What's Really Happening In Lebanon

Simple:

The United States is being and has always been stupid about the Middle East. For 50 years we have offered blind support to Israel that they have used mostly to steal Palestinian land rather than to live defensively within, miraculously given, internationally recognized borders. While the hour is late and the situation has been aggravated to the point of suicidal hysteria it is never too late to do the right thing and possibly create peace as follows:

1) Tell Israel that not one more penny will be forthcoming unless they build a defensive wall at the internationally recognized 1967 borders, and live peacefully behind that wall except to counter attacks over the wall. When living behind legitimate borders Israel will have the legitimate right to attack those who attack them, and in so doing will also help us by weakening the Islamo-Fascist militias (Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Muslim Brotherhood) that threaten us directly and the oil producing status quo in the Middle East.

2) Demand the rest of the world finally take a position to either support and defend the 1967 boundaries, push Israel into the sea, or shut up and be cowardly, impotent bystanders forever. Once the United States has finally taken a clear, simple, practical, and moral position the entire world will no longer be so confused, befuddled and frightened by the Israeli trick of presenting the Middle East to us as a very technical, complicated region of the world in which only they can navigate. Murderous fools hating and killing each other is neither technical nor complex.

Many countries led by the US will defend the UN sanctioned 1967 borders. All the preposterous rhetoric, arguments, speeches and garbage coming out of the mouths of the combatants will be instantly irrelevant and superfluous. We won’t have to hear about water rights, Shabaa Farms, right of return, judifying Jerusalem, who got there first, who attacked first, or what holy book fanatics think, anymore. The Israelis will have no arguments and the Muslims will have one remaining argument that will sound silly even to them: Allah demands that we drive the Jews into the sea.

Of course if this had all happened 40 years ago the Muslims would have had time to forget about their neighbors on the other side of the internationally created, defended, and justified wall, and go on with their lives with or without massive international aid. Sadly, 40 years of American stupidity and Israeli aggression has caused a metastatic hatred across much of the world, and worse, Muslims now have long range rockets that they can fire over the wall and, one day soon, over the oceans. Nevertheless, clear, simple, honest, and moral language and a clear, simple, honest, and moral way to think about the problem is the best place to begin, even if it’s late in the game. The US must become an honest peace broker rather than remain as a blind, dumb supporter of Israel. An honest broker can be an effective advocate for peace while a partisan broker is someone in whom Muslims will have an ever growing hatred. And, “ever” can be a long deadly time when you’re talking about a suicidally fanatic people with trillions of petrodollars with which to develop WMD and delivery systems.

More blind support for Israel as it destroys the entire nation of Lebanon, with American weapons, seems like nothing more than an exact continuation of the same policy that has failed so horribly for 50 years. This seems especially true when you consider that Shiite Hizbullah is what emerged from Lebanon the last time Israel destroyed it. And even more true, if that’s possible, given that this time the US has opened up its own front against the Shiites in Iraq thus making Western and US imperialism more obvious to the entire world, and to the pan-Arabic world in particular which has always hated and feared US imperialism but which may not have been absolutely convinced of it even by Osama Bin Laden’s attack on 9/11.

In Bush’s neo-con zeal to chart a new course from Clinton’s very engaged course he immediately pronounced, upon taking office, that there would be no peace between Israel and Palestine until they were ready to make peace. That “who gives a damn” attitude toward a horrid, suppurative war, the continued blind support for Israel, the preplanned and executed attack on Iraq, the attack on Afghanistan, the current blind support for Israel as it destroys Lebanon, and the galvanizing effect on both sides of 9/11, have all virtually insured that only a military solution to our differences with the Muslims is possible. If Bush had supported a wall at the 1967 borders with Clinton’s persistent sensitivity and had not attacked Iraq, things might have been very different, but no one can be sure. When Arafat walked away from Clinton’s very generous peace plan the Bushies may have correctly concluded that war, and the democracies that might have come from it, was the only possible course of action.

In any case, we’ve got multiple wars now (Iraq, Lebanon, & Afghanistan) that must be resolved. In Lebanon, we must encourage the world to support and defend the ‘67 borders to marginalize both Israel and the Hizbullah, and to insure that fanatic independent militias such as Al Qaeda, Hamas, and Hizbullah don’t conquer the region before we achieve energy independence. We can stay the course in Afghanistan as long as it’s an international effort; if not we can leave after a year unless 70% of the population agrees to take up arms and support freedom. We can always go back in to destroy a Taliban gov’t if it becomes big enough to be visible or aggressive. And, in Iraq we must withdraw to the safety of friendly and stable Kurdistan until the civil war is over, and then try to unite or, if not, partition, the country.

In sum, our mistakes have been many: 1) blind support for Israeli aggression, 2) total somnambulance after the first attack on the World Trade Center and 3) attacking Iraq. Now we face another mistake in Lebanon. We can continue to support what Israel has done, namely, go for the military victory that has eluded them for 50 years despite overwhelming military superiority, and spawned a worldwide jihad that seemingly can never be defeated, or we can support a comprehensive peace plan at the 1967 borders.

Ted Baiamonte
comments welcome: bje1000@aol.com