The New Middle East
By Ali Quli Qarai
31 July, 2006
Countercurrents.orgWhen on July 12 Israel launched a full-scale attack on Lebanon in what was declared to be a “response” to the bold capture of two Zionist soldiers by Hezbollah guerillas, killing hundreds of Lebanese civilians and destroying the country’s infra-structure, morally and legally it lost the war as far as the general world opinion was concerned. The outrageous and barbaric character of the “response” was so obvious that even the generally pro-Israeli Western politicians and media were forced to admit the “disproportionate” character of Israel’s “response.”
The Bush administration has kept justifying the all-out war launched against Lebanon by reiterating that Israel was exercising its right of self-defence in response to Hezbollah’s action. However, the world opinion clearly saw Israel’s action as being so disproportionate as to be going far, far beyond the limits of legitimacy and sanity.
However, the words “response” and, by implication, “disproportionate” were both misnomers. Israel was simply executing the second leg of the U.S. agenda aimed at eliminating Hamas and Hezbollah as two Islamic mass movements that had emerged in the Middle East in resistance to Israel’s aggressions. In order to project Israel’s aggressive conduct as “self-defence,” U.S. and Israeli politicians and media had to style the attacks on civilians in Lebanon and Ghaza as defensive “responses” to the capture of three Zionist soldiers by Palestinian and Lebanese resistance. While the very character of the “response” has exposed the falsehood of the excuse, its “disproportion” has inevitably resulted in world-wide condemnation of Israel and U.S., its preceptor and reckless patron.
Ms. Rice, to whom the destruction of Lebanon appeared as “birth pangs” of a new Middle East, arrived in the region pretending to midwife an “enduring” peace within the Neo-con utopia of the region. The venture was inspired by the puerile conviction—shared by the Neo-cons and the Zionists—which believes bombs and missiles to be effective means of creating and shaping political reality.
A superpower that presumes its destructive potential to be the cornerstone of its power and influence, and a colonial entity that perceives barbaric attacks on its neighbours as the key to its enduring security, are certainly in for some very unpleasant surprises.
The U.S., with its spiritual and political bankruptcy, is inherently incapable of creating or shaping any positive political reality, within America itself or anywhere abroad. Sheer ambition for world domination cannot be a viable agenda, especially when accompanied with utter disregard for law and morality, the most salient features of present U.S. administration.
If the U.S. had any capacity to create anything positively new, it would have done so in Palestine, which has been under the occupation of its client for more than half a century. Perhaps, had it not been for the U.S. support for Israel’s reckless actions, Israel might have been able to peacefully solve its conflicts with the Palestinians and its neighbours.
The political realities in Palestine, Lebanon and the entire Middle East have taken shape and evolved despite the imperial fantasies of a new Middle East. The U.S., of course, very much likes to bomb this emerging reality out of existence. It blames its failures on Hamas and Hezbollah, or on Iran and Syria, without realizing that it is confronted not by a political group or regime but the faith and determination of hundreds of millions of people who regard American influence as greatest danger for the region and who look upon Israel as the most outrageous global injustice of contemporary history.
Irrespective of whether one is a Muslim, Christian or Jew, the very notion of justice contradicts the existence of the racist colonial apparatus. It is the universal notion of Justice that poses a standing threat to the existence of Israel, not Hamas and Hezbollah. When Mr Ahmadinezhad, the Iranian president, repeated Imam Khomeini’s words about the necessity of dismantling the Zionist entity, he was, of course, not hinting at the removal of Israel by military means. What he meant was that recognition of Israel, a residue of nineteenth-century imperialist thinking, is equal to negation of justice as an enduring universal value. Any restoration of justice in the Middle East logically implies the dismantlement of Israel.
Injustice and crime do not become acceptable just because they were committed decades ago. They do not become justified because they are backed and supported by the power of arms. America and its Zionist and Arab clients will succeed in carving out a “new” Middle East, or achieving durable security for Israel only when they are able to bomb the values of faith and justice out of existence.
The people of Palestine and Lebanon belong to their homeland. Bombs and missiles may wreck their lives for some days, but they cannot destroy their faith or wipe out their sense of justice. When the guns are silent they will no doubt return to the ruins and rebuild their homes with a greater determination to defend their homeland against the aggressor.
This war has exposed, more than ever before, the inbuilt insecurity of the Zionist regime, thus far concealed by its military superiority over the Arab states. By exposing the limits of Israel’s military power, Hezbollah has dealt a fatal blow to the existence of the Zionist state. The realization is dawning upon more and more Israeli immigrants that they have been pawns in deceitful hands. Now they see no guarantee of a secure and peaceful life and future for themselves and their descendents under a failed regime founded on empty promises and led by unscrupulous men indifferent to the teachings of the prophets and the misery of millions of innocent men, women and children. A house built on the mouth of seething volcano, Israel was a temporary prize bestowed by the devil of British and U.S. imperialism in return for their soul, their security and future. It was not the God of Abraham and Moses that created the colonial regime.
Many colonial settlers in occupied Palestine have realized that they made a vicious bargain, and many decided that it was time to move on! This war is perhaps the last reminder of this message to Israeli immigrants.
When the dusts of the war have settled, the world will see a Hezbollah and Hamas that have not been weakened but grown in strength and stature several times. The new Middle East was born in 1982 when Israel invaded Lebanon. Now it is coming of age.
Ali Quli Qarai is an Iranian scholar who was the Editor of the English language Islamic quarterly Al-Tawhid until 1996. He has published several books, including a translation of the Quran.
