Israel's Unilateral Approach Toward Middle East Conflict is Root Cause of Latest Battles in Gaza and Lebanon

Interview with Molly Malekar, director of Bat Shalom, or Daughters for Peace, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

When the radical Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah attacked Israel from inside Lebanon, killing eight Israelis and taking two soldiers hostage, Israel retaliated with a full-scale attack on Lebanon. Scores of civilians have been killed, and Israel has imposed a sea, land and air blockade, which it insists it won't lift until its captured soldiers are returned. This all follows attacks by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza, after Palestinian militants there raided a military post in Israel, killing two soldiers and taking one prisoner. The Palestinians said their action was in response to the economic strangulation of the Palestinian Authority since Hamas was elected to power in January, and the increasing number of civilians killed by Israeli military actions.

In the face of rising violence, there are still groups in both Israel and Palestine working for peace. One such organization is the Jerusalem Link, established in 1993 by Israeli Jewish women and Palestinian Arab women to promote political dialogue. In 2004, the groups formed the International Women's Commission, a coalition of 60 female activists and government officials, two-thirds of whom are Israelis and Palestinians.

Between The Lines' Melinda Tuhus spoke with Molly Malekar, an Israeli who is the director of Bat Shalom, or Daughters for Peace, a feminist group which participates in the Jerusalem Link and the International Women's Commission. Malekar says what brings women of diverse backgrounds together is the need to introduce gender and civil perspectives to the struggle for a just solution to the conflict, which they define as a two-state solution. She says Israel has a right to defend itself from attacks within its pre-1967 borders, but she explains that the current escalation of the conflict lies in political and military decisions that Israel made over the past year.

For more information, visit the group's website at www.batshalom.org

Related links:

* "Israeli and Palestinian women call on Quartet to end the conflict," International Women's Commission for a Just and Sustainable Palestinian-Israeli Peace, July 13, 2006

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Am one of those "conspiracy theorists" who believes that the current Israeli incursion combined with the ongoing US military occupation of Iraq is for the purpose of securing US taxpayer funds for a long term occupation of the Middle East, the goal being the gradual selling off of petroleum reserves (oil) by US corporations (Halliburton, ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, etc..) to the highest bidder..

The religious conflict between Judeo-Christian Zionists in pro-Israeli apartheid camps and the Islamist Al-Queda Saudi Royal family (see Bin Laden parking garage) Wahhabists is the distraction "dog and pony show" that occupies the emotions of Jews, Christians and Muslims everywhere, though most moderate Judeo-Christians are oppossed to Zionist Israel's atrocities against Palestinians, Lebanese, etc.. and most moderate Muslims are oppossed to the Saudi royalty ruling women and immigrant oil field workers with the iron fist of Wahhabist Islam in Saudi Arabia and committing genocide in Darfur against "heathen" Africans via their proxy Wahhabists in Khartoum, Sudan, while bush/Cheney regime gently slaps the Khartoum government on the wrist lest they anger their Saudi royalty benefactors..

We are told by US corporate media of great evils and/or insanity in the hearts of Palestinians and anti-Zionist peace protesters like Neturi Karta Orthodox rabbis, told that supporting Zionist Israel is the only option, any other ideas are either dismissed as "anti-Semitic" or "self-hating Jew" if even a bit of concern is expressed for the well being of the Palestinians..

Breeding long term animosity against the Muslim "enemy" is the job of Zionist US/Israel media mouthpieces while the Saudi response via Al-Queda is breeding hatred of the "heathens" of US/Israel, ensuring youth grow up training to either join the US/Israeli military or Al-Queda, either way ensuring mutually assurred destruction if tensions escalate to nuclear conflict, Iran being the scapegoat while the far larger US/Israeli nuclear stockpile is forgotten about until the next "terrorist" attack by CIA sponsored Al-Queda catches the sleeping Wackenhut security guard off-guard and another Three Mile Island cancer cluster appears..

(see Dionisi; American Hiroshima)

Fascism comes in many different forms and with the combination of Saudi royalty Wahhabists and Judeo-Christian Israeli Zionists fighting their endless battles the world's population is being drawn into an increasing spiral of military extremism with the eventual end result being nuclear holocaust in the Middle East, the man-made "Battle of Armageddon" Christian Zonists like Pat Robertson have invested millions of dollars into..

Other options to nuclear holocaust are reducing petroleum dependecy, pressure politicians to provide improved public transit (bring back those trolleys in LA), bicycle/pedestrian friendly communities, wind/solar/hydrogen/hemp/alt.energy, restoration of organic community farms like south central farm, etc..

