The US Peace Movement and Hezbollah
The Big Picture (Don't Look, Now)

By JAMES BROOKS

Many peace activists may have felt somewhat bewildered by Hezbollah's smashing success in outfoxing and outfighting the Israeli army in southern Lebanon. Was it right to feel such a visceral satisfaction from these battles fought by a group that was also lobbing rockets at Israeli civilians? Where did we stand on Hezbollah, really?

We "peace activists" struggle to take rage, anguish, and disgust and channel them into language and tactics we believe will appeal to the general public. In order to persevere in our relatively fruitless efforts, we guard our optimism.

Whether our focus is Colombia, Haiti, Mexico, Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, or any other US-supported war-and-poisoning zone, our news is a steady diet of inhumane horrors and injustices. For many of us, that's enough. We may (wittingly or not) avoid or reject analysis and information that suggests the situation is much worse than we already know it to be, fearing burnout and despair.

We may also worry that an analysis that is too dissonant with the dominant paradigm will alienate the public. Leading figures in the movement remember to utter the pieties that are supposed to legitimize our message, such as the "importance of maintaining a strong defense." Connecting the wrong dots threatens the tenuous bridge we have built between reality and the world according to the machine.

But maintaining an unsatisfactory compromise built on increasingly unreal assumptions will inevitably produce denial. Thus we find ourselves where we are today, tripping over an array of mostly unconscious barriers to a realistic understanding of our present predicament.

The Israeli-US war on Lebanon crystallized the picture that we are afraid to see.

It put the Bush cabal's determination to attack Iran on "the front burner" and the "fast track", despite the consternation of old guard "realists" of US imperial diplomacy, who worry Bush is about to start World War III.

And it resoundingly affirmed the ability of today's resistance fighters to undermine Israeli and US-UK attempts to enforce foreign occupations, striking fear in the hearts of highly-placed warmongers on both sides of the Atlantic. They will probably respond by calling for even more "air power" next time.

Lebanon was the fourth all-out war on an Arab/Muslim country in the last four years, all waged by the US-UK "coalition" and/or the Israeli-US "alliance". Let's consider the pretexts offered to justify this serial criminal warfare.

Afghanistan was invaded and destroyed (again), ostensibly to avenge 9/11 by destroying Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, even though the FBI has admitted that it has "no hard evidence connecting bin Laden to 9/11."

Iraq was invaded and destroyed (again) to find mythical weapons of mass destruction.

The Gaza Strip was invaded and destroyed (again) because resistance fighters allied to Hamas captured an Israeli soldier in a retaliatory cross-border raid.

Lebanon was invaded and destroyed (again) because Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a retaliatory cross-border raid.

The grand total of pretexts? One unlikely suspect, one myth, and three captured soldiers, who were all doing fine at last report. For this?

Of course the US and Israel have a long list of genuine reasons to wage each of these wars and carry out the whole bloody scheme. But the official excuses they offer to the rest of the nations of the world have meaning, too.

In this case they appear to mean, "See, I can lie through my teeth and you can't do a damn thing about it except say, 'Yes, sir.' The world is what we say it is, or you don't have a place in it. I have many ways of making your life miserable. And don't forget, I'm unpredictable. I can do crazy things and get away with them."

The steady application of this kind of diplomacy has smashed our naïve hopes by sucking the EU and the UK ever more deeply into the orbit of US-Israeli foreign policy, to the point where the Arabs can't trust either of them any more than they can trust us.

While most people have been distracted by the shock and awe of America's military presence in the Middle East, Israel's studiously ignored long war on the Palestinians has descended to new depths of daily living hell.

The accelerating ethnic cleansing of the northern and eastern West Bank threatens to squeeze even the possibility of Palestinian life out of the land. The Jordan Valley is being prepared for illegal "annexation" to Israel.

In Israel's 'total war' on the "liberated" Gaza Strip, the IAF has destroyed the main power station, all major roads and bridges, the sole (unused) airport, several government and civic buildings, and dozens of homes.

Now at least a third of the poverty-stricken inhabitants do not have power or running water. Israel also imposed a total blockade on Gaza, which remains in force today with EU cooperation. This little "war", still raging on, has already killed nearly 200 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians. One Israeli soldier has died in the "fighting".

