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By Michael Dirda
By Carla Kaplan
$ 13.57
$19
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By Robert Fisk — So they are at it again, the great and the good of American democracy, groveling and fawning to the Israeli lobbyists of American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), repeatedly allying themselves to the cause of another country and one that is continuing to steal Arab land. Will this ever end?
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By William Pfaff — Israel’s colonization and annexation of the Palestinian territories over the last 40 years, and opposition to the creation of an independent Palestinian state, have turned Israel into an Arab-Jewish state under Jewish control.
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AP photo / Mohammed Zaatari
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The U.K. is moving toward getting rid of all cluster bombs in its armory in keeping with growing international efforts to ban the bombs, which spread miniature “bomblets” and have caused many civilian deaths around the world.
Posted on May 27, 2008
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The Mosaic Intelligence Report looks at two welcome developments in the Middle East: On Wednesday, Israel and Syria said they had begun indirect talks in Turkey, the first confirmation in eight years of negotiations between the long-time enemies. On that same day, the Gulf state of Qatar scored a diplomatic coup by pulling off a deal intended to end Lebanon’s protracted crisis.
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AP photo / Hasan Jamali
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The Lebanese government and the Hezbollah opposition group came to a power-sharing agreement Wednesday, potentially marking the end to the country’s two-year-old political crisis, which only weeks ago erupted in clashes that left 65 people dead. The move, which some analysts say may benefit Hezbollah more than the Western-backed government, has been hailed by the parties directly involved and others, including the U.S. as well.
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Hezbollah was the obvious winner of the recent fighting in Lebanon, but the conflict reflected a broader trend in the Middle East. For all of President Bush’s bluster, Iran is stronger and more influential than when he took office.
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Emad Hajjaj, Jordan —
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By Robert Fisk — Another American humiliation. The Shia gunmen who drove past my apartment in west Beirut yesterday afternoon were hooting their horns, making V-signs, leaning out of the windows of SUVs with their rifles in the air, proving to the Muslims of the capital that the elected government of Lebanon has lost.
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flickr.com / John Barnabas
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“Informed sources” say the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, a historically contested area between Israel and Syria, may soon find itself under new management. The two countries, which have been at war with each other since 1973, are both looking to resume the stalled 2000 peace talk process, which Syria has declared will not happen until the Golan Heights are returned.
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By Robert Fisk — The Independent’s Robert Fisk looks back at five years of catastrophe in Iraq and is reminded of Winston Churchill’s depiction of Palestine as a “hell-disaster.”
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By Robert Fisk — The first time I saw one, my first instinct was to pick it up. It shone in the sunlight, bright green, something new and fresh amid the dry grass of the south Lebanon hills. The little cluster bomblet seemed to have been made to hold in the hand. No wonder the little children died.
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AP photo / Hussein Malla
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By Scott Ritter — Imad Mughniyeh was once America’s most-wanted terrorist, and his crimes were truly abhorrent. But his assassination, Ritter argues, will only lead to more violence.
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The Mosaic Intelligence Report looks at the killing of Emad Moghniyeh, whom the United States considered a leading terrorist. Hezbollah has vowed to avenge him, and Israel has put its military and embassies on high alert.
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The Mosaic Intelligence Report investigates France’s aggressive new push to involve itself in the Middle East. The French have signed a deal to set up a permanent military base in the Persian Gulf region, the first such facility controlled by a Western nation that isn’t led by George W. Bush.
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AP photo / Baz Ratner
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By Milton Viorst — Can decent Israelis, caught between complacency and conscience, save their beleaguered country from the corruptions of power, religious fanaticism and crippling hubris?
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By Barry Lando — The former “60 Minutes” producer laments the unfortunate tendency to treat any criticism of Israel as an attack on the Jewish people and a denial of their past suffering.
