Thursday, August 3, 2006 Ankara - Turkish Daily News
Warning the international community that the ongoing Middle East could
turn into a global fire, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said yesterday
that the Israeli offensive against Lebanon was unfair as Israel has
implemented a disproportionate use of force.
We have never remained a bystander against such unfair clashes, Erdoğan
told reporters at Esenboğa Airport in Ankara ahead of his departure for
Malaysia where he is scheduled today to participate in a meeting of the
Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) when Muslim nations are expected
to pressure the international community to halt the Middle East conflict.
We should not let this war to turn into a global fire. We will continue
to carry out our historical and global responsibilities. It will be
determinant that the European Union and the United Nations raise their voices
and show their will in favor of peace, Erdoğan said.
Malaysia, which chairs the 57-nation OIC, is playing host to nearly 20
countries at the hastily assembled meeting amid condemnation by Muslim nations
of Israel's military offensive in Lebanon and Gaza.
Malaysia has said the meeting will call for an immediate cease-fire and
discuss a formal United Nations peacekeeping force for Lebanon and properly
coordinated humanitarian assistance.
The main reason for this meeting is for the voice of Muslims to be
heard, Malaysia's Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar told reporters yesterday.
The U.N. has tried, the Arab League has tried. Now we should add our
voices to the world, he said.
We will be pushing for a U.N. peacekeeping force to be deployed to
Lebanon which will include Islamic countries, he said, adding that the OIC
nations would be discussing possible troop commitments. We want our force
from the OIC member countries to operate under the blue helmet.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is among the heads of state
assembling to voice concerns and is expected to be one of those taking centre
stage.
Iran has been accused of financing and arming the Lebanese Shiite
militant group Hezbollah, which is locked in a bloody conflict with Israel,
but has denied the allegation.
Besides Erdoğan, other leaders attending the meeting include Indonesia's
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Pakistan's Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
The gathering was originally intended to comprise the OIC's executive
committee but was expanded to include a number of member countries concerned
over the escalation of violence in the Middle East, officials said.
PM regrets failure of Turkeys efforts to convince Israel on cease-fire
In apparent reference to US support
for Israel, Erdoğan also claimed that the suffering of the people in the Middle
East should be attributed 'to a great extent to the double standards with which
those who hold power approach the regions problems'
ANKARA - Turkish Daily News
The ongoing war in the Middle East will eventually lead to losses for all
humanity, while no one will truly win, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has
said.
There can never be any justification for a mentality which massacres
innocent people, destroys cities and legitimizes violence, Erdoğan said in an
address to the nation that was scheduled to be aired on state television last
night, after the Turkish Daily News went to press:
It is unthinkable to remain silent in the face of this new understanding
of power, this new culture of violence, which defies any sense of justice.
In apparent reference to U.S. support for Israel, Erdoğan also claimed that
the suffering of the people in the Middle East should be attributed to a great
extent to the double standards with which those who hold power approach the
region's problems.
Not only are properties, the lives of innocent people and the future of
cities being destroyed, but humanitarian values -- the basis for peace on earth
-- are also being damaged, Erdoğan said.
Everybody should consider this well, before it is too late, because this
war is fuelling violence and further strengthening terrorism, he said.
Bringing to mind the fact that Turkey has asked Israel to stop its
disproportionate use of force immediately, Erdoğan said that Ankara had offered
Israel assistance in securing the return of the three Israeli soldiers whose
abductions led to the offensive on Gaza and Lebanon.
We told [Israel], If the issue is only the return of the three soldiers,
trust us, believe us, we will find and return them to you, we promise.' But
unfortunately we were unable to secure a cease-fire, and as the days pass, the
issue has become far more difficult, Erdoğan said.
Last month, Erdoğan confirmed that his special envoy, Ahmet Davutoğlu, had
met with exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Damascus in an effort to
negotiate the release of an Israeli soldier kidnapped by Palestinians believed
to be linked to Syria-based Hamas elements. He added that the brief meeting had
taken place at the suggestion of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Davutoğlu had
asked Assad to use his influence wth the Palestinians to convince them to
release the abducted Israeli soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit.
Shalit was captured near Gaza on June 25; two more soldiers were kidnapped
by Hezbollah guerrillas on July 12, after a raid on their patrol on the Israeli
side of the Lebanese border.
Erdoğan, Siniora speak over telephone:
During a telephone conversation with his Lebanese counterpart, Fouad
Siniora, Erdoğan expressed his deep sadness over an Israeli strike in the
southern Lebanese town of Qana that cost the lives of more than 50 innocent
civilians early on Sunday.
The conversation on Sunday night took place at the request of both sides,
the Anatolia news agency reported yesterday.
We share your grief, sources close to the Prime Ministry quoted Erdoğan
as telling Siniora.
Earlier on Sunday, Turkey harshly condemned the Israeli attack that killed
scores of civilians, including at least 23 children, and reiterated its call for
an immediate cease-fire.
In a strongly worded statement, the Foreign Ministry expressed deep regret,
saying that the number of Lebanese civilians killed due to disproportionate and
indiscriminate use of force by Israel has exceeded 600. More than 750,000
Lebanese -- one-fifth of the entire nation's population have been displaced,
Lebanon's infrastructure has been destroyed and the country is on the verge of a
serious humanitarian crisis.
During the conversation, Erdoğan also extended support to a seven-point
plan for a cease-fire, laid out by Siniora last week, saying that the plan
constituted a good framework.
Reiterating Turkey's stance, Erdoğan emphasized that the United
Nations should call for a cease-fire and noted that the issue would be discussed
in detail at an emergency meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference
(OIC) in Malaysia on Thursday -- in which he will also participate.
We trust you, Mr. Erdoğan. We believe you will support Lebanon and that
you will obtain results from your efforts with the West and regional countries,
Siniora was quoted as saying in response.
Israel sees Lebanon truce only after force deploys:
Yesterday, Israeli radio quoted a senior political source who said that
Israel believes that a cease-fire with Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon will only
take effect once an international force has been deployed in the area.
The report came after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in
Jerusalem that she believed a cease-fire could be forged this week.
Turkey, and likewise France, Italy and Greece, has expressed its
willingness to join a stabilization force in south Lebanon. But any such force
would first require a clear mandate from the U.N. Security Council and is likely
to take some weeks to deploy.
Turkey has repeatedly said that it could take part in an international
stability force in southern Lebanon if a cease-fire is established and both
Israel and Lebanon approve such a mission.
We, as Turkey, will not take part unless a complete cease-fire is put in
place, Erdoğan said at the weekend.
Turkish PM
and leaders of other Muslim nations demand an immediate ceasefire
August 3, 2006
Meeting in Malaysia at the invitation of
Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the Turkish head of the Organization of the Islamic
Conference, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and leaders of other Muslim
nations demand an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East, express outrage at
international double standards over Israeli offensive in Lebanon and warn of
disastrous consequences if the assault continued.
Muslim nations demand ceasefire
Jonathan Lyons, Asia Security
Correspondent
Reuters Thursday, August
03, 2006
Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh (2nd
L) shakes hands with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad before a
special session of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) to
discuss the Israel-Lebanon conflict, in Putrajaya outside Kuala Lumpur
August 3, 2006. REUTERS/Bernama
PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia -- Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other
leaders from the Islamic world demanded a halt on Thursday to Israeli attacks
on Lebanon and Gaza and weighed inclusion of Muslim forces in a future
peacekeeping operation.
Aroused by restive populations back home, and aghast at the mounting toll
in heavily Muslim southern Lebanon, select members of the Organization of
Islamic Conference gathered in special session more than three weeks after the
start of the crisis.
It was the charismatic figure of Ahmadinejad, his hardline views on Israel
reinvigorated by public backing from Iran's supreme clerical leader, who
animated the conference as it strove to get the OIC's voice heard above the
diplomatic din.
"Although the main cure (to the situation) is the elimination of the
Zionist regime, in this stage an immediate ceasefire should be implemented,"
Ahmadinejad, one of the driving forces behind the emergency meeting, told OIC
colleagues.
"Britain and America, as the main associates of the Zionist regime in its
offensive to Lebanon, should compensate Lebanon's damages. Those governments
should answer for their crimes in Lebanon," he said in his speech, a copy of
which was circulated.
Summing up the frustration of many across the Muslim world, Bangladeshi
Prime Minister Khaleda Zia demanded: "The question that may come up is why
this meeting could not be convened earlier."
Israel's offensive against Hizbollah in Lebanon has killed more than 900
people and wounded 3,000 with a third of the casualties children under 12,
Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said in a video message to the
conference. He said a quarter of the population, or one million people, had
been displaced.
Among those attending were the president of Indonesia, the world's most
populous Muslim nation, the prime minister of Muslim powerhouse Turkey, and
representatives of Pakistan and Egypt.
PEACEKEEPING
"We must show preparedness to contribute forces for peacekeeping operations
under the United Nations banner," Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Malaysia's prime
minister and host of the conference, said in remarks prepared for delivery in
closed session. "Malaysia is ready to do that."
As their leaders met behind closed doors, OIC diplomats said a draft
communique now circulating would seek to place Muslim "Blue Helmets" under
U.N. control. It also calls for an inquiry into possible Israeli war crimes in
its campaign against targets in southern Lebanon and Gaza.
"Many countries have expressed their readiness to send troops under the
banner of the United Nations," OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu told
reporters during a break.
"They asked the OIC to be more active in the peacebuilding process and in
the rebuilding of Lebanon after a ceasefire establishes peace," he said of the
deliberations so far.
In addition, the OIC draft demands an immediate ceasefire, adding to the
pressure on Israel and its superpower ally the United States to reverse course
and agree to end the fighting first and then deploy peacekeepers.
It is unclear whether the Jewish state, as a party to the conflict, or the
United States would accept direct Muslim participation in a peace-keeping
operation. Many OIC member states do not have diplomatic relations with
Israel.
Muslim powers stage emergency
Mideast summit By
ASSOCIATED PRESS Aug. 3, 2006 5:28
The Muslim world's biggest bloc held an emergency summit Thursday to muster
support for a swift cease-fire, peacekeeping missions and coordinated
humanitarian relief in Lebanese and Palestinian territories.
Malaysia, which chairs the 56-nation Organization of the Islamic
Conference, rallied presidents, prime ministers and policy-makers of 17 key
Muslim countries - including Iran, Indonesia, Pakistan and Turkey - to
articulate their anguish over the IDF offensive in the Middle East.
The conflict "carries the danger of a spillover that will have disastrous
consequences," Bangladesh's Prime Minister Khaleda Zia said in a prepared
speech at the one-day talks. "This will surely add to radicalization in the
Muslim world, (which) in turn will increase difficulties for those of us on
the side of moderation."
Israeli attacks will radicalise Muslims:
Bangladesh
Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia on Thursday said Israel's deadly
attacks on Lebanon would only spark more violence and add to radicalisation in
the Muslim world.
Speaking at an emergency meeting of nations from the Organization of the
Islamic Conference (OIC) aimed at pressing Israel to stop its offensive, she
said the campaign could have disastrous consequences.
"The senselessness in choosing the path of violence cannot bring about
whatever ends the Israeli government wishes to achieve. Violence begets
violence," Zia said.
"Its continuation carries the danger of a spill-over that will have
disastrous consequences. This will surely add to radicalisation in the Muslim
world," she said.
The prime minister added that extremism would "increase difficulties for
those of us on the side of moderation."
In the past year, Bangladesh has seen a wave of deadly bombings by a banned
group that wants strict Islamic laws imposed in the mainly Muslim but secular
country, where Islamic militants have killed at least 28 people.
"We need to act together and we need to be principled in our approach," she
said.
Zia said the purpose of the gathering in Malaysia was not to fan hate but
to express anguish and indignation at the Israeli campaign.
"We are here not to incite passion of retaliation and more bloodletting. On
the contrary, we have assembled here to issue a firm call to the Israeli
leadership to bring an immediate halt to the violence that it has let loose,"
she said.
Zia called for an immediate ceasefire and pressed for the urgent deployment
of an international force and a comprehensive peace in the Middle East by
ensuring the formation of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state.
OIC anger at UN over Lebanon Thursday 03
August 2006
Badawi
has urged Muslim countries to commit troops
Islamic leaders have called for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon and
expressed anger at the UN over what they say are international double
standards on Israel's offensive in the country.
A statement from an emergency meeting of the Organisation of
the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Malaysia said the United Nations must act
immediately.
"We demand that the UN Security Council fulfil its
responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security
without any further delay, by deciding on and enforcing an immediate and
comprehensive ceasefire."
The statement said Israel was guilty of "blatant and flagrant
violations of human rights" after attacks at Qana and Khiam in southern
Lebanon that drew heavy international criticism.
It added, "We strongly condemn the relentless Israeli
aggression against Lebanon and the serious violations of the latter's
territorial integrity and sovereignty and in this regard charge Israel with
full responsibility for the consequences of its aggression."
The meeting also called on the international community to
provide support for Lebanon, including through a donors' conferenece to help
the nation cope with the "human, social and economic tragedy" it was
facing.
Double standards
Earlier, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the secretary general of the OIC, had
said that the "Islamic Ummah (community) is outraged" over international
"double standards" because they do not understand how the human tragedy has
been allowed to continue.
"The failure of peace initiatives will endanger not only the
peace efforts in the Middle East, but peace and stability in the whole
world... another failure in this regard can instigate further violence and
terror," he said.
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Malaysia's prime minister and chair
of the 57-nation body, said that Muslim countries had to commit troops for a
proposed UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon.
He said, "We must play a more proactive role in the present
conflict. We must show preparedness to contribute forces for peacekeeping
operations under the UN banner. Malaysia is ready to do that."
Badawi said the UN had failed to act in Lebanon and that
"the Security Council could not even muster the moral courage to condemn
Israel for the attack on Qana, or the killing of UN observers at Khiam".
'Incalculable consequences'
Pakistan echoed Ihsanoglu's comments, warning that continued inaction by the
international community over the Middle East conflict would have "incalculable
consequences" for regional and world security.
Shaukat Aziz, Pakistan's prime minister, said: "The failure
of the international community, especially the UN and the major powers to halt
this outrage, is adding to popular anger in the region and around the world.
"This paralysis is dangerous and can have incalculable
consequences for long-term peace and security in the sensitive Middle East
region and in the world.
"It will also serve a severe blow to the international campaign against
terrorism."
About 100 Malaysian Muslim activists demonstrated outside
the summit venue as the leaders arrived, chanting anti-Israeli slogans and
holding banners that read, "Israelis are real terrorists" and "Don't allow
Muslims to be slaughtered".
Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Senegal,
Indonesia, Iran and Yemen, and the Palestinian Liberation Organization were
amongst the countries represented at the meeting.
Islamic nations to call for ceasefire in Lebanon
Aug 1, 2006
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC)
will press for an unconditional ceasefire in Lebanon at an emergency meeting in
Malaysia this week, the Malaysian foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the current chairman of the
OIC, called for the August 3 meeting after weeks of military aggression by
Israel against Lebanon as well as the Palestinian Authority, the ministry said
in a statement.
The meeting was also expected to urge the establishment of a United Nations
peacekeeping force which must include OIC member states, the ministry said.
"The agenda of the meeting is to discuss the current situation and
developments in Lebanon and Palestine for determining the action to be taken by
the OIC countries," it added.
It said Egypt, Iran and Syria are among the 18 member countries attending the
meeting.
At least 605 people have been killed in Lebanon, although the health minister
puts the toll at 750 including bodies still buried under rubble. Fifty-one
Israelis have also been killed.
The Israeli army has also killed 151 Palestinians, more than half of them
civilians, in Gaza since it began an offensive to stop gunmen from firing
rockets into Israel and to pressure militants to free a soldier armed groups
captured on June 25.
The Saudi-based OIC is the world's largest Islamic body, gathering 57
countries with majority Muslim populations around the world.
Gül, Washington Post'a yazdı: ABD neden bu kadar acıya göz
yumuyor?
Dışişleri Bakanı ve Başbakan Yardımcısı Abdullah Gül, Lübnanda devam
eden trajedinin, ABDnin özgürlük ve adalet konularındaki liderlik mirasına
ilişkin dünyada sorular uyandırdığını ve Orta Doğunun demokratik dönüşümüne
yönelik umutların da paramparça olmasına yol açtığını belirtti.
Gül, ABDnin en önemli gazetelerinden The Washington Postta yayımlanan
makalesinde, "Lübnanda gözümüzün önünde gelişen ağır trajedi ve üç haftadır
süren acılardan sonra uluslararası toplumun bunu hala sona erdirememesi,
maalesef ABDnin özgürlük ve adalet konularındaki gururlu mirasına ilişkin
sorular uyandırıyor. Benim neslim, demokrasinin yüksek değerlerinin yanında
duran bir ABD imajıyla büyüdü. Bu nazik, kibar ulus görüntüsü, Lübnandaki
olaylar gelişirken dünyanın her yerinde milyonlarca insanın bunu korkuyla
izlediği bir ortamda donuklaşıyor" dedi.
Bugün Lübnandaki yıkımın canlı görüntülerinin dünyada evlerin içinden
izlendiğini ve Beyrut sokaklarını vuran her bombanın aslında her yerde
insanların vicdanlarını da vurduğunu belirten Gül, şunları kaydetti:
"Dünyanın her yerinde aynı soru soruluyor: Tek başına bu trajediyi
durdurma imkan ve kabiliyetine sahip olan dünyanın tek süper gücü, insanların
bu kadar acı çekmesine neden göz yumuyor ve merhamet çağrılarını neden
karşılıksız bırakıyor?" Gül, "Bizim, ABD ve diğer müttefiklerle binbir çabayla
geliştirilmesine uğraştığımız Orta Doğunun demokratik dönüşümüne yönelik
umutlar da bölge insanlarının yaşamları gibi paramparça oluyor" ifadesini
kullandı.
Ortaya çıkan derin öfke duygusunun, sorumlu hükümetleri, halklarının
haklı yere ortaya çıkan kızgınlıklarıyla başa çıkma gibi zorlu bir sınavla
karşı karşıya bıraktığını ve bu ortamda radikallerin ve fanatiklerin,
eylemlerini haklı göstermeye ve etkilerini genişletmeye çalıştığını belirten
Gül, "Kimsenin buna izin vermeye hakkı var mı?" diye sordu.
Bu durumun, uygarlıklar arasında gereken diyalog ve anlayışa yardımcı
olmadığını kaydeden Bakan Gül, bu enformasyon devrinde yüksek ahlaki değerleri
korumanın her zamankinden daha gerekli olduğuna dikkat çekerek, "Kolektif
vicdanımızın günlerdir bize yapmamızı söylediği şey için hepimizin harekete
geçmesi gerekiyor" dedi.
Gül, "Asimetrik tehditlerle karşılaşıldığında güvenliğe ilişkin klasik
kavramlarımızın sınırlı kaldığını Lübnanda bir defa daha gördük. Gerçek şu ki
orantısız ve ayırımsız güç kullanılması, zor durumları daha da zorlaştırırken,
hiç kimsenin güvenliğini de artırmıyor" ifadesini kullandı.
Mevcut kriz için tek çözüm yolunun, Orta Doğuda çıbanlaşan sorunların
temeline ve bu çatışmanın kökenine inecek şekilde uluslararası toplumun
kararlı şekilde eyleme geçmesi olduğunu belirten Gül, "Etkili olabilmesi için
başkalarından uymaları istenen değerlere kendisi de uyan gerçek bir liderlik
gerekiyor" dedi.
Talabani'den 'PKK' sözü
PKK'lıların ofislerini kapattığını kaydeden Irak Devlet Başkanı Celal
Talabani, PKK'nın Irak'tan Türkiye'ye terörist saldırılar düzenlemesini
engellemek için "ellerinden geleni yapacaklarını" söyledi
Irak Devlet Başkanı Celal Talabani, PKK'nın, Irak topraklarından Türkiye'ye
terörist saldırılar düzenlemesini engellemek için "ellerinden geleni
yapacaklarını" söyledi.
Bağdat'ta dün bir basın toplantısı düzenleyen Talabani, komşu ülkelere saldırı
hedefleyen silahlı grupların Irak topraklarını kullanmasına son vermeye ciddi
olarak kararlı olduklarını ve bu konuda Türkiye'ye güvence verdiğini ifade
etti. "Bazı PKK yandaşı grupların ofislerini kapattım" diyen Talabani, Irak,
Amerikan ve Kürt yetkililer arasında bu konuda üçlü bir toplantının
yapılmasının beklendiğini söyledi.
Bu arada Türkiye'nin baskılarını hafifletmek için PKK'yı sınırlama sinyali
veren Kuzey Irak'taki Kürt yönetimi de düğmeye bastı. Bölgesel Kürt
yönetiminin Başbakanı Neçirvan Barzani, Erbil'de görüştüğü PKK yöneticisi
Murat Karayılan'dan, bölgelerini Türkiye'ye saldırı amaçlı olarak
kullanmamalarını istedi. PKK'nın bölgedeki faaliyetlerinin rahatsızlık verici
boyuta ulaştığını, Türkiye'nin de örgütün faaliyet alanlarıyla ilgili
kendilerine kapsamlı dosya sunduğunu aktaran Barzani, bölge yönetiminin
isteğini kabul etmemesi halinde PKK'ya yasal tüm alanların kapatılacağı
uyarısında bulundu. Karayılan, Irak'taki büroları geçici olarak kapatmaya
hazır olduklarını bildirdi.
LONDRA/PARİS - Hükümetin, Kara Kuvvetleri Komutanı Orgeneral Yaşar
Büyükanıt'ı, Yüksek Askeri Şûra (YAŞ) başlamadan Genelkurmay Başkanlığı'na
ataması, dünyada da geniş yankı buldu. Dış basında çıkan yorumlar şöyle: Financial Times (Britanya): Yeni general, Türkiye'nin siyasi elitini
sınayacak. Şahin Büyükanıt'ın ataması, Türkiye'nin siyasi ve askeri
elitlerinin ilişkisinin tonunun belirleneceği YAŞ öncesinde gerçekleşti.
Büyükanıt'ın selefi Hilmi Özkök'e kıyasla daha şahin olup olmadığını PKK ile
Türkiye'nin Lübnan'daki barış gücüne katılımına dair tutumu gösterecek. BBC: Büyükanıt'ın PKK ve laik geleneklerin korunmasında daha sert bir
çizgiden yana olması bekleniyor. Le Monde (Fransa): Irak'a operasyon yanlısı bir şahin TSK'nın başında.
Atama, Türkiye'nin Kuzey Irak'a müdahale tehdidini yinelediği bir döneme
rastladı. Büyükanıt, güvenlik konusundaki katılığı ve milliyetçi eğilimleriyle
tanınıyor. Mücadele ettiği İslamcı çevrelerdeyse ABD ve İsrail yanlısı olmakla
suçlanıyor. Le Figaro (Fransa): Askeri hiyerarşinin sertlik yanlılarından
Büyükanıt'ın ataması, ordudaki egemenlikçi grubun yeniden nüfuz kazandığını
kanıtladı. Kuzey Irak'taki PKK üslerini etkisiz hale getirmek isteyen
Büyükanıt, hükümetin PKK'ya karşı 'yumuşak' tutumunu eleştiriyordu.
Kıbrıs Rum Kesimi'nde çıkan gazeteler de, Büyükanıt'ın KKTC'nin 1.
Cumhurbaşkanı Rauf Denktaş'ın politikalarını desteklediğini anımsattı ve "Kalıcı
ve kesin bir anlaşma olmadan Kıbrıs'taki tek bir Türk askerinin bile çekilmesi
söz konusu olamaz" sözlerine yer verdi. (Radikal, aa)
"Büyükanıt sınır ötesi operasyona sıcak"
Los Angeles Times gazetesi, Orgeneral Yaşar
Büyükanıt'a atıfta bulunarak, ancak bundan birkaç gün sonra da Türkiye'nin
sert bir Genelkurmay Başkanı atadığı değerlendirmesinde bulundu.
Son 3 haftada 15 Türk askerin şehit olduğu ifade edilen yazıda Büyükanıt'ın
sınır ötesi operasyona sıcak bakan bir isim olduğu belirtildi. Yazıda, Türk
halkının Kuzey Irak'a yönelik bir askeri operasyonu, İsrail'in Hizbullah
nedeniyle Lübnan'a yaptığı müdahaleye paralel gördüğü anlatıldı.
TÜRKİYE BÖLGEDE DENGELEYİCİ
Los Angeles Times gazetesi, Türkiye'nin Orta Doğu bölgesinde tarihinden gelen
dengeleyici bir rolü olduğunu belirtti. Gazete, Türkiye'de son dönemde bazı
kaygı verici gelişmelerin yaşandığını ancak Lübnan trajedisinin bir fırsat
yaratabileceğini aktardı.
Los Angeles Times gazetesi, Türkiye'nin Orta Doğu bölgesinde tarihinden gelen
dengeleyici bir rolü olduğunu belirtti.
Gazetede yayınlanan köşe yazısında İkinci Dünya Savaşı ile Soğuk Savaş'ın
başlangıcı arasındaki dönemde ABD Başkanı Harry Truman'ın, Türkiye'ye yardımın
başarısız olması halinde bunun Doğu ve Batı'nın birbirine ulaşması konusunda
etkilerinin oldukça kötü olacağı uyarısında bulunduğu hatırlatıldı. Truman'ın
o dönem söylediklerinin bugün gerçek olduğunun ortaya çıktığı kaydedilen
yazıda, Türkiye'nin Doğu ile Batı arasında hala "fiziksel, kültürel ve
stratejik bir köprü" olduğu belirtildi.
Yazıda, "ABD ve Avrupa, bir taraftan Lübnan ile başlayan sorunlu Orta
Doğu'daki kaçınılmaz anlaşmazlıklara hazırlanmalı ve bunlarla başa çıkabilmeli
diğer taraftan da Türkiye'ye Orta Doğu'daki rolünü artırması için rica etmeli"
ifadeleri yer aldı.
"TÜRKİYE İYİ BİR DENGE SAĞLIYOR"
Yazıda, geride kalan son birkaç yılda Türkiye'nin liberal Batı'ya yaptığı
önerileri artırırken diğer taraftan da içeride dar görüşlü milliyetçilere ters
mesajlar vererek diplomatik bir denge oluşturduğu değerlendirmesinde bulunuldu.
Yazıda, geçmişte ABD operasyonlarını destekleyen ve NATO'nun oldukça eski bir
üyesi olan Türkiye'nin Irak savaşından önce ABD'ye kendi topraklarını kullanma
izni vermediği hatırlatıldı.
Türkiye'nin insan haklarını genişletmek için ceza kanununda değişiklikler
yaptığı anımsatılan yazıda yeni yasadaki "Türklüğü aşağılamak" ile ilgili
301'inci maddenin hala geçerli olması eleştirildi. Yazıda bu maddenin şimdiden
pek çok yazar ve düşünür hakkında dava açılmasına neden olduğu da kaydedildi.
