Sunday, September 10, 2006
Pacifica Commentary For September 6, 2006
Absolute Failure
Just what has the Israeli Government accomplished with its endless war crimes in Lebanon and Gaza? Here is an opinion which I share together with Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Eduardo Galeano, Arundhati Roy and many others.
The US-backed Israeli assault on Lebanon has left the country numb, smouldering and angry. The massacre in Qana and the loss of life is not simply "disproportionate". It is, according to existing international laws, a war crime. The deliberate and systematic destruction of Lebanon's social infrastructure by the Israeli air force was also a war crime, designed to reduce that country to the status of an Israeli-US protectorate. The attempt has backfired. In Lebanon itself, 87% of the population now support Hizbullah's resistance, including 80% of Christian and Druze and 89% of Sunni Muslims, while only 8% believe the US supports Lebanon.
It has now become clear that the assault on Lebanon to wipe out Hizbullah had been prepared long before. Israel's crimes had been given a green light by the US and its loyal British ally, despite the opposition to Blair in his own country. In short, the peace that Lebanon enjoyed has come to an end, and a paralysed country is forced to remember a past it had hoped to forget. The state terror inflicted on Lebanon is being repeated in the Gaza ghetto.
Meanwhile, the rest of Palestine is annexed and dismantled with the direct participation of the US and the tacit approval of its allies.
We offer our solidarity and support to the victims of this brutality and to those who mount a resistance against it. For our part, we will use all the means at our disposal to expose the complicity of our governments in these crimes. There will be no peace in the Middle East while the occupations of Palestine and Iraq and the temporarily "paused" bombings of Lebanon continue.
Friends, the criminal actions of the United States and Israel are eternally marked as a moral failure, a political failure, and a military failure. The massacres of Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq and Afghanistan will be eternally remembered as the highest level of war crimes. The so called Official Story created by the United States and Israel will be remembered as a monument to disinformation and sheer militaristic war propaganda.
Just what has the Israeli Government accomplished with its endless war crimes in Lebanon and Gaza? Here is an opinion which I share together with Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Eduardo Galeano, Arundhati Roy and many others.
The US-backed Israeli assault on Lebanon has left the country numb, smouldering and angry. The massacre in Qana and the loss of life is not simply "disproportionate". It is, according to existing international laws, a war crime. The deliberate and systematic destruction of Lebanon's social infrastructure by the Israeli air force was also a war crime, designed to reduce that country to the status of an Israeli-US protectorate. The attempt has backfired. In Lebanon itself, 87% of the population now support Hizbullah's resistance, including 80% of Christian and Druze and 89% of Sunni Muslims, while only 8% believe the US supports Lebanon.
It has now become clear that the assault on Lebanon to wipe out Hizbullah had been prepared long before. Israel's crimes had been given a green light by the US and its loyal British ally, despite the opposition to Blair in his own country. In short, the peace that Lebanon enjoyed has come to an end, and a paralysed country is forced to remember a past it had hoped to forget. The state terror inflicted on Lebanon is being repeated in the Gaza ghetto.
Meanwhile, the rest of Palestine is annexed and dismantled with the direct participation of the US and the tacit approval of its allies.
We offer our solidarity and support to the victims of this brutality and to those who mount a resistance against it. For our part, we will use all the means at our disposal to expose the complicity of our governments in these crimes. There will be no peace in the Middle East while the occupations of Palestine and Iraq and the temporarily "paused" bombings of Lebanon continue.
Friends, the criminal actions of the United States and Israel are eternally marked as a moral failure, a political failure, and a military failure. The massacres of Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq and Afghanistan will be eternally remembered as the highest level of war crimes. The so called Official Story created by the United States and Israel will be remembered as a monument to disinformation and sheer militaristic war propaganda.