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plusnews.fr
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A government probe of Israel’s 2006 war in Lebanon has not only found that the war was a blunder but revealed “serious failings” in the political and military leadership of the country. The panel criticized the unnecessary loss of life and found that Israel’s ability to deter its enemies had been seriously damaged. Above, inquiry leader Eliyahu Winograd.
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The Mosaic Intelligence Report notes that with tensions inflamed throughout the Middle East, a recent string of violent attacks in Lebanon has gone mostly unnoticed. Combined with reports of increased arms shipments to various factions, does it mean another civil war is in the offing?
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AP photo / Hussein Malla
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Lebanon is going through a particularly volatile period because of internal politics, and President Bush’s Mideast visit has apparently caused further turmoil. A car bomb aimed at an American Embassy vehicle in Beirut on Tuesday killed four Lebanese in the city’s northern Doura region and injured six more, according to the BBC.
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By Joe Conason — The ascension of George W., according to many Bush loyalists, was a return of mature and wise foreign policy. Tell that to the ailing Middle East, whose future is now being pondered in a U.S. meeting that seems destined to fail.
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israellobbybook.com
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The editor of the provocative new bestseller by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt asks the authors (pictured above) whether their book is good for the Jews and good for America.
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By Robert Fisk — Not only is The Independent reporter Fisk, like many others in Beirut, no longer shocked by a murder of yet another member of parliament, but he also is no longer affected by viewing the remains of the dead. Such is life in Lebanon today. Here, Fisk relates how Lebanese officials are learning to exist in a perpetual fog of fear.
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AP photo / Gerald Herbert
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By Scott Ritter — If you think the Iraq war is a disaster, just wait until we start bombing Iran. The countdown to another war is both real and terrifying, Ritter argues, and, distasteful though it may seem, it won’t be stopped so long as Iraq holds on to the spotlight.
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By Robert Fisk — Another member of Lebanon’s parliament, Antoine Ghanem, was killed on Sept. 19 when a bomb went off in his car outside his home in Beirut. This means, The Independent’s Robert Fisk reports, that ” ... It only takes one more murder for the democratically elected government of Lebanon to fall.”
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By Robert Fisk — The conflict in Lebanon ended a year ago last week. The Independent’s Robert Fisk reflects on the human misery and destruction inflicted on the country—and on how lucky he is to be alive after more than 30 years of reporting from some of the most dangerous places in the world.
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By Robert Fisk — True, the U.S. may be able to “spread democracy” to other nations throughout the world, but, as The Independent’s Robert Fisk points out, that doesn’t mean that the U.S. can control how those nations exercise their democratic rights. Take Lebanon, for example, where, Fisk wryly notes, “The Arabs have, once more, followed democracy and voted for the wrong man.”
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By Robert Fisk — The seasoned Mideast reporter for the British paper The Independent returns home to his flat in Beirut to find his landlord reinforcing his building with an iron door. After considering the state of affairs in Lebanon—not to mention in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Gaza—Fisk gets behind his landlord’s security plan.
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Six U.N. peacekeepers from the Spanish army were killed Sunday when their vehicle was attacked with an explosive device. Condoleezza Rice, her French and Spanish counterparts and even Hezbollah have all condemned the attack. No one has claimed responsibility. Tensions have been high in Lebanon with Lebanese forces battling an extremist militant group for over a month.
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motherjones.com
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Truthdig contributor Reese Erlich connects the blowback from American meddling in the Mideast to the recent violence in Lebanon, where a Palestinian militant group has been fighting with the Lebanese army.
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Israel has come under rocket fire from Lebanon, but says it will show restraint. Hezbollah has denied responsibility for the attack, the first since the Israel-Lebanon war last year. Israel and Lebanon have blamed the Palestinians, but no group has claimed responsibility yet.
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Al Jazeera takes its cameras inside the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp near Tripoli, where thousands of panicked residents have fled the fighting between a Palestinian militant group and the Lebanese army.
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Jeff Pflueger
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By Dahr Jamail — Israel’s 2006 military campaign in Lebanon was meant to injure and embarrass Hezbollah, but in the months since, the militant organization has only grown in popularity and prestige among many Lebanese.