Yazıda geçen hafta, AB Komisyonu'nun Genişlemeden Sorumlu Üyesi Olli Rehn'in
uyarılarından birkaç gün sonra Perihan Mağden'in "halkı askerlikten soğutmak"
gerekçesiyle açılan davadan beraat edildiği hatırlatıldı.
"TÜRK POLİTİKACILAR MİLLİYETÇİLİK DAVULU ÇALIYOR"
Bu ortamda dengeleme görevinin daha da önemli olduğu belirtilen yazıda,
gelecek sene yapılacak seçimler öncesinde Türk politikacıların "milliyetçilik
davulları çaldığı" öne sürüldü.
Yazıda Lübnan'da ateşkesin sağlanmasının ardından Türkiye'nin içinde
bulunacağı uluslararası bir gücün bölgeye yerleşmesi ile ümit verici bir
fırsatın yakalanabileceği değerlendirmesi yapıldı. Türkiye'nin bu güç için
ideal bir aday olduğu belirtilen yazıda, bunun gerekçesi olarak da Türkiye'nin
Avrupa ve Orta Doğu arasında arabulucu zaman zaman da bir savunma duvarı-
olarak tarihi rolü gösterildi.
"TÜRKİYE'NİN ORDUSU DA İLİŞKİLERİ DE İYİ"
Türkiye'nin iyi eğitimli bir ordusu olduğu, Suriye ve İran'la iyi ilişkiler
içinde bulunduğu belirtilen yazıda, bu ortamda Türkiye'nin bölgedeki profilini
yükseltmek, daha iddialı ve daha popüler bir dış politika izlemek aynı zamanda
da Batı ile bağlarını desteklemek için bir fırsatı olduğu değerlendirmesinde
bulunuldu. Yazıda son olarak bu tür bir dengenin, ABD'nin sahip olduğu tek
laik Müslüman müttefiki kaybetmekten daha iyi olduğu yorumu yapıldı.
ANKA05 Ağustos 2006
Civil war would leave US with choice: Pull out or take sides
Warnings by top U.S. generals of a growing threat of civil war in Iraq are
confronting U.S. policymakers with somber questions about the future
Warnings by top U.S. generals of a growing threat of civil war in Iraq
are confronting U.S. policymakers with somber questions about the future of a
costly three-year-old mission to stabilize the country.
Analysts said civil war would force the United States to choose between
withdrawing its troops and taking sides in what could become a wider regional
conflict.
U.S. officials insist the violence between Shiites and Sunnis is still
confined mainly to Baghdad and is not yet "a classic civil war."
But the sectarian violence is "as bad as I've seen it, in Baghdad in
particular," and civil war is a possibility, the top U.S. general in the Middle
East, John Abizaid, warned Congress on Thursday.
His assessment was only the latest sign of high-level concern that the
situation has drifted rapidly toward civil war since national elections last
December.
Britain's outgoing ambassador to Iraq is reported to have advised his
government that "a low-intensity civil war" was more likely than a transition to
a stable democracy.
Last week, U.S. commanders ordered more U.S. troops to Baghdad after a wave
of kidnappings, assassinations, massacres and bombings engulfed an Iraqi-led
effort to secure the capital.
Abizaid said the situation in Baghdad was at a "decisive" juncture but he
believed Iraqis would ultimately compromise "because the alternative is so
stark."
Senators wanted to know what civil war would mean for the mission of the
133,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.
"I'm reluctant to speculate about that," U.S. Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld said. "It could lead to a discussion that suggests that we presume
that's going to happen."
Senator John Warner, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services
Committee, warned that if Iraq does descend into civil war, the administration
may have to seek a new mandate from the U.S. Congress.
"If that were to come about, I think the American people would ask, 'Well,
which side are we going to fight on? Or do we fight both? And did we send our
troops there to do that? We thought we sent them there to liberate the Iraqis,
which we have done at a great sacrifice, 2,500-plus," he said in an interview
with PBS television.
Independent analysts said civil war was not a foregone conclusion and that
military action and political moves could yet contain and suppress the violence.
Much depends, though, on how susceptible an already weak political center
in Iraq is to pressure from both Sunni and Shiite extremists behind the
violence.
If it leads to the collapse of Iraq's central government and security
forces along sectarian lines, the U.S. mission would become untenable, some
analysts believe.
"Unsettling though it may sound, the United States could end up with no
alternative to pulling out of a country that had degenerated into chaos," said
Loren Thompson, director of the Lexington Institute, a Washington group that
specializes in military analysis.
"It seems improbable, but our role in Iraq is to build democracy so if the
center doesn't hold, there is nothing left to defend," he said.
A withdrawal of U.S. forces in the midst of a civil war would be "a huge
defeat for American diplomacy, in fact possibly the greatest defeat ever," he
said.
"However, there is no point in sticking around to preside over a melt down.
If a country is going to divide along sectarian lines, it would be very dubious
strategy to try to prevent a natural process from unfolding," he said.
Other analysts believe, however, that too much is at stake in Iraq for the
United States to abandon the fight.
A U.S. pullout would mean skyrocketing oil prices, the creation of a safe
haven for extremists and leaving Iran as the dominant power in the region,
according to this line of reasoning.
Andrew Krepinevich, head of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary
Assessments, said the administration would be forced to choose sides in a civil
war, and it would not be alone.
Arab states dominated by Sunnis, such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, would
likely back the Sunnis, and Iran would step up its support for Shiites, setting
the stage for a regional conflict, he said.
Abizaid, who said he has rarely seen the Middle East "so unsettled or so
volatile," suggested such a broader conflict already is unfolding.
He highlighted Iran's support for Shiite militias in Lebanon and Gaza as
well as in Iraq.
"There's an obvious struggle in the region between moderates and extremists
that touches every aspect of life," he said.
Dünya ayakta
İsrail
uçakları Güney Lübnan'da bir evi vurdu; 37'si çocuk 60 sivil öldü.
Dünya ilk kez "Bu katliam dursun" diye ayağa kalktı. İsrail ise
bildiğini okuyor
Lübnan'ın
güneyinde yer alan Kana kasabası, 1996 yılında israil'in düzenlediği "Gazap
Üzümleri Operasyonu" sırasında roketlerin hedefi olmuştu... Birleşmiş
Milletler kampına sığınan 120 kişi israil'in acımasız saldırısında can
vermişti... Aradan 10 yıl geçti ve İsrail'in Lübnan harekatının 19'uncu
gününde Kana kasabası yeniden kan gölüne döndü. Tüm otoyol ağını bombalandığı
için Hizbullah militanları ile İsrail askerleri arasında kalan Lübnanlı
siviller çatışma bölgesinden kaçamadı.
Hizbullah'tan misilleme
100 Lübnanlı Kana'nın merkezinde yer alan 3 kat bir binaya sığındı. Dün sabah
saat 8'de israil uçakları binayı roket yağmuruna tuttu. Bina yerlebir oldu.
Saldırıda 37'si çocuk 60'tan fazla sivil can verdi. Enkaz altındaki cesetlerin
çıkarılması 2 saatten fazla sürdü. Saldırıdan sağ kurtulan Lübnanlılar, "Kaçacak
yerimiz yok. Tüm yollar kapalı. Açık olsa da israil hareket eden tüm araçları
vuruyor. Ölümden kurtulmamız neredeyse imkansız" sözleriyle öfkelerini dile
getirdi, intikam çağrısı yapan Hizbullah, Kana katliamından sonra 8 saat
içerisinde israil'e 110 Katyuşa roketi gönderdi. İsrail ordusu, katliamdan
sonra bile bölgeye 50 füze daha atarak, "Hizbullah militanları Kana'dan roket
atıyordu. Sivilleri uyarmıştık" demekle yetindi. Ulusal Birlik Partisi'nin
lideri Beni Elon, "Hizbullah komplo kurdu. Bebekleri oraya getirdiler ve
katliamdan da doğrudan onlar sorumludurlar" dedi.
BM sonunda devrede
İsrail'in bu tutumu üzerine uluslararası kamuoyu ayağa kalktı. Birleşmiş
Milletler, ilk kez israil operasyonunu kınadı. BM Güvenlik Konseyi, Lübnan'a
20 bin barış gücü askeri konuşlandırılmasını ve derhal ateşkes sağlanmasını
öngören karar tasarısını görüşmek üzere acil olarak toplandı. Dünyanın
İsrail'e verdiği sert tepkiler şöyle:
Türkiye: Saldırıyı şiddetle kınıyoruz. Bu gidişata derhal son
verilmelidir.
Fransa: Acımasız saldırıyı kınıyor ve derhal ateşkes talep ediyoruz.
İngiltere: İsrail'i orantılı güç kullanması yolunda uyardık. Saldırı
çok korkunç.
BM: İsrail ve Lübnan arasında derhal ateşkes ortamı sağlanmalıdır.
AB: Hiçbir şekilde meşru gösterilemeyecek olan saldırıyı kınıyoruz.
İran: Katliamı önleyemeyen BM'nin yüzüne sürülen bir kara lekedir.
Suriye: İsrail devlet terörizmi uyguluyor. Bu barbarca saldırı artık
dursun.
Lübnandaki savaş meşru değil
İsrailin Filistin ve Lübnana yönelik saldırıları nedeniyle İslam
Konferansı Örgütü Malezyada olağanüstü toplandı. Zirvede konuşan
Başbakan Erdoğan, Lübnandaki bu savaş meşru olarak kabul edilemez
dedi.
NTV Güncelleme: 10:51 TSİ 03 Ağustos 2006 Perşembe
KUALA LUMPUR - İslam Konferansı Örgütü
Malezyada olağanüstü toplandı. Başkent Kuala Lumpurda başlayan
zirvede, Ortadoğudaki krize çözüm yolları görüşülüyor. 18 ülkenin
katıldığı zirvede Türkiyeyi Başbakan Erdoğan temsil ediyor.
Zirvede bir konuşma yapan Başbakan Erdoğan,
Lübnandaki savaşın hiçbir şekilde meşru olarak kabul edilemeyeceğini
söyledi. Erdoğan; Bu adil olmayan bir savaş. Bu savaşın bir galibi
olmayacak dedi.
İKÖ olarak tarihi bir sorumlulukla karşı karşıya olduklarını söyleyen
Erdoğan; Filistin ve Lübnan halklarının yaşadıkları bu trajedi ve
çektikleri acıların bir an önce sona ermesi için somut adımlar
atılmasını beklediklerini belirtti.
İslam Konferansı Örgütü Genel Sekreteri Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu ise,
İsrailin Filistin ve Lübnana karşı giriştiği acımasız operasyonları
bir kez daha şiddetle kınadıklarını söyledi.
İsrail sivilleri bilerek bombalıyor
İnsan Hakları İzleme Örgütü (Human Rights
Watch - HRW), İsrail ordusunun bazı durumlarda Lübnan'da sivilleri
bilerek bombaladığı izlenimi edindiğini, bazı saldırıların savaş suçu
teşkil ettiğini bildirdi.
Açıklamada, ''Bu başarısızlıklar kaza olarak nitelendirilemez ve suç
Hizbullah'ın yanlış hareketleri üzerine atılamaz. Bazı durumlarda bu
saldırılar savaş suçu teşkil eder. Bazı durumlarda İsrail güçlerinin
sivilleri kasten hedef aldığı izlenimi edinildi'' denildi.
Örgüt, İsrail kuvvetlerinin savaş uçakları ve ağır silahlarla, çoğu
beyaz bayrak asarak kaçmaya çalışan sivil araçlara ateş açtığını da
bildirdi. Açıklamada, gerek örgütün topladığı deliller, gerekse bağımsız
medyanın haberlerinin, sivil vasıtalara yapılan saldırıların hiçbirinin
Hizbullah militanlarına zarar verdiğini ya da silahların imha edilmesini
sağladığını göstermediği belirtildi.
İnsan hakları örgütü, raporunu saldırılardan sağ çıkanlarla yapılan
görüşmeler, bombalanan yerlerde yapılan incelemeler ve hastanelerle
yardım kuruluşlarından gelen bilgilere dayanarak hazırladığını bildirdi.
(AA) 03.08.06 www.sabah.com.tr
23. günde bombalar
yağmur gibi
İsrail'in, Lübnan topraklarında düzenlediği
saldırılar 23. gününde de devam ediyor.
İsrail uçakları, bu sabah düzenlenen akınlarda Beyrut'un güneyini tekrar
bombaladı. Hava saldırılarında, kuzeydeki Akkar'da bir köprü, Bekaa
vadisi, Suriye sınırı yakınlarındaki karayolları ve güneydeki Nabatiye
dahil 70 kadar hedef vuruldu.
Lübnan'ın güneyindeki 5 bölgede de yaklaşık 10 bin İsrailli asker ile
Hizbullah gerillaları arasında çatışmalar çıktı. Hizbullah, dün 231 füze
fırlatmasının ardından saldırılarına, bu sabah da 20 füze göndererek
devam etti.
Bu arada, ABD, İngiltere ve Fransa, BM Güvenlik Konseyinin, ateşkes
çağrısı, tampon bölge ve Hizbullah'ın silahsızlandırılması önerilerini
içeren karar tasarısının bir hafta içinde oya sunulması yönündeki
isteklerini dile getirdiler. Ancak Fransa ile ABD arasında, çok uluslu
gücün bölgeye konuşlandırılacağı tarih konusunda görüş ayrılıkları
belirdi.
Fransa, olası uzlaşmanın, İsrail, Hizbullah ve Lübnan arasında yapılacak
uzun süreli barış anlaşması temeline dayanması gerektiğini açıklarken,
ABD, uluslararası gücün, çatışmaların durmasının ardından
konuşlandırılmasına ihtiyaç duyulduğunu belirtti. Bu arada İsrail
Başbakanı Ehud Olmert, İsrail'in, saldırılarına, Güney Lübnan'a çok
uluslu güç konuşlanıncaya kadar devam edeceğini söyledi.
Hizbullah'ın, iki İsrailli askeri kaçırmasının ardından 12 Temmuzda
başlayan İsrail saldırılarında şu ana kadar çoğu sivil 700'den fazla
kişi öldü. Çatışmalarda ve füze saldırılarında ölen İsrailli sayısı ise
56. (AA) 03.08.06 www.sabah.com.tr
Erdoğan, 12 saatlik bir yolculuk sonunda geldiği başkent Kuala
Lumpur'da İKÖ'nün düzenlediği, 18 ülkenin hükümet ve devlet başkanları
düzeyinde katıldığı olağanüstü Yürütme Kurulu toplantısının açılışında
konuşma yaptı.
Başbakan Erdoğan, konuşmasında, İsrail'in Lübnan'da yaptıklarının
orantısız güç kullanımı olduğunu, kadınlarla çocukların göz göre göre
öldürüldüğünü belirtti.
Erdoğan, ''Hiçbir gerekçe bu yapılanı masum gösteremez. Tanık
olduğumuz bu savaş hiçbir şekilde meşru olarak kabul edilemez. Müdafaa
edilemez. Bu adil olmayan bir savaştır. Bu savaşın galibi olmayacaktır.
Nefret tohumları eken, radikalizme götüren bir savaştır. Korkunç küresel
yeni bir yangının, büyük bir felaketin bizleri beklediğini söylemek
kehanet olmayacaktır'' dedi.
Erdoğan, Orta Doğu'da başlayan yangının medeniyetler çatışması
potansiyeli taşıdığını, BM'nin temsil ettiği barış ideallerine yönelik
büyük bir tehlikeyle karşı karşıya olunduğunu belirterek, şunları
söyledi:
''Şayet bugün sesimizi yükseltmezsek, bugün bu gidişe dur diyemezsek,
bugün BM çatısı altında barışa yönelik bir iddia ortaya koyamazsak,
yarın çok geç olabilir... Bunun için özellikle İKÖ ve AB'ye çok önemli
görevler düşmektedir. BM'nin temelleri atılırken, yerküremizde bir daha
güçlünün kendini haklı göremeyeceği, amaçlarını şiddet kullanarak
gerçekleştirmeyi alışkanlık haline getirenlerin, insanlığa böyle büyük
acıları yaşatamayacağı bir barış düzeni öngörülmüştü. Ne yazık ki bugün
bu barış düzeni İkinci Dünya Savaşından bu yana en ciddi tehditlerden
birine maruz bırakılmıştır. BM Genel Sekreterinin bütün gayretlerine
rağmen Güvenlik Konseyi, üyeleri arasındaki görüş ayrılıkları nedeniyle
zayıf düşürülmüştür. Geri dönülemez biçimde bozma istidadı gösteren bu
tehdit karşısında BM barış üzerinde duracak güçlü bir iradeyi maalesef
pek ortaya koyamamıştır.''
Başbakan Erdoğan, Irak'ta güvenlik sorunu devam ederken, bölgede
patlak veren yangının bölgenin tahammül sınırlarını zorlamaya
başladığını kaydederek, ''Bu yangının söndürülmesi şarttır. Hatta Orta
Doğu'nun hassas dengeleri bu gerilimleri daha fazla taşıyamayacaktır.
Orta Doğu halkları artık barış ve adalet istemektedir. Bu savaşın
yaygınlaştırdığı ümitsizlik ve çaresizlik psikolojisi, radikalizmin
istismarına elverişli bir ortam meydana getirecektir. İKÖ üyeleri olarak
bu tehlikeli gidişata karşı gerekli bütün önlemleri almak, hiç vakit
kaybetmeden akan kanı durdurmak, barışı tesis etmek zorundayız. Bugün bu
toplantıdan bu netice çıkmalı. Uluslararası ilgili kurum ve kuruluşlar
bu çağrıya cevap verir hale getirilmelidir'' diye konuştu.
''Filistin ve Lübnan halklarının acısını dindirmek üzere bütün
enerjimizi ortaya koymamız ve bütün imkanlarımızı seferber etmememiz
gerekli'' diyen Erdoğan, Lübnan'daki büyük yıkımın Filistin meselesinden,
hatta daha geniş ölçekte medeniyetler ittifakı ve barış içinde bir arada
yaşama kavramından bağımsız olarak ele alınamayacağını belirtti.
Gülden ABDye Lübnan eleştirisi
Dışişleri Bakanı Abdullah Gül, Lübnan savaşını durdurmayan ABDyi ağır bir
dille eleştirdi.
NTV-MSNBC Güncelleme: 09:09 TSI 03 Ağustos 2006 Perşembe
WASHINGTON - Dışişleri Bakanı Abdullah Gül,
Amerika Birleşik Devletlerine Lübnandaki savaş nedeniyle sert bir dille
eleştirdi.
Dışişleri Bakanı Gül, Washington Post gazetesinde yayımlanan makalesinde,
kendi neslinin, demokrasi değerlerinin yanında duran bir Amerika imajıyla
büyüdüğünü, ancak Lübnan savaşıyla birlikte ABDnin bu görüntüsünün büyük
yara aldığını söyledi.
Beyrutun sokaklarını kanlar içinde bırakan bombaların, her yerde insanların
vicdanını da vurduğunu belirten Gül, Dünyada şu soru soruluyor; bu
trajediye son verme imkanı olan dünyanın tek süper gücü, bu kadar acıya
neden göz yumuyor? ifadesini kullandı.
Dışişleri Bakanı Gül, ABDnin hareketsizliği yüzünden, bölge insanlarının
yaşamlarının yanı sıra, Ortadoğunun demokratik dönüşümüne yönelik
umutlarının da paramparça olduğunu söyledi. Bu durumdan radikallerin ve
fanatiklerin yararlandığını anlatan Gül, krizden çıkmanın tek yolunun
uluslararası toplumun kararlı eyleminden ve gerçek liderlikten geçtiğini
belirtti.
Dışişleri Bakanı Gül, Washington Post'ta
yayımlanan eleştiri dozu yüksek makalesinde, Lübnan'da yaşanan trajedinin
ABD hakkında soru işaretleri doğurduğunu söyledi.
Gül, ABD'nin en önemli gazetelerinden The Washington Post'ta yayımlanan
makalesinde, ''Lübnan'da gözümüzün önünde gelişen ağır trajedi ve üç
haftadır süren acılardan sonra uluslararası toplumun bunu hala sona
erdirememesi, maalesef ABD'nin özgürlük ve adalet konularındaki gururlu
mirasına ilişkin sorular uyandırıyor. Benim neslim, demokrasinin yüksek
değerlerinin yanında duran bir ABD imajıyla büyüdü. Bu nazik, kibar ulus
görüntüsü, Lübnan'daki olaylar gelişirken dünyanın her yerinde milyonlarca
insanın bunu korkuyla izlediği bir ortamda donuklaşıyor'' dedi.
Bugün Lübnan'daki yıkımın canlı görüntülerinin dünyada evlerin içinden
izlendiğini ve Beyrut sokaklarını vuran her bombanın aslında her yerde
insanların vicdanlarını da vurduğunu belirten Gül, şunları kaydetti:
''Dünyanın her yerinde aynı soru soruluyor: Tek başına bu trajediyi
durdurma imkan ve kabiliyetine sahip olan dünyanın tek süper gücü,
insanların bu kadar acı çekmesine neden göz yumuyor ve merhamet çağrılarını
neden karşılıksız bırakıyor?''
Gül, ''Bizim, ABD ve diğer müttefiklerle binbir çabayla geliştirilmesine
uğraştığımız Orta Doğu'nun demokratik dönüşümüne yönelik umutlar da bölge
insanlarının yaşamları gibi paramparça oluyor'' ifadesini kullandı.
Ortaya çıkan derin öfke duygusunun, sorumlu hükümetleri, halklarının
haklı yere ortaya çıkan kızgınlıklarıyla başa çıkma gibi zorlu bir sınavla
karşı karşıya bıraktığını ve bu ortamda radikallerin ve fanatiklerin,
eylemlerini haklı göstermeye ve etkilerini genişletmeye çalıştığını belirten
Gül, ''Kimsenin buna izin vermeye hakkı var mı?'' diye sordu.
Bu durumun, uygarlıklar arasında gereken diyalog ve anlayışa yardımcı
olmadığını kaydeden Bakan Gül, bu enformasyon devrinde yüksek ahlaki
değerleri korumanın her zamankinden daha gerekli olduğuna dikkat çekerek, ''Kolektif
vicdanımızın günlerdir bize yapmamızı söylediği şey için hepimizin harekete
geçmesi gerekiyor'' dedi.
Gül, ''Asimetrik tehditlerle karşılaşıldığında güvenliğe ilişkin klasik
kavramlarımızın sınırlı kaldığını Lübnan'da bir defa daha gördük. Gerçek şu
ki orantısız ve ayırımsız güç kullanılması, zor durumları daha da
zorlaştırırken, hiç kimsenin güvenliğini de artırmıyor'' ifadesini kullandı.
Mevcut kriz için tek çözüm yolunun, Orta Doğu'da çıbanlaşan sorunların
temeline ve bu çatışmanın kökenine inecek şekilde uluslararası toplumun
kararlı şekilde eyleme geçmesi olduğunu belirten Gül, ''Etkili olabilmesi
için başkalarından uymaları istenen değerlere kendisi de uyan gerçek bir
liderlik gerekiyor'' dedi. 03.08.2006 www.zaman.com.tr
İsrail Lübnan'a Türk askeri
istedi
ANKARA (A.A) 3 Ağustos 2006
İsrail Başbakanı Ehud Olmert, Hizbullah ile çatışmalar sona ermeden önce
Lübnan'ın güneyine konuşlandırılmasını istediği uluslararası güce Türkiye'nin de
katkı yapabileceğini söyledi.
Olmert, İngiliz The Times ve The Financial Times gazetelerinde bugün
yayımlanan röportajında, Hizbullah ile çatışmalar son bulmadan önce Lübnan'ın
güneyine yerleştirilecek çok uluslu gücün 15 bin askerden oluşmasını istedi.
12 Temmuzda başlayan savaşın BM Güvenlik Konseyinin böyle bir güç gönderilmesine
izin vermesinden sonra sona erebileceğini belirten Olmert, Bu konudaki karar
tasarısının gelecek hafta Güvenlik Konseyinde oylanıp kabul edileceğini
sanıyorum. Bundan sonrası Lübnan'ın güneyine çok uluslu gücün hızla
konuşlandırılmasına bağlı dedi.
Lübnan'ın güneyine yerleştirilecek bu gücün BM kararını uygulamaya hazır muharip
güçlerden oluşması gerektiğine işaret eden Olmert, böyle bir gücün, Hizbullah'ın
İsrail'e yönelik roket saldırılarını durdurmak için gerekli olduğunu kaydetti.
Başbakan Olmert, İngiltere Başbakanı Tony Blair ile bu uluslararası güce
İngiltere'nin olası katkısını görüştüğünü belirterek, İran'ın bir uzantısı olan
Hizbullah'ı silahsızlandırmaya ve Lübnan'dan masum İsraillilere düzenlediği
saldırıları durdurma görevini yerine getirmeye kararlı diğer Avrupa ülkeleri ile
Türkiye, Suudi Arabistan ve Mısır gibi Müslüman ülkelerin de bu güce katkı
sağlayabileceğini ifade etti.
İsrail'in ateşkes istediğini ve Lübnan'ın güneyini işgal niyetinin
bulunmadığını tekrarlayan Olmert, ülkesinin Kana kasabasına yönelik saldırısı
nedeniyle uluslararası toplumun tepkilerine karşılık, İsrail'in Hizbullah'a
yanıt vermekte aşırı güç kullandığı suçlamalarını da reddetti.
İsrail Başbakanı Ehud Olmert, Hizbullah'ın roket saldırıları nedeniyle
ülkesinin kuzeyinde yaşayanların geçen 22 günü sığınaklarda geçirdiğini
belirterek, Hiçbir Avrupa ülkesi İsrail'in yaptığı kadar kontrollü davranmazdı
dedi.
Olmert, uluslararası güç konuşlandıktan sonra bile İsrail'in herhangi bir
saldırı karşısında yanıt verme hakkını saklı tuttuğuna da dikkat çekerek,
İsrail'in siyasetine Washington'dan karar verildiği düşüncesini reddettiğini
söyledi.
İsrail Başbakanı Olmert, İtalyan Corriere della Sera gazetesine verdiği
demeçte de ABD Dışişleri Bakanı Condoleezza Rice'ın Lübnan'da ateşkesi
sağlayacak Güvenlik Konseyi kararının gelecek birkaç gün içinde çıkmasını
beklemediğini söyledi. Olmert, Karar tasarısı BM'de gelecek hafta oylanacak
gibi görünüyor dedi.
