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Lebanon
Toward a comprehensive settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict
 "With the recent Lebanese-Israeli and Palestinian-Israeli crises, a new global Middle East peace initiative is urgently needed to generate a final and comprehensive settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict," writes Gareth Evans. "So long as that conflict continues, everyone will be losers except the extremists throughout the world who prosper on the rage it continues to provoke."by Garth Evans |
Interfaith Vigil to End Occupation Calls on U.S. to Impose Cease-Fire
 By Pat and Samir Twair
On July 16th, five days into Israel's blitz on Lebanon, the Interfaith Community United for Justice and Peace convened a meeting of Jews, Christians and Muslims in the Islamic Center of Southern California. Speakers were Rev. Dr. George Regas, Rabbi Leonard Beerman and Dr. Maher Hathout. "We must speak out against violence," Rev. Regas, retired rector of All Saints Episcopal Church of Pasadena, told the audience of 250 concerned citizens. While denouncing the capture of Israeli soldiers by Hamas and Hezbollah, the cleric called on Israel to cease its greatly overproportional actions in Lebanon and Gaza. |
War plan
 On July 12, Hezbollah fighters crossed the border separating Israel from Lebanon. They killed several Israeli soldiers and captured two others, spiriting them across the border into Lebanon. Those who want to believe the best about Israel will say that this single action started this summer's war between Hezbollah and Israel.But a closer look reveals that it is not that simple. by James M. Wall |
A terrible foretaste of furies to come
| The brutality of the mutual attacks against mostly civilian urban centres during the war should be seen as a harbinger of the political intensity the region will witness in the years ahead. This may reveal itself sooner than we wish in the American-Iranian confrontation at the UN Security Council - while tensions and polarisation define most other political trends in the region: Internal Lebanese and Israeli politics, Israeli-Palestinian relations, and internal politics in Arab countries whose Islamist and other opposition movements will be emboldened by Hizbollah's experience. by Rami G. Khoury |
Over, for now
 The war on Lebanon is over, but only in a manner of speaking. It was an unnecessary war that left in its wake death, destruction and unresolved issues all around.Listening to the overblown rhetoric emanating from all sides, one doesn't know whether to laugh or cry. From Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's preposterous claim of "unprecedented" accomplishments, to one Arab commentator's horrific pronouncement that "today is a day for celebration and unprecedented joy," - it is all so indecent. by James J. Zogby |
Failure in Lebanon
by Peter Ryan
In it's recent assault on Lebanon, Israel destroyed much and achieved little. If the United States and Israel learn no lessons from this experience, we are both destined to repeat our mistakes.
The "end of hostilities" in the fight between Israel and Hezbollah have left both sides scrambling to claim "victory" in the aftermath, leading comedian Jon Stewart of the Daily Show to joke that the conflict has apparently been a "win-win" proposition.
Though much of Hezbollah's long range missile capacity was taken out by air strikes, the conflict earned them a sizable popularity boost among Lebanese, who saw them as their only defense against Israel's campaign, the victims of which were overwhelmingly civilians rather than Hezbollah fighters. And, despite Israel's assault (and to the surprise of many), Hezbollah managed to continue to strike Israeli targets throughout the month-long campaign. Israel's military actions failed, even momentarily, to protect Israeli civilians from attack. According to Aluf Benn, writing for Salon.com, "Israelis were astonished by Hezbollah's seemingly intact ability to hit northern Israel with a daily barrage of 100-200 rockets, holding about a million people in shelters, regardless of what the Israel Defense Force was doing to the Lebanese."
History will judge us all on our actions
| Michel Aoun draws upon his experience as former prime minister of Lebanon and commander of its armed forces to advocate the disarming of Hezbollah through political pressure and internal dialogue rather than confrontational militaristic might. He argues that the political negotiations to end the current conflict "will be, in essence, the same solution as the one available today, and which, tragically, was available before a single shot was fired."? |