And more civilians are dying because Israel and the US and the EU and Canada and Britain, all those great democracies, conspired to cut off funds and embargo the finances of the PA when it became too democratic in a free and fair election last January.

The sick, especially children and the elderly, are dying because hospitals have little or no electricity, are running out of fuel, have only the most rudimentary medical supplies (if that) and no money to pay their staff. This is how the US plays politics in the Middle East.

And more war is on the way. Palestine now finds that its struggle for self-determination and survival has been hijacked to serve as a crucible for the next phase of the empire's plan, in which Iran and Syria are hot-branded as "terrorist states" that must also be forcibly "liberated".

The propaganda campaign is going on full-tilt as we speak. Its rules are wonderfully simple; whenever you mention the Palestinian or Lebanese resistance, follow it with this phrase, or its equivalent: "a terrorist group funded and armed by Syria and Iran".

As a result, the Palestinian-Lebanese resistance may become the hinge of a crystallizing global divide. It seems unlikely that Palestine will enjoy any benefit from this honor, but those pages have yet to be written.

In hindsight, wasn't it obvious that World War III had begun when the world's "sole superpower" declared an open-ended "global war" on an indefinite, multinational enemy?

And what is the big picture for us here at home? The debacle of last summer's hurricanes was searing evidence that the domestic underbelly of the government is rapidly withering into an outsourced husk of uselessness. The parasites continue to multiply, infecting the whole body with corruption, cronyism, profiteering, and lawlessness.

The vast wealth of the nation is controlled by one percent of its citizens. Draconian funding cuts drive people to food shelves and soup kitchens in unprecedented numbers, neglected by a fearful herd trying to work enough hours to sustain an unsustainable debt.

During the past fifty years, the relationship between the federal government and corporate-finance power has transformed from a formally bipolar arrangement into today's unipolar alignment. Government now functions primarily to serve shifting forces of corporate-finance power (and the odd foreign government) as a facilitator, benefactor, warrior, and spendthrift customer.

In the modern age, this fusion of money power and national government is called fascism. It has been observed that fascist governments typically resort to outlandish, racially-charged propaganda and embark on increasingly reckless wars of aggression. They usually conduct intensive domestic surveillance and counterintelligence, rig elections, imprison large percentages of their populations, sadistically torture prisoners and detainees, and police and "debate" by racial- and political-profiling. They always aggressively expand the executive power of the central government.

You don't have to wait until they arrest you, too, to decide that America has become a fascist state. The evidence is all around you. Those who still have difficulty seeing the picture might be advised to stop listening to National Public Radio.

What do "peace activists" do in a fascist state? What is the true potential of our efforts to "change public opinion" in the world's most advanced propaganda regime? What actions by a citizen are morally justified to resist this tyranny, injustice, and bloodshed? Which would be most effective? What have other people done in this situation? How do we feel about that?

Is it sane to continue to pretend that we live in a "democracy" when we manifestly do not? Does our squeamishness about armed resistance by Arabs and Muslims reflect an unconsciously imperial notion, that we might have peace if only they didn't fight back? Are we willing to do everything we can to stop this global menace, starting with ourselves? These are but a few of the questions dying to be asked now by all people of conscience.

So, how do we feel about Hezbollah, which dealt the quickest and most embarrassing blow yet to the war plans of "our" empire? How can we not feel admiration, even gratitude, for their determination to prevent another bloody occupation? Didn't they accomplish more in 34 days than we have accomplished in nearly four decades of a preposterous "peace process" chronically violated and manipulated to prolong the occupation?

At the end of his recent New Yorker article, Watching Lebanon: Washington's interests in Israel's war, Sy Hersh quoted John Arquilla, a defense analyst at the Naval Postgraduate School, about the Bush neocons' view of warfare: "The definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing and expecting a different result."

We who seek peace must ask ourselves if we have not also gone 'insane', expecting different results from actions that obviously haven't worked. To guard our optimism in the New World Order, we Americans will have to learn to see peace the way most Palestinians see it: as the inevitable fruit of resolute resistance to aggression and injustice.

James Brooks serves as webmaster for Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel. He can be contacted at jamiedb@wildblue.net.

This is a great perspective. The author eloquently puts this together.

author James Brooks asks;

"So, how do we feel about Hezbollah, which dealt the quickest and most embarrassing blow yet to the war plans of "our" empire? How can we not feel admiration, even gratitude, for their determination to prevent another bloody occupation? Didn't they accomplish more in 34 days than we have accomplished in nearly four decades of a preposterous "peace process" chronically violated and manipulated to prolong the occupation?"