Büyük meydan okuma
3 Ağustos 2006 Hurriyet
Lübnanda 3 haftayı geride bırakan çatışmalarda dün taraflar arasında tam bir
gövde gösterisi yaşandı. Lübnanın doğusundaki Baalbekte bir hastaneye indirme
yapıp Hizbullah militanlarını kaçıran İsrail, kara ve hava operasyonlarını
sürdürdü. Hizbullah ise füze yağmuruna tuttuğu İsrailin ilk kez bu kadar
içlerini hedef alarak sınıra 70 km uzaklıktaki Beit Şean kentini vurdu.
48 saatlik aranın ardından Lübnandaki savaş olanca hızıyla devam etmeye başladı.
İsrail komandoları, helikopterle Suriye sınırına yakın Lübnanın Baalbek
kentindeki bir hastaneden Hizbullah militanlarını kaçırdı. İsraili füze
yağmuruna tutan Hizbullah ise ilk kez ülkenin derinliklerini hedef almaya
başlayarak sınıra 70 km uzaklıktaki Beit Şeanı vurdu.
Dün sabaha karşı yerel saatle 02.00de iki günlük ateşkesin sona ermesinin
ardından İsrail, Suriyeden Hizbullaha silah takviyesi yapmak için
kullanıldığını öne süren sınıra 5 km uzaklıktaki köprüleri vurdu. Bir grup
İsrail komandosu ise Baalbek kentine indirme yaptı. 4 saat süren çatışmaların
ardından komandolar, beş Hizbullah şüphelisiyle üslerine geri döndüler.
Operasyonda dördü çocuk 19 kişi öldü.
MİLİTAN DEĞİL BAKKAL
İsrail, kaçırdığını öne sürdüğü Lübnanlıların kimliğini açıklamazken, AP
ajansının büyük balık mı sorusuna karşılık İsrail Başbakanı Ehud Olmert, "lezzetli
balıklar" yanıtını vermekle yetindi. Hizbullah ise hastanenin çoktan boşaltılmış
olduğunu operasyonda kaçırılanların bir bakkal ile iki yakını ve inşaatta
çalışan kişiler olduğunu öne sürdü.
İsrailin Lübnanın güneyinde Hizbullaha karşı yürüttüğü savaş beş ayrı koldan
devam ediyor. İsrail uçakları sortilerine devam ederken, tankçı birlikleri de
köyleri top ateşine tutuyor. İsrail Başbakanı Olmert, uluslararası güç gelinceye
kadar savaşın devam edeceğini söyleyerek operasyonun uzun sürebileceği işaretini
verdi. Olmert, "Hizbullahın altyapısı büyük ölçüde yok edildi. İsrail ordusu
Hizbullahın 700den fazla komuta merkezini yerle bir etti. Hizbullaha yataklık
edenler yerlerinden yurtlarından oldu" dedi. İsrail Genelkurmay Başkanı
Yardımcısı Tümgeneral Moşe Kaplinski de bölgede uluslararası güç kontrolü ele
alıncaya kadar, İsrail ordusunun aylarca Güney Lübnanda kalabileceğini söyledi.
İsrail, Lübnanın içlerine doğru ilerlemeye devam ederken Hizbullah da boş
durmadı. İsrailin iki ülke arasında oluşturmaya çalıştığı tampon bölgeye rağmen
bu ülkenin iç bölgelerini vurma yeteneğini koruduğunu göstermek için Hizbullah,
sınıra 70 km uzaklıktaki Beit Şeanı vurdu. Hizbullah, saldırıda İran yapımı
olan "Haybar 2" tipi uzun menzilli füze kullandı. Saldırılarda İsrailin sayfiye
kenti Nahariyede de bir kişi öldü.
Hizbullah füzeleri Batı Şeria ya da isabet etti. Filistin Devlet Başkanı Mahmud
Abbasın El Fetih grubu adına konuşan Fehmi Zarer, "Filistin topraklarını vurma
gibi bir niyetleri olmadığını biliyoruz. Hedefleri İsrail. Teknik bir sorun
yüzünden füze Filistin topraklarına düştü" dedi.
Savaş kuzeye ve güneye yayılıyor
İsrail komandoları Lübnanın doğusunda Suriye sınırına yakın Baalbekte
operasyon yaptı. Genelkurmay Başkanı Dan Halutz "Ne kadar içlere
gidebileceğimizi gösterdik" dedi. Hizbullah da ilk kez, İsrail sınırından 70 km
kadar içerdeki Beit Şeanı vurdu.
İsrail operasyonu bizim için fırsattır
ABD
Dışişleri Bakanı Rice'ın "Yeni Ortadoğu'nun zamanı geldi" sözünün
ardından Başkan Bush "Lübnan'da yaşananlar özgürlük ve terör arasındaki
mücadelenin bir parçasıdır. Bu bölgede geniş çaplı bir değişim için bir
fırsattır" açıklaması yaptı
ABD Başkanı
George Bush ile İngiltere Başbakanı Tony Blair biraraya geldi. İki lider,
görüşmeden sonra ne İsrail'i kınadı ne de ateşkes çağrısı yaptı. Fakat ABD
Başkanı Bush ve Tony Blair, İran ve Suriye'ye terörizme destek vermeyi
bırakmaları için çağrı yaparak, Lübnan'a bir uluslararası gücün gönderilmesi
konusunda fikir birliğine vardıklarını açıkladı. ABD ve İngiltere, Hizbullah'ın
silah bırakması ve askeri güç kullanımına olanak sağlayan BM Güvenlik Konseyi
kararı çıkması için çalışacaklarını vurguladı. Bush'un dün verdiği mesajlar
Beyaz Saray'ın, Lübnanlı sivilleri kanlı çatışmalardan korumak için değil,
Hizbullah'ı safdışı bırakmak için bölgeye güç konuşlandırmayı planladığını
gösterdi. Bush, israil'in sürdürdüğü savaşın, "terörle geniş çaplı mücadelenin
bir parçası olduğunu" vurgulayarak şöyle konuştu: "Lübnan'ın, terör ve özgürlük
arasındaki geniş çaplı mücadelenin son çatışma noktası olduğunu kabul etmemiz
gerekir. Ortadoğu'da yaşananlar trajiktir. Ancak bölgede geniş çaplı bir değişim
için de fırsattır. Amacımız, uluslararası güce görev verecek bir çerçeve
oluşturmak. Bu yaklaşım, dünyanın Hizbullah ve yabancı destekçilerinin yenilgiye
uğratılması konusundaki kararlılığını gösterecek."
Başaramadık
'Terörle
savaşın askeri güçle kazanılacağını zannettik, yanıldık
Yaptıklarımız
yüzünden Müslümanlar bizden uzaklaştı, Ortadoğu'ya şiddet hakim oldu'.
Takvimler 11 Eylül 2001'i gösterdiğinde dünya tarihini temelden değiştirecek
olan ikiz kule saldırıları gerçekleşti. Ardından ABD yönetimi Başkan Bush
liderliğinde "teröre savaş" ilan ettiğini açıkladı. En büyük desteği de değişmez
müttefiği İngiltere Başbakanı Tony Blair'den aldı. Blair, saldırılardan 5 gün
sonra yaptığı açıklamada şöyle diyordu: "Teröristler sadece ABD'ye değil tüm
insanlığa savaş ilan etti. Özgürlük için biz de teröre savaş açıyoruz." Ve
ardından Afganistan ile Irak işgalleri geldi. Binlerce insan öldü.
İsrail'in "kalıcı barış" için başlattığını söylediği Lübnan operasyonu da Bush
ve Blair'den destek gördü. Bu iki lider ateşkesin önündeki en büyük engel oldu.
Ancak İsrail'in katliamları sonrası Blair dün tarihi bir itirafta bulunarak, "Terörle
savaş" konusunda 5 yıldır yaptıklarının "hata olduğunu" kabul etti. İşte "Müslümanlar'ı
kendimize düşman ettik" diyen ingiltere liderinin sözleri:
* Terörle savaşın sadece askeri güç ile kazanılmayacağını anladık. Artık
stratejimizde bir Rönesans yapmamız gerekiyor.
* 5 yıldır yaptıklarımız yüzünden Müslümanlar bizden uzaklaştı, Ortadoğu'ya
şiddet ve radikalizm hakim oldu. Şimdi bir "ılımlılık ittifakı" kurmamız
gerekiyor.
* Müslümanlar ve Hıristiyanlar, zengin ve yoksulların barış içinde yaşamasını
sağlamak elimizde.
* İnsanların kalbini güçle değil değerlerimizle kazanmadığımız sürece bu savaşı
kaybederiz
Türk askeri İsrail'e gitsin!
Türk
askerlerinin yer aldığı bir uluslararası barış gücünün Lübnan'a
konuşlandırılması günlerdir tartışılıyor. Bunu, konunun asıl muhatapları
olan Lübnanlılar'a sorduk
Bundan 10 gün
önce Washington Post gazetesindeki bir makalede gündeme gelen Lübnan'a Türk
barış gücü askeri konusu daha sonraki günlerde çok yoğun bir tartışmaya sebep
oldu. ABD Başkanı Bush, İsrail hükümeti, Başbakan Erdoğan konuyla ilgili
açıklamalar yaptı. Tek konuşmayan ise konunun asıl muhatabı olan Lübnanlılar'dı.
Biz de sözü onlara bıraktık...
Abbas ve Dana Hammud kardeşlerle Beyrut'un merkezi Hamra'da konuşuyoruz.
Üniversite öğrencisi gençler hem İsrail'e hem de Hizbullah'a öfkeliler. Barışın
bir an önce sağlanmasını istiyorlar, "Hayatımız berbat oldu, Beyrut'ta iş
kalmadı. Ben Türkiye'nin ülkeme asker göndermesini istemiyorum. Bizim ordumuz
savaşa girmedi, Lübnan ordusu savaşta da barışta da bize yeter. İsrail daha
fazla çizmeyi aşar ve işgale başlarsa o zaman Lübnan ordusu devreye girecektir.
Türkiye'den asker değil siyasi destek istiyoruz. BM'de bizleri savunsunlar,
İsrail'e baskı yapsınlar" diyor.
Fatma Badran, Arij Ayyaz ve Zeynep Badran fotoğraf çektirirken zafer işareti
yapıyorlar. Kendileri Hizbullah'ın Lübnan'ı savunduğunu düşünüyorlar. "İsrail
Lübnan'ı ele geçirmek topraklarımızı işgal etmek istiyor. Biz Hizbullah'ın doğru
yolda olduğuna inanıyoruz. Türkiye bize asker göndermemeli, bizim kendi ordumuz
var. Eğer Türkiye barış için asker gönderecekse onu İsrail topraklarına
göndersin, vahşice saldıran taraf İsrail..."
Lübnan ordusundaki askerler de farklı düşünmüyor. Jandarma er Beshir Suaydi söze
giriyor: "Türk ordusu çok donanımlı, bizim bazı komutanlarımız Türkiye'de eğitim
görmüş, hep anlatırlar Türk ordusunun başarılarını. Bugün bize yardım
yapıyorsunuz, ülkemize ilaç gönderiyorsunuz. Bu beni çok mutlu ediyor fakat
askerinizin topraklarımızda görev yapmasını istemem. Biz teyakkuz halindeyiz
işgal başlarsa ülkemizi savunuruz."
Erdoğan İsrail'i dize getirsin
42 yıl önce Mardin'den Beyrut'a gelen Mehmet Tekin bize Başbakan Erdoğan'ın
kapak olduğu bir dergi gösteriyor ve anlatıyor: "Erdoğan bu meseleyi çözmeli,
Arap ülkeleri kendisini destekliyor. Türk askeri tabi ki gelsin ama Güney Lübnan
çok tehlikeli, korkum bizim Mehmetçiğin orada helak olması. Hizbullah kendi
bölgesine gelecek bir askeri güce asla izin vermez. Her kim gelirse gelsin orada
barınamaz. Barış için Türk askerine ihtiyaç yok. Başbakan Erdoğan israil'e gidip
onları dize getirmeli."
İsrail çokuluslu güce Türkiyeyi istiyor
İsrail, Güney Lübnana konuşlanması planlanan çok uluslu güce Türkiyenin
katılmasını istediğini açıkladı. İstikrar gücüne katkıda bulunmak isteyen BM
üyesi ülkeleri bugün bir araya getirecek olan toplantı ise ertelendi.
NTV-MSNBC VE AJANSLAR Güncelleme: 11:59 TSİ 03 Ağustos 2006 Perşembe
NEW YORK - Güney Lübnana konuşlanması planlanan
çok uluslu istikrar gücüyle ilgili konuşan İsrail Başbakanı Ehud Olmert,
Türk askerleri bu bölgenin çok önemli bir parçası. Bizler Türk ordusuyla
hükümetine güveniyoruz ve saygı duyuyoruz dedi.
Bu arada istikrar gücüne katkıda bulunmak isteyen BM
üyesi ülkeleri bugün bir araya getirecek olan toplantı ertelendi. Geçen hafta
toplantının 31 Temmuz Pazartesi günü yapılacağı bildirilmiş, ancak daha sonra
toplantı ertelenmişti.
Toplantının Perşembe günü yapılacağı duyurulmuştu. Konuya ilişkin açıklama
yapan BM sözcülerinden Ahmed Fevzi, toplantının ertelendiğini doğruladı.
BM sözcüsü Fevzi, Lübnanda çatışmaların durdurulması ve bir ateşkesin
sağlanması için gerekli siyasi çerçevenin bulunmadığını vurguladı. Fevzi,
Lübnana gönderilecek çokuluslu güce katkıda bulunmak isteyen ülkelerin de
öncelikle bu siyasi çerçevenin oluşmasını ve BM Güvenlik Konseyinin bu gücün
yönergesinin oluşturulmasıyla ilgili bir karar almasını beklediklerini söyledi.
Fevzi, Gücün kurulması için açık bir yönergeye ve siyasi çerçeveye
ihtiyacımız var, şu an bu olmadan devletler asker göndermeyehazır
olmadıklarını belirtiyorlar diye konuştu.
İsrail saldırıları İKÖ gündeminde
Toplantının daha ileri bir tarihte yapılacağını bildiren Fevzi, Şu anki
koşullar gereği toplantıyı ertelemek daha akıllıca, çünkü bu BM üye
devletlerine bir siyasi çerçevenin oluşması için zaman tanıyacak dedi.
Bir soru üzerine, kurulacak gücün bir BM barış gücü mü yoksa çokuluslu bir güç
mü olacağı konusunda tartışmaların devam ettiğini belirten Fevzi, bu gücün
Lübnan ve İsrail hükümetleri tarafından da kabul edilmesi gerektiğini
hatırlattı.
BM kaynakları, bugün yapılması ve Türkiye de dahil olmak üzere 40dan fazla BM
üyesi ülkenin temsilcilerinin katılması beklenen toplantının teknik düzeyde
bir ön hazırlık toplantısı olacağını belirtmişlerdi.
Baalbekte hava saldırısı: 19 ölü
BM Güvenlik Konseyi, pazartesi günü, Güney Lübnanda 1978 yılından beri
bulunan BM Barış Gücü UNIFILin görev süresini 31 Ağustos 2006 tarihine dek
uzatmıştı.
Türk diplomatik kaynaklar, UNIFILin oluşturulacak çokuluslu istikrar gücüne
dahil edilmesinin beklendiğini belirtiyorlar.
Turkey to attend today's U.N. meeting on Lebanon force
Monday, July 31, 2006
Turkish contingent may be provided by
Istanbul-based NATO Rapid Deployable Corps
ÜMİT ENGİNSOY - WASHINGTON - Turkish Daily News
A likely troop contributor to an international stabilization force
planned to be deployed in war-torn southern Lebanon, Turkey is due to attend a
key meeting on the force's creation at the United Nations headquarters in New
York today (Monday).
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is scheduled to preside at the
gathering, whose participants, in addition to Turkey, would include the
European Union and nations presently contributing to a 2,000-member U.N.
peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, U.N. sources said.
The new force of up to 20,000 troops likely would replace the existing
U.N. peacekeeping contingent in southern Lebanon, and is planned to be
equipped with a larger authority in terms of rules of engagement. The force
would be deployed along Lebanon's border with Israel, scene of ongoing
fighting between the Israeli military and the radical Shiite group
Hezbollah. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced last week that Turkey
may send troops to such a multinational force after a cease-fire is reached.
Philip Zelikov, an adviser to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice,
in recent days has had Lebanon force talks with Turkish officials in Ankara.
Planning is still at an early stage, and the size and role of a potential
Turkish contingent is not clear yet. But Turkey's contribution could come from
the nation's Istanbul-based NATO Rapid Deployable Corps, an elite unit
designed mainly for international missions, sources said.
The corps, one of NATO's six such formations in Europe, has been
representing Turkey in a NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan since
2002.
France, Italy, Germany and Ireland have also said they are considering
joining a U.N.-run multinational force in southern Lebanon.
The force's financing is among key matters to be discussed in the next
several days, diplomats said.
Later this week, the United States is considering a foreign ministers
meeting at the U.N. Security Council should a resolution for Lebanon be in the
offing, diplomats said.
Turkey, France and other potential troop contributors insist that troops
cannot be sent in the absence of a truce. The United States so far has been
backing Israel's position to oppose an early cease-fire, and this issue is
expected to remain a key element in discussions for the Lebanon force.
But British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Saturday he believed it was
possible to get agreement on the Lebanon force within days and that this could
clear the way for a cease-fire.
Asked if he believed it was possible to get agreement on the
multinational force and even a cease-fire within days, Blair told BBC, "I
think that it is possible to do that provided we are clear about the
ambitions."
"You won't get the force actually in (to Lebanon) within a few days but I
think you could get agreement in principle to the international stabilization
force. You then have to work out the details of it," he said.
Blair and U.S. President George W. Bush formally called for the force's
creation during a joint news conference here on Friday, Turkey would like to
see a presence of some Muslim countries in the force for more credibility,
diplomats say.
Her geçen gün,
olaylar dile geliyor. Ve içinde ahlaksızlık da olan; "Türk askerinin Lübnan'a
İsrail'i beklemeye götürülmesi" anlamını taşıyan önerinin "haince düşünülmüş bir
teklif" olduğunu bize haykırıyor.
Hem hain teklif.
Hem ahlaksız.
Türkiye'nin geleceğini karartacak içi irinli bir teklif. Meclisimizden 1 mart
tezkeresini geçiremeyip "Müslüman Türk ile Müslüman Arap'ı birbirine
boğazlatmayı" başaramayanlar şimdi; "Türk askerini Mısır askeri ile birlikte
Lübnan'a, İsrail sınırını bekleyen barış gücü olsun diye yollayalım, ABD'nin
gözüne girelim" hain teklifinin değirmenine su taşıyor.
İngiliz askeri...
Amerikan askeri...
Fransız askeri...
Alman askeri...
Hiçbir batılı ülkenin askeri değil de ikisi de Sünni Müslüman olan Türkiye ile
Mısır'ın askeri Lübnan topraklarına götürülüp çoğunluğu Şii olan Hizbullah'a
karşı "İsrail'i koruyan" durumuna düşürülürse, "kurşun adres sormayacağı" için
Lübnan topraklarından her gün 100 Mehmetçik tabutu Anadolu'ya gelmeye başlayacak.
Ve Irak'ta Kürt ile Arap arasına ve Müslüman ile Müslüman arasına
kan-kin-intikam girdiği yetmiyormuş gibi Lübnan'da da "Müslüman Türk ile
Müslüman Arap arasına da kan girmiş" olacak.
***
Bu yüzden hain teklif.
Ahlakı olmayan teklif!
Saldırgan olan İsrail.
Saldırıyı ilk başlatan o.
Hizbullah esir aldı dedikleri 2 İsrail askeri de İsrail topraklarında değil
Lübnan topraklarında tutuklandı.
Arşivlere girin.
Tarihin hafızasına bakın.
1946'dan beri İsrail'in çoğu Filistin topraklarında olmak üzere; 170'in üzerinde
toplu katliam yaptığını görün. 1946'da da ilk saldırıyı İsrail'in başlattığını
bir daha okuyun.
Bahane buluyor.
Sivile vuruyor.
Kadına vuruyor.
Çocuğa vuruyor.
En son Lübnan'ın Kana köyüne İsrail uçaklarının ölüm yağdırmasıyla hayatlarını
yitiren 60 sivilin 37'si çocuk... Ve bu 37 çocuğun da 15'i yürüyemeyen,
göremeyen, duyamayan, sakat ve özürlü çocuk.
Özürlü çocuk öldürüyor.
İsrail'de 2 haham çıktı.
2 Musevi din adamı.
İsrail ordusunun Lübnan'da sivillere ölüm yağdırmasının "dinen günah olmayacağı"
fetvasını verdi. Suudi Arabistan'daki Müslüman müftü ise "Hizbullah'ın yanında
yer alanların günaha gireceği" fetvasını verdi. Hizbullah lideri de; "Biz şimdi
İsrail ile savaşıyoruz, onun işini bitirince dönüp ABD'nin kuklası olmuş Sünni
Müslümanların hesabını keseceğiz" diye açıklama yaptı.
***
İşte Orta Doğu bu!
Kıblesi seyyar!
Kimin kimin yanında saf tutacağı kestirilemez bir coğrafya... Derisinin rengi
siyah fakat ruhuyla, canıyla, kanıyla tam bir "Amerikalı beyaz ırkçı gibi
davranan ABD Dışişleri Bakanı Condoleezza Rice Hanım", Roma'da piyanonun başına
geçip Brahms'ın bestesini çalmak üzere kara parmakları piyanonun tuşlarına
değdirdiği anda İsrail ölüm uçakları da özürlü çocuklara kara ölüm yağdırıyordu.
O sırada Hizbullah da; "İslamın zaferine kadar öleceğiz..." yemini ediyordu.
İşte Orta Doğu bu!
Bu yüzden hain teklif.
Türk askerini Lübnan'a "barışı koruma adı altında" İsrail'in saldırganlığına
ortak olsun diye götürmek, içinde ahlaksızlık da olan haince bir teklif.
Şöyle de
bakılabilir: Hem medeniyet var. Hem petrol. Bu ikisi varsa "çatışma-işgal
kuklalaştırma-harita silme-yeni harita yapma-ulusları birbirine düşürme-etnik
azınlığı çoğunluğa karşı kışkırtma; iktidarları-şeyhleri-kralları uzaktan
kumandalı yönetme" olacak.
Ve de taşeron!
Taşeron da bulunacak!
Herkes israil'e kızgın!
Lübnan'ı yakıyor. Sivilleri öldürüyor, çocukları katlediyor, altyapıyı vuruyor.
Köprüleri, elektrik santrallerini yerle bir ediyor.
İsrail'in vicdanı kurudu.
İnsanlıktan çıktılar.
Ordularına izin veriyorlar; İsrail ordusu 155 milimetrelik ağır Howitzer top
bataryalarıyla Güney Lübnan topraklarında "sivil halk ile Hizbullah ayrımı
yapmaksızın" ölüm saçıyor, savaş uçakları ve saldırı helikopterleri de 500
kilogramlık havadan atılan bombalar ile "bunkerbuster" denilen sığınak delici
bombalarla Lübnan topraklarına saldırıyor.
O bir taşeron!
Verilen işi yapıyor.
***
Verilen iş, Hizbullah'ı temizlemek; en azından Hizbullah'ın İsrail kentlerine
karşı fırlattığı füzelere karşı bir güvenlik şeridi oluşturmak.
ve Hamas'ın dişlerini çekmek.
Hamas'ı ehlileştirmek.
Taşeronun patronları ABD, İngiltere, Fransa, Portekiz, İtalya, Rusya; bir tek
Başbakanı Zapatero'yla İspanya hariç, aklınıza "medeni diye bildiğimiz dünyadan"
ne kadar ülke geliyorsa birçoğu gemilerini Lübnan kıyılarına getirdi.
Seyrediyorlar.
Saçları sarı, gözleri mavi, dinleri Hristiyan kendi vatandaşlarını Lübnan'dan
çıkartmaya ve İsrail Ordusu'nun "Hizbullah temizliği yapmasını" kolaylaştırmaya
çalışıyorlar. Dün bir ingiliz gazeteci, gazetesine; "Buraya sivil halkın ölüm
yağdıran bombalar altında içine düştüğü durumu haber yapmak için gelen batılı
TV'lerin kameraları sadece yeşil gözlü, sarı saçlı olanları çekti; siyah saçlı,
Lübnanlı ve Orta Doğu yüzlü olanları insandan bile saymadılar" diye
özetleyebileceğim bir haber yazmıştı.
Dolayısıyla...
İnsanlığın bittiği yer!
Vicdanın kuruduğu nokta!
Taşeron durdurulmuyor.
İşini bitirmesi bekleniyor.
Diyebiliriz...
***
Fakat öbür yandan Arap ülkeleri de sanki "İsrail'in Hizbullah'ın işini
bitirmesi ve Hamas'ı ehlileştirecek darbeleri vurması" için söz birliği
yapmışçasına bekliyor.
Birkaç utangaç demeç...
Altı boş kınama...
İçi boşaltılmış öfkeler...
Hepsi bu...
Başta Mısır, Suriye olmak üzere kendisini Arap ve Müslüman diye tanımlayan
ülkeler; Libya, Suudi Arabistan, Kuveyt, Katar, Ürdün; o krallar, o şeyhler, o
prensler, o petrolden dolar milyarderi olmuş Arap zengin sınıfı da "İsrail'in
Lübnan'ı yerle bir etmesini" seyrediyor.
Arap devletleri Batı'yla birlik..
Taşeron İsrail'i destekliyor.
Lübnanlıların çok savaşçı diye bilinen Falanjistleri bile İsrail Ordusu'yla
savaşmıyor. Lübnan'ın kadersizliği. Devlet olamadı. Bir süre önce Suriye'nin
kuklası idi şimdi de Hizbullah üzerinden İran'ın kuklası oldu. Hizbullah'ı
içinden kovamamanın faturasını ödüyor.
Önceki yıl, Dışişleri Bakanımız Tahranda toplanan İslam ülkeleri dışişleri
bakanlarına ağır bir konuşma yapmıştı. Özetle bir an önce akıllarını başlarına
almalarını söylüyordu.
Akıllarını başlarına almaları, kendi iradeleri ile demokratik reformlara
girişmeleri ve kendi aralarında işbirliğini geliştirmeleri demekti... Arkaik
yapıları ile değişmeden kalmaya çalışan petrol monarşileri, halkları ile açık
düşmanlığa girişen dikta yönetimleri ve dünyaya sadece kendi dar iktidar
çıkarları açısından bakan ve her gelişmeyi bana ne getirir diye yorumlayan
liderler ile İslâm ülkelerinin üzerlerine gelecek en küçük rüzgarda dağılacağı
ortadaydı.
İsrailin Filistinle başlayıp Lübnanda genişleyen ve uzayan saldırıları
üzerine yeteri kadar yazılıyor. İsrailin askerî ve ABDden gelen lojistik ve
diplomatik gücü ortada. Peki İslâm dünyası, özellikle Arap dünyası ne durumda?