Wednesday 1000
Returning back to my base from a routine practice mission. Taxiing back to the parking area, I hear "Zanek" (Jump) on the radio. What? I asked myself. Everything was calm when I took off, just one hour ago. By the time I get out of the plane, I hear the roar of the heavy takeoffs. And then another roar, and another. There is something different in the sound of a combat takeoff with a full load of bombs: the takeoff is long, the planes are heavy, the afterburner is used longer - not the light and quick training takeoffs. Something is definitely happening, I say to myself.

I hurry back to the squadron, where the loudspeakers are announcing: "all aircrew into briefing room." The squadron commander gives a short update - two soldiers had been kidnapped, rockets are fired at the north. No more training for today... Everyone must prepare, review procedures and combat tactics.

1100
Major E, my formation leader walks into the briefing room, still in his jeans. He's been called to come ASAP. What's happening? He asks me. I update him, and we brief for our mission quickly. He is concerned about making mistakes, and bombing the wrong targets. He is experienced, and has been around long enough to see mistakes happen and innocent civilians killed. A friend of his, a helicopter pilot once mistook a letter in a target's name, and ended up shooting at the wrong target, killing a whole family. Major E does not want the same thing to happen to us. He emphasizes that there is no rush, that we must check and recheck every coordinate we receive, make sure we understand EXACTLY what we are supposed to target.

1430
The siren blows. We run to the planes, start the engines, power up the systems. Ground crew running around the plane, the tower gives us permission to take off. We are told to head north, to Lebanon. "Get ready to receive targets," announces the flight controller as we approach. Major E and I read back the information, verifying with the flight controller that we have no mistakes. We head to the coast of Lebanon. It looks so small from above - Israel on the south, Syria in the east. I shake myself - no time to enjoy the view… hurry through the switches, procedures, arm the bombs, check the systems, head to the target, follow the range 10-9-8 Pickle! The plane violently rocks from side to side as two bombs fall off each wing, few seconds apart. I look down at the ground - we are flying so high, it's hard to judge where my bombs are going to hit, but the explosions catch my eye.

We head back - "mission complete. 4 direct hits," reports Major E to the controller. The rush and adrenalin gone, thoughts enter my head. I sure wish I hit the "bad guys" and that there were no civilians hanging around the place. Hizballah cynically often uses civilians as a shelter from Israel's bombings.

1630
We land in the base, and are relieved to learn that we went for a Hizbullah post. Probably unmanned. It's strange how the focus in these missions is not to succeed, hit the target precisely, but rather - not to make any mistakes. The message is clear all the way from the Squadron commander to the last pilot. One mistake can jeopardize the whole war, like in Kfar-Kana, in one of the last operations in Lebanon, where artillery bombarded a refugee camp, killing over 100 people, which resulted in international pressure that halted the operation. Hitting the target is expected, no misses are acceptable. There aren't any congratulations for a well-performed mission. Only a hammer on the head if something goes wrong. Personally, I think it's a healthy attitude; it causes the whole system to be less rash and hot on the trigger.

Friday, 5:30 a.m.
I enter the briefing room after a short night's sleep. I've been called to come last night from home and spend the night in the base. My wife sure wasn't pleased with that, she's worried.

A couple of hours later Major T and I are above Beirut. The damage to the city is evident. The holes in the runway are easily seen. Huge gas tanks are still burning; a dark cloud of smoke is hanging over the whole city. I'm sorry for the poor citizens of Lebanon. As their Prime Minister Seniora said, they are the last to know, but the first to pay.

We head east, to the Bakaa valley, close to the Syrian border. Although we are careful not to get too close to the border and not expecting Syrian action, I keep a careful eye on the warning systems, that will tell me if a missile is launched. This time we have two targets; we later hear reports that the first target had been completely destroyed, while the second hit but not destroyed. Another formation is given the later target.

1800
I join up with a few friends on Tel Aviv beach. We're having some beers, enjoying the breeze and watching the sunset. After a while I say something about how bizarre the situation is - we're here having fun, while whole towns in the north are being bombarded. Wait a minute - they ask me, haven't you been called up? Sure, I reply. Just this morning I dropped two tons of explosives on Lebanon.

BTL MELINDA THUHUS WRITES: "When the radical Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah attacked Israel from inside Lebanon, killing eight Israelis and taking two soldiers hostage, Israel retaliated with a full-scale attack on Lebanon."

BECKY: Correction. Israel attacked HIZBULLAH


BTL: "Scores of civilians have been killed, and Israel has imposed a sea, land and air blockade, which it insists it won't lift until its captured soldiers are returned."

BECKY: BTL fails to inform readers that the IDF dropped thousands of leaflets warning civilians to stay away from Hizbullah operations, in order to PREVENT loss of civilian life, prior to bombing---even though this would prevent them from benefitting from the element of surprise. Nor does BTL's indicate that Hizbullah is currently launching hundreds of rockets directly at civilian targets in Israel--and has announced they are in an all-out war against "the Zionists."

