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In the past, I have accused the U.S. and Israeli governments of pretending the world began the day before yesterday. Israel justified massacring Lebanese civilians on the grounds that two of its soldiers had been captured at the Lebanon-Israel border. To listen to official statements or read the press coverage, you'd think Hizbollah captured the soldiers on a whim. It's pitiful that we have to look to an Iranian newspaper for full coverage of the precedent events, but you go to war, again and again, with the press you have, not the press you might like to have. Yuram Weiler, writing in the Tehran Times, neatly traces the history. To ensure the durability of this important information, the article is reproduced here in full.
Jim
Another day in the new Middle East, and would-be Imperial Dictator Bush has just returned from his summer vacation. Meanwhile, in other parts of the world such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, and Lebanon, human beings are suffering and dying with the approval of the U.S. Congress and the tacit approval of a significant segment of U.S. citizenry, as inferred by the lack of outcry.
Prior to the cease-fire, Zionist Premier Ehud Olmert had threatened to bomb any vehicle in southern Lebanon while he spoke of the real war being waged not against Hezbollah but rather against Syria and Lebanon. Bush babbled about dealing with "root causes" as if the conflict started precisely on July 12, 2006 and it was all Hezbollah's fault. But then, what can one expect from the leader of the world's most powerful capitalist neocolonial country, where the driving principle is profit maximization over the short term and the shorter the better.
All right, Mr. Bush let's look at root causes, for we live in a world of cause and effect. Yes, there's quantum physics where events are governed by probability distributions, but at our level of life experience, there is cause and effect. So, if you can Mr. Bush, follow the causal chain back from July 12, 2006 and let's see where it leads. We can start with the capture of the two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah and ask:
What caused Hezbollah to capture Israeli soldiers?
Hezbollah exchanged prisoners with Israel on January 29, 2004, at which time some 30 Lebanese and other Arab prisoners as well as the remains of 59 Lebanese and 400 Palestinians were exchanged for one Israeli and the remains of three others. Hezbollah requested that Israel also provide a map of all Israeli mine locations in southern Lebanon as locations of only 40 percent are known. After two and a half years, Hezbollah decided to take action in the hope of negotiating the release of the remaining prisoners and obtaining the map of the mines.
What caused Israel to take Lebanese and other Arab prisoners and plant land mines?
Israel has attacked Lebanon many times since 1978 and has killed over 17,000 human beings and taken prisoners. Until May 24, 2000, Israel occupied a strip of land in southern Lebanon, which it justified as necessary for protection against Hezbollah attacks. Israel withdrew to the UN recognized border (the blue line) only as a result of pressure by Hezbollah resistance fighters and the collapse of the Israeli-aligned South Lebanon Army. However, the Zionists retained control of one Lebanese territory, the Shebaa Farms.
Why was Hezbollah established?
Hezbollah arose after the 1982 Israeli invasion when people in southern Lebanon gathered together to form a small resistance force with the goal of driving Israel out of Lebanese territory. This group also attempted to provide social services that the Lebanese government could not provide.
What caused the previous Israeli invasions of Lebanon?
In 1978, Israel attacked Lebanon in an attempt to drive Palestinian resistance fighters of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) north of the Litani River to form a security buffer zone to prevent attacks on northern Israeli towns. The UN forced the Israelis back to the border, but they attacked again in 1982, this time driving most of the PLO out of Lebanon to Tunisia.
Why were the Palestinians attacking Israel?
When the Zionist regime self-declared its existence in May 1948, over 700,000 Palestinians were forced to flee from their homes and native lands. Many took refuge in Jordan and Syria, but some 300,000 fled to southern Lebanon. The Palestinians organized themselves into resistance groups and began launching attacks from southern Lebanon against the Zionist occupiers in an effort to regain the land that was unlawfully taken from them.
What caused the creation of Israel in 1948?
In the late 1800s, Zionists began organizing and encouraging Jews to start the colonization of Palestine, which at that time was an Ottoman province. Desiring the support of the Jewish colonizers and the native Palestinian Arabs during World War I, the British promised both a state; one for the Palestinians by means of the Anglo-French Covenant (1918) and another for the Jews by means of the Balfour Declaration (1917). This contradiction, admitted by Lord Balfour himself in 1919, caused numerous bloody conflicts to arise with no foreseeable solution. Then a partition plan (UN Resolution 181, 29 November 1947) was pushed through the UN General Assembly as a result of U.S. pressure. By that time, Zionists had amassed formidable forces and self-declared the Zionist regime on May 15, 1948 upon the expiration of the British mandate. U.S. President Truman was quick to recognize the illegal entity, explaining that he had Jewish constituents, but no Arab constituents.
What caused Zionism to arise?
There had been centuries of prejudice against Jews in European countries, the likes of which did not exist in the Middle East. This is evidenced by the numerous Jewish communities that existed in Morocco, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Iran, and elsewhere for hundreds of years and in some cases thousands of years. The period between 800 CE to 1100 CE and beyond in Spain (Al Andalus) was one of the most harmonious and cooperative of times between peoples of the three Abrahamic faiths.
What caused the end of this period of religious cooperation?
As a result of their distorted interpretation of the divinely inspired Christian religion, numerous popes and other Christian leaders encouraged massacres and expulsions of Jews and Muslims. These misguided leaders launched seven crusades that eventually led to the expulsion of Jews and Muslims from Spain in 1492 as well as the notorious Inquisition, which only formally came to an end in 1834.
So, Mr. Bush, since you are relaxed after your breaks in your imperial palaces in Crawford, Texas and Kennebunkport, Maine, do try to ponder root causes. You may come to understand that one of the root causes for the death, destruction, and chaos that we have witnessed in Lebanon and elsewhere in the Middle East stems from misguided leaders who, like yourself, have hijacked a divinely inspired religion for their own warped political agenda.
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