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Bombing is not a Panacea

It was too quiet in the Middle East, and there was too much talk of peace. This is generally a portent of impending violence. This past week the situation in Lebanon reminded us once again of where we are living. In a typical downward spiral, each side responded to actions of the other until the Hizballa responded by a rain of Katyusha fire on the Israeli north, killing two civilians in Kiriat Shmona and scoring a direct hit on municipal offices. Israel responded by bombing targets in Ba’albek and a power station in Beirut.

Typically, people on each side heard mostly one side of the story. Israeli news reports at the beginning of the crisis showed only the people in shelters in Kiriat Shmona. On the opposite side, it was surely symmetrical - reports showing the Lebanese who spent the nights in shelters. On Friday, Israeli television described the funerals of the two casualties at length, and barely mentioned that the bombing in Beirut killed as many as 17 civilians.

Bombing performed by the ‘other side’ is always a barbaric ‘criminal’ act. Bombing by your side is always justified or can be ignored. In the U.S. as the bombing of Yugoslavia wore on and people tired of it , news stations barely reported them. In Israel there was less coverage of the bombing of Beirut then there had been of the bombing of Yugoslavia. Radio stations played the usual Sabbath music and had the usual innocuous talk shows. So now each side has a fresh injustice to "use" against the other side. The Israelis can point to the suffering of their citizens, the Lebanese to the suffering of theirs. The people of each side for the most part honestly do not know what the other side has been doing.

The reasons given for the hostilities are all beside the point, and have little to do with the underlying reasons. The Hizballah say the rockets are fired to end Israeli occupation. The Israelis say they are there to prevent Katyusha rocket fire on the Israeli north. Neither claim should be taken at face value.

The first Katyusha rockets fell on Kiriat Shmona in 1969, long before there was any Israeli occupation. Hizballah spokesmen have failed to say clearly that they would end their activities if Israel withdrew to the international border. In fact, some have promised the opposite.

Manifestly, if the Israelis are occupying Lebanon to prevent attacks on Kiriat Shmona, the policy is a failure. They are not in a hurry to leave Lebanon, because it would endanger the troops of the South Lebanese Army and their families. The Israelis would leave supposedly if the Lebanese government could guarantee the safety of the SLA and promise to act against guerilla activity. But the Lebanese government says the solution must be part of a ‘comprehensive solution,’ referring to Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights. The solidarity shown between the Lebanese government and their Syrian brothers is touching, though it may be related to the fact that the Syrian army occupies the eastern part of Lebanon.

Israelis take it for granted that Syria controls the Hizballah completely, ignoring the possibility, for example, that Iran may wish to embarrass Syria or sabotage possible peace talks. Both sides take it for granted that the right of Lebanon to self determination is forfeit - the Syrian army will remain there forever to give Lebanon ‘protection.’ Both sides take it for granted that lives of civilians on the other side don’t count and don’t matter, and each reserves for itself the moral right to murder people on the other side. If there is a ‘New World Order’ it has not come to Lebanon.

In this stalemate, the answer of the Israeli army, supported by Defense Minister Ahrens, was ‘carry the war to the other side.’ Ahrens warned many months ago that this is what would happen. Some may have disagreed as to whether to use bombing only, or bombing plus ground troops or in other details, but all agreed in principle that "we had to do ‘something.’" It would be naive to think that governments would take into account minor moral considerations such as loss of life on the ‘other side.’ The ‘other side’ are not voters. But we might expect them to take into consideration the possible effectiveness of policy. Can it be that nobody noticed that the Lebanese government, and certainly Lebanese civilians, are powerless to stop the Hizballah and have no real influence on Syrian policy? It bothered nobody that Israel had bombed Beirut massively in the past, without effecting any change in guerilla activities. The realists will tell us that the Israeli government was "sending a message to the Syrians." But the real reality is that seems that Hafez Assad, President of Syria, is determined to fight for the Golan to the last Lebanese, and so he didn’t get the message the Israelis wanted to send. The message the Syrians got from the bombing is "You (Assad) set us up, and we fell into the trap." Every action Israel has taken when trying to "do something" has gotten us further into the Lebanese mud. There will be quiet for a while, but Israel has earned itself more enemies and more recruits for the Hizballah, without in any way damaging that organization or the countries that created it.

So here, in my opinion, is a message that we need to carry to both sides and their allies. Doing "something" should not include doing something that makes the situation worse. Bombing and Katyusha rockets and even (especially) invasion with ground troops will not bring peace or end the Israeli occupation. Bombing Beirut will not make Kiryat Shmona safe. It will only invite further Katyusha attacks in the long run. Katyusha rocket fire will not end the Israeli occupation of South Lebanon, it will only bring on massive retaliation. Bombing Beirut will not make Hafez Assad an easier negotiating partner. On the contrary, it will help him mobilize opinion in the Arab world for a hard line against Israel. Bombing is not a panacea.

Ami Isseroff

Rehovot

Link - :Len and Libby Traubman have compiled their messages regarding Israeli/Palestinian cooperative projects at           http://www.igc.org/traubman/messages.htm

Coming Soon - PEACE members and others around the world are joining to start a much larger project to advance dialog and peace education efforts. Contact PEACE (Ami or Ameen) for more information.

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Hebrew: Arafat