BTL: "This all follows attacks by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza, after Palestinian militants there raided a military post in Israel, killing two soldiers and taking one prisoner."

BECKY: Correction. Israel's attacks have never been against "the Palestinians." The attacks are against the terrorists who have been lobbing qassam rockets over the pre-1967 International border into Israeli civilian neighborhoods for 10 months!! BTL "forgets" these inconvenient facts.

In the attack which HAMAS clearly provoked, a tunnel was dug underneath the international border for a sneak attack on IDF soldiers which killed 2, injured 4, and kidnapped a 19-yr-old Corporal who they are now HOLDING FOR RANSOM which is completely AGAINST international law!

BTL only mentions "International law" when it is to condemn the Israelis. BTL does not apply either the Geneva Convention nor International law which is a combination of UN resolutions and treaty agreements made in the past, in a fair or equitable manner.

BTL: "The Palestinians said their action was in response to the economic strangulation of the Palestinian Authority...."

BECKY: The Arafat-launched Intifada has caused more economic suffering for the Palestinian people than any Israeli action. Israel left greenhouses in Gaza intact in order to jump-start the Palestinian economy. The PA allowed vandals to dismantle them, wasting that valuable resource.

BTL: "...since Hamas was elected to power in January, and the increasing number of civilians killed by Israeli military actions.

BECKY: Hamas was elected by an 80% turnout in what all have called a free and fair election. HAMAS has stated it does not recognize Israel's right to exist, will not negotiate with the "Zionists" and will not honor previous agreements with the PA.

HAMAS has PRAISED attacks on Israeli civilians--a phenomenon that BTL fails to mention.

15 people in Israel DIED from rocket attacks from Gaza since Israel withdrew in Sept. 2005.

Yes, Palestinian civilians have been killed in IDF attacks on the terrorist infrastructure Hamas supported. However, the IDF never targets innocent civilians, and takes great pains to avoid civilian deaths and injuries. Terrorists know this and intermingle within civilians which is in itself a violation of the Geneva Convention.

Eleven days ago, I walked through the familiar stone archway, descended steps worn smooth by the feet of others, and re-entered the paradise that is the American University of Beirut. It was my first trip back in 25 years. Here my father and four uncles were all endowed with the movable asset of education -- enabling them to later flourish in the United States, even after their homeland, Palestine, was given to another people. As a junior in college in the early '70s, I returned to this seat of enlightenment that had given so much to my family.

Now, strolling along shaded pathways with my kids, overlooking the intense blue of the Mediterranean Sea while breathing the pine and jasmine-scented air, I recalled my year there before Lebanon's ruinous civil war. I pointed out the banyan tree under which I sat gathering signatures for a petition on some passionately contested issue of university governance. I showed them the classrooms where we debated social theory, the wall I vaulted to get back to my dormitory after university gates were closed for the night. I chuckled while my 17-year-old nephew gaped at gorgeous, stylishly dressed Lebanese female students. My daughter seemed equally impressed by Lebanese male students.

Beirut of 11 days ago was a city of growing, yet still guarded, confidence. The traits of the Lebanese people -- hospitality, entrepreneurial ambition and conviviality -- were as much in evidence as when I first arrived more than 30 years ago. The most acute physical and psycho-social wounds of the 15-year civil war no longer festered, although some of the factors that had led to it -- socio-economic disparities, a political system that entrenches sectarian identity and power, a weak central government and subsequent vulnerability to the meddling of external powers -- had never been fully resolved. Yet people took obvious pride in the reconstruction of their city and society, and were looking forward to the future.

Little did we realize, as we departed for home through the gleaming halls of Beirut's new airport and boarded what turned out to be one of the last flights out, that within days, as Israeli Chief of Staff Dan Halutz put it, the Israeli military would "turn back the clock in Lebanon by 20 years." Hundreds of millions of dollars of investment, and untold ingenuity and effort, have been blown to rubble in Israel's outburst of violence. The airport, highways, bridges, gas stations, power stations, the port, even the modern lighthouse on Beirut's coastal promenade -- all have been devastated in Israel's lethal tantrum.

No one in Beirut believes that Israel's primary objective is to free its captured soldiers. Israel still holds Lebanese prisoners it abducted years ago, and could have negotiated an exchange, as it has done in the past. Indeed, Israel initiated hostage-taking in Lebanon, kidnapping noncombatant Hezbollah leaders in 1989 and 1994. As recently as 2004, Israel and Hezbollah reached an agreement, brokered by Germany, for the exchange of prisoners and the remains of fallen soldiers.