Have also heard that Hezballah also distributes food, medicine and water amongst their Lebanese neighbors who incur the wrath of the Israeli occupation military onslaught. In this gesture Hezballah shows that they are simultaneously apologizing for their actions of aggression (and expected Israeli counterattacks on Lebanese civilians) and encouraging greater community cohesion in Lebanon based on grassroots outreach and solidarity..

"Although Israel claims Hezbollah uses civilians to shield their military activities, members of Hezbollah go door to door to distribute much needed food, medicine, sanitation and water kits to Lebanese civilians living in villages under Israeli bombardment.

The Lebanese Shiite community of 1.2 million people support Hezbollah’s struggle against Israel. However, Hezbollah received even greater support when the organization launched a wide reaching aid campaign in southern Lebanon."

more on Hezbollah's community support @;
http://www.zaman.com/?bl=international&alt=&trh=20060812&hn=35588

Hezbollah actually works hard in their community to ensure solidarity with Lebanese civilians, Al-Queda is bankrolled by wealthy Saudi petroligarchs who routinely visit the Bush family ranch in Crawford, TX for polite social gatherings. Ironically it was the Saudi petroligarchs (& nobody else) who were silently flown out of the US the day after the 9/11 terrorist attacks when several Saudi hijackers mysteriously bypassed all radar/air traffic surveillence and flew two planes directly into the WTC, after which GW Bush had mobilized enough public mass hysteria to ensure his invasion of 'secular infidel' Saddam's petroleum rich Iraq..

Al-Queda seems to derive their funding from the Saudi (?CIA?) bankrolls, thus Al-queda's ultra-right fundamentalist Wahhabist Sunni Islamist outlook tends to predominate their recruitment strategy. Any potential religious/ethnic divisions amongst Muslim peoples are always inflamed and expanded by trusty Al-Queda. Ironically it was wealthy Sunni Wahhabist Saudi sheik Abdullah bin Jabreen (no doubt influenced by GW Bush's petroligarch family friends in Saudi's influential Bin Laden group) who was most outspoken in issuing a Fatwa against the successful Hezbollah..

Mulham Assir sums up the relationship between the US/Saudi elites and their CIA sponsored arm 'Al-Queda' as a terrorist cell movie prop whenever Hezbollah gains some popularity and success against Israeli military occupation of Lebanon..

"The Hamas- and Hezbollah-led resistance, however, have complicated the American plan to crown Israel as the sovereign of the Middle East. The plan is not working as it was supposed to! So at this point these two –officially labelled "terrorist organizations" by the US, are the focus of the American-Israeli aggression efforts. Therefore, quick, bring Al Qaeda to the rescue!"

entire article @;
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25271

Either way, Hezbollah is soundly critisized in the US media as another version of Al-Queda, despite their numerous differences in ideology and tactics. The fact remains that Israel attacked Lebanese civilians for the minor incident of Hezbollah kidnapping two Israeli soldiers. Nasrallah stated he had no idea that this one act would result in Israeli military murdering so many innocent civilians in Lebanon. UN and international community recognized the imbalance of Israeli attacks against Lebanese civilians..

"Arriving in Israel on Tuesday afternoon after visiting UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, Kofi Annan also blamed Israel for most of the violations of the fragile two-week-old truce that ended the war in Lebanon.

Annan described the Israeli blockade a "humiliation and infringement on [Lebanon's] sovereignty", and suggested the blockade be lifted ""as soon as possible in order to allow Lebanon to go on with normal commercial activities and also rebuild its economy".
"

entire article @;
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/F4259F4A-E9E6-418D-BC95-678071CCD157.htm

Mr. Goldberg
At the risk of having Ms. BJ accuse me ( again ) of invoking Mr. Duke, we don't really need to link to another ( we have plenty of them right here as zionists ) racist to prove our point.

as it applies to the above scree.
-Putting the anti Islamic scree to one side, the previous poster is still using the 'Jew' card to excuse, through the usual bucket of unsubstantiated accusations and outright lies, the brutality of Zionist aggression and even goes to the point of thinly veiled racist propaganda advocating mass murder.
Gee; that's right out of the Nazi playbook.-

