Kadima government planned it,
the IDF trained in preparation for it, and it just awaited a convenient
pretext to initiate what began on June 25.
The Hezbollah Story
The Hezbollah story is quite
similar. It was born out of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982
and the oppressive occupation that followed. Hezbollah was formed to
resist the occupation, expel the Israelis, and it remained an effective
opposition force to Israel ever since. It's major base of support is
in the Southern Lebanon Shiite region and Northern Beka'a valley it
controls that's up to one-third of the population. It's also likely
supported by the estimated 400,000 Palestinian refugees in the country
who live in overcrowded camps, struggle to achieve their basic needs,
have no legal rights, and get no government aid or protection. Hezbollah
is also a major political force and is represented by 11 lawmakers in
the Lebanese Parliament and has two government ministers in the country's
cabinet. But it also maintains a military wing as a needed deterrent
to Israeli oppression that up to now has been the only effective force
against it in the region. That's why Israel's aim has always been to
elimiate Hezbollah and now initiated on July 12 what looks like all
out war, the reinvasion of Lebanon that followed on July 22, and possible
occupation of the country ahead if it decides that's what's needed to
achieve it. It never was able to do it before and likely won't succeed
now whatever strategy it follows. But Israel is determined and seems
intent to follow the strange and doomed to fail policy of "always
wrong but never in doubt." It won't be any different this time,
but once again Israel appears to be repeating past mistakes and making
its victims pay the harsh price for them.
Throughout Israel's occupation
of Southern Lebanon in 1980s and 90s that price was severe indeed, but
Hezbollah's committed resistance nonetheless finally succeeded in getting
the IDF to withdraw from the country in May, 2000. After 22 years of
failing to subdue a resilient South Lebanon, it's hard to believe Israel
is once again willing to try and in so doing inflict mass death, suffering
and destruction on the innocent people throughout this country that
are no match for the IDF militarily in a head-on confrontation. But
it goes unreported and undiscussed in the mainstream that if Israel
really wanted to end retaliatory attacks against its territory and people,
the easy sure way to do it is to stop provoking the Palestinians and
Hezbollah by attacking them first. The fact that it hasn't done it shows
it won't and doesn't want to because in a state of peace and calm it
would be unable to avoid the political solution it never intends to
negotiate in good faith.
Israel instead prefers to
continue the policy it began against Lebanon in 1968 when the IDF conducted
terror raids and military aggression against the country that included
attacking the Beirut airport and destroying 13 civilian planes on the
ground claiming it was in retaliation for an attack by Lebanese trained
Palestinians targeting an Israeli airliner in Athens. IDF incursions
into Lebanon continued in the 1970s against the PLO including the major
invasion into Southern Lebanon, the "Litani River Operation."
It was launched in March, 1978 to establish an occupation zone that
Israel put the Christian South Lebanon Army (SLA) in place to man when
it withdrew its forces weeks later.
But Israel reinvaded the
country in June, 1982 in force with intent to stay, remaining until
Hezbollah forced it to withdraw in May, 2000. Before it did, however,
the IDF managed to kill about 18,000 mostly innocent civilian Lebanese
and Palestinians. Yet, despite the carnage, the IDF was unable to destroy
Hezbollah which resisted effectively including against Israel's April,
1996 17 day "Operation Grapes of Wrath" that accomplished
nothing but more death and destruction. Today, Hezbollah under its leader,
Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, is stronger than ever and is gaining support
beyond its Shiite base and near autonomy in the South in response to
the Israeli inflicted atrocities committed in the current conflict.
It now remains to watch and speculate where this conflict is heading.
The Road from Palestine
and Lebanon May Lead to Iran and Syria
The US and Israeli plan may
be to escalate the current Palestinian and Lebanese conflicts and extend
them to Iran and Syria. It's a real possibility and the most serious
threat at this time with all its potentially dreadful consequences.
