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Israel Must Accept Blame for Middle East
Escalation
DJ Deeb
08/02/06
 The tragic recent events
in Lebanon are sad, but were a predictable outcome of
Israeli government policies and the lack of interest and
leadership from the Bush Administration in facilitating a
peace settlement between the Israelis and the
Palestinians. The Bush Administration has two
standards: One for Israel; and one for the rest of the
world.
Space will not permit me to give a comprehensive
historical account of the events leading up to these
tragic developments. However, my book, The Collapse of
Middle East Peace: The Rise and Fall of the Oslo Peace
Accords (New York: IUniverse, 2003), does just
that. I urge all of you who are interested to
obtain a copy through Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, or
order it through your favorite bookstore.
Lebanon, like Israel, is a parliamentary democracy in the
Middle East. Unfortunately, the Lebanese military
and government have been left in a weakened state
following more than 25 years of civil war.
Syria also occupied and controlled much of Lebanon until
just last year. In addition, Palestinian refugees
and their descendents who fled Israel, the West Bank, and
the Gaza Strip during the 1967 war and subsequent
conflicts constitute nearly 10 percent of Lebanon’s
population. Permanent peace and stability in
Lebanon requires a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict.
The bombardment of Lebanon and its civilians, which
constitutes a gross violation of international law, began
in the second week of July following the kidnapping of
two Israeli soldiers by pro-Palestinian Hezbollah
militants in southern Lebanon. The Israeli
government responded by raiding infrastructure targets in
Lebanon, killing countless civilians, endangering 25,000
Americans, and practically destroying the Lebanese
airport in Beirut.
Why would Israel bomb the Beirut airport knowing that it
would trap 25,000 Americans? Are Israeli leaders
looking to drag the United States into another Middle
East war?
To understand these latest developments, one must
understand the complicated Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. Israel routinely destroys the homes of
innocent Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and Gaza
Strip, imprisons countless women and children, and
regularly confiscates Palestinian land for illegal
Israeli settlements. Israel uses American supplied tanks
and bulldozers to carry out these operations.
Hezbollah has offered to release the Israeli soldiers in
return for the release of Palestinian and Lebanese women
and children held in Israeli jails.
Up until now, negotiations between Israel and the
Palestinians, culminating with the famous Camp David
Talks in the summer of 2000, have all failed to achieve a
permanent peace settlement because Israel has refused to
acknowledge United Nations Security Council Resolutions
242 and 338 as the basis for negotiations. These
Resolutions collectively call on Israel to return the
areas it illegally occupied during the 1967 war (the Gaza
Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan
Heights). This will allow for the creation of an
independent Palestinian state and lead to a permanent
peace agreement between Israel and Syria.
In addition, the Arab League unanimously endorsed a Saudi
Arabian proposal in 2002 to make peace with Israel and
normalize relations if it complies with these two
Resolutions. Currently, 4 million Palestinians are
living in exile and approximately 1 million Palestinian
citizens of Israel are being subjected to Apartheid-like
conditions.
The creation of the state of Israel in 1948 constituted
78 percent of historic Palestine, while the remaining 22
percent was illegally occupied from the Palestinian Arabs
in 1967. It is only this latter 22 percent of the
land that is now being disputed.
This past February, we witnessed a new Palestinian
Authority emerge led by a Hamas-majority in the
Palestinian parliament within the occupied Gaza Strip and
West Bank. This development can be directly
explained as a Palestinian reaction to Israeli brutality
and lack of seriousness in negotiations.
While the Bush Administration rightfully demands that
Iran comply with United Nations Resolutions calling for
it to disband its nuclear weapons program, it turns a
blind eye towards Israel.
The Israelis are in violation of United Nations Security
Council Resolutions 242 and 338, which call on Israel to
return to its June 1967 borders. Instead of
complying with these Resolutions, Israel continues to
build more settlements in violation of the Geneva
Protocol of 1949.
More than 54,000 acres of Palestinian land and more than
21,000 new Israeli housing settlements have been
constructed illegally since 1993. If the Bush
Administration wants to be seen as a credible player in
the region in the eyes of the international community,
then it needs to demand that all sides comply with
international mandates.
The United States gives more than $5 billion a year in
American tax dollars to Israel. Without our
financial assistance, Israel would likely cede to exist
as an independent nation. Certainly giving this
amount of money each year to Israel affords us some
leverage. The Bush Administration has done little
to advance the peace negotiations between the Israelis
and the Palestinians.
The president likes to talk about spreading
“democracy,” yet he refuses to have any contact
with the democratically-elected government of the
Palestinian Authority. You can’t have it both
ways, Mr. President!
The United States negotiated agreements with the Soviet
Union, which was much more of a threat to our interests,
during the Cold War.
I believe that a two-state solution, which acknowledges
an independent Palestinian state and a secure Israel
rooted in Resolutions 242 and 338, should be the ultimate
goal of the parties.
In the meantime, the Bush Administration must demand that
Israel show restraint in Lebanon. Although the
Lebanese government is fragile, it constitutes another
democracy in the Middle East, which is in our long-term
best interests.
D.J. Deeb is an Adjunct Professor of
History and Government at Bunker Hill Community College
in Boston, MA and at Northern Essex Community College in
Haverhill, MA. He teaches Social Studies full time
at Reading Memorial High School in Reading,
MA. He also serves as an elected member of
the Greater Lowell Technical School Committee and the
Dracut School Committee in Dracut, MA.
*Send your questions comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com
The August, 2006 Edition
of the Valley Patriot
The Valley Patriot is a Monthly
Publication.
All Contents (C) 2006, Valley Patriot, Inc.
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