[Marxism] NYT calls on US, Israel to accept cease-fire without finished agreement (because Hezbollah, Iran, and Syria are winning politically)

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Time again to remember Arafat's comment on the 1982 Lebanon invasion and
occupation: "This was a US war."  It is the US first and foremost which
must agree to a cease-fire, for this war has been carried out and
sustained jointly from day one, with Israel handling the combat
responsibilities, and Washington acting as banker and quartermaster.

Note the comment: "Washington's instant turnabout and Israel's instant
response has left the damaging impression that had America expressed
similar concerns sooner, these and many other innocent Lebanese lives
might have been saved." In  

The Times is clearly a bit nervous that something has been exposed about
the US-Israeli relationship that was not supposed to be too widely
known.  The fact that Israeli wars today are US wars and must be so
because of the depth, the extremity, the totality of Israel's dependent,
subsidized, truly colonial existence.  In some ways, Israel may be
"independent" more in the way that Ian Smith's "independent" "Rhodesia"
(Zimbabwe) was independent of the British -- as compared to racist and
then apartheid South Africa where a greater degree of independent social
and political independent development of the white settlers had taken
place. 

The development of Israel's "special relationship" with Washington after
the failure of the joint war with Britain and France against Egypt in
1956 has led to a scale of dependency, a parasitic existence on one side
on US imperialism and on the other on the Arab peoples, that has rarely
been seen in the history of the world.  From that standpoint -- the
dependence for their existence on the role of military thug in the
region for Washington -- may explain the panic and hysteria that grip
the top Israeli leaders and even sections of the population as they run
into problems producing the victories that Washington is paying them to
win.  
Fred Feldman

August 1, 2006
Editorial
Cease-Fire Diplomacy in Lebanon 
The 48-hour limited suspension of air raids that Washington pressed
Israel into declaring was a modest step in the right direction, even
though, as it became clear yesterday, it has far too many exceptions.
Too bad that even this partial and temporary restraint came only after
dozens of Lebanese civilians, many of them children, were killed by an
Israeli air raid on the town of Qana. 

It took the worldwide uproar over the Qana casualties to finally jolt
the Bush administration into asking for something it should have sought
many days earlier. Washington's instant turnabout and Israel's instant
response has left the damaging impression that had America expressed
similar concerns sooner, these and many other innocent Lebanese lives
might have been saved.

But while the latest developments demonstrate that Israeli leaders can
be persuaded to refine their strategy to take account of international
opinion and human considerations, further adjustments are urgently
needed. With the two-day bombing pause set to expire early Wednesday,
Israel is already rolling out plans for an expanded ground offensive,
which Washington has done nothing to discourage. 

Before that happens, the temporary lull in Israeli attacks needs to be
broadened into a full cease-fire and extended indefinitely while the
United Nations Security Council works to create an international armed
force to secure Lebanon's border. 

That promising long-term solution, which enjoys wide international
support, will take time. No country has yet offered troops, nor has
Hezbollah resigned itself to the idea that it will have to disarm, or at
least remove its forces and weapons from the vicinity of the Israeli
border. And once Lebanon's airport and seaports are again fully
operational and the road to Damascus cleared, there will have to be some
way of making sure that Syria and Iran do not resupply Hezbollah with
long-range rockets capable of hitting Israel.

But all alternative approaches pose even greater problems. Renewed
Israeli airstrikes and intensified ground operations can offer no
lasting solution unless Israel is prepared to undertake another lengthy
occupation to prevent resupply and regrouping. The most optimistic
Israeli commanders concede it would take at least 10 to 14 more days to
locate and destroy Hezbollah's rockets and command post. The mounting
civilian casualty toll that would accompany an Israeli offensive of that
length would multiply the huge propaganda gains that Hezbollah, Syria
and Iran have already reaped and multiply the damage to Israel and the
United States. 

With the Security Council now preparing to act, Washington needs to call
on Israel to accept an extended cease-fire while diplomacy proceeds.




August 1, 2006
Editorial
Cease-Fire Diplomacy in Lebanon 
The 48-hour limited suspension of air raids that Washington pressed
Israel into declaring was a modest step in the right direction, even
though, as it became clear yesterday, it has far too many exceptions.
Too bad that even this partial and temporary restraint came only after
dozens of Lebanese civilians, many of them children, were killed by an
Israeli air raid on the town of Qana. 

It took the worldwide uproar over the Qana casualties to finally jolt
the Bush administration into asking for something it should have sought
many days earlier. Washington's instant turnabout and Israel's instant
response has left the damaging impression that had America expressed
similar concerns sooner, these and many other innocent Lebanese lives
might have been saved.

But while the latest developments demonstrate that Israeli leaders can
be persuaded to refine their strategy to take account of international
opinion and human considerations, further adjustments are urgently
needed. With the two-day bombing pause set to expire early Wednesday,
Israel is already rolling out plans for an expanded ground offensive,
which Washington has done nothing to discourage. 

Before that happens, the temporary lull in Israeli attacks needs to be
broadened into a full cease-fire and extended indefinitely while the
United Nations Security Council works to create an international armed
force to secure Lebanon's border. 

That promising long-term solution, which enjoys wide international
support, will take time. No country has yet offered troops, nor has
Hezbollah resigned itself to the idea that it will have to disarm, or at
least remove its forces and weapons from the vicinity of the Israeli
border. And once Lebanon's airport and seaports are again fully
operational and the road to Damascus cleared, there will have to be some
way of making sure that Syria and Iran do not resupply Hezbollah with
long-range rockets capable of hitting Israel.

But all alternative approaches pose even greater problems. Renewed
Israeli airstrikes and intensified ground operations can offer no
lasting solution unless Israel is prepared to undertake another lengthy
occupation to prevent resupply and regrouping. The most optimistic
Israeli commanders concede it would take at least 10 to 14 more days to
locate and destroy Hezbollah's rockets and command post. The mounting
civilian casualty toll that would accompany an Israeli offensive of that
length would multiply the huge propaganda gains that Hezbollah, Syria
and Iran have already reaped and multiply the damage to Israel and the
United States. 

With the Security Council now preparing to act, Washington needs to call
on Israel to accept an extended cease-fire while diplomacy proceeds.



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