Whether it will or won't happen only high-level insiders in both countries
know for certain, and even they may be unsure until the current conflicts
play out further. If it's undertaken, this added escalation will have
unknown hazards for all involved combined with the increasing out-of-control
conflict in Iraq and the one in Afghanistan fast heading in the same
direction. At this time, whether the Washington neocons in charge of
things, the Pentagon and the Likudnik spin-offs in the Olmert Kadima
party are willing to risk going further is anyone's guess.
The Threat to Iran
The future is uncertain,
but what is known is that a number of reports circulated earlier this
year and in 2005 that the Bush administration signed off on a "shock
and awe" nuclear attack against Iran to destroy its entirely legal
commercial nuclear program based on the unproved claim Iran is using
it to develop and produce nuclear weapons. Among other places this was
reported by journalist Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker magazine recently.
Hersh went further saying Israel has called Iran a "major threat"
that "must be stopped" from developing these weapons. In a
subsequent article Hersh then reported these plans are off the table
because of strong resistance to them inside the Pentagon. But it's hard
to believe this is so given the position of the hard-liners in charge
in Washington and Israel determined to pursue regime change in both
Iran and Syria and replace the current leaderships there with pro-Western
ones who'll dutifully serve their obedient role of subservient client
states.
Israel also has long had
designs on Iran that have been known at least since October, 2003, when
the German weekly Der Spiegel reported that the Mossad (the country's
intelligence gathering and covert action and counterterrorism agency)
had marked six Iranian nuclear facilities as targets for an Israeli
pre-emptive air strike. It added that then Israel Prime Minister Aeriel
Sharon called Iran "the greatest danger to Israel" and Defense
Minister Shaul Mofaz said "Iran calls for Israel's annihilation
(and) We must do our utmost under US guidance to delay or eliminate
the prospect of the extremist regime (in Tehran from) securing weapons
of this sort." It went on to report "a special unit of Mossad
received an order...to prepare a detailed plan to destroy Iran's nuclear
sites Mossad believes (have) reached an advanced stage....." The
completed Mossad plan was then "delivered to the Israeli Air Force,
(to) carry out the strike."
As far as we know, the US
is also making plans and has since 2004 been committing hostile acts
against Iran by flying unmanned aerial surveillance drones across its
airspace and has infiltrated special forces reconnaissance teams secretly
into the country "to collect targeting data and to establish contact
with anti-government ethnic minority groups" according to Seymour
Hersh in his reporting. The Iranians are well aware of these activities
and are likely doing all they can to thwart or counteract them. They
also understand quite well what's at stake for them - that the US and
Israel are planning regime change by whatever means they think will
work and are using the falsely claimed threat of Iran's perfectly legal
commercial nuclear program as the pretext to pursue it. The rest of
the world so far seems willing to go along with this duplicitous scheme
as well as the dominant corporate media once again dutifully performing
their customary cheerleading role of support for whatever operations
the US and Isael intend to conduct, legally justified or not. The public
as usual is largely in the dark and has no idea what's going on or what's
at stake.
Target Syria - Also
under Threat
Syria, along with Iran, is
also part of the same apparent US - Israeli scheme to escalate the Middle
East conflict further. Both countries are Hezbollah allies and, as mentioned
above, are known to have provided it arms, something no nation does
more of than the US and often to empower unstable, undemocratic regimes
that jeopardize global security. But that's portrayed as perfectly acceptable
when it's done by the world's only superpower and for whatever reason
it has in mind. It's another story, entirely, however, when a smaller
nation does it, especially if that country is not a US client state
and the arms it supplies goes to a source the US and its allies wish
to keep them from, even if their intended use is only for self-defense.
Thus, while there's a vast
world arms trade for legal and nefarious purposes the public generally
hears little or nothing about, it's another story when the arms suppliers
are Iran and Syria, their transactions or aid are quite proper, but
the recipients are Hezbollah and Hamas, sworn enemies of the US and
Israel. The US claims Iran and Syria are state sponsors of terrorism
and says Hezbollah and Hamas are terrorist entities. It doesn't matter
if it's true or not, just that the US says it is to justify whatever
action it and its Israeli ally have in mind. There's now a systematic
demonization campaign under way to claim both countries have armed Hezbollah
to conduct "unprovoked terror attacks" against Israel and
thus provide justifiable cause for Israel and the US to retaliate. Again,
truth is not the issue, only what the US and Israel say is true.