Don't wonder too hard about why you're called a nazi..

hiding this comment while retaining the previous one will cause me to post as a header, both the comment and the response,

BEIRUT -- With the guns put away for now, jockeying for political position in Lebanon has begun, and Hezbollah has mounted a massive advertising campaign.
Along roads in and out of the capital, there are red signs with slogans such as "the divine victory" and images ranging from angry Lebanese standing on the rubble of their homes to children wounded by Israeli bombs to Hezbollah guerrillas standing next to Katyusha rocket launchers.
"What we are trying to do is to make sure that everyone knows that Hezbollah beat Israel and to make sure that Lebanon is rebuilt as soon as possible," said Ghassan Darwish, the head of Hezbollah's information department, in Haret Hreik, a southern Beirut suburb that was home to many Hezbollah offices and was heavily bombed.
Nearby, women picked through the rubble of their homes before the concrete and twisted metal was carted away.
The government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora also has begun to advertise, but without the money on hand or the discipline of Hezbollah.
Among observant Muslims in the Sunni stronghold of Tripoli, support for Shi'ite Hezbollah appeared to cross sectarian lines.
"There is only one atmosphere in the entire country," said an imam at one of the oldest mosques in Tripoli. "No one will ever say that they are against [Hezbollah leader] Hassan Nasrallah."
Before the fighting with Israel began, Lebanese parties had been debating the issue of Hezbollah's disarmament.
"Those that were opposed to Hezbollah before July 12 are still opposed to Hezbollah, but definitely they are more scared," said Hanady Salman, an editor at As-Safir, arguably Lebanon's most left-leaning daily. He was referring to Hezbollah's seizure of two Israeli soldiers on Israeli soil, which started the war.
"Hezbollah is portrayed -- outside Lebanon and inside Lebanon sometimes -- as a group of people who came from outer space and want to impose their will on the Lebanese people. But Hezbollah is Lebanese, those were Lebanese people fighting in the south."
"The difference now is that Hezbollah is now viewed outside Lebanon as a Arab nationalist movement," Mr. Salman said. "But it still needs to prove its legitimacy as a Lebanese party."
The belief that the U.S. supported Israel during the war also helped to boost Hezbollah's standing.

"Hezbollah's seizure of two Israeli soldiers on Israeli soil,"
did not start the war. They were captured on Lebanese soil and Israel started the war which slaughtered thousands of Lebanese.
Don't twist things and you should know better.

I'm sure he didn't want to start a war but the little H was performing patrol and should have merely confounded the potential terrorists ( like duh!) and made them fall into a hole.
Too bad a firefight occurred too. The zionist Invaders should have been lured into an ambush by the sound of children laughing. A recording of course, and then also fall into a hole.

you see these israeli commandos were in Lebanese uniforms in Lebanese army wagons, up to some mischief and they were stopped by the little H.
not regular Lebanese army troops, to my recollection. You want more?

Message to autoblocked:
Yalla, lech lesahek berofe ve ahot yim hakelev shel hashchenim

Some 35,000 supporters , in solidarity with Israel protested outside the United Nations building.
Wednesday’s protest in New York, organized by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, United Jewish Communities and UJA-Federation of New York, was held to show solidarity with Israel; ask the United Nations to enforce Security Council Resolution 1701, which calls for the unconditional release of three Israeli soldiers kidnaped by Hamas and Hezbollah this summer; and denounce Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presence at the 61st convening of the U.N. General Assembly.

“We will defeat any enemy and overcome any challenge,” Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told the crowd, which spanned two city blocks.

“We say terror will not defeat us.”

Other speakers included the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel.

Not intelligent enough to say anything but dedicated to soiling this newswire.

Unless you mean religiously psychotic and inimical to Jews by associating Zionism with people of the Jewish faith.

1701 is an outrage as it allows Israel with help to RE OCCUPY Lebanon. Hezbollaa is justified to tell the UN to fuck off.

for every killed family member or friend that was killed or maimed, there will be plenty of replacements.
After all, it's what you seem to want. Enjoy. See what happens around you.

You would like to think we're ignorant here.
When has the UN ever refused a buffet of bribes and bullying?
Must I list the numerous examples from Korea to Gulf War...

Not to mentionthe UN blue hats leaving a trail of rapes and child abuse wherever they've been