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news.bbc.co.uk
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At least 40 people have been killed during a day of intense fighting between the Lebanese army and Fatah Islam, a splinter Palestinian militant group in Lebanon.
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AP Photo / Ariel Schalit
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Tens of thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv on Thursday, calling for a new government. The protest was organized around the handling of the Lebanon war. A recent investigation blamed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for a “serious failure in exercising judgment, responsibility and prudence.”
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haaretz.com
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Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, while speaking with a commission investigating the Lebanon war, said he made the decision to invade four months before soldiers were abducted. Olmert testified that he agreed with a contingency plan to respond dramatically should Hezbollah take predictably aggressive action.
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news.bbc.co.uk
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Saudi Arabia and Iran have joined forces to mediate tensions in Lebanon in an odd turn of events that is sure to addle the Bush administration. While the U.S. strongly opposes Iran’s regional influence, Saudi Arabia is but the latest American ally to cozy up to Tehran in the interest of stability.
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hrw.org
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A preliminary investigation by the State Department has found that Israel’s cluster bombing of civilian areas of Lebanon violated terms of an arms agreement with the United States. Israel receives roughly $2 billion annually in military assistance from the U.S., but Washington places classified conditions on how American munitions can be used.
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news.bbc.co.uk
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Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced a $770-million aid package to help with Lebanon’s reconstruction. The war-ravaged nation is hoping to raise $9 billion in aid. Meanwhile, a Hezbollah-backed general strike and mass protests continue to threaten the tenure of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
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Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces, has resigned amid ongoing investigations into Israel’s botched invasion of Lebanon. Imagine, someone in government actually taking responsibility for a failed military adventure. What a concept!
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President Bush has authorized the CIA to take covert action in Lebanon against Hezbollah, according to a secret presidential finding obtained by The Daily Telegraph. As part of the policy, the CIA and other intelligence groups will subvert Hezbollah’s influence by funding activists who are supportive of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora’s government.
(h/t: Largest Minority)
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rotten.com
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The head of Fatah in Lebanon told a local newspaper that Hezbollah had prevented several of the group’s planned attacks along the Israeli border—in some cases going so far as to turn the militants over to Lebanese authorities.
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time.com
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Time announced its “person of the year” on Saturday, dissing everyone from Ahmadinejad to Pelosi in order to declare “you” the winner. Don’t you feel special? Specifically, the magazine highlighted websites including YouTube, Wikipedia and MySpace for “bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter.”
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news.yahoo.com
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Hezbollah has threatened an escalation in its campaign against Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora unless he resigns. Hundreds of thousands of Hezbollah supporters took to the streets on Sunday, but Christian and Sunni leaders appear unlikely to bow to the pressure.
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The Israeli army, frustrated over the ineffectiveness of sending “a plane worth $100 million against a suicidal terrorist,” is developing futuristic weapons, including a “bionic hornet” capable of photographing and assassinating a target. (h/t: Engadget)
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By Chris Hedges — The former New York Times Mideast bureau chief argues that America’s failure in Iraq and Israel’s humiliation in Lebanon have emboldened and empowered those in the Arab world who seek to topple U.S.-backed regimes in the Middle East and cripple the Jewish state.
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Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, said he is in talks with Israel via a U.N. mediator to negotiate a prisoner swap. The U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the monthlong conflict in Lebanon, during which more that 1,200 people died, called for the unconditional release of the soldiers whose capture ignited the war.
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Israeli police have found sufficient evidence to charge President Moshe Katsav with multiple acts of rape and sexual harassment.
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Courtesy Nir Rosen
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By Nir Rosen — In the wake of Israel’s 33-day war with Hizballah, the 24-year-old Islamic movement has become the most popular political party in the Middle East. Here’s why that shouldn’t worry us.
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Guantanamo Prisoner’s Case Demonstrates Unfairness of Military Commissions
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