Bu sorunun cevabını verecek yeterli zaman geçti. Özellikle Arap dünyasının
diplomatik anlamda bile İsraile karşı bir bariyer oluşturma niyeti olmadığı
ortaya çıktı. İslâm dünyası, Arap dünyası gibi nispeten homojen toplulukları
ifade eden nitelemelerin bugünün dünyasında karşılığı olmadığı anlaşıldı. İslâm
dünyasını ortak bir dünya olarak algılayıp takdim edenler sadece Batılılar.
Batılılar da bu ayrımı, ikna edici düşman bir dünyayı resmetmek için yapıyorlar.
İsrailin, onun üzerinden ABDnin Lübnan operasyonu, bu çaresiz ülke halkının
yaşadıkları dramın yanında İslam dünyasının içler acısı iradesizliğini ve
inisiyatifsizliğini gözler önüne serdi. Çok derin, çok girift, çok dar hesaplar
ortak bir refleksin bile ortaya çıkmasını engelliyor. Ortadoğuda uzun vadeli
planı olanlar için bu tepkisizlik, daha cüretkâr hamlelerin gerekçesi olacak.
İslâm dünyası, çelişkilerin dünyası. Müslüman kimliği ortak paydasını
aşındıran alt kimlikler ve çıkarlar ortaya bir yığın çelişki çıkartıyor. İlk
olarak gücü elinde bulunduranların sıkıntıları var. Ortadoğunun mevcut
yönetimleri, büyük ölçüde İngilizlerin icat ettikleri ve sınırlarını çizdikleri
işbirlikçi monarşilerin devamı. Hatta tek bir aileden birkaç ülkenin hanedanları
ortaya çıktı. Ürdünün bağımsız bir devlet olarak ortaya çıkışının sebebi,
açıkta kalan birine ülke bulmak içindi. Monarşilerin gelenekleri olur. Petrol
monarşileri de iktidarlarını dışarıdan aldıkları destek üzerine inşa etmeyi bir
gelenek haline getirdiler.
İslâm toplumlarının doğal gelişmesinin önü, iktidardaki azınlığa dışarıdan
verilen destekle kesilince kimlikler keskinleşti. Monarşiler, hiyerarşik bir
toplum ister. Herkes kendi cemaati, kabilesi veya kimliği içinde yer alacak,
böylece kendi iç dengeleri ve hiyerarşileri ile yukarıdan kontrol ve denetim
altında tutulacaklar. Bu yüzden, petrol ile zenginleşmiş, böylelikle gücüne
maddî bir dayanak oluşturmuş Arap monarşileri, kimlikleri eskiye göre daha da
önemli ve keskin hale getirdiler. ABDnin Afganistan ve Irakı işgali geleneksel
kimliklere geri dönüşü hayati bir soruna dönüştürdü. Aşiretler, mezhepler,
cemaatler yanında vatandaşlık gibi, ulus gibi üst kimlikler toplumsal kimlik
talebini yaygın olarak karşılamaya hazırlanırken, yabancı işgali iç dengeleri
sarstı ve güvenlik ihtiyacını artırdı. Savaş alanında herkes en yakın sığınağa,
yani alt kimliklere sığınmaya başladı. Kimlik siyaseti, iktidarın halk
tarafından denetimi anlamında demokrasiyi imkansız kılar; çünkü iktidar tek bir
kimliğin veya kimlikler koalisyonunun eline geçer.
Abbasi coğrafyasında dört uzun asır süren Osmanlı Barışının, ulus-devletler
öncesi çağa ait, eskimiş bir model olduğu itirazını yapanlar, Ortadoğudaki
atomlaşma eğilimi karşısında yaşanmış tecrübeden bazı dersler çıkartabilirler.
Osmanlı Devleti, farklı kimliklerin barış içinde bir arada yaşamasını, adil ve
dengeli bir otoritenin şemsiyesi altında gerçekleştirmişti. Ortadoğunun,
Atlantik ötesinde hazırlanmış mühendislik projelerine, dolayısıyla toplumsal
çatışmalara sahne olmaktan kurtulması için, kendi içinde bir düzeni ve
işbirliğini gerçekleştirmesi gerekli. Bunun formülü, gönüllü katılım ile
oluşturulmuş, yaptırım gücü olan ortak bir otorite ve otoritenin altında adil,
dengeli işbirliğini hem ülke hem de bölge düzeyinde kurmuş bir toplum.
Bu dengeli ve adil düzeni, yani Osmanlı Barışını tesis etmek ne kadar zor
ise; aynı ölçüde Ortadoğunun talihsiz halklarının kurda kuşa yem olması, kendi
ülkelerinde vatansız kalmaları da o kadar kolay.
Türkiye-İsrail dostluk grubundan 13 vekil istifa etti
ANKARA- Türkiye-İsrail Parlamentolararası Dostluk Grubundan CHPli üyelerin
ardından dün de bazı AK Parti milletvekilleri istifa etti. Böylece dostluk
grubundan istifa eden milletvekili sayısı 39a ulaştı. Üyelikten çekilen 13 AK
Parti milletvekilinin ismi ve seçim bölgesi şöyle: Abdullah Torun (Adana),
Recep Garip (Adana), Halil Aydoğan (Afyon), Eyüp Sanay (Ankara), Haluk İpek
(Ankara), Abdurrahman Anık (Bingöl), Vahit Kiler (Bitlis), Bayram Özçelik (Burdur),
Hikmet Özdemir (Çankırı), Tevfik Akbak (Çankırı), Osman Nuri Filiz (Denizli),
Şemsettin Murat (Elazığ), Mücahit Daloğlu (Erzurum). İstifaları değerlendiren
AK Parti Grup Başkan Vekili Eyüp Fatsa, Milletvekillerimiz, milletin
hassasiyetine tercüman olmuştur dedi. CHP Grup Başkan Vekili Haluk Koç ise,
İsrail ile dostluk çerçevesinde çalışma ortamı olmadığını görüyoruz diye
konuştu.
KUALA LUMPUR -İsrailin Filistin ve Lübnana yaptığı saldırılar, İslam
Konferansı Örgütü (İKÖ) tarafından Malezyada 18 ülkenin yetkililerinin
katılımıyla yapılacak olan Olağanüstü Yürütme Kurulu Toplantısında bugün
ele alınacak.
Dönem başkanı Malezyanın başkenti Kuala Lumpurda, İsrailin Lübnan ve
Filistindeki saldırıları ve sorunun çözümü için yapılacak zirvede Türkiyeyi
Başbakan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan temsil ediyor. İKÖ olağanüstü zirvesi için
Malezyaya gelen İKÖ Genel Sekreteri Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, 18 ülkenin devlet,
hükümet başkanları ya da üst düzey yetkililerinin bir araya gelmesinin çok
önemli bir hadise olduğunu belirterek, Burada bir araya gelecek ülkeler,
sırf kendi ülkelerini değil 1,5 milyar insanı temsil ediyorlar. Ve buradan
çıkacak tavsiyelerin ve kararların çok önemli siyasi ağırlığı olmalıdır.
Buradan çıkması gereken en önemli şey, ateşkesin bir an önce çıkarılması için
BM Güvenlik Konseyinin yeniden toplanması kararıdır. Ayrıca acil ateşkes
çağrısı yapılması ve buna uyulması gerekir. İkincisi de esirlerin değiş tokuş
edilmesi gerekliliğidir. Lübnan hükümetinin bütün topraklarında hükümranlığını
gerçekleş tirmesi diğer önemli bir noktadır. Ateşkesin yapılmasından hemen
sonra BMye bağlı çok uluslu gücün gönderilmesi gerekir. İsrail, Şebaa
çiftlikleri de dahil olmak üzere bütün işgal ettiği topraklardan çekilmesi
gerekir dedi.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has dismissed calls from within Umno
for Muslim countries to quit the United Nations over its inability to force a
ceasefire in Lebanon.
His
comments come ahead of a meeting in Kuala Lumpur Thursday of key members of
the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the world's largest Muslim
grouping, to discuss the escalating Middle East crisis.
The Star newspaper yesterday said that Umno Youth had called for OIC
countries to withdraw from the UN in protest over the United States' veto on
ceasefire calls.
"I reckon that the OIC members will not pull out of the UN because the
organisation can play an active role in raising issues in the world body,"
Abdullah told the daily.
The prime minister said it was important for the 57 OIC members to remain in
the UN so that developing countries were well-represented.
'We did nothing'
The Foreign Ministry said yesterday that the leaders of eight Muslim
nations, including Bangladesh and Indonesia, were confirmed as attending the
August 3 OIC meeting. Iran has said it is also attending.
Malaysia
is the current chair of the Saudi Arabia-based OIC, but in his latest stinging
attack on his handpicked successor Abdullah, former prime minister Dr Mahathir
Mohamad has reportedly lambasted its performance in the role.
"Our time as host and leader to the OIC is almost up. But unfortunately,
during three years as leader, we didn't do anything," Mahathir was quoted
as telling a political meeting in Kelantan by malaysiakini.
He said that Malaysia - which is seeking to reach developed status by 2020 -
could not be viewed as a modern Islamic country capable of setting an example
and leading the Muslim world.
Israel launched its offensive against Lebanon on July 12 after Hezbollah,
which is supported by Iran and its main regional ally Syria, seized two
Israeli soldiers in a deadly raid.
The Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) has called on the United Nations
to declare the air strikes on the Lebanese village of Qana, killing about 60,
as a war crime, and asked them to urgently take action for a ceasefire in
Lebanon.
OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu in his statement cited:
Israels attacks are war crimes. With these assaults Israel has violated
international laws and the fourth Geneva Convention that on the protection of
civilians in war.
Ihsanoglu called on the UN Security Council to urgently take action to
secure a ceasefire. The OIC will hold a meeting in Malaysian city of Kuala
Lumpur on August 3rd to discuss action is required to end the Israeli
aggression in Palestine and Lebanon and to secure a lasting peace in the
region.
OIC Calls Emergency Aid Meeting in Istanbul
The OIC today called an emergency aid meeting in Istanbul. Several aid
organizations were invited to the meeting to be held in Istanbul on August 1
in cooperation with the Islamic Development Bank and the Islamic Chamber of
Commerce.
The meeting will address the questions of practical importance, such as
mechanics of soliciting, collecting, and dispensing the aid to the Lebanese
and Palestinians. The organization is also expected to take up the possibility
of opening an OIC liaison office in the region to coordinate aid distribution
to the war-torn countries.
Cairo, July 30, (BNA) Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic
Conference (OIC) Professor Ekmal Eddine Ehsan, strongly condemned the
massacre committed by the Israeli forces in Qana on Sunday, affirming the
need for an international call for cease fire.
He affirmed
in a statement issued today that today's massacre is part of a series of
massacres committed by Israel against the Lebanese people over the past
years, violating all international convention and human principles. The
statement urged the UN Security Council, and the international community to
pressurize Israel to halt its massacres against innocent civilians.
Moslem figures hope OIC able to pressure Israel to
prevent bigger war
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesian Moslem figures expressed the hope
here Monday that the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) could
pressure Israel to stop its aggression against Lebanon arguing the conflict
had the potential of triggering a bigger war in the Middle East.
Din Syamsudin, deputy chairman of the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI), said
"the OIC must be able to pressure Israel directly or through the United
Nations."
He said he believed the OIC with its 57 member countries which will meet in
Kuala Lumpur on Thursday had the power to stop the conflict.
Indonesia as a country with its world`s largest Moslem population must be able
to convince the other OIC member countries to act in the proposed way.
Din said Israeli agression must be immediately stopped because it had claimed
a lot of civilian lives and had the potential of causing a war in the region
that would affect the world.
He admitted it would be difficult to stop the Israeli agression if the US
continued to apply a double standard in dealing with Israel.
"If the US continues to support Israel, there will always be tensions in the
region," he said.
The chief of the MUI`s Commission of Edicts, Ma`ruf Amin, meanwhile said he
believed complaints that would come from an OIC meeting would help build an
opinion from OIC as well as non-OIC members that the Israeli agression was a
humanitarian crime.
"I hope Pak SBY (President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono) can take the initiative
to stop Israel`s barbaric acts," he said.
He said OIC members had to strengthen their solidarity adding "if they only
think of their own interest it will mean doomsday."
The conflict could lead to a global war unless the present conclict was
settled immediately, he said.
"Let us forget who is wrong and who started it. What is important is settling
it," he said.
Ma`ruf said he believed Israel had the courage to launch its attacks because
it enjoyed US support.
He said the US played a big role in the case and therefore by asking that
country to withdraw its support for Israel could possibly help create peace.
"It is the US that must be pressured because Israel is afraid of the US," he
said.
The Indonesian government has condemned the Israeli bombing in Qana, South
Lebanon, on Sunday that claimed 54 lives including the lives of 37 children.
COPYRIGHT İ 2006 ANTARA July 31, 2006
WHILE
the belligerent Israel is planning a full-scale assault on Lebanon, any
momentthe conscious of the representative set-up of the Muslim worldphrased
as the OIC, finally stands wake-upwith the convening of a Summit on Thursday
nextAugust, the 3rd.
Though relatively latein this delayed move of calling the summit
sessionwould, prima face discuss the burning issue of the Middle East with
focus on unabated Israeli aggression against Lebanon.
Malaysia, the current Chairman of the OIChas summoned the moot in a few days
from nowon August-3 but it is not yet clear whether it is going to be a
full-fledged summit or meeting of its executive committee.
Israeli attack on Lebanon has entered into third weekwith no indications of
any halt to violence sans any appropriate and solid raison d'être.
In fact, emboldened by the attitude of the world at large in general and the
Muslim countries in particularthe Jewish State is declaring to continue with
the one-sided war that is causing widespread devastation and destruction on
the soils of Lebanon.
Almost over five hundred peoplemost of them the innocent civilianshave
perished besides loss of infrastructure and economic assets worth billions of
dollars.
Amid this backdroppublic opinion in the Muslim world is awfully upset over
the plight of their brethren in faithand, of-course vis-à-vis the apathy of
their leadership.
The lack of ability on the part of the OIC to play a meaningful rolein
defusing the situationis sending depressing signals to the Ummah as well as
other pertinent quarters in the world.
Hence, convening of the Malaysia summit would be viewed as a positive
development. However, it is yet to be seenwhether or not the moot comes out
with some tangible strategy to get the aggression haltedfor ever.
We believe that in case, the OIC leaders would only or simply meet, debate the
issue and disperse without evolving a strategy for bringing such a dreadful
scenario to an eternal endthen it would prove to be a futile venturenothing
else and would virtually be a counter-productive exercise .
As a matter of factthe OIC must send a suitably worded signal to Tel Aviv and
its patron the United States of America reflecting deep anger and anguish of
the Ummah.
After all this the organization represents 57 affluent and sovereign
nationsconstituting one-fifth of the humanityand is, by all means blessed
with great potential to influence things in different regions.
We feel optimistic that the OIC shall realize its inherent strength, position
and decisive role in regional and global affairsand try to come out with a
vibrant, strong and solid solution.
The OIC leaders should express complete solidarity with Lebanonwithout any
reservationsand would beam a stern warning to the aggressor that they will
not allow any harm to the territorial integrity or solidarity of any country,
neighbouring Israel and should stop onslaught on Lebanonforthwith.
With a ray of hope forpermanent peace around the globe in general and the
Middle East and South Asia in specificpeople in the Muslim world are looking
towards the OIC assemblage in Malaysian capitalwith great expectations.
Should we hope that the Islamic leadership would not disappoint the Ummahexplicitly
to all those who have lost every-thing, even to the altitude of their precious
and lovely lives, kinincluding kids and womenand have been and still are
being made target by Israelthrough toxic shots by its vindictive troops,
tanks and jets?
Organization of the Islamic Conference to hold emergency
session in Malaysia over Middle East crisis
KUALA LUMPUR, July 30 2006 (Itar-Tass) - Malaysia which
currently chairs the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference will
host an emergency session of the OIC's executive committee on the Middle East
crisis, the Bernama agency reported on Sunday. Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed
Hamid Albar announced that the meeting will be held on Thursday, August 3 to
consider the only issue - Israel's invasion into Lebanon and Palestine.
The OIC countries are expected to adopt a statement
condemning the Jewish state for unleashing war in the Middle East and demand
that the United Nations send a peacekeeping contingent there, including
peacekeepers from Islamic states.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will attend the
emergency session in Kuala Lumpur.
Rajoy acusa a Zapatero de comportarse como el "líder de un país
tercermundista"
El presidente alerta de que el conflicto de Oriente Próximo amenaza con
tener "repercusiones globales"
AGENCIAS - Madrid ELPAIS.es - España - 22-07-2006
Rajoy, durante la clausura de la Escuela de Verano que el PP ha
organizado en Santander. (EFE)
El presidente del PP, Mariano Rajoy, ha acusado hoy al jefe del Gobierno,
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, de comportarse como "el líder de un país
tercermundista" en el conflicto de Oriente Próximo, "en contra del criterio"
de la Unión Europea (UE) y de la ONU y organizando "una cruzada contra
Israel". Mientras tanto, Zapatero y el primer ministro turco, Recep Tayip
Erdogan, han alertado de que el conflicto de Oriente Próximo amenaza con
tener "repercusiones globales". En un comunicado conjunto, ambos mandatarios
subrayan que no se puede permitir que "bombas o misiles caigan sobre la
población civil".
En su discurso de clausura de la Escuela de Verano que el PP ha celebrado
en Santander, Rajoy se ha mostrado especialmente crítico con la política
exterior del Gobierno de España que, en lugar de ser la propia "de un país
civilizado y de gobernantes normales en la UE", se parece a la de "Fidel
Castro, Hugo Chávez y Evo Morales". "Se está haciendo una política de gente
estrafalaria y de progres antiguos", ha censurado el líder del PP, quien ha
tildado de "gracieta de progre de pacotilla" el gesto de Rodríguez Zapatero
al ponerse un pañuelo palestino.
"Probablemente crea que eso le dé votos", ha apostillado. El Gobierno "ha
tirado por la borda" el crédito internacional de España y "estamos haciendo
el ridículo y eso tiene consecuencias", en opinión de Rajoy, quien ha
reprochado al PSOE que "somos el primer país que ha organizado una
manifestación tan ridícula, tan grotesca, tan antigua y tan paleta" como la
que se celebró hace dos días en Madrid sobre el conflicto entre Israel y
Líbano.
"Prejuicios ideológicos y dogmatismo"
"Se gobierna con prejuicios ideológicos y con dogmatismo y no pensando en
los intereses de las personas", ha aseverado el presidente del PP, cuyo
partido, según ha indicado, "trabajará para que España sea un país respetado,
serio y en el que se pueda confiar". Por su parte, Zapatero y Erdogan, como
copatrocinadores de la Alianza de Civilizaciones, han emitido un comunicado
conjunto en el que advierten de que el conflicto de Oriente Próximo "amenaza
con arrastrar a toda la región a un bloqueo caótico con repercusiones
globales". En el texto, condenan "todas las formas de terrorismo", dicen que
no se puede "aceptar que bombas o misiles caigan sobre la población civil",
rechazan "firmemente el uso desproporcionado de la fuerza" y demandan la
liberación de los dos soldados israelíes secuestrados por Hezbolá.
Ambos líderes realizan un llamamiento a las Naciones Unidas, la UE y "otras
organizaciones internacionales relevantes", así como "a las naciones y a los
líderes internacionales", para que intensifiquen "los esfuerzos en curso
para poner fin a la espiral de violencia y hostilidad" en Oriente Próximo.
Aseguran que esa espiral "amenaza con arrastrar a toda la región a un
bloqueo caótico con repercusiones globales" y se ofrecen a "contribuir en la
manera que se estime más apropiada" a la paz en la región.
Los jefes de Gobierno de España y Turquía recuerdan que la "dramática
escalada de violencia" en Oriente Próximo "ha sesgado [sic] ya la vida de
cientos de civiles inocentes y heridos a muchos más". "Las armas deben dar
paso al diálogo y las negociaciones. No hay tiempo que perder, el tiempo
para la acción concertada es ahora. Nuestro futuro está en juego. No podemos
permitirnos el lujo de limitarnos a seguir viendo cómo se desarrolla la
tragedia", concluye el comunicado.
A finales de mayo, el jeque Hasan Nasralah, líder del Hizbolá, pronunciaba
un discurso ante las cámaras de Al-Manar, anunciando que su organización
contaba ya con más de doce mil proyectiles, entre misiles y cohetes, capaces
de atacar todo el norte de Israel e incluso más allá. El pasado jueves 12 de
julio y en una operación a la que no por azar se dio el nombre de ĞPromesa
cumplidağ, Hizbolá penetró en territorio israelí, mató a varios soldados,
secuestró a otros dos, y, sobre todo, comenzó a lanzar las anunciadas
oleadas de cohetes, en concreto de eficaces cohetes ĞKatiushağ, sobre
ciudades del norte de Israel y sobre puestos militares del Ejército. Ante
estos hechos, Israel, con la Carta de las Naciones Unidas en la mano y
haciendo uso del derecho de autodefensa al que ésta autoriza en caso de
agresión armada, emprendió una operación militar llamada ĞCambio de rumboğ,
destinada no sólo a liberar a los soldados secuestrados, sino también y
sobre todo a repeler un ataque, el de Hizbolá, que a día de hoy no ha cesado,
que ha causado bajas civiles y militares y que sigue amenazando por tiempo
indefinido a Israel en la que ya es una declaración de Ğguerra abiertağ por
parte de la organización libanesa. Desde el punto de vista de la legalidad
internacional, la situación es tan clara que ni siquiera Kofi Annan ha
podido reprochar nada a Israel más allá de la posible Ğdesproporciónğ de la
respuesta.
Se comprende, pues, el estupor que causaron las declaraciones de Rodríguez
Zapatero en el mitin de Valencia, cuando dos días después de iniciado el
conflicto y supuestamente bien informado de los hechos, arremetió contra
Israel, reclamándole el Ğcese de las hostilidadesğ (sic) y exigiéndole que
respetase Ğla legalidad internacionalğ (sic), al mismo tiempo que guardaba
un sepulcral silencio no ya sobre el ataque de Hizbolá, sino sobre Hizbolá
misma, a la que sencillamente no mencionó. Es cierto que días después, y a
raíz de la polémica generada por estos hechos, el presidente del Gobierno
rectificó, pero incluso en esta otra intervención, que no cabe imaginar
improvisada, se limitó a Ğrechazarğ la violencia de la organización
terrorista, en tanto que era a Israel a quien seguía Ğexigiendoğ que
respetase la legalidad y cesase de inmediato sus acciones bélicas.
Ni siquiera el consabido antisionismo del que a veces hacen gala los
dirigentes de la izquierda española bastaría para explicar este discurso,
sobre el que quizás pueda arrojar algo más de luz el vínculo que el propio
Rodríguez Zapatero ha venido estableciendo a lo largo de estos días entre la
actual crisis israelo-libanesa y la guerra de Irak. Al poner el énfasis en
el presunto incumplimiento del principio de proporcionalidad por parte de
Israel, relegando a un segundo plano la cuestión, mucho más esencial, de su
derecho a la autodefensa frente a un ataque, la cuestión de debate puede
seguir siendo, como lo fue ya en la guerra de Irak, la necesidad de que las
naciones civilizadas combatan el terrorismo respetando escrupulosamente la
legalidad internacional. De haber puesto en primer plano, en cambio, la
agresión de Hizbolá, la discusión habría tenido que girar en torno a
cuestiones más difíciles de resolver a partir de las premisas en que se
apoya la propuesta a la que se ha dado el nombre de Alianza de
Civilizaciones. Porque, al fin y al cabo, lo que esta crisis ha venido a
poner de manifiesto es que, más allá de cuáles sean los factores que puedan
estar en el origen del terrorismo, y más allá de cuál sea la manera correcta
de luchar contra él a largo plazo, estaría el hecho indudable de que algunas
organizaciones terroristas cuentan ya con la capacidad armamentística propia
de un Ejército y de que, por lo mismo, pueden poner en jaque a un país
entero, dando así lugar a una situación en la que nadie en su sensato juicio
podría exigirle al país atacado que, en nombre de no se sabe qué legalidad
internacional, pusiera fin a sus acciones bélicas, sin que antes hubiesen
cesado las del ejército terrorista.
U.N. continues to press for
Mideast resolution
By Bill Nichols and Andrea Stone, USA TODAY
7/31/2006
UNITED NATIONS Israel vowed today to widen its ground offensive against
Hezbollah in south Lebanon as world diplomats at the United Nations pushed for
a cease-fire.
Israel's Security Cabinet said the new offensive would
begin immediately, a participant told the Associated Press on condition of
anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the media. Thousands of army
reserves have been called up in recent days in advance of the decision.
Hours before the vote, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said,
"There will not be any cease-fire in the coming days."
Hezbollah had "suffered a heavy blow" and its leadership
"fears for its life and we will continue pursuing it everywhere and at all
times.
The decision came as Israel observed a limited suspension
of its air attacks for 48 hours to give civilians time to leave areas its
warplanes are targeting for Hezbollah rocket launchers and infrastructure. One
of those airstrikes hit a building Sunday in Qana in which 56 civilians died.
Olmert promised an investigation into what he called an
accident caused by Hezbollah hiding among civilians. Lebanon demanded an
international probe as did U.N. Human Rights chief Louis Arbor.
Israel left open the option of breaking the pause to meet
threats against Israeli forces. It aimed three airstrikes Monday at vehicles and
anti-tank fire.
Israel alleged one of the vehicles was carrying missiles
from Syria. Syrian President Bashar Assad told the Syrian military to raise its
readiness, saying he was determined to support Hezbollah.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice returned to
Washington from an eight-day diplomatic mission and met with President Bush and
national security adviser Stephen Hadley.
Following the meeting, White House spokesman Peter
Watkins said, "The next step is to pursue a United Nations Security Council
resolution that will establish a sustainable cease-fire on an urgent basis."
At the United Nations, a meeting to begin soliciting
troops for a planned international force for south Lebanon was postponed pending
more work today on a resolution.
During a visit to Miami, Bush said a cease-fire must be
based on a larger agreement to create "a long-lasting peace, one that is
sustainable." He urged Iran and Syria to stop backing Hezbollah with money and
arms.
Bush also said in an interview on Fox News Channel that
the United States would "probably not" be part of any multinational force sent
to Lebanon.
Israel has said it will not stop its offensive until
Hezbollah frees two soldiers captured July 12, the militants are pushed out of
southern Lebanon and an international force is deployed along the border.
A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken last weekend found a
plurality of Americans 43% believe the United States is doing the right
amount to resolve the crisis. Less than a quarter, 19%, said too much is being
done; 32% said not enough.
UN Security Council deplores Israeli
attack on Qana, urges all sides to grant access
Mother comforts children in
Lebanon
30 July 2006 Just hours after United Nations
Secretary-General Kofi Annan convened a Security Council meeting on the latest
violence in Lebanon, the 15-member body deplored last night's Israeli attack on
the village of Qana, where over 50 civilians, mostly children, were reported
killed.
The Security Council expresses its extreme shock and distress at the
shelling by the Israeli Defense Forces of a residential building in Qana, in
southern Lebanon, which has caused the killing of dozens of civilians, mostly
children, and injured many others, Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sablière of
France, which holds the Council's rotating presidency this month, said in a
formal
statement.
The Security Council strongly deplores this loss of innocent lives and the
killing of civilians in the present conflict, and requests the Secretary-General
to report to it within one week on the circumstances of this tragic incident,
he said.
The statement also called for an end to violence, stressing the urgency of
securing a lasting, permanent and sustainable ceasefire.
Voicing concern at the toll of Lebanese and Israeli civilian casualties and
human suffering, the widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure and the
increased number of internally displaced persons, the Council urged all parties
to grant immediate and unlimited access to humanitarian assistance.
The Security Council affirms its determination to work without any further
delay to adopt a resolution for a lasting settlement of the crisis, drawing on
diplomatic efforts underway, the French Ambassador said.
Addressing the Council earlier in the day, Mr. Annan, in a strongly worded
statement, urged the members to condemn the attack on Qana and call for an
immediate cessation of hostilities. He warned against inaction, saying: The
authority and standing of this Council are at stake.
He also reported on demonstrations against the UN in Beirut, and appealed to
all people everywhere to respect UN personnel.
Mr. de La Sablière, in his statement on behalf of the Council, deplored any
action against UN personnel, and called for full respect for their safety and
security as well as that of all UN premises.
Earlier today, some Lebanese broke into the UN headquarters in Beirut and
briefly set it on fire. Three staff members were reported injured, none
critically, and the fire was put out.
The Personal Representative of the Secretary General for Lebanon, Geir
Pedersen, issued a statement saying he was deeply shocked and saddened by the
incidents in Qana, and calling for immediate cessation of hostilities and
investigations.
This tragic event demonstrates the urgency for all parties to heed the
United Nations repeated calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities, he
said. Civilians have been paying the heaviest price for this war and I
reiterate calls by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to all parties
concerned to respect international humanitarian law and spare the civilians
further suffering and loss.
In addition, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon today protested to the Israeli
and Lebanese authorities after firing near its positions, including five aerial
rockets from the Israeli side that impacted in the area of Addaisseh yesterday
afternoon. One exploded in the air above the position and two UNIFIL soldiers
from the Indian battalion were moderately wounded and evacuated to the UNIFIL
hospital in Ibil As Saqy
Meanwhile, today in Jerusalem a memorial service was held for four UN
Military Observers killed last week during an Israeli aerial bombardment Patrol
Base Khiyam in southern Lebanon.
We must honour their work by ensuring that the death and destruction come to
an end as soon as possible, and by bringing help to all those whose lives are
being torn apart, Mr. Annan said in a message to the solemn gathering that was
delivered by his aide, Alvaro de Soto.
L'Organisation de la conférence
islamique
appelle à un cessez-le-feu immédiat au Liban
LEMONDE.FR | 03.08.06 | 07h00 Mis à jour le 03.08.06 | 11h58
L'organisation de la conférence islamique (OCI) a appelé, jeudi 3 août, à un
"cessez-le-feu immédiat et total" sous l'égide des Nations unies au
Liban, selon un projet de communiqué final concluant une réunion d'urgence en
Malaisie.
"Nous exigeons du Conseil de sécurité des Nations unies qu'il prenne ses
responsabilités dans le maintien de la sécurité et de la paix internationales
sans plus attendre en décidant et en mettant en uvre un cessez-le-feu
immédiat et total", selon le texte qui doit être adopté dans la soirée.
L'OCI, plus grande organisation musulmane, se dit également "fermement
convaincue qu'il ne devrait y avoir aucune impunité pour les violations du
droit humanitaire international et des droits humains". "Israël doit
être tenu responsable pour toutes ces actions", stipule aussi le texte,
qui "condamne fermement" l'offensive israélienne.
Le projet de communiqué appelle à la libération immédiate de l'ensemble des
prisonniers détenus par les deux camps au conflit.
Outre la Malaisie qui l'accueille, la réunion regroupe seize des 57 membres
de l'OCI : l'Azerbaïdjan, le Bangladesh, Bruneï, l'Egypte, l'Indonésie, l'Iran,
la Jordanie, le Liban, le Pakistan, le Qatar, l'Arabie saoudite, le Sénégal,
la Syrie, la Turquie, les Emirats arabes unis et le Yémen.
Olmert veut une force internationale Ğsolideğ, les diplomates progressent
vers un accord
lefigaro.fr (avec AFP, Reuters et AP). Publié le 03 août 2006Actualisé le 03
août 2006
Les représentants des cinq membres permanents du Conseil de sécurité
se réunissent à nouveau jeudi pour tenter de trouver un accord sur la situation
au Liban. De son côté, Ehoud Olmert plaide en faveur du déploiement dune force
internationale forte de 15.000 hommes.
Les pressions internationales se multiplient face à loffensive israélienne.
Réunie en urgence en Malaisie, l'Organisation de la conférence islamique, plus
grand rassemblement de pays musulmans, a appelé jeudi à un Ğ cessez-le-feu
immédiat et total ğ sous légide des Nations unies.
Ğ Nous exigeons du Conseil de sécurité qu'il prenne ses responsabilités
dans le maintien de la sécurité et de la paix internationales sans plus
attendre ğ, précise le texte qui doit être adopté dans la soirée. Ğ Israël
doit être tenu responsable pour toutes ces actions ğ, estime également lOCI.
Le projet de communiqué appelle enfin à la libération immédiate de l'ensemble
des prisonniers détenus par les deux camps au conflit.
Rapprochement franco-américain ?
Parallèlement, lintense activité diplomatique entre les cinq membres
permanents du Conseil de sécurité (France, Grande-Bretagne, Etats-Unis, Russie,
Chine) se poursuit. Objectif : aplanir leurs divergences sur la Ğ séquence
diplomatique ğ et la constitution dune force internationale. De nouvelles
discussions sont prévues dans la journée.
Mercredi soir, les diplomates semblaient progresser vers un accord sur une
résolution du conflit. Selon le porte-parole du département dEtat américain,
les Etats-Unis et la France ont rapproché de façon significative leurs
positions et pourraient présenter un projet commun de résolution devant le
Conseil de sécurité à la fin de la semaine ou au début de la semaine prochaine.
Ğ Notre point de vue et celui des Français convergent au point que nous
travaillons désormais sur un projet de résolution unique ğ, a-t-il précisé
mercredi soir. La France na ni confirmé ni infirmé ces informations.
Une différence d'approche était apparue entre la France et les Etats-Unis,
Paris conditionnant l'envoi d'une force internationale au Liban à un
cessez-le-feu et un accord politique, contrairement à Washington qui veut une
trêve Ğ durable ğ permettant de neutraliser la menace du Hezbollah.
Solution en deux étapes
Selon des sources diplomatiques, une solution en deux étapes pourrait voir
le jour. Une première résolution appellerait à une trêve, à la création d'une
zone tampon et au désarmement du Hezbollah. Une fois que les combats auraient
cessé, des discussions pourraient alors commencer aux Nations unies sur une
deuxième résolution portant sur un cessez-le-feu permanent acceptable par
toutes les parties et sur l'autorisation de l'envoi d'une force internationale
au Liban-Sud. En réponse à une question sur ce point, John Bolton,
lambassadeur américain à lOnu, s'est contenté de répondre: Ğ Il reste à voir
combien de résolutions seront nécessaires. ğ
De son côté, la présidente finlandaise, Tarja Halonen, dont le pays assure
la présidence de lUnion européenne, a déclaré jeudi qu'il devait y avoir un
cessez-le-feu dans le conflit entre Israël et le Liban avant qu'une force
internationale puisse y jouer un rôle.
Dans lattente dun accord final, la réunion prévue jeudi sur la
constitution de cette force a de nouveau été reportée sine die, la France
ayant annoncé mercredi quelle ny assisterait pas, la jugeant Ğ prématurée ğ.
ĞUn terrain dententeğ
Dans un entretien au Monde jeudi, le premier ministre israélien
évoque un Ğ terrain dentente ğ avec Paris et Washington sur le déploiement
dune telle force internationale. Ğ Ni le président Chirac, ni le premier
ministre Villepin, ni le ministre des affaires étrangères, Douste-Blazy, ne
veulent que le Hezbollah émerge de cette crise en position de gagnant ğ,
estime-t-il.
Dans une interview accordée à des quotidiens britanniques, Ehoud Olmert
affirme qu'Israël souhaite le déploiement dune force internationale Ğ solide
ğ de 15.000 hommes dans le Liban-Sud. Le chef du gouvernement israélien, qui
pense quune résolution devrait être adoptée au Conseil de sécurité de lOnu Ğ
la semaine prochaine ğ, estime que cette force devra Ğ être composée de vrais
soldats, et non de retraités qui viennent passer quelques mois tranquilles au
Liban-Sudğ. Et dinsister sur le fait que cette armée doit comprendre Ğ des
unités de combat prêtes à appliquer
la résolution de lOnuğ, qui prévoit le désarmement des milices libanaises.
Soutien de Damas à Beyrouth
Interrogé par Le Monde sur lattitude dIsraël envers la Syrie,
Ehoud Olmert a réaffirmé que lEtat hébreu navait Ğ aucune intention dentrer
en confrontation violente avec Damas ğ.
De leur côté, les autorités syriennes ont Ğ fait part de leur désir de
soutenir le gouvernement libanais ğ, selon le chef de la diplomatie espagnole
en visite à Damas. Le Liban et la Syrie étaient en froid depuis plus dun an,
date du retrait militaire syrien du territoire libanais.
Force internationale : les Européens posent leurs conditions
Alexandrine Bouilhet . Publié le 03 août 2006 Actualisé le 03 août 2006
La réunion des pays disposés à fournir des
troupes à la future force internationale a été reportée une nouvelle fois hier
en raison des objections françaises.
La France risquait d'être le seul pays européen à boycotter la réunion de
New York, consacrée à la future force internationale au Liban. ĞCette
réunion a déjà été reportée une fois pour laisser le temps aux Européens de
se concerter, soulignait la présidence finlandaise de l'Union.
Maintenant, il ne faut plus tarder à agir.ğ
Hier, elle a pourtant été reportée une deuxième fois. Une demi-douzaine
de pays européens ont déjà manifesté leur disponibilité pour participer à
une force de paix au Liban-Sud : la France, la Belgique, l'Espagne, l'Italie,
l'Irlande, la Suède. D'après les experts, une telle force devra compter de
10 000 à 20 000 hommes. ĞLes Européens seront appelés à jouer un rôle cléğ,
assure Erkki Tuomioja, le chef de la diplomatie finlandaise.
À Bruxelles, mardi, plusieurs ministres des Affaires étrangères ont
réitéré la bonne volonté de leurs gouvernements à intervenir au Liban-Sud,
dans le cadre d'un mandat Ğadéquatğ de l'ONU. Alors que la France
propose de jouer le rôle de Ğnation cadreğ une fois le cessez-le-feu
obtenu, la Grande-Bretagne, Ğà bout de forcesğ à cause de l'Irak,
exclut d'envoyer ses hommes au Liban.
L'Allemagne, quant à elle, fait part de ses réserves Ğhistoriquesğ
à intervenir dans un conflit impliquant Israël. ĞCeux qui ne voudront pas
participer à cette force en paieront le prix politiqueğ, affirme, pour
sa part, le ministre belge Karel de Gucht.
Aucun effet sur le terrain
Désireux de jouer un rôle au Proche-Orient, mais prudents, les Européens
posent leurs conditions. ĞUn cadre politique pour une solution durable
accepté par toutes les parties est une condition préalable nécessaire au
déploiement de la force internationaleğ, indiquent les conclusions des
Vingt-Cinq.
ĞUne telle force requiert un mandat solide des Nations unies pour
soutenir un accord politique et aider les forces armées libanaisesğ,
ajoute le texte. Autrement dit, il n'y aura aucun soldat européen sur le
terrain avant un cessez-le-feu et un accord politique entre les belligérants.
ĞNous sommes partants pour une force robuste qui garantisse un accord
politique, mais pas pour une force qui consolide les gains israéliensğ,
résume un diplomate européen. À mesure qu'Israël intensifie ses frappes
meurtrières pour les civils, la bonne volonté européenne s'émousse.
À l'instar des Français, les Européens exigent une Ğtrêveğ, si ce
n'est un Ğcessez-le-feuğ, avant d'envoyer leurs troupes sur place.
Les États-Unis, eux, insistent pour un déploiement Ğrapideğ de la
force. ĞIl est évident qu'aucune force internationale ne peut être
déployée alors qu'une guerre est en coursğ, affirme Massimo d'Alema, le
chef de la diplomatie italienne. ĞLa cessation des hostilités est le
premier pas pour qu'un processus politique puisse être entaméğ,
ajoute-t-il. Pour l'instant, les appels au cessez-le-feu lancés par les
Européens sont sans effet sur le terrain. ĞPas de trêve avant le
déploiement d'une forceğ, rétorque le chef du gouvernement israélien.
Soutenu par les États-Unis, Ehoud Olmert réclame de la communauté
internationale Ğune force solide, composée d'unités de combats capables
d'appliquer la résolution 1559 à l'échelle du Liban tout entierğ.
Parmi les pays qu'il espère voir s'impliquer, Ehoud Olmert cite la
France, la Grande-Bretagne, l'Italie, la Turquie et l'Australie. ĞEn
l'absence d'un cessez-le-feu, ce serait une mission suicide !ğ, estime
le ministre australien des Affaires étrangères, Alexander Downer. Prête à se
lancer dans l'aventure, pour combler les États-Unis et la France, la Turquie,
elle aussi, pose ses conditions. L'état-major de l'armée turque planche sur
un scénario allant de 750 à 1 500 hommes, mais le gouvernement d'Erdogan
exige une Ğclarification du mandatğ avant d'envoyer ses hommes au
Liban-Sud.
Israël pilonne la région de Beyrouth
lefigaro.fr (avec AFP, AP, Reuters). Publié le 03 août 2006
Actualisé le 03 août 2006
20 juillet, sud de Beyrouth (AP / B. Barajneh).
Larmée israélienne a repris ses frappes aériennes sur la banlieue
sud de la capitale libanaise jeudi. Beyrouth navait pas été visée depuis une
semaine. Au Liban-Sud, loffensive israélienne se poursuit.
Au 23e jour du conflit déclenché par la capture par le Hezbollah de deux
soldats israéliens, l'Etat hébreu a intensifié ses opérations aériennes et
terrestres avec l'objectif de neutraliser le mouvement chiite. Après plusieurs
jours de répit, l'aviation israélienne a bombardé avant l'aube la banlieue sud
de Beyrouth, bastion du Hezbollah dont des quartiers entiers ont déjà été
réduits à létat de ruines après un pilonnage intensif au début de l'offensive,
lancée le 12 juillet.
Au nord du pays, l'aviation a visé des objectifs dans la région du Akkar,
près de la frontière syrienne. La veille, un commando israélien héliporté
avait déjà mené un raid dans cette zone, enlevant cinq membres présumés du
Hezbollah et tuant 17 personnes. Depuis le début du conflit, cette attaque est
la plus profonde menée en territoire libanais.
Près de 10.000 soldats en opération
Dans le sud, les troupes israéliennes sont engagées dans des combats
violents avec le Hezbollah pour le contrôle d'une zone frontalière. Leur but :
chasser les combattants chiites qui continuent de tirer des roquettes sur le
nord d'Israël. Près de 10.000 soldats sont en opération dans une quinzaine de
villages. Leur objectif est d'instaurer une Ğzone de sécuritéğ de 6 à 8 km de
large le long de la frontière, en pratique jusqu'aux abords du fleuve Litani,
et de s'assurer que la zone ne comptera plus de lanceurs de roquettes.
Mercredi, un soldat israélien a péri dans les combats et 15 autres ont été
blessés.
Les unités israéliennes, qui ont progressé d'environ 2 km hier, tentent de
consolider leurs positions ou d'avancer sur quatre axes. Des dizaines de raids
aériens ont visé la plaine orientale de la Békaa et le Liban-Sud, accompagnés
de tirs de la marine et de l'artillerie, causant la mort de deux civils.
Résistance farouche du Hezbollah
Selon la police libanaise, Israël rencontre une résistance farouche du
Hezbollah pour le contrôle de plusieurs collines stratégiques. Alors que
lEtat hébreu affirme que les capacités de frappe du Hezbollah ont été
fortement réduites, le mouvement chiite a tiré 19 roquettes sur le nord
d'Israël jeudi. La veille, 231 projectiles tirés par le Hezbollah étaient
tombés sur cette région, un record depuis le début du conflit.
ĞIl n'y a pas de limiteğ
Interrogé par Le Monde, dans une interview publiée jeudi, pour
savoir si l'objectif actuel de l'armée israélienne est d'atteindre le fleuve
Litani au Liban-Sud, le premier ministre israélien, Ehoud Olmert, a répondu: Ğil
n'y a pas de limiteğ. ĞNous n'allons pas combattre à Beyrouthğ, a-t-il
néanmoins précisé, avant d'ajouter: Ğquant au reste, je ne pense pas avoir à
annoncer mes plansğ. ĞBeyrouth n'est pas une cible. Ce qui l'est et le restera,
c'est un seul quartier, celui du Hezbollah. Mais nous n'attaquerons pas
Beyrouth. Nous ne combattons pas le gouvernement du Libanğ, a déclaré Ehoud
Olmert.
Les dirigeants israéliens affirment qu'il leur faut encore plusieurs jours
pour atteindre leur objectif. Le ministre de la Justice, Haïm Ramon, a évoqué
les alentours du 12 août pour la fin de l'offensive. Ehoud Olmert, a précisé
que le conflit pourrait s'achever dès que le Conseil de sécurité de l'ONU
autoriserait l'envoi d'une force internationale Ğsolideğ au Liban sud. Il a
souhaité qu'elle soit formée de
15.000 hommes.
Le Hezbollah aurait perdu 80 combattants
Depuis le début du conflit, 19 civils ont péri dans le nord d'Israël,
touché par plus de 2.000 roquettes, ainsi que 37 militaires israéliens. Ğ Plus
de 900 Libanais ont été tués et 3.000 autres blessés, et un tiers des victimes
sont des enfants de moins de 12 ans ğ, a affirmé le premier ministre libanais
Fouad Siniora. Il a ajouté que le Liban payait Ğ un tribut énorme en vies
humaines et en infrastructure et a totalement ravagé notre pays et dévasté
notre économie ğ. Ğ Un quart de notre population, soit un million de personnes,
a été déplacé, et nombreux sont ceux qui n'ont pas de foyer où retourner ğ, a
précisé Fouad Siniora.
Selon les services de sécurité libanais, le Hezbollah aurait perdu 80
combattants. Les autorités israéliennes avancent quant à elles le chiffre de
300 morts dans les rangs de la milice islamiste, qui n'a pour le moment
reconnu que 45 décès.
Ehoud Olmert : "Il n'y a pas de limite" à l'offensive
israélienne
LE MONDE | 03.08.06 | 11h16 Mis à jour le 03.08.06 | 11h28
Israël est-il en train d'occuper partiellement le Liban ?
Nous n'avons aucune intention d'occuper le moindre morceau de territoire.
Nous combattons le Hezbollah, dont le bastion est au Liban sud. Le jour venu,
nous quitterons la région. Nous voulons que la force internationale prenne la
relève le plus vite possible. Dès la minute où cette force sera déployée, nous
partirons.
Avant qu'elle n'arrive, cela pourrait prendre encore des semaines
J'espère que cela prendra moins de temps. Une réflexion est menée sur la
façon d'accélérer ce déploiement. J'espère qu'elle portera ses fruits. Cela se
prépare, entre ici, Washington, l'Europe, et d'autres pays.
La France s'oppose à un déploiement international sans cessez-le-feu et
accord politique préalables.
Je pense que l'on peut surmonter ces points de divergence. Je me souviens
d'avoir eu une conversation des plus intéressantes avec le président Chirac
sur le Liban. Ni le président Chirac, ni le premier ministre de Villepin, ni
le ministre des affaires étrangères, Douste-Blazy, ne veulent que le Hezbollah
émerge de cette crise en position de gagnant. Repoussé et maintenu hors d'un
large périmètre de sécurité, le Hezbollah sera privé de l'avantage qu'il avait
de pouvoir frapper à sa guise des localités israéliennes. C'est ce à quoi nous
voulons parvenir, nous, les Américains, et les Français, et nous y travaillons.
Il y a un terrain d'entente.
Cette campagne militaire a-t-elle pris une dimension à laquelle vous ne
vous attendiez pas ?
Je ne suis pas étonné, pas encore. Personne ne pouvait imaginer
sérieusement qu'elle serait de petite ampleur. Le Hezbollah, qui n'est qu'un
instrument de l'Iran, a mis en place au Liban des infrastructures à grande
échelle, avec des armements sophistiqués. J'avais anticipé dès le départ que
ce serait une bataille difficile. Mais jamais, dans l'histoire contemporaine,
un combat contre une organisation terroriste n'aura été aussi efficace que le
nôtre.
Après le bombardement de Cana, vous êtes-vous senti sur la défensive ?
Nous sommes tristes et désolés de cette terrible tragédie. La Croix-Rouge a
compté 28 corps. Nous sommes désolés pour chacun de ces 28corps. Mais je ne
formule pas d'excuses. La raison en est que 150 missiles ont été tirés contre
des villes israéliennes à partir de ce village. Quand le Hezbollah ou les
Palestiniens tuent des Israéliens, ils prennent ça pour un succès. Nous, quand
nous frappons des civils, nous considérons que c'est un échec de notre armée.
Allez-vous continuer à frapper Beyrouth ?
Beyrouth n'est pas une cible. Ce qui l'est, et le restera, c'est un seul
quartier, celui du Hezbollah. Mais nous n'attaquerons pas Beyrouth. Nous ne
combattons pas le gouvernement du Liban. Je n'ai aucun désir de renverser
[le premier ministre libanais] Fouad Siniora. Est-ce que je veux voir
[le secrétaire général du Hezbollah] Nasrallah à sa place? Certainement
pas! Et je n'ai rien contre le peuple libanais. Mais personne ne peut nier le
droit d'Israël de se défendre.
Votre objectif est-il d'atteindre le fleuve Litani? Est-ce la limite
fixée ?
Il n'y a pas de limite. Nous n'allons pas combattre à Beyrouth, je vous
l'ai dit. Quant au reste, je ne pense pas avoir à annoncer mes plans.
Votre décision de vous déployer militairement au Liban sud est-elle liée
au fait qu'aucune force internationale n'acceptera d'y entrer en combattant ?
C'est une des choses que nous avons prises en considération. Mais depuis le
premier jour, nous visions la partie sud du Liban. Nous savions que nous
allions devoir la nettoyer, car c'était la source des problèmes depuis
longtemps. D'abord, nous avons utilisé la force aérienne d'Israël, dans la
mesure où il est possible de l'utiliser pour "adoucir", pour préparer
l'opération au sol.
Maintenant, le moment est venu de l'opération terrestre. Nous n'avons pas
l'intention d'occuper du territoire. Nous avons assez [d'expérience] du
Liban. Mais nous n'accepterons en rien que la sécurité des habitants d'Israël
soit menacée.
Comment réagissez-vous aux propos de Philippe Douste-Blazy affirmant que
l'Iran joue un rôle stabilisateur au Proche-Orient ?
Je crois qu'il a rectifié ces propos. Est-ce vrai ? Lors de mes divers
entretiens avec M.Douste-Blazy, j'ai trouvé que je pouvais facilement
m'entendre avec lui sur le football, et sur certaines questions politiques.
Il est très charmant. Nous sommes tout à fait d'accord sur l'importance des
biotechnologies.
Mais nous divergeons quelque peu sur le rôle que joue l'Iran. Lorsque
j'entends le président de l'Iran dire qu'il faut rayer Israël de la carte, et
lorsque je vois ses efforts pour obtenir des armes nucléaires, je ne vois pas
très bien la stabilisation qu'il apporte.
L'Iran peut-il être impliqué dans la recherche d'un règlement durable ?
C'est quelque chose qui doit être abordé avec précaution. Il ne doit pas y
avoir de "troc" entre cette question, et les préoccupations que nous avons
concernant la politique de l'Iran en matière d'armements non conventionnels,
notamment ses efforts pour avoir des missiles balistiques stratégiques qui
pourraient être dirigés contre Israël et certains pays européens. Il ne peut y
avoir de quiproquo. Les Iraniens vont devoir oublier leurs projets
d'enrichissement d'uranium.
Faut-il parler à la Syrie?
Tout le monde sait qu'Israël n'a aucune intention d'entrer en confrontation
violente avec la Syrie. J'espère que les Syriens vont se comporter de façon
responsable, et voir les avantages qu'il y a à cela. Ils n'en ont pas encore
fourni la preuve.
Quelle importance historique accordez-vous à cette guerre?
Une chose est sûre. Des mouvements terroristes, fondamentalistes,
extrémistes, violents, cherchent à détruire les bases de la civilisation
occidentale. Le monde civilisé est attaqué par des organisations terroristes
qui sont manipulées par certains pays. Israël est en train de créer un
précédent, de fournir un exemple pour beaucoup d'autres sociétés. Israël a
décidé de dire : "Assez, c'est assez!" Si le Hezbollah pense qu'il y a
des endroits où nous n'irons pas, il a tort. Nous pouvons aller n'importe où.
Nous sommes en mesure de le prendre par surprise, le stupéfier, le frapper
durement.
Turkey denounces raid on Qana, urges cease-fire
Monday, July 31, 2006 ANKARA Turkish
Daily News
Ankara yesterday strongly condemned the Israeli attack
on the southern Lebanese town of Qana that cost the lives of scores of
civilians, including children, and repeated its call for an immediate
cease-fire.
In a strongly worded statement, the Foreign Ministry expressed deep
regret over the incident and said the number of Lebanese civilians killed due
to disproportional and indiscriminate use of force by Israel has exceeded
600, more than 750,000 Lebanese, who constitute one-fifth of the entire
population, were displaced, Lebanon's infrastructure is destroyed and the
country is on the verge of a serious humanitarian crisis.
Under those circumstances, we demand that Israeli assaults on Lebanon
stop, rocket attacks against Israel come to a halt and an immediate cease-fire
is established before the crisis in the region becomes more severe, said the
statement.
The Jeddah-based Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), meanwhile,
called for an emergency meeting to discuss the war in Lebanon. Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is expected to attend the meeting in Malaysia on
Thursday.
Israel raid on Qana kills 57 civilians, Lebanon shuns Rice
Monday, July 31, 2006 UN Security Council starts informal consultations on a
cease-fire resolution
QANA - Reuters
An Israeli air strike killed at least 57 Lebanese civilians, including 37
children, on Sunday, prompting Lebanon to tell U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice she was unwelcome in Beirut before a ceasefire. The raid on
the southern village of Qana was the bloodiest single attack during Israel's
19-day-old war on Hezbollah.
As a wave of anger spread across Lebanon and the Arab world, several
thousand protesters chanted "Death to Israel, Death to America" outside the
United Nations headquarters in downtown Beirut and some smashed their way into
the building.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said he would not hold negotiations
before a ceasefire, scuppering Rice's visit.
Rice, who was in Israel and had planned to go to Beirut later in the day,
said she was saddened by the Qana air raid, but stopped well short of calling
for an immediate ceasefire.
Police, who gave the death toll, said the Israelis had bombed Qana at
1:30 a.m. (2230 GMT on Saturday), destroying a three-storey building where
about 63 displaced people were sheltering in the basement. Many were killed in
their sleep. "Why have they attacked one- and two-year-old children and
defenceless women? What have they done wrong?" asked Mohamed Samai, whose
relatives were among the dead.
Revenge
Hezbollah vowed to retaliate. "This horrific massacre will not go without
a response," it said. The governing Palestinian movement Hamas also pledged to
hit back with attacks on Israel.
Rice said it was "time to get to a ceasefire", but she insisted this
required changing the status quo before the war, which began after Hezbollah
guerrillas seized two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12.
At least 542 people have been killed in Lebanon in the war, although the
health minister estimated the toll at 750 including unrecovered bodies.
Fifty-one Israelis have also been killed.
Many Arab and European leaders condemned the Qana bombing and called for
an immediate ceasefire. Siniora called U.N. chief Kofi Annan to demand an
emergency Security Council meeting. The United Nations Security Council was to
meet late Sunday consultations on the Lebanon-Israel conflict at the request
of UN Secretary-General Annan, the UN said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Rice is abruptly breaking off her diplomatic mission in the
Mideast and returning to Washington, a U.S. official said Sunday.
Rice had planned to head back to the United States on Monday morning
after discussions on ending the fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah
militia in southern Lebanon. But her work was hampered severely by an Israeli
missile strike early Sunday that killed more than 50 people, including many
children.
The U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity about the
diplomatic situation, said Rice would work from Washington on a U.N. Security
Council resolution to end the crisis.
A draft resolution circulating among Security Council members calls for
an immediate halt to fighting and seek a wide new buffer zone in south Lebanon
monitored by international forces and the Lebanese army.
Government officials say Ehud Olmert told Condoleezza Rice he needed
another 10 days to two weeks to finish Gaza offensive. Olmert told his cabinet
earlier Sunday that the assault in Lebanon would go on. "We will not blink in
front of Hezbollah and we will not stop the offensive despite the difficult
circumstances," the Ynet site quoted him as saying.
Olmert told the cabinet of his "deep sorrow" at the civilian deaths in
Qana. Political sources said he had also ordered that humanitarian aid be
allowed to reach the village.
Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz Sunday ordered the army to
immediately investigate the raid on the Lebanese village of Qana which killed
dozens of civilians, including many children, a ministry spokesman told AFP
Five civilians, including two children, were killed in another Israeli
air strike on a house in the southern border village of Yaroun, security
sources said. Siniora demanded an immediate, unconditional ceasefire and an
international investigation into "Israeli massacres".
The United States says the priority is to remove the threat posed to
Israel by Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and Syria.
Rice, on her second trip to the Middle East in a week, was trying to get
Israel and Lebanon to agree on an international force to deploy on the border
as part of a ceasefire deal.
Olmert said Israel had told Qana residents to leave before the raid and
that Hezbollah had fired rockets from the village.
Grief and anger
Distraught people in Qana screamed in grief and anger amid wrecked
buildings as others scrabbled at slabs of concrete with their hands to try to
reach people buried in the debris.
A woman in a red-patterned dress lay crumpled and lifeless in the broken
masonry. A leg poked out from the shattered concrete nearby. A medic carried a
dead child in his arms from rubble. Other children lay dead in the street.
Israeli warplanes struck Qana only hours after Hezbollah leader Sayyed
Hassan Nasrallah threatened to rocket more cities in central Israel if attacks
on Lebanon continued. Qana is already a potent symbol of Lebanese civilian
deaths at the hands of the Israeli military.
In April 1996, Israeli shelling killed more than 100 civilians sheltering
at the base of U.N. peacekeepers in the village during Israel's "Grapes of
Wrath" bombing campaign.
Confirming a major new incursion into Lebanon, the Israeli military said
tanks and troops had rolled across the border at Metula to try to find and
destroy Hezbollah rocket launchers.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said at least one soldier had been wounded in
fighting, in which she said Hezbollah had lost five dead. Hezbollah reported
fierce clashes.
Qana: symbol of Israeli massacres of Lebanese civilians
Monday, July 31, 2006
QANA - AFP
The village of Qana in southern Lebanon on Sunday suffered its second
massive Israeli bombardment in 10 years, with at least 51 dead reviving
painful memories of the last massacre of Lebanese civilians during an assault
on Hezbollah.
Israel unleashed "Operation Grapes of Wrath" on southern Lebanon in April
1996, a bloody offensive which, like the current offensive that has killed 750
Lebanese, was aimed at stopping Hezbollah shelling its northern regions.
On April 18, 1996, Israeli forces pummeled a compound of the United
Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) housing Fijian forces and sheltering
hundreds of civilians. Over 100 civilians were killed.
The carnage was a turning point in the offensive. Worldwide condemnation
was immediate and calls for an end to the fighting intensified, with Israel
and Hezbollah agreeing to a ceasefire eight days later on April 26.
Under the accord, the Israeli army, its South Lebanon Army (SLA) militia
and the anti-Israeli militias, including Hezbollah, agreed to spare civilians
and not to carry out attacks against or from inhabited areas.
Grapes of Wrath began on April 11, 1996 and lasted 16 days. Like the
current offensive, it was a brutally intense military blitz. Israel carried
out more than 600 air raids and fired 23,000 shells in a steady barrage from
its artillery, air and naval forces.
At least 175 people were killed and 351 injured, most of them civilians.
A UN report concluded that the attack on Qana was probably deliberate
while rights group Amnesty International, which conducted its own
investigation, said Israel "intentionally attacked the UN compound, although
the motives for doing so remain unclear".
Bad feeling between Qana and Israel extends beyond massacres of civilians
to a religious dispute as both lay claim to a biblical miracle.
Residents of Qana al-Jalil, just southeast of the port town of Tyre and
85 kilometres (53 miles) south of the capital Beirut, claim that Jesus Christ
performed his first miracle here, turning water into wine at a wedding.
To back up their claim, they point to a grotto with engravings on a wall
that depict a main figure allegedly representing Jesus Christ surrounded by 12
other figures representing the apostles.
Israel however claims that the miracle described in the Gospel of John
was performed in the similar-sounding village of Cana in Galilee, close to
northern Israeli town of Nazareth where Jesus spent his childhood.
World condemns Israeli attack but divisions show
Monday, July 31, 2006 PARIS - Reuters
World leaders condemned an Israeli attack on Lebanon on Sunday that
killed 57 civilians, most of them children, but the United States and Britain
again refrained from joining calls for an immediate ceasefire.
Pope Benedict XV and leaders of France, Jordan, Egypt, and the European
Union were among many to say the attack on the Lebanese village of Qana
underscored the need for an immediate end to fighting between Israel and the
guerrilla group Hezbollah.
"In the name of God, I appeal to all those responsible for this spiral of
violence, so that they immediately put down their arms on all sides," the pope
said.
But different positions on the ceasefire highlighted divisions in the
international community ahead of a United Nations meeting to discuss the
19-day-old war.
Jordan's King Abdullah said the strike was an "ugly crime" and Arab
League Secretary-General Amr Moussa called for an international investigation
into "this massacre and other Israeli war crimes".
Hezbollah promised to retaliate.
The United States is facing increasing criticism across the world for
refusing to call for an immediate ceasefire and for giving Israel an apparent
green light to press ahead with its attacks on Lebanon.
The United States also blames Hezbollah allies, Syria and Iran for the
conflict. France wants Iran to participate in efforts to find a solution.
Israel condemned for Qana massacre, ceasefire calls mount
BEIRUT - AFP, Reuters and The AP Monday, July
31, 2006
The deaths of at least 57 civilians in Israeli raids on the Lebanese
village of Qana on Sunday fuelled anger at the Jewish state's military
onslaught and gave tragic new impetus to ceasefire plans.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice cancelled a trip to Lebanon where
thousands of furious demonstrators attacked the UN headquarters, burning
curtains, destroying furniture and forcing staff to hide in the basement.
Speaking to reporters in Jerusalem, Rice said it was time to "get to a
ceasefire" in Lebanon but declined to call for an "immediate" halt to
hostilities in the aftermath of the Qana bombing.
"We want a ceasefire as soon as possible, I would have wanted a ceasefire
yesterday if possible, but the parties have to agree to a ceasefire and there
have to be certain conditions in place," she said.
Rice said she was "deeply saddened by the terrible loss of innocent life"
in Qana and urged Israel to take "extraordinary care" to avoid civilian
casualties.
The death toll is now more than 500 in Lebanon after 19 days of Israeli
attacks designed to knock out the Hezbollah Islamic militia -- 10 times the
Israeli losses in the war so far.
At least 57 people, including 37 children, were killed in Israeli raids
on Qana in southern Lebanon which were targeting, according to the Israeli
military, Hezbollah rocket launch sites.
Israel expressed "regret" over the civilian casualties but rejected
increased international pressure for an immediate ceasefire. Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert said the village was a "safe haven" for militants.
But the international reaction was swift and generally scathing. France
has circulated a draft resolution in the United Nations Security Council
calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East, according to Paris's UN
mission.
Pope Benedict XVI appealed for an immediate cease-fire. "In the name of
God, I appeal to all those responsible for this spiral of violence, so that
they immediately put down their arms on all sides," the pope told faithful at
his summer residence on the outskirts of Rome. Pausing slightly, he stressed
the word "immediately."
"I appeal to governing leaders and to international institutions not to
spare any effort to obtain this necessary cessation of hostilities and to be
able to begin, thus, to construct, through dialogue, a lasting and stable
coexistence of all the peoples of the middle East," the pontiff said.
"Peace, peace, peace," pilgrims and tourists in the papal palace
courtyard chanted, using the Italian word, "pace," for peace as they briefly
interrupted the pontiff.
Benedict embraced their call. "Peace, yes," he said, before resuming his
remarks.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's personal representative in Lebanon was
"deeply shocked and saddened" by the civilian deaths, and called for an
immediate ceasefire and an investigation, a UN statement said.
Swedish Foreign Minister and former UN assembly president Jan Eliasson
condemned Israeli raids and appealed for an immediate cessation in
hostilities.
"There is strong reason to condemn the attack against the housing complex
in Qana leading to the deaths of civilians including children," Eliasson told
AFP. Eliasson appealed for an end to the fighting and for the adpotion of a UN
resolution.
Hezbollah vowed to punish Israel for the carnage, saying it had to accept
the consequences of its "massacre."
"This horrible massacre, like the others, will not remain unpunished,"
the Shiite militant group said in a statement.
Regional leaders including Israeli allies such as Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak said the attack was inexcusable and "irresponsible". Jordan's
King Abdullah II denounced it as "criminal aggression".
"This is a horrible crime committed by the Israeli forces," the king
said.
Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa issued a statement in which he
"strongly condemned Israel's ongoing barbaric attacks on Lebanon, the latest
of which is the attack on the village of Qana."
He called for "an international investigation into this massacre and
others of Israeli war crimes committed in Lebanon."
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whose country has been involved in
diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis, called Israel's attack
"irresponsible" and reiterated his call for an immediate ceasefire.
"The Arab Republic of Egypt is highly disturbed and condemns the
irresponsible Israeli attack on the Lebanese village of Qana which led to the
loss of innocent victims, most of which were women and children," he said.
Egypt stressed "the need for a serious international effort to issue an
urgent Security Council resolution to stop military attacks immediately,"
Mubarak said in a statement.
The Lebanese government said 750 people have been killed, most of them
civilians, and more than 2,000 wounded in Lebanon since Israel launched its
air, land and sea offensive.
Jordan, the only other Arab country to have a peace treaty with the
Jewish state, also strongly condemned the raid, Israel's deadliest since it
launched its offensive in Lebanon following the capture of two soldiers on
July 12.
"This criminal aggression is a flagrant violation of international laws,"
said Jordan's King Abdullah II in a statement.
For its part, Iran blamed the bloody attack on the visit of the US
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the region.
"The result of Rice's trip to the region is the Qana massacre," foreign
ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said.
"Zionist regime officials as well as some US statesmen should be put on
trial for the crimes they commit," he added.
Israel's attack on Qana constitutes "state terrorism", Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad said.
"The massacre committed by Israel in Qana this morning shows the
barbarity of this aggressive entity. It constitutes state terrorism committed
in front of the eyes and ears of the world," Assad said in remarks carried by
state news agency SANA.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas also condemned the attack and asked
the United Nations to oversee an immediate ceasefire, top Palestinian
negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP.
"Abu Mazen (Abbas) has called the Lebanese president and prime minister
and offered his deepest condolences (for) the victims of the crime that was
committed by Israel in Qana which he condemned in the strongest possible
terms," he said.
The Palestinians have also been weathering a massive Israeli military
assault which was launched against the Gaza Strip following the seizure of
another soldier and has left nearly 150 people dead.
The United Arab Emirates joined the chorus of condemnations of the "ugly
massacre".
Echoing Hezbollah's warning of retaliation, Palestinian militant group
Hamas said "all options were open" against Israel which had "crossed all red
lines" with its attack on Qana.
The armed wing of Abbas's Fatah faction said it would target the United
States and other Western countries in retaliation.
In Europe, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett described the Qana
raids as "quite appalling" and said Britain had "repeatedly urged the Israelis
to act proportionately."
However she refrained from calling Sunday's attack disproportionate,
claiming simply that it was a "tragedy" for the families of those killed.
French President Jacques Chirac condemned the bombardment as an
"unjustifiable action which shows more than ever the need to agree on an
immediate ceasefire".
In Madrid, the Spanish government expressed its "profound consternation
and condemns the Israeli bombardment" and repeated calls for a truce to "avoid
new tragedies of this type".
The European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana said nothing
could justify the Qana bombing and said he had spoken to Lebanese Prime
Minister Fuad Siniora to express his "profound dismay".
"Nothing can justify that," Solana said in a statement issued in
Brussels, adding that the EU backed an "immediate ceasefire".
Ankara has reiterated its call for an immediate cease-fire in the
Israeli-Lebanese conflict, saying that the harming of civilians in Israel's
three-week-old offensive has almost led the situation to an impasse.
At a weekly press conference yesterday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Namık
Tan referred to an earlier statement by the ministry in which Turkey expressed
deep regret over the disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force by
Israel against civilians in Lebanon. He added that Turkey continues to be
worried by the ongoing harm to civilians.
Our expectation is the immediate establishment of a ceasefire and the
halt of clashes over reaching a resolution. We've been making intensive
efforts in this direction, Tan said, noting that these two points were the
most important issues for Turkey, just as they were for the international
community.
Each passing day, greater pain is being experienced and this [situation]
is making deep scars in everybody's hearts, and generating increasing
hostility. We hope that a cease-fire can be established at once, then we can
make the necessary contribution to the process that follows, Tan added,
hinting again that Turkey could take part in an international stability force
in southern Lebanon if a cease-fire is put in place and the mission is given
approval by both Israel and Lebanon.
We, Turkey, will not take part unless a complete cease-fire is first put
in place, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said over the weekend.
It appears we are driving downhill at an amazing speed in a car without
brakes and no idea how to stop.
First of all, nobody has any idea what Israel is aiming at with its
indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on Lebanon. Is it to crush the
Shiite terrorist gang Hezbollah? Or is it aiming to demolish whatever exists
in Lebanon? Or does Israel hope that peace can be achieved by unleashing an
aggressive and unrestrained military force against the civilian Lebanese
population that kills hundreds and maims thousands more?
Fighting terrorism is not something that we can criticize. However,
fighting terrorism should not turn into an indiscriminate and disproportionate
attack on civilians with the assumption, and perhaps conviction, that
terrorists are hiding among a civilian population. If the aim is to crush
Hezbollah, then Israel must understand that while before this war the number
of Hezbollah militants were estimated to be around 5,000, now the majority of
Lebanese and many Arabs across the league of Arab nations as well as many
non-Arabs have in the least became Hezbollah sympathizers after seeing the
situation in Lebanon.
If Israel and the Bush administration are hoping that France, Turkey,
Indonesia and many other countries will send their sons to Lebanon to serve
under the U.N. flag with the task of disarming Hezbollah and ending the
bloodbath -- in other words, send them to die for Israel -- they should know
that it ain't going to happen. A peace force involving soldiers from Turkey
can only be deployed after a cease-fire.
The secretary-general of the United Nations faces great public
humiliation as he is unable to persuade the Security Council to condemn the
murder of four U.N. personnel in what was apparently a deliberate attack on a
U.N. observation post in southern Lebanon. His calls for an immediate
cease-fire are falling on deaf ears and the Security Council, which according
to the U.N. charter was entrusted to safeguard global peace and security, has
become a hostage to U.S. veto power. It cannot even issue a condemnation for
the Israeli attack on Qana, a border village of Lebanon where over 60
civilians were killed, most of them children. In times like this, it must be
clear to everyone that the entire international security system is in peril.
International confidence in the capability of the U.N. and the Security
Council to safeguard peace and stability has suffered a serious setback.
Demonstrators throughout the Islamic world who are protesting the Israeli
attacks on Lebanon's civilian population are at the same time protesting the
incapacitation of the world body by a U.S. administration held hostage by the
Israeli state.
We are, for certain, in a situation that resembles driving downhill in a
car without brakes. All we can do is pray to God for a soft landing.
Israel continues to stress that it will continue its operation in Lebanon
-- which is nothing but an undeclared war -- until an international peace
force -- they call it a stabilization force -- is deployed in southern Lebanon
with a mandate to engage in military action under Chapter 7 of the U.N.
Charter.
In other words, Israel and the United States are telling the world that
they have ignited the problem, converted it into an unmanageable situation and
now expect the modern age knights -- the French, Turks and others -- to step
in and stage a noble fight for the security of Israel.
This is not an idea that we can subscribe to. The Middle East does not
need the deployment of a band of clots that offer their lives for a war that
is not their war anyhow. The Middle East needs an immediate cease-fire and the
beginning of a political dialogue to settle the Arab-Israeli political problem
of which Hezbollah, Hamas or any other gangs are nothing but by-products.
The need in the Middle East is an honorable peace which should include
the return of all occupied lands and the restoration of the inalienable rights
of the Palestinian people, including a state with Jerusalem as its capital and
return -- or adequate compensation that the Palestinians can agree to -- of
all refugees to the homes from which they were evicted from by force.
Israelis cannot have the security that we believe they deserve before
they realize that peace cannot be a lasting one as long as one of the parties
accepts it under duress. For a lasting peace the resolution must be mutually
acceptable. For that a give-and-take process and political will is required.
We need brakes for this car before it lands all of us in a tragic end.
There are a lot of adjectives or depictions being used
to describe Israel these days.
That parallels are being drawn between its actions in Gaza and Lebanon,
and those of others during the darkest period of European history -- when
the Jews were among the main victims -- is not surprising.
It is also clear that the seething anger against this country will not
go away easily. This is the inevitable result of the clinical barbarity
being watched on prime time TV across the world. The adjectives and
depictions being used are not restricted to the Arab or Islamic world's
either.
The daily Dagbladet, Norway's largest newspaper, recently published a
political cartoon comparing Prime Minster Olmert to Amon Goeth, the
commander of the Nazi camp depicted in Spielberg's Schindler's List. Goeth
gained his notoriety for indiscriminately firing at Jews with his high
caliber rifle, from his concentration camp balcony, in order to kill them at
random.
It is sad that the memory of Holocaust victims should be sullied in
this way. It is even sadder that the children of Holocaust survivors should
be the cause of this to an important extent, by acting as vengefully and
mercilessly as they are.
This writer has been consistent over the years in arguing that nothing
good would come out of the Sharon mentality. Olmert has always been a
proponent of this mentality. Let us disengage on our terms, and grab all we
can in the process. This is the Sharon doctrine.
But anyone who claims that it has worked will have to explain the
present situation in the region. I know that everyone thinks their own baby
is beautiful. But how can anyone claim that the present situation is that;
or that Israel is really guaranteeing its long term security in this way?
The immediate question is, Can Israel secure a military victory over
Hezbollah? This is not an easy one to answer. Hezbollah is ready for an
Iraq type resistance. It has regular army forces, as well as guerillas who
are ready and willing to die fighting the Israelis on the ground.
If, however, the threat is as existential as the Israeli's say it is
then Olmert may decide to risk his own Vietnam. That basically means,
Give them everything you got! Guided, precision, whatever, and get the job
done. But Vietnam was a failure.
It could mean a high cost in Israeli soldiers' lives. Olmert could then
face resistance at home, if the figure keeps rising while Hezbollah is still
seen to have resisting power.
This would also come after the loss of international support, which
seemed to exist initially because of the Hezbollah rocket attacks on Israel,
and the kidnapping of the Israeli soldiers.
The change today -- after the killing of the U.N. soldiers and the Qana
massacre -- is apparent from the fact that the French have started singing
the praises of Iran, saying this country should sit at the decision taking
table.
It is also apparent from the fact that the EU has refused to put
Hezbollah on its list of terrorist organizations. In addition to this, there
is a serious mood of anti-Semitism being revived internationally today,
which must be amplifying Israel's security risks and not simplifying
them.
Actor -- director Mel Gibson's recent drunken diatribe -- which he
regretted later -- about all the wars having been started by the Jews acts
like a social Freudian slip revealing latent belief in some elite
quarters of the West.
It is also a sad fact that the determined American anti-Semite Frank
Weltner is boasting millions of hits on his Jew Watch web page. One of the
countries that the Anti-Defamation League might have to be most active in,
not so far down the line, could be the United States itself.
If all this is part of a grand scheme that the Bush administration
and Israel have come up with, then this begs a very serious question:
What kind of a scheme is it that leaves the place destroyed, quadruples
the already virulent anti-American and anti-Israeli sentiments across the
world, and brings no promise that it can get rid of the menace for which the
region is being destroyed in the first place?
The worst prospect must, however, be that neither of these two
countries have a scheme, and are merely going at it because of a let's
destroy first, and we will think of the rest later approach.
That reminds me of a T-shirt I saw on an Israeli supported Christian
militia during the Lebanese civil war.
You kill them all, Allah will separate the good from the bad it read.
Let's hope that this is not the scheme.
While American
troops in Iraq continue to battle an ever-increasing insurgency, sectarian
violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims has claimed the lives of thousands
of innocent Iraqis, says Souheila Al-Jadda.
The violent conflicts in Israel,
Lebanon and the Gaza Strip as well as the war in Iraq make me question whether
a clash of civilizations between the East and West is taking place right
before our eyes.
I have never ascribed to Samuel Huntingtons famous clash theory, which
states that the secular and liberal West is on a collision course with the
religious and conservative East. I believe that we are all part of one,
sometimes, wounded civilization on this earth. I believe that people of
different nations, regions, cultures and creeds are more alike than we are
different.
But these days, our differences have become more pronounced.
The world has drastically changed in the last several years following the
tragic events of September 11th that took the lives of over 3000 innocent
people. The Arab and Islamic worlds find themselves engulfed in conflicts from
the Bamiyan Valley in Afghanistan to the Tigris River in Iraq to the coasts of
the Mediterranean Sea.
While American troops in Iraq continue to battle an ever-increasing
insurgency, sectarian violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims has claimed
the lives of thousands of innocent Iraqis. For the past five years, American
troops alongside international forces in Afghanistan have been trying to root
out the Al-Qaida terrorist organization and capture its leader Osama Bin
Laden. Israel, backed by United States weaponry and political support, is
engaged in military incursions in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank while also
battling Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
The continued fighting in all these areas has killed and wounded hundreds
of people on all sides. In the conflict between Israel and Lebanon, more than
800,000 Lebanese have become refugees and over 600 civilians have been killed.
Nearly 50 Israelis have also died, mainly soldiers.
Arabs and Muslims in the Middle East are watching as these tragedies unfold
on their television sets. There is a growing perception in the region that
anything coming from the West, especially America, will only bring death and
destruction.
People in the West, too, have a similar view of the Arab and Muslim Middle
East. Westerners are asking, Why do they hate us? But Arabs in the Middle
East do not hate us for our freedoms, as many US officials have repeatedly
claimed. They hate our foreign policy, which too often involves using military
force against them or supporting authoritarian Arab regimes that use force
against their own populations. According to a 2004 University of Maryland/Zogby
International poll, a majority of Arabs look to foreign policy when shaping
their views of the US
Respondents were asked whether their attitudes towards the United States
were based more on American values or on American policy in the Middle East."
US policy was cited by 86 per cent of respondents in Saudi Arabia, 80 per cent
in Lebanon, 79 per cent in Morocco, 76 per cent in Jordan and 75 per cent in
the United Arab Emirates.
So, what does this tell us? It tells me that the more Western nations and
their proxies use military might to carry out foreign policies, the more
they will hate the West and the more our security is threatened.
This should concern every American because these wars are used as
recruiting tools for other terrorist groups. In his farewell video, Mohammed
Sadiq Khan, one of the suicide bombers who perpetrated the 7/7 explosions last
year on Londons public transit system said he wanted to avenge the innocent
civilians being killed in Iraq. Terrorists have already begun to exploit the
US-backed Israeli war on Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, offering yet another
reason to exact retribution on innocent people in the West.
Ayman Al Zawahiri, did not hesitate to issue his call for Muslims to fight
the crusading West in his latest video that was aired on the Arabic language
Al-Jazeera satellite station. In his speech, Zawahiri did not criticize
liberal democracy, freedom or justice - all values shared by Western
democracies. Rather, he blasted the wars, death and destruction occurring in
the Middle East at the hands, in his view, of America and Israel.
I am the first to admit there are no easy answers to solving the many
conflicts of this world. Some are deep and complex, requiring tough decisions
and compromises by the parties involved. But the past five years of continued
violence in parts of the Islamic world shows that excessive force and shock
and awe policies do not solve deep-rooted conflicts but exacerbates them.
Military might may win wars, but in the end, it loses hearts and minds.
For the bloodshed in the Middle East to stop, the only superpower in the
world, the US, must do more talking and less fighting. America must dialogue
with the international community, even with our enemies like Syria and Iran,
which it accuses of supporting terrorist groups in the region.
If we want to avoid a clash of civilizations, then the international
community, especially the United Nations, must work harder to eliminate these
clashes, particularly in the Middle East. We must return to basic moral
principles of promoting peace, justice and freedom for all - not just a select
few. This can only be achieved by using diplomacy and direct negotiations as
the primary tools to resolve disputes. When these many clashes are finally
eliminated through peaceful conflict resolution, only then will our wounded
civilization ever be healed.
Souheila Al-Jadda is a journalist and associate producer of a
Peabody award-winning program, Mosaic: World News from the Middle East, on
Link TV
Monday, Jul. 31, 2006 Time Magazine
www.time.com Meet Islam's Biggest Rock Star His songs of peace elicit Beatle-sized frenzy in
countries where even dancing is forbidden. Now devout Muslim and singing
sensation Sami Yusuf brings his message to the U.S. ByLINDSAY WISE / AMMAN
The concert hall is charged with anticipation. The 5,000 Arabs in the
audience break into deafening cheers, stomp their feet, clap their hands and
chant "Sa-mi! Sa-mi!" until at last the lights go down. The orchestra swells
and Sami Yusuf, 26, emerges through billows of smoke, dressed in a chic black
suit and white open-collar shirt. Catching sight of him, the crowd goes crazy,
screaming and whistling as though Elvis just entered the building. But when
Yusuf begins to sing, it's clear he's not quite like other rock stars. "Peace
and salutations upon you, O Messenger of God," he croons. And for all the
palpable excitement in the audience, an unspoken decorum is observed. The
heart-felt cheering and singing never spills over into co-ed dancing in the
aisles after all, that could be considered a violation of Islamic law.
Some scholars of Islamic law even argue that playing music at all is
forbidden, but despite being a devout Muslim Yusuf believes Islam values art
and music. "Islam is all for modernity and all that is good and beautiful in
this world," he says. Yusuf is Islam's answer to Christian rock. His hit
songs, which he writes himself, range from upbeat tunes about love for the
Prophet Muhammad to soulful ballads mourning the suffering of Palestinians,
Iraqis and Sudanese. And while staying true to causes that are dear to Muslim
hearts, he is channeling his fans away from extremism with a message of
moderation, tolerance, patience and most of all, hope.
During performances in Jordan and Syria in advance of his U.S. tour?which
started last week in a series of benefit concerts organized by Islamic Relief
International in Los Angeles, Dallas, New Jersey, Chicago and Detroit?Yusuf
passionately sang and spoke about the current Middle East crisis. "Our hearts,
our minds, our souls are with our brothers and sisters in Palestine and in
Lebanon," he said to thundering applause in Amman University's Arena Hall
before dedicating his next song to all those suffering in the Middle East. "As
Allah says in the Quran, 'With hardship, there comes ease and comfort.' God
willing, dawn is near, and night will pass. We should never lose hope."
Thanks in part to his willingness to tackle hot political topics other pop
stars will not touch, Yusuf's fame is growing. Everywhere he goes in the
Middle East, he is trailed by admirers who press him with pocket-sized Qurans,
neatly folded notes and flowers. One Jordanian dentist even offered to clean
his teeth for free. In Yusuf's home base of Cairo, he can no longer walk down
the street unmolested. "The attachment people have to Sami is beyond
celebrity," observes Sharif Hasan al-Banna, co-founder of the singer's
Awakening Records music label. "People are always coming up to him or writing
him to say 'Your music inspired us, your music changed us.'" In many ways, it
is his commitment to defending Arab and Muslim causes through his music that
heartens youth who are discouraged by their sense of helplessness in the face
of current events. "After what has been going on in Gaza, Lebanon and all
these countries, he's singing about this, and that's really perfect," says
Diana Nassar, 17, a Jordanian student in a hot pink headscarf who sang along
from her seat in the Amman audience.
"We're going through this very difficult period," Yusuf told TIME as he sat
in the backseat of a black Humvee on his way to a rehearsal in Amman. "Muslims
feel victimized." But Yusuf does not believe conflict between Muslims and
non-Muslims is inevitable. "I don't believe there's a clash of civilizations.
I believe there's a clash of the uncivilized. We need a wave of people to come
along and bridge the gaps, because we have so much in common, so much to learn
from each other. We need to silence the extremists. Let's hope the moderates
will take the microphone and be louder."
A British citizen born in Iran to Azeri parents, Yusuf spent most of his
life in London. Like his music, he is a fusion of East and West. A devotee of
Bach, Chopin, U2, and Sting, Yusuf studied Middle Eastern and Classical music
with his composer father and instructors at the Royal Academy in London. He
feels it is a Muslim duty to speak out against oppression no matter the
religion of the victims. His songs have criticized Muslim rebels for the
Beslan massacre of schoolchildren in Chechnya and France?s government for
banning headscarves in public schools.
Despite the Beatle-like frenzy that sweeps crowds at his concerts, a closer
look reveals that Yusuf is a different kind of pop singer. His boy-band good
looks are framed by the close-cropped beard of an observant Muslim. He sings
about God's love, never romantic love. His backup singers are all men. His
screaming fans include not just star-struck young women in head scarves, but
teenage boys in blue jeans and gelled hair, old men in traditional Arab robes,
and middle-aged moms bouncing toddlers on their knees.
Yusuf's first two albums sold more than a million and a half copies,
topping the charts across the Arab world and Turkey. His latest hit song, "Hasbi
Rabbi," (My Lord is Sufficient), is the top-selling ring tone in the region,
heard whenever cell phones go off in cabs and cafes from Cairo to Damascus.
But the real sensation is Yusuf's slickly produced, MTV-style music videos,
which consistently register as the top "most-requested" on Middle Eastern
music TV channels. The videos depict the singer as a model Muslim citizen who
visits the mosque, tends to his aging parents, interacts comfortably with his
British colleagues at a fictional London office, and still manages to come
across as cool.
To his fans, it's not just the music, but the message. "You can listen to
it like any pop song, but the lyrics are different, more meaningful," says
Falah Hannoun, 25, who attended the Amman concert sporting a trim beard and
wire-rim glasses. "You feel closer to God and your religion." Bara Kherigi,
Yusuf's childhood friend and lyricist, believes the singer strikes a chord
with young Muslims who do not feel represented by the offerings in the
mainstream media. "They see singers, male or female, just dancing, living the
high life, and that's not them," Kherigi explains. "Or they see some clip of
Bin Laden preaching to them and speaking in an extreme way that doesn't
represent them either. When they see Sami, they are saying, 'Wow. Finally,
someone is on TV doing something that kind of resembles my life.'"
Not that all pious Muslims are fans. Yvonne Ridley, a British reporter who
was kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan and became a radical Muslim
convert upon her release, recently lambasted Yusuf for "poisoning the masses"
by encouraging "excessive behavior which demeans Islam." In her view, Yusuf's
call for East-West coexistence is a "pipe dream." Yet the need for
cross-cultural understanding and dialogue is precisely the message Yusuf is
bringing on his U.S. tour, and it should get a warm reception. After all, even
if his particular brand of religious music may not have a wide enough appeal
to crack the mainstream American charts, most people are likely to cheer
Yusuf's upbeat tune, which could use a lot more airplay these dark days.
When Samuel P. Huntington, author of the famous
clash of civilizations thesis, was accused of being too simplistic, he pled
guilty as charged. But, he countered, any serious attempt to explain complex
phenomena never mind the grand sweep of world history would have to be
simplistic. When people think seriously, he said, they think abstractly;
they conjure up simplified pictures of reality called concepts, theories,
models, paradigms. Without such intellectual constructs, there is, William
James said, only a bloomin buzzin confusion.
Since the end of the Cold War, no one has made a greater name for himself
save for Huntington himself in sorting out the confusion than Francis
Fukuyama. In his famous National Interest essay, The End of
History? (and in the subsequent book The End of History and the Last Man),
Fukuyama offered the first Big Explanation of Everything after the Berlin Wall
fell. Breathing new life into Hegel and by extension Marx Fukuyama argued
that history is purposive, and that over time the world must move in the
direction of modernity and democracy, because modernity and democracy are the
systems best equipped to satisfy the diverse longings of mankind. Fukuyama has
deflected some subsequent criticism by arguing that he was not prescribing a
blueprint for hastening the end of history, but rather saying that his thesis
was misunderstood by conservative Leninists seeking to accelerate history by
imposing democratic norms on less advanced societies. The End of History was
about modernization and materialism, he insisted, not democracy and idealism.
What is initially universal, he now writes, is not the desire for liberal
democracy but rather the desire to live in a modern society, with its
technology, high standards of living, health care, and access to the wider
world.
This is somewhat understandable, considering how unkind the post-9/11 world
has been to his original thesis. The rise of Islamism was hardly sudden, but
Americas realization of the scope of its challenge was. In The End of
History, the Islamist threat was at most an opponent to liberalism, not a
competitor, since Islamism, according to Fukuyama, could not offer an
ideological challenge to liberal democracy (an odd dismissal, by the way, if
idealism doesnt matter).
The September 11, 2001, attacks seemed to refute his thesis, however, and
validate Huntingtons. The latter argued that history was far from its end,
but that global conflicts would continue so long as the world was divided into
greater civilizations such as the West and Islam. After 9/11, this darker
vision seemed to sort out the new reality better than did Fukuyamas faith
that all the great arguments had been settled. According to Huntington,
culture matters more than prosperity, and culture by definition involves the
bad and the good sides of human nature. It is human to hate, wrote
Huntington. For self-definition and motivation, people need enemies.
In his new book, America
at the Crossroads, Fukuyama now undertakes not an analysis of the
world so much as an effort of self-redefinition and indeed, he does so by
finding his own new enemies. This requires some difficult juggling, since he
does not actually seem to disagree with them all that much.
Fukuyama argues that neoconservatism, the school of thought with which he has
been most closely associated, needs to be saved from the neocons, by which
he means the younger generation of foreign policy hawks and democratic
idealists people like William Kristol, Robert Kagan, and Paul Wolfowitz
who generally go by that label, as well as others who get called neocons
whether they like it or not. According to Fukuyama, these neocons internalized
the wrong lessons from the cold war and are now applying them to todays
world, in effect becoming right-wing Leninists dedicated to speeding up the
wheel of history the way they did in hastening the demise of the Soviet Union.
While the original neoconservatives were defined by their skepticism of
utopian projects, he argues, the new generation concluded from the Wests
victory in the cold war that sweeping social engineering can in fact work. To
support his point, he quotes Hoover Institution fellow Ken Jowitt: The Bush
administration has concluded that Fukuyamas historical timetable is too
laissez-faire and not nearly attentive enough to the levers of historical
change. History, the Bush administration has concluded, needs deliberate
organization, leadership, and direction. In this irony of ironies, the Bush
administrations identification of regime change as critical to its
anti-terrorist policy and integral to its desire for a democratic capitalist
world has led to an active Leninist foreign policy in place of Fukuyamas
passive Marxist social teleology. To which Fukuyama adds: I did not like
the original version of Leninism and was skeptical when the Bush
administration turned Leninist.
In order to make this case, Fukuyama rehearses the origins of the
neoconservatives, including their relationship with the political philosopher
Leo Strauss. And on this score, Fukuyama should be congratulated for offering
one of the most thoughtful treatments of the subject in recent years. Indeed,
the twin serums of Straussianism and neoconservatism have generated more
concentrated middle-brow stupidity than virtually any other subject in recent
memory. And, when served in the poisoned chalice of anti-Bush polemic, these
already heady brews form a grog so toxic that even recreational use usually
ends in a kind of drooling paranoid dementia. Fukuyama correctly notes that
most everything written in recent years about neoconservatism is factually
wrong, animated by ill will, and a deliberate distortion of the record of both
the Bush administration and its supporters.
The story of the original neoconservatives started with a handful of young,
mostly Jewish, Trotskyist intellectuals who gathered in a U-shaped stall
called Alcove 1 at New Yorks City University in the 1930s: Irving Kristol,
Nathan Glazer, Seymour Lipset, and a handful of others formed in opposition to
the much larger conclave of Moscow-loyal Stalinists in Alcove 2 (whose
membership included Julius Rosenberg). The rift between Stalinists and
Trotskyists intensified until it was finally punctuated by an ice pick in
Trotskys skull in 1940. Over time, as one could only expect given the
spectacular moral and economic failure of communism, the ranks of
disillusioned intellectuals swelled. In the 1970s, the combined hangover from
the 1960s, the Vietnam war, and the increasing tendency toward accommodation
and appeasement of the Soviets shook loose even more former liberals and
leftists, chief among them Norman Podhoretz but also many non-Jewish
intellectuals such as William Bennett, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Richard John Neuhaus,
James Q. Wilson, Glenn Loury, and Michael Novak.
Contrary to those who believe that neoconservatism is first and foremost a
foreign policy doctrine best summarized as Zionist warmongering, most of these
intellectuals were more likely to stand opposed to the domestic folly of
campus radicalism and Great Society overreach as they were to communist
aggression. Fukuyama rightly identifies this as a crucial point. If there is
a single overarching theme to the domestic social policy critiques carried out
by those who wrote for The Public Interest, he writes, it is the limits of
social engineering. Ambitious efforts to seek social justice, these writers
argued, often left societies worse off than before because they either
required massive state intervention that disrupted organic social relations
or else produced unanticipated consequences. This, writes Fukuyama, is what
linked the first wave of neoconservatives to the later converts in the 1960s
and 1970s: Both American liberals and Soviet communists sought worthy ends
but undermined themselves by failing to recognize the limits of political
voluntarism.
In other words, neoconservatism was never fully an -ism. These were
heterodox intellectuals making arguments that often contradicted those of
other card-carrying neocons. Nonetheless, Fukuyama identifies four basic
unifying ideas or principles fundamental to neoconservatism: First, the
aforementioned folly of sweeping social engineering; second, the belief that
America is a force for good in the world, possibly uniquely so, and thus
American moral instincts should not be constantly second-guessed; third, that
international institutions cannot be reflexively trusted to protect American
interests or substituted for American action; and fourth, that the internal
nature of regimes has a bearing on their moral stature, which in turn should
inform how America treats them. This last point was neoconservatisms
rejection of Nixonian realism.
In Fukuyamas telling, neoconservatism arose as a cultural reaction, first
against Stalinism and later against domestic radicalism. The answer to the
question Who are your enemies? in the 1970s was probably a far better
determinant of whether you were a neoconservative than the answer to What do
you believe? This continued to be the case when the second generation of
neocons emerged those who had never migrated from Left to Right but had
instead grown up within the movement. They received important staff-level
positions in the Reagan administration and served as some of the most
effective shock troops for Reagans foreign and domestic policies.
These younger conservatives, however, fell prey to their own success. During
much of the cold war, Fukuyama writes, neoconservatives became used to being
a small, despised minority . The foreign policy establishment the people who
ran the bureaucracies at the State Department, the intelligence community, and
the Pentagon, as well as the legions of advisers, think-tank specialists, and
academics was largely dismissive of them. Neoconservatives were also used to
having the Europeans look down on them as moralistic naïfs, reckless cowboys,
or worse. But, he continues, the sudden collapse of communism vindicated
many of these ideas and made them appear mainstream and obvious after 1989.
This naturally did a great deal to bolster the self-confidence of those who
had held them, a self-confidence that strongly reinforced the us-versus-them
solidarity that characterizes all groups of like-minded people.
In short, Fukuyama is saying, the neocons got cocky. Their explanation for the
most important conflict of the previous half-century the cold war had been
vindicated. And, as far as they were concerned, they were best suited to
explain the post-cold-war confusion as well.
So the great irony is this: In Fukuyamas telling, the new neoconservatism of
Bill Kristol and Robert Kagan emerges as in many respects the opposite of the
old neoconservatism of Irving Kristol and Norman Podhoretz. This younger
generation, which never went through a disillusionment-migration cycle from
Left to Right, simply never internalized the lessons of being deeply wrong
about something truly important.
In the 1990s The Weekly Standard embodied the new attitude. Its
editorials rattled sabers at China and Iraq. It aggressively supported
military intervention in the Balkans. And, with David Brooks taking the lead,
it championed something called National Greatness conservatism, which turned
the skepticism of the previous generation on its head; the connection to
foreign policy was made clear in that the patron saint of National Greatness,
according to Brooks, was Teddy Roosevelt. As Fukuyama notes, National
Greatness inevitably manifests itself through foreign policy, since foreign
policy is always a public matter and involves issues of life and death. If
the old neoconservatism was defined by skepticism and trepidation, Fukuyama
argues, the new neoconservatism flirted with hubris on a grand scale.
Whatever its faults and there are many this explanation provides far more
analytical heft than the run-of-the-mill nonsense we so often hear about
warmongers and Straussian cultists. Vice President Cheney was never a neocon.
Nor was Donald Rumsfeld, or most of the senior war planners. But they were
most certainly battle-scarred veterans of the Reagan years and subscribers to
what Rich Lowry, editor of National Review, has called the Reagan
synthesis. Reagans success had many fathers and by no stretch of the
imagination were they all neocons, but with the aid of a media and academic
establishment always eager to discredit traditional conservatism, the
storyline that the humane and intellectual facets of Reaganism were
neoconservative stuck. Indeed, prior to 9/11 it was standard practice in
academic writing to label all remotely legitimate conservative ideas
neoconservative rather than simply conservative, because the latter had
long since been spoiled as a synonym for the racist, sexist, and vaguely
fascist.
In this sense, Fukuyamas criticism of the neoconservatives is broader than he
allows. If the folks at The Weekly Standard were guilty of hubris, so
were those at National Review. While Fukuyama claims to be debunking
much of the nonsense about neoconservatism as an elite Zionist cowboy cabal,
he is to a certain extent reinforcing it by treating neoconservatives as a
more distinct and unified group than is really the case. In other words, he is
still saying it was the neocons fault just not for the wacky and sometimes
anti-Semitic reasons weve heard from the paranoid, ignorant, and hysterical.
The failures of Fukuyamas analysis, however, extend beyond taxonomy. Much has
been made of Fukuyamas alleged hypocrisy in attacking a school of thought of
which he was, until recently, an important adherent. He signed the various
letters and petitions of the Project for the New American Century. He wrote
op-eds affirming the irrefutable logic of Bushs Axis of Evil doctrine and
he supported invading Iraq until very late in the game. Former kindred spirits
such as Charles Krauthammer have accused Fukuyama of being a fair-weather
supporter of the war who only repudiated the effort when public opinion turned
against it.
On this score, Krauthammer and others have a strong case. But this has
overshadowed an even more important point: If Fukuyamas supposedly more
authentic neoconservatism could not spot the folly in the new National
Greatness neoconservatism until very recently, the differences between the
two outlooks cannot be that significant. Even if Fukuyamas criticisms are
entirely in good faith and his critics are completely wrong, the fact that he
walked out of the movie just minutes before the credits started to roll and
that he does not admit to any kind of real revolution in his thinking
suggests that we are talking differences in degree, not in kind. This is
reflected in most of the discussion about his book, as even supporters of the
administrations policies tend to find his proposals sensible. Neither his
old arguments nor his new ones, writes a sympathetic Paul Berman, offer much
insight into this, the most important problem of all the problem of
murderous ideologies and how to combat them.
Indeed, Fukuyamas specific criticisms suggest that he has come up with his
theory first and then selected the facts necessary to support it precisely
the criticism he levels at the Bush administration. He berates Vice President
Cheney and his clique for ignoring contrary voices. But Fukuyama himself
agreed that those contrary voices were wrong regarding the intelligence on
Iraqs weapons programs. More importantly, he claims that the war planners
arrogance led them to ignore warnings about the wars aftermath. But with the
possible exception of General Shinsekis admonition about the need for more
troops to occupy Iraq, such warnings were almost nonexistent and were
certainly not forthcoming from Fukuyama. Indeed, as Lowry and others have
argued, the real intelligence failure wasnt the much-ballyhooed weapons of
mass destruction foul-up, but the failure of the CIA and other intelligence
agencies to appreciate the extent of Iraqs social decay. Critics of the
invasion essentially made the same mistake that advocates of it made in
assuming that Iraq was a functioning nation, and some critics, after the fact,
have gone so far as to claim that Iraq has been made even less functional by
U.S. intervention. The reality was that it was, to use Kanan Makiyas phrase,
a Republic of Fear. When the United States removed the fear, the whole place
imploded. But, again, this does not mean that what happened was widely
foreseen: The doom-and-gloom forecasts from bureaucratic opponents of the war
were, in the final analysis, at least as wrong as the cakewalk talk on the
other side for example, what happened to the refugee crisis the invasion was
supposed to create?
Fukuyama criticizes the Standard for downplaying the importance of civil
society and culture to rebuilding Iraq, which is fair to a point. But he also
notes that The Weekly Standard has turned against Donald Rumsfeld and called
for his resignation, its chief criticism of him remains his failure to provide
enough troops to secure Iraq, rather than the multiple other dimensions of
nation-building where U.S. policy fell short. But is it really true that the
Standards editors would oppose the multiple other dimensions of
nation-building if Iraq were secure? On the contrary: They call for Rumsfeld
to be replaced by Senator John McCain, a bold Rooseveltian type who would, in
their view, make the Pentagon a full partner in the building of a stable,
self-governing Iraq and re-engage the American people in the importance of
the pursuit. Those who advocate more troops do so with the sensible
assumption that a pacified Iraq would allow the conditions in which building
everything from courts to soccer fields becomes possible.
Fukuyama writes that the new neoconservatives learned the wrong lessons from
the cold war and are hence determined to use military might in circumstances
ill-suited to force. No one was opposed in principle to the use of soft
power, he writes, they simply hadnt thought about it very much. As the
saying goes, when your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like nails.
But Fukuyama has this exactly backwards. The United States has a lot of tools,
the military being only one of many. He claims that America has become
steadily less generous and says that the U.S. ranks 21st out of 22 leading
developed nations in foreign giving. But as John Fonte has pointed out, on
this count Fukuyama is simply wrong. The U.S. ranks 11th of 22 among leading
donor countries, and government foreign aid has doubled between 2000 and 2004,
increasing as a percentage of gross national income as well. President Bush
committed America to massive increases in spending on aids, for example, and
has dedicated funds to a host of soft-power measures. In reality, the nations
that have only a single tool in their belts are our allies in the
international community. With the exception of Great Britain, the European
nations have virtually no ability to project military power abroad, and
combined with their tendency to be seduced and corrupted by the talky-talk of
the UN and EU and intimidated by large and restive Muslim minorities, its no
wonder that every problem they see looks like a job for diplomacy.
Fukuyama is director of the International Development Program at the Paul H.
Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University,
and something of an international academic celebrity. Perhaps thanks to this
experience he is better suited to make sensible suggestions about how to use
the levers of diplomacy and aid instead of the hammer of military might. But
his calls for a new era of horizontal accountability and an agenda of
multiple multilateralisms seem to suggest that he has become deeply ensconced
in the world of transnational elites endlessly talking about talking in places
like Davos and Geneva.
Fukuyama is certainly correct that political and intellectual movements cannot
be separated from their historical and geographic contexts. Each age makes
what it will of the confusion that is the world. And it should be no surprise
that what seems to explain things pretty well in one moment will fail to do so
in the next. But Francis Fukuyama, the author of The End of History,
is a man constitutionally determined to find the permanent theory of
everything. It seems, however, that America at the Crossroads represents less
a serious theoretical exegesis than a momentary crisis of confidence by one of
the smartest observers around. It is a snapshot taken at a moment of maximum
neoconservative despair stemming from confusion over the Iraq war and the
nature of the Islamist threat. In a Huntington age, he is unwilling to
relinquish the vision of a Fukuyama world. As such, this book offers useful
insights into the internal contradictions within and among conservative
policymakers, but ultimately it creates more bloomin buzzin confusion than
it dispels.
This essay appears in the current issue of Azureand is reprinted with
permission.
Başbakan
Malezyadaki zirvede, "Bugün dokunulmayanlar, yarın bana dokunulmayacak
rehaveti içine girmesinler" dedi.
MALEZYAnın başkenti Kuala Lumpurda toplanan İslam Konferansı Örgütü (İKÖ),
Lübnanda "acil ateşkes" çağrısında bulunurken, toplantıya katılan Başbakan
Tayyip Erdoğan, tavır koymayan bazı bölge ülkelerini eleştirerek, "Bugün
dokunulmayanlar, yarın bana dokunulmayacak rehaveti içine girmesinler" dedi.
Erdoğan, açılışta yaptığı konuşmada, İsrailin saldırılarıyla ilgili olarak, "Bugün
dokunulmayanlar, yarın bana dokunulmayacak rehaveti içine girmesinler. Aynı
tarafsızlık, aynı durum onlara da olabilir. Onun için bugünden tezi yok
tavrımızı koyarak, adımlarımızı atmamız gerekmektedir" dedi. Erdoğan,
uluslararası istikrar gücünün mutlaka BM çatısı altında olması gerektiğini
belirterek, "Bu güç tarafların rızasına dayanmalı, görev tanımında olmayan bir
barışı tesis etmek ya da birinden yana veya diğerine karşı olacak biçimde
muhteva taşımamalıdır. Uygun siyasi koşullar hazırlandığı takdirde Türkiye bu
güce katkıda bulunmaya hazırdır" dedi.
SİNYORA BAĞLANDI
Erdoğan konuşmasını yaparken, Lübnan Başbakanı Fuad Sinyora Lübnandan
telekonferansla toplantının yapıldığı salona bağlandı. Erdoğan bağlantı
sırasında konuşmasına ara verdi. "Keşke ben de aranızda olsaydım" dedikten
sonra Lübnan parlamentosunda kabul edilen 7 maddelik planın İKÖ tarafından da
kabul edilmesini isteyen Sinyoraya olumlu cevap verildi.
İKÖ Genel Sekreteri Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, İsraili bir kez daha şiddetle
kınadıklarını söyledi ve acil ateşkes çağrısında bulundu.
Ahmedinejad: İsrail yok edilmeli
Erdoğanın ikili görüşme yaptığı İran Cumhurbaşkanı Mahmud Ahmedinejad,
toplantıda "Esas çözüm siyonist rejimin yok edilmesi ama, bu aşamada, acil bir
ateşkes yapılmalı" dedi.
ABDnin
etkin gazetelerinden Washington Postta yazan Dışişleri Bakanı Abdullah Gül,
Lübnanda yaşanan insanlık trajedisine bir son verilmesini isteyerek, ABDye "artık
liderlik sergile ve savunduğun değerlere sahip çık" çağrısında bulundu.
DIŞİŞLERİ Bakanı Abdullah Gül, Lübnanda yaşanan ve bütün dünyanın izlediği
trajediyi uluslararası toplumun durduramadığını belirtti, geçmişinde özgürlük
ve adalete liderlik yapmakla gurur duyan ABD ile ilgili soru işaretlerinin
gündeme geldiğini kaydetti ve şu çağrıyı yaptı: "Artık liderlik göster,
savunduğun değerlere sahip çık."
NEDEN DURDURMUYORSUN
Bakan Gül yazısında şöyle dedi:
"Benim neslim, demokrasinin saygın değerlerine sahip çıkan bir ABD imajı ile
büyüdü. Ancak Lübnanda yaşananlar dünyadaki milyonlar tarafından izlendikçe,
ABDnin soylu ulus imajının lekelendiği düşünülüyor. Dehşet görüntüleri
yayın yoluyla evlere giriyor. Beyrut sokaklarına düşen her bomba, dünyanın her
yerindeki insanların vicdanını vuruyor. Her yerde aynı soru soruluyor,
dünyadaki tek süpergücün trajediyi neden durduramadığı. ABDnin, insanların
acıları ve gözyaşlarına neden gözlerini ve kulaklarını kapattığı soruluyor.
Bölgede insan yaşamı yok edilirken, Ortadoğunun demokratik dönüşümü umudunun
da paramparça olduğunu belirten Gül, "Herhangi birinin buna izin vermeye hakkı
var mı?" diye sordu ve yaşanan olayların, nüfuzlarını genişletmek için neden
arayan radikaller ve fanatiklere yarayabileceğini söyledi, sorumluluk sahibi
olan hükümetlerin de öfkeli kamuoylarını yatıştırmak gibi güç bir görevle
karşı karşıya kaldıklarını ifade etti.
Anında bilgi çağında yüksek ahlaki zeminde kalmanın çok daha fazla önem
taşıdığına dikkat çeken Gül, "Kollektif vicdanımızın bizden istediğini
yapmanın zamanı geldi. Asimetrik meydan okuma karşısında, klasik güvenlik
nosyonu sınırları Lübnanda bir kez daha görüldü. Orantısız ve ayrım yapmadan
güç kullanımı kimsenin güvenliğini sağlamıyor. Uzun vadeli bakarsak, gerçekte
aksi olduğu görülebilir" dedi.
Bakan Gül, mevcut krizden çıkmak için, uluslararsı toplumun kararlı davranması
ve Ortadoğudaki temel sorunlara çözüm araması gerektiğini ifade etti. Gül,
"Bu da, etkili olmak için, başkalarından istediği değerlere sahip çıkacak
gerçek liderliği gerektirir" dedi.
TBMM İnsan Hakları Komisyonu, İsrailin Lübnana yaptığı saldırı nedeniyle
dün olağanüstü toplandı.
Komisyon Başkanı Mehmet Elkatmış, İsrailin, Hitlerin yaptığı soykırımın
acısını bölgedeki masum insanlardan çıkardığını söyledi. Toplantıda, komisyondan
bir heyetin Lübnana giderek, inceleme yapması da gündeme geldi. Önerinin sahibi
Elkatmış, İsrailin yaptığı "devlet terörü" için uluslararası savaş suçları
mahkemelerini göreve çağırdı. Böyle bir vahşetin, dünya tarihinde çok ender
görüldüğünü belirten Elkatmış, şunları söyledi: "İsrail bunun cezasını günün
birinde çekecek. İnsanlık suçu işleyenler, mutlaka cezasını göreceklerdir."
Etnik temizlik
itirafı
İsrail uçakları dün de 70
ayrı hedefi bombaladı. Bombardımandan kurtulanlar bir zamanlar oturdukları
evlerden eşyalarını toplamaya çalışıyor. FOTOĞRAF:
AP
'Saldırının ölümcüllüğü İsrail'e saldırma planı
olan her ulusun belleğine yazılacak' diyen Olmert'e göre 1 milyon kişinin
yollara düşmesi de başarı: Hizbullah'ın güç kaynağı nüfus yerinden edildi
LONDRA - İsrail Başbakanı Ehud Olmert, Times gazetesi, BBC ve Sky
televizyonları, AP ve Reuters ajanslarına bir dizi demeç vererek, Lübnan'a
İsrail ordusunun işini görecek bir çokuluslu güç konuşlandırılmasının 'reklam'ını
yaptı. Hizbullah'ı destekleyen Şii nüfusu 'terörist' diye niteleyip Lübnan'ın
güneyinde etnik temizlik yaptıklarını itiraf eden Olmert, ölüm ve yıkım yoluyla
tüm Ortadoğu'ya gözdağı verdiklerini açıkça dile getirdi: Onlar Hizbullah
halkıdır, onlar teröristtir.
'Uluslararası güce yol
açıyoruz'
Lübnan'ın güneyine muharebe birliklerinden oluşan çok kuvvetli bir uluslararası
güç konuşlanıncaya dek saldırmayı sürdüreceklerini tekrarlayan İsrail Başbakanı,
bu gücün 15 bin askerden oluşması ve BM'den 1559 sayılı karar uyarınca
Hizbullah'ı silahsızlandırma yetkisi alması gerektiğini söyledi. "Giderek daha
derine ilerleyip Hizbullah'ı söküp atarak, bölgeyi uluslararası güç için açmaya
çalışıyoruz. Onlar gelinceye dek Hizbullah'ın yeniden yapılanma fırsatı bulacağı
bir boşluk oluşmamalı" diyen Olmert, Hizbullah'ın altyapısını tamamen çökertip
700 komuta merkezini imha ettiklerini anlatırken, "Lübnan'da Hizbullah'ın güç
kaynağı olan nüfusun tamamı yerinden edildi" ifadesini kullandı.
'İsrail'e güç mü, çok
esprilisiniz!'
İsrail Başbakanı, "Hizbullah'ın saldırısına uğrarsa uluslararası güç ne yapacak?
Bunu onlar söylemeli. Ben sadece güçle işbirliği yapacağımızı söyleyebilirim"
dedi. Güce katkı yapmasını umduğu ülkeleri, Fransa, Britanya, İtalya, Avustralya
ve Türkiye olarak sayan Olmert, Arap ve Müslüman ülkelerin katkısının önemiyle
ilgili soruyu "Çok önemli. Türk askerlerini görmekten mutluluk duyarım. Türk
ordusu ve hükümetine çok saygımız var" diye yanıtladı. Times'ın 'Öyleyse tüm
eski sömürgeci güçleriniz geri gelecek' dokundurmasını "İsrail'e değil, Lübnan'a"
diye karşılayan Olmert, 'Gücü sınırın her iki tarafına da konuşlandırsak' sözüne,
"Çok espritüelsiniz. Bunu ciddiye almıyorum" yanıtını verdi.
'Avrupa da Kosova'yı
vurmuştu'
İsrail Başbakanı, Hizbullah'ın halkına saldırılarını 'ortalama Britanya
vatandaşına en basit yoldan' şöyle anlattı: "Bir terör örgütü kafalarına roket
atıyor diye Manchester, Liverpool ve diğer kentlerde 7 milyon Britanyalının 22
gün sığınaklarda yaşadığını hayal edebiliyor musunuz? Böyle vahşi bir saldırıya
İsrail kadar yumuşak tepki veren başka bir ülke biliyor musunuz? Tarih bilgim,
hiçbir Avrupa ülkesinin İsrail kadar itidalli tepki vermeyeceğini söylüyor.
Avrupa güçleri 10 yıl önce Kosova'da tam da ne yapmıştı? Kosova'da ne kadar
masum sivil öldürülmüştü? Bu benzetmeler bitmez, ne diyordum ben?"
'Kolektif hafızaya
kazıyacağız'
İsrail Başbakanı, Lübnan'da can kayıplarının neredeyse tamamının sivil olmasını
şöyle değerlendirdi: "Kimin masum olup kimin olmadığını nereden biliyorsunuz?
Beyrut ve Lübnan'ın Hıristiyan bölgelerine hiç saldırmadık. Öldürülenlerin
üniforma giymemesi masum siviller oldukları anlamına gelmez. Onlar Hizbullah
halkıdır, onlar teröristtir. Bizim ordumuzdaki gibi üniforma giyen terörist hiç
gördünüz mü, hayır." Saldırının ölümcüllüğünü, "Verdiğimiz tepkinin şekli,
sadece Lübnan halkının değil, İsrail'e füzeyle saldırma planı olan her ulusun
kolektif hafızasına kazınacak. Tepkimizin çok çok çok acı verici olacağını
bilecekler. Hizbullah, Suriye ve İran, 'İsrail'e füze atmaya değer mi' diye beş
kez düşünecek" sözleriyle gerekçelendiren Olmert, Gazze Şeridi için de "İsrail'in
tepkisinin tadına yeterince vardıklarını sanmıyorum, en iyisi onlara sorun"
ifadelerini kullandı.
'Şebaa müzakere edilmez'
İsrail'in Batı Şeria'nın büyük kısmını ilhak edip sınırlarını 2010'a dek tek
yanlı belirleme planıyla ilgili "Sergiledimiz güçle doğacak yeni düzen,
Filistinlilerden ayrılma için ortam sağlayacak. Ortadoğu'nun tüm halkları için
daha fazla güvenlik, daha iyi fırsatlar sağlayacak yeni yaşam gerçekliğini
yaratacağız" diyen Olmert, Lübnan hükümetinin barış planında yer alan işgal
altındaki Şebaa çiftliklerinin statüsünün müzakeresini de reddetti.
Lübnan hükümetinin dünkü resmi açıklamasına göre, 12 Temmuz'da başlayan İsrail
saldırısında üçte biri 12 yaş altında 900'den fazla Lübnanlı öldü, 3 bini
yaralandı. Saldırılar yüzünden yerinden olan Lübnanlıların sayısı 1 milyonu
bulurken, bunların yüzde 45'ini de çocuklar oluşturuyor. (Dış Haberler)
Aydınlar: İsrail
savaş suçu işliyor
ABD ve Britanya, İsrail'in Lübnan'da savaş suçu
işlemesine destek veriyor. Hükümetlerimizin bu suça katkısını teşhir etmek için
elimizden geleni yapacağız
TarIk Alİ / Noam Chomsky / Eduardo Galeano / Howard Zinn / Ken Loach John
Berger / Arundhati Roy
ABD destekli İsrail saldırısı, Lübnan'ı felç etti, ateşe ve öfkeye boğdu.
Kana'daki katliam ve can kayıpları, sadece 'orantısız güç kullanımından' ibaret
değil. Uluslararası yasalara göre, bu bir savaş suçu.
Lübnan'ın sosyal altyapısının, İsrail hava kuvvetleri tarafından kasıtlı ve
sistematik imhası da savaş suçu.
İsrail'in hedefi bu ülkeyi bir İsrail-ABD vilayeti statüsüne indirgemek.
Bu girişim geri tepiyor, zira dünyanın dört bir köşesindeki insanlar olan biteni
dehşetle izliyor. Lübnan'da nüfusun yüzde 87'si şu an Hizbullah direnişini
destekliyor. Bu destek Hıristiyan ve Dürziler arasında yüzde 80, Sünni
Müslümanlar arasındaysa yüzde 89 oranında. Öte yandan, ABD'nin Lübnan'ı
desteklediğine inanan Lübnanlıların oranı yüzde 8.
Saldırı çoktan
planlanmıştı
Fakat, İsrail'in bu eylemleri 'uluslararası toplum' tarafından kurulmuş herhangi
bir mahkeme tarafından yargılanmayacak, zira bu korkunç suçları destekleyen veya
bunlara kayıtsız kalan ABD ve müttefikleri böyle bir şeye izin vermeyecek.
Hizbullah'ı yok etmek için yapılan Lübnan saldırısının çok uzun zaman önce
hazırlandığı artık açık. İsrail'in işlediği suçlara, ABD ve onun her daim sadık
müttefiki Britanya da yeşil ışık yaktı. Blair, ülkesinde kendisine karşı ezici
bir muhalefet olmasına rağmen tutumunu değiştirmedi.
Direnişi destekliyoruz
Lübnan'ın tadını kısa süreliğine çıkardığı barış sona erdi ve felç edilmiş bir
ülke unutmayı umduğu bir geçmişi hatırlamaya zorlanıyor. Lübnan'a dayatılan
devlet terörü Gazze gettosunda da tekrarlanıyor; 'uluslararası toplum'sa bir
köşede durmuş, olan biteni sessizce izliyor. Bu arada Filistin'in geri kalanı,
ABD'nin doğrudan katılımı ve müttefiklerinin üstü örtülü onayıyla ilhak edilip
parçalanıyor.
Bu vahşetin kurbanlarını ve ona karşı direnenleri destekliyoruz.
Hükümetlerimizin bu eylemlerdeki suç ortaklığını teşhir etmek için elimizdeki
bütün araçları kullanacağız. Filistin ve Irak işgalleriyle Lübnan'a yönelik
geçici olarak 'durdurulan' bombardımanlar sürdükçe, Ortadoğu'da barış da
olmayacak. (Yazar/MIT'de dilbilim profesörü/yazar/tarihçi/yönetmen/sanat
eleştirmeni/yazar)
Başbakan Erdoğan:
Küresel yangın bizi bekliyor
Malezya'da pek çok ikili
temas fırsatı bulan Başbakan Erdoğan, İran lideri Ahmedinecad'la da bir
araya geldi. FOTOĞRAF:
KAYHAN ÖZER / AA
İKÖ'nün acil zirvesinde liderler Batı'ya, 'Lübnan
saldırısı durmazsa öfkeli halk radikalleşecek' uyarısı yaptı. Erdoğan: Küresel
yangın çıkacak
PUTRAJAYA - İslam Konferansı Örgütü'nün (İKÖ) Malezya'daki olağanüstü
zirvesinde İsrail'in Lübnan savaşı şiddetle kınanırken, BM Güvenlik Konseyi'nden
acil ateşkes çağrısı istendi. 17 ülkenin katıldığı zirvedeki konuşmalarda
Batı'ya yapılan ve İslam dünyasının sabrının artık en ılımlı ülkelerde dahi
taştığı uyarıları damgasını vurdu. Başbakan Tayyip Erdoğan savaşın 'küresel
yangın çıkaracağı' uyarısında bulundu.
Türkiye, Malezya, Endonezya, Azerbaycan gibi ülkelerin lider, Mısır, Ürdün Katar,
Suriye, Senegal, Suudi Arabistan, Birleşik Arap Emirlikleri, Yemen ve
Filistin'in dışişleri bakanları düzeyinde temsil edildiği genişletilmiş İKÖ
zirvesi dün Lübnan özel gündemiyle Kuala Lumpur'da toplandı.
'Lübnan'a tazminat
ödensin'
Sonuç bildirisinde İsrail, Lübnan ve Filistin'deki saldırıları nedeniyle
şiddetle kınanırken, BM Güvenlik Konseyi'nden daha fazla sorumluluğunu
ertelemeden acil, koşulsuz ve kapsamlı ateşkes talep edildi. İsrail'e işlediği
suçlardan BM soruşturması açılması çağrısı da yapan bildiride, 'İsrail'e
kahramanca direnen Lübnan halkı ile dayanışma' dile getirildi. Bildiride "Kayıplar
ve acılardan İsrail'i sorumlu tutuyor, Lübnan'a tazminat ödemesini istiyoruz"
denildi.
Zirvedeki konuşmaların tonu ağırdı. Erdoğan, İsrail'i orantısız güç kullanmakla
suçlayarak, "Bu savaş hiçbir şekilde meşru kabul edilemez. Müdafaa edilemez. Bu
adil değil. Bunun galibi olmayacak. Nefret tohumları eken, radikalizme götüren
bir savaştır. Korkunç küresel yangının bizleri beklediğini söylemek kehanet
olmaz" dedi.
Erdoğan, medeniyetler çatışması potansiyeline dikkati çekip BM'ye yüklendi: "Bugün
sesimizi yükseltmez, bu gidişe dur diyemezsek, yarın çok geç olabilir. İKÖ ve
AB'ye çok önemli görevler düşüyor. BM temelleri atılırken, güçlünün kendini
haklı göremeyeceği, amaçlarını şiddet yoluyla gerçekleştirenlerin insanlığa
büyük acı yaşatamayacağı bir barış düzeni öngörülmüştü. Ne yazık ki bugün bu
düzen 2. Dünya Savaşı'ndan beri en ciddi tehditlerden birine maruz bırakıldı. BM
Güvenlik Konseyi zayıf düşürüldü." Başbakan, Lübnan Başbakanı Fuad Sinyora'nın
ateşkesi takiben, esir değişimi, İsrail'in Mavi Hat'ın gerisine çekilmesi,
mültecilerin dönüşü, mayın haritalarının verilmesi, BM'nin güçlendirilmesi, 1949
tarihli anlaşmadaki sınırlara dönülmesini içeren planının kabul edilebilir
olduğunu söyledi.
'BM çatısı olursa biz
hazırız'
Erdoğan, Lübnan için çokuluslu gücün BM çatısında olması ve tarafların rızasına
dayanması gerektiğini yineleyip, ateşkes sonrası Türkiye'nin böyle bir güce
katılmaya hazır olduğunu söyledi. Diğer liderlerin uyarıları da Batı'yı hedef
aldı. Malezya Başbakanı Ahmed Bedevi, "Ilımlı Müslüman ülkeler bile öfkeli.
Kızgın insanların terörün saflarına katılmasından endişeliyiz" derken, Endonezya
Devlet Başkanı Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, "Savaş durmazsa İslam dünyası
radikalleşecek. Nihai kâbusa, medeniyetler çatışmasına bir adım kalacak" diye
konuştu. İran Cumhurbaşkanı Mahmud Ahmedinecad ise "Esas çare Siyonist rejimin
ortadan kalkması olsa da şimdi acil ateşkes şart" dedi. Ahmedinecad, ABD
Dışişleri Bakanı Condoleezza Rice'ın "Yeni Ortadoğu'nun zamanı" sözüne atfen,
"ABD yeni Ortadoğu peşinde. Biz de yeni Ortadoğu planı gerçekleşecek diyoruz,
ama bunda İsrail olmayacak" dedi. Sinyora telefonla zirveye bağlanıp barış
planına destek istedi. (aa, afp)
Bu ne korku
İsrail
saldırısının görüşüldüğü İslam Zirvesi'ne "ABD kızar" diye Arap
liderlerin hiçbiri katılmadı
İsrail'in 3
haftadır Lübnan'da sürdürdüğü, 900'den fazla kişinin ölmesine neden olan
operasyonun masaya yatırılıp kınandığı Malezya'daki İslam Konferansı Örgütü (İKÖ)
zirvesine, Türkiye normalde katılmaması gerekirken özel davetli olarak gitti ve
Başbakan Erdoğan tarafından temsil edildi. Başkent Kuala Lumpur'da 18 ülkenin
katılımıyla düzenlenen, hükümet ve devlet başkanları düzeyindeki İKÖ'nün
genişletilmiş olağanüstü yürütme kurulu toplantısına İran, Endonezya, Pakistan,
Azerbaycan, Brunei ve Bangladeş de hükümet ya da devlet başkanlarını gönderdi.
Ancak, İsrail'in Hizbullah'a yönelik Lübnan operasyonuna sessiz kaldıkları için
zaten büyük tepki toplayan birçok Arap ülkesi ise, bölgeyi bu kadar yakından
ilgilendiren olağanüstü zirveye daha alt kademelerdeki yetkililerini göndermekle
yetindi. Mısır, Ürdün, Katar, Suudi Arabistan, Suriye, Birleşik Arap Emirlikleri,
Yemen ve Filistin'in yanı sıra Lübnan da, dışişleri bakanı, kraliyet üyesi ya da
üst düzey devlet yetkilileri tarafından temsil edildi.
Ses çıkarmıyolar
Arap ülkelerinin lider göndermemesi büyük tepki topladı ve 'korktukları' için
zirveye üst düzey katılım göstermedikleri yorumları yapıldı. Zira, ekonomik
açıdan güçlü ancak gücünü halklarından almayan Arap şeyhleri, yaşamlarını başta
ABD olmak üzere Batılı ülkelere dayanarak sürdürüyor. Bu nedenle ABD'nin ve
dolaylı olarak İsrail'in bölgedeki politika ve girişimlerine ses çıkarmakta
zorlanıyorlar. Sünni iktidarlara sahip olan bu Arap ülkelerinin İsrail
operasyonuna ses çıkarmasının diğer nedenleri ise, Şii hareketi olan
Hizbullah'ın güçlenmesinden ve nüfusunun yüzde 89'u Şii olan İran'ın her geçen
gün artan nüfuzundan çekinmeleri... Araplar'ın bu tutumu, zirveden İsrail'e ve
tüm dünyaya güçlü bir mesaj çıkmasına da set çekti. Zirveden 'acil ateşkes'
çağrısı çıktı, ancak somut adımlar atılamadı.
'Onları görmek isterdik'
Başbakan, Arap liderlerinin zirveye gelmemesini, "Doğrusu katılmalarını arzu
ederdik. Tabii bu konu bizi üzmüştür" sözleriyle değerlendirdi. Erdoğan,
zirvenin açılışında yaptığı konuşmada ise, İsrail'i çok sert sözlerle eleştirdi:
"Bu savaşın galibi olmayacaktır. Tanık olduğumuz savaş hiçbir şekilde meşru
kabul edilemez. İsrail, Lübnan'da orantısız güç kullanıyor. Kadınlarla çocuklar
göz göre göre öldürülüyor. Bu adil olmayan, nefret tohumları eken, radikalizme
götüren bir savaştır. Bugün dokunulmayanlar, yarın bana dokunulmayacak rehaveti
içine girmesinler. Aynı tarafsızlık, aynı durum onlara da olabilir. Onun için
bugünden tezi yok tavrımızı koyarak, adımlarımızı atmamız gerekmektedir. Bu güç
mutlaka BM çatısı altında olmalıdır."
Amerika'nın imajı sönüyor
Lübnan olaylarının ABD'nin özgürlük ve adalet konularındaki liderlik imajını
yıktığına işaret eden Gül, 'ABD, başkasından istediği değerlere kendisi de
uymalı' dedi
Dışişleri Bakanı ve Başbakan Yardımcısı Abdullah Gül, Lübnan'da devam eden
trajedinin, ABD'nin özgürlük ve adalet konularındaki liderlik mirasına ilişkin
dünyada sorular uyandırdığını ve Ortadoğu'nun demokratik dönüşümüne yönelik
umutların da paramparça olmasına yol açtığını belirtti.
Abdullah Gül, Lübnan'daki krize ilişkin ABD'nin saygın gazetelerinden Washington
Post'ta yayımlanan "Liderlik çağrısı: Dünyanın tek süper gücü bu trajediyi neden
durdurmuyor?" başlıklı makalesinde, 20 günden fazla bir süredir devam eden
çatışmaların hâlâ sona erdirilememesinin doğurduğu hayal kırıklığına işaret etti.
Bu durumun ABD'nin özgürlük ve adalet konusundaki liderliğiyle ilgili soru
işaretleri yarattığını vurgulayan Gül, "Lübnan'da gözlerimizin önünde gelişen
trajedi ve üç haftadır süren acılara rağmen uluslararası topluluğun bunu sona
erdirememesi, maalesef ABD ve bu ülkenin özgürlük ve adalet liderliği mirası ile
ilgili sorular uyandırıyor" ifadesini kullandı.
Gül, "Benim neslim demokrasinin yüksek değerlerinin yanında duran bir ABD
imajıyla büyüdü. Dünya çapında milyonlarca insanın dehşet içinde Lübnan'daki
olayları izlediği bir ortamda, bu nazik, kibar ulus imajının sönükleşmesi üzücü"
diye yazdı.
Beyrut sokaklarını vuran her bombanın aslında insanların vicdanlarını da
vurduğunu belirten Gül, şöyle devam etti: "Dünyanın her yerinde aynı soru
soruluyor: Bu trajediyi durdurma kapasitesine sahip olan tek süper güç,
insanların acı çekmesine neden göz yumuyor ve merhamet çağrılarına neden
kulaklarını tıkıyor?"
Fanatikler kazanıyor
Gül, "Bölge insanlarının yaşamlarıyla birlikte, bizim, ABD ve diğer
müttefiklerle bin bir zahmetle geliştirilmesine uğraştığımız Ortadoğu'nun
demokratik dönüşümüne yönelik umutlar da paramparça oluyor" dedi.
Mevcut durumda radikallerin ve fanatiklerin etkilerini genişletmeye çalıştığını
belirten Gül, "Kimsenin buna izin vermeye hakkı var mı?" diye sordu ve "Kolektif
vicdanımızın günlerdir bize yapmamızı söylediği şey için hepimizin harekete
geçmesi gerekiyor" dedi.
Lübnan krizi için tek çözüm yolunun, Ortadoğu'da çıbanlaşan sorunların temeline
inecek şekilde eyleme geçilmesi olduğunu kaydeden Gül, "Etkili olabilmesi için
başkalarından uymaları istenen değerlere kendisi de uyan gerçek bir liderlik
gerekiyor" dedi.
İsrail'in Lübnan ve Gazze'deki saldırıları, bugün
Türkiye'nin pek çok kentinde protesto edildi.
İstanbulda Beyazıt, Fatih ve Bağcılar'daki camilerden cuma namazından çıkan
gruplar, İsrail'i protesto etti. Beyazıt Camii'nden cuma namazından çıkan
yaklaşık bin kişilik bir grup, ellerinde Filistin bayraklarıyla, tekbir getirip
çeşitli sloganlar atarak meydanda toplandı.
Özgür-Der Başkanı Hülya Şekerci, çok sayıda sivil toplum kuruluşunun katıldığı
gruba hitaben yaptığı konuşmada, İsrail'in Filistin ve Lübnan'a yönelik
saldırılarını lanetlediklerini söyledi.
Şekerci, Venezüella Devlet Başkanı Hugo Chavez'in İsrail'deki büyükelçiliğini
kapattığını bildirerek, Chavez'in onurlu davrandığını aynı davranışı Türkiye'den
de beklediklerini söyledi.
Hizbullah'ın Siyasi Lideri Seyyid Hasan Nasrallah lehinde sloganlar da atılan
gösteri sırasında bir grup, ABD ve İsrail bayraklarını yaktı. Grup, Filistin ve
Lübnan'da ölenler için edilen duanın ardından dağıldı.
Fatihteki gösteri
Fatih Camii'nde de cuma namazının ardından cami avlusunda toplanan grup,
ellerinde Filistin bayrakları taşıyarak tekbir getirdi. Grup üyeleri tarafından
cami avlusuna, ''Allah'ı zalimlerin yaptıklarından habersiz sanma. Hepimiz
Filistinliyiz, Filistin bizim canımız'' yazılı Anadolu Gençlik Derneği İstanbul
Şubesi imzalı pankartlar asıldı.
Bu arada bir kişi, ''katil İsrail'in bