Revolution #58, August 27, 2006
An Unjust Ceasefire
The UN-sponsored ceasefire went into effect on Monday, August 14. This ceasefire is part of the same process and serves the same imperialist political ends as the U.S./Israeli war. The same day, George Bush called Lebanon one of the “three fronts of the global war on terror” (the other two are Iraq and Afghanistan). In his speech, Bush critiqued the policy of previous U.S. administrations of “promoting stability in the Middle East.” Bush contrasted that to what he called “a forward strategy of freedom.” Bush identified Iran and Syria along with Hezbollah and Hamas as the U.S.’s enemies in the region who must be defeated.
Translation: Like Iraq and Afghanistan, Lebanon will continue to be a front in Bush’s ongoing war to remake the Middle East, to wipe out all opposition, or potential opposition, and to bring the strategic region more directly under U.S. control. The U.S. is not going to be satisfied with a status quo in Lebanon, and will continue to push until its full goals are met.
The next day, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, "The war is not over yet."
In fact, on Saturday, Aug. 19, Israeli commandos carried out a commando raid in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon. The UN Interim Force in Lebanon also said there have been several violations of Lebanese air space by Israeli warplanes since the ceasefire began.
As we wrote last week, the U.N. resolution on Lebanon is unjust and cannot be supported. It does not indict Israel for its blatant war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the war; it turns reality on its head by portraying Israel as the victims in the war when it is Israel that invaded Lebanon; it denies the sovereignty of Lebanon; and it does not even compel the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon, as has been demanded by the government of Lebanon.
But now there are demands and threats coming from Israel that distort what the resolution actually says and insists that the Lebanese Army and the United Nations forces carry out what Israel was unable to do militarily in its war. For example Israel is demanding the U.N. forces and the Lebanese government set up a border blockade between Syria and Lebanon. There is nothing in the resolution that mandates any such blockade.
And Israel claims that the resolution says that the U.N. and Lebanese government must immediately disarm Hezbollah. The resolution does call for the “disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon, so that, pursuant to the Lebanese cabinet decision of July 27, 2006, there will be no weapons or authority in Lebanon other than that of the Lebanese state.” But there is nothing in the resolution that says that the government of Lebanon or the U.N. forces must do this on any specific time-table.
Any number of excuses, real or not, could become a pretext for renewed attacks by Israel, if the U.S. and Israel think it is in their strategic interest. And it is possible that Israel and the U.S. could point to “evidence,” real or not, of arms shipments by Syria or Iran to Hezbollah to justify an escalation into a regional war.
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