Also, in March, 2006 the
UN Security Council took the unprecedented step, aimed at Syria, of
approving a resolution to establish a hybrid tribunal for a political
crime. It will consist of 2 Lebanese and three international judges
to try the killers of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri that will
allow an international judgment to take precedence over Lebanese law.
From the start, the finger of guilt was pointed at Syria, but so far
there's been no evidence uncovered to prove it.
But by unjustifiably associating
Syria with the Hariri killing and accusing it of supplying Hezbollah
with arms for claimed "terror" attacks, the US and Israel
have now put the mark of Cain on this nation making it easier to attack
it. It's never hard finding a pretext to act when there's enough determination
to do it. Both the US and Israel have had lots of practice finding them
where they exist or inventing or provoking them when they don't. The
recent Iraq "now you see 'em, now you don't" WMDs come to
mind as an invented one that destroyed a nation. Iran and Syria are
quite aware of this and are doing all they can to ward off a similar
fate. Still they know full well, if the US and/or Israel act against
them forcibly, they and their people will pay a painful price. And the
region will as well if the Arab street explodes as one or two more countries
in it go up in flames to further the imperial aims of two rogue terrorist
states allowed to go unchecked by a complicit world community hoping
to benefi from the scraps left for it in the carnage or too timid to
stand up for what's right.
What May Lie Ahead
- The Potential Danger Is Great
There's much at stake in
the Middle East for both the US and Israel including the very real possibility
that the duel Israeli offensives with US support and aid may make an
already impossible situation even worse. It also seems strange to some
that the most extreme elements in the US administration, Congress and
among their influential supporters now appear to see a chance to undo
or at least ameliorate the political and military disaster the US has
suffered in Iraq and likely one ahead in Afghanistan as that country
is rapidly descending into a growing out-of-control conflict as well.
The alternative and more sensible view unheard in the mainstream is
that two or three wrong decisions don't make a right one. But that's
a consideration those in charge in the US and Israel probably never
thought of, and it's not the role of their corporate media allies to
tell them. Their job is only to report what government officials say.
It's clear at this time of
great potential danger, a lot more than that is needed. The Arab street
in the region and Muslim one around the world may be ready to explode
if two more of its states are attacked by the US and/or Israel with
support or compliance of the West and its own leaders. It will be even
more likely to happen if nuclear weapons are used which is now planned
against Iran to destroy targeted facilities below ground. Whatever the
perceived gains may be from this aggressive adventure, the potential
dangers of undertaking it seem so daunting and the odds for ultimate
success so long, it's hard to understand why any sensible leader would
risk taking them. But it's quite possible George Bush and Ehud Olmert
intend to try. No one knows how this will play out if they do, but the
world now holds its collective breath waiting to find out.
There's no need for breath-holding
to know one near-certain outcome of this conflict and another likely
one. Just as Hezbollah was born out of the rubble of Lebanon in the
1980s, so too will one or more new resistance groups rise out of Lebanon's
carnage today and the daily killing, destruction and intensified immiseration
in Palestine. It's a simple law of physics - Newton's Third Law that
there's no action without reaction. And it follows that the more extreme
the action, the more proportionally similar the reaction. Israel is
sure to achieve its goal to incite the continued conflict and violence
it needs to avoid the political solution it won't now tolerate. But
in the long run, this high risk strategy may prove Israel's undoing
as no nation can survive and prosper on conflict and war without end
or for just cause. Unless the Jewish state can find a way to coexist
peacefully and justly with its Palestinian people and Arab and Persian
neighbors and abandon the sure to fail path it's now on, it's ver survival
is in doubt and so is that of those it targets. Time for more breath-holding.
Stay closely tuned.
Stephen Lendman
lives in Chicago and can be reached at [email protected].
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.