Bush justifies Israel's acts as "part of a larger struggle between the forces of freedom and the forces of terror in the Middle East."
Let's give Bush the benefit of the doubt and say he's referring to Hezbollah rather than all the Lebanese people as the "force of terror." What exactly has Hezbollah [or Hizbullah] actually done to Israel to invite this full-scale attack on Lebanon?
Per Stephen Zunes:
Juan Cole continues to provide useful insights:Unlike the major Palestinian Islamist groups, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah forces haven't killed any Israeli civilians for more than a decade. Indeed, a 2002 Congressional Research Service report noted, in its analysis of Hezbollah, that “no major terrorist attacks have been attributed to it since 1994.” The most recent State Department report on international terrorism also fails to note any acts of terrorism by Hezbollah since that time except for unsubstantiated claims that a Hezbollah member was a participant in a June 1996 attack on the U.S. Air Force dormitory at Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia.
While Hezbollah's ongoing rocket attacks on civilian targets in Israel are indeed illegitimate and can certainly be considered acts of terrorism, it is important to note that such attacks were launched only after the U.S.-backed Israeli assault on civilian targets in Israel began July 12.
The wholesale destruction of all of Lebanon by Israel and the US Pentagon does not make any sense. Why bomb roads, roads, bridges, ports, fuel depots in Sunni and Christian areas that have nothing to do with Shiite Hizbullah in the deep south? And, why was Hizbullah's rocket capability so crucial that it provoked Israel to this orgy of destruction? Most of the rockets were small katyushas with limited range and were highly inaccurate. They were an annoyance in the Occupied Golan Heights, especially the Lebanese-owned Shebaa Farms area. Hizbullah had killed 6 Israeli civilians since 2000. For this you would destroy a whole country?So once again we see some vague linking of "terrorism" with "Muslim"/"Arab"/"Middle Eastern" peoples, resulting in the indiscriminate collective punishment of entire civilian populations and infrastructure for the alleged crimes of a few militants (who do not in fact hide among civilians). This strategy will surely diminish any anti-U.S. and anti-Israel sentiment in the region and deter people from acting on it, right?
"There's going to be another 9/11, and then we're going to hear all the usual claptrap about how it's good versus evil, and they hate us because we're good and democratic, and they hate our values and all the other material that comes out of the rear end of a bull."If only "those people" would appreciate the righteous intentions (never about oil) of those who invade their lands, support their tyrants, destroy their economies, and displace and kill them. What an unappreciative lot.
-- Robert Fisk, quoted here
"It is no secret that in past years, Israel has helped to destroy secular Arab nationalism and to create Hizbullah and Hamas, just as US violence has expedited the rise of extremist Islamic fundamentalism and jihad terror. The reasons are understood. There are constant warnings about it by Western intelligence agencies, and by the leading specialists on these topics. One can bury one’s head in the sand and take comfort in a "wall-to-wall consensus" that what we do is "just and moral", ignoring the lessons of recent history, or simple rationality. Or one can face the facts, and approach dilemmas which are very serious by peaceful means. They are available. Their success can never be guaranteed. But we can be reasonably confident that viewing the world through a bombsight will bring further misery and suffering, perhaps even "apocalypse soon."Thankfully, as of this writing, Mazen Kerbaj is alive in Beirut, creating art and music which is truly as serious as your life.
-- Noam Chomsky
PS - Despite being subject to the distortions of our pro-Israeli media, (actually anti-Israeli, since these crimes will boost anti-Israel sentiment and violence) a significant portion of the U.S. population sees through the lies: according to the latest poll, 44% believe Israel's response is either unjustified or justfied-but-excessive, while 43% believe it is justified and not excessive. However, in yet another example of our democracy gap, blind support of Israel's actions is endemic to the U.S. ruling class:
On July 18, the Senate unanimously approved a nonbinding resolution "condemning Hamas and Hezbollah and their state sponsors and supporting Israel's exercise of its right to self-defense." After House majority leader John Boehner removed language from the bill urging "all sides to protect innocent civilian life and infrastructure," the House version passed by a landslide, 410 to 8.And the "progressive blogosphere" (e.g., Kos) has been conspicuously silent, sweeping the issue of U.S. complicity under the rug.
The Israel Lobby has certainly been effective in instilling the values of self-censorship in public discourse, using the reprehensible tactic of equating criticism of Israel with anti-semitism. Is this the legacy of the Holocaust?