No, say my Lebanese friends, who have watched Israeli jets streak over Beirut to deliver their deadly payload, Israeli military pride is at stake. Humiliated when Hezbollah drove it out of Lebanon in 2000 after a brutal occupation of 18 years, and stunned again by the recent Hezbollah and Hamas raids, the Israeli army is exacting revenge. It further hopes that a rain of death and destruction will turn the Lebanese people against Hezbollah, and pressure the Lebanese government to confront the stubborn resistance organization.

Yet Israel will harvest the future of conflict and violence it has sown, facing foes of ever-increasing sophistication and determination. Some Lebanese may resent being dragged into a firestorm by Hezbollah. But they know who their real tormentor is, and who has thwarted their country's march toward peace and prosperity.

Lebanese and other Arabs also know the American origins of the weaponry Israel uses to kill their children and smash their homes. They will recall President Bush's statement that Israel "has a right to defend herself," a green light for the carnage they now face.

I hope it is not another stretch of years of insecurity that again keeps me from Beirut. When I return, I hope I can look my Lebanese friends in the eye, and explain to them why my country stood by while theirs was destroyed.



# BY TOPIC: Israel attacks Lebanon (12 July 2006)


George E. Bisharat, a professor of law at Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, writes frequently on law and politics in the Middle East. This article was originally published by the San Francisco Chronicle and is reprinted with the author's permission.

"Nits make lice" -- Colonel John M. Chivington

[2000] began with 24 million Africans infected with the virus. In the absence of a medical miracle, nearly all will die before 2010. Each day, 6,000 Africans die from AIDS. Each day, an additional 11,000 are infected

A wealth of information on the vicious Israeli invasion can be found on Alexander Cockburn's Counterpunch website - Counterpunch.org (or just type in counterpunch on Google).

* U.S. Arming of Israel: How U.S. Weapons Manufacturers Profit From Middle
East Conflict *

Much has been made of the Syrian and Iranian origin of weaponry used by
Hezbollah but there has been little discussion of where Israel's weapons
come from. A new report by the World Policy Institute examines how the
United States provides billions of dollars of military aid to Israel each
year and how their current arsenal is composed of U.S made equipment.

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/21/1432202

JAMES WRITES: "A new report by the World Policy Institute examines how the United States provides billions of dollars of military aid to Israel each year and how their current arsenal is composed of U.S made equipment."

BECKY: A recap of USA aid to Israel reveals that $3 billion per year is one of the conditions of the 1979 Peace Treaty with Egypt brokered by Pres. Jimmy Carter on the White House lawn.

The treaty authorized:

---$2 billion per year to Egypt
--- $3 billion per year to Israel
--- Israel returns the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt
with all of its oil reserves---representing 94% of the
territories occupied in 1967

in exchange for peace between Egypt and Israel.

Israel does indeed spend most of the $3 billion on purchasing arms for its own defense from the USA where
the money (presumably at least) goes back into the US economy.


Now the numbskull above wants us to tear up the peace treaty???

Well, Becky, I hope that you and s.i. enjoy reading Cockburn's Counterpunch site. Be sure to alert all your friends so they won't miss out on its dissections of zionism.

The bay area based zionists have been busy with activism on the streets and such...sorry if you've been getting lonely.

I wonder why someone would feel the pathological need to spam and troll a site thousands of miles from therir home in Israel when there is a thriving Israel indymedia?

It was TW that was complaining
http://la.indymedia.org/news/hidden.php?id=169661#170095

Notice that they have to spam, troll, lie and forge because history and truth are not on their sides.

Notice how we haven't posted period in quite awhile...I'm finally back (kinda...gotta work soon). Sorry, TW, we didn't run because of you...in SF there were around 3 protests in a little over a week. Doesn't leave much time for Indymedia. Don't take it personally, buddy.

The American Left is a joke. All it does is talk and carry signs. Nothing they do is effective. Where are the strikes in the "defense" industry? Where are the blockades? Where is the sabotage?

What he was saying is that the American Left doesn't do enough. In other words, that protests, in many cases, are exercises in futility and direct actions such as strikes that strike at the heart of the corporate/military system is what's needed.
G-d you are dense.

The American Left are divided and a few. The American Left does there part to educate people. also, the left here are to sectarian. if they can mend the difference and make a great impact to the people they talk then we can have a impact on a strike.

I am an IDF soldier. This is what I...use on myself (if you know what I mean). I am to scared to shoot it. Most IDF are cowards. Like me.

My dildo

I saw an Israeli flag with the finger-flipper's insignia on it and then *poof* it was gone, shit-canned by LA-IMC's eminently just and lovable editors. HAHAHAA!

I do like that flag design, though. Thanks finger-flipper! I think Israel should adopt it as the official design. It's so refreshing, the way it honestly expresses zionism's attitude toward the world beyond Israel!

Just couldn't help it. Of course the "Jews" don't do that kind of stuff, because they'r emore civilized, right?
Zionism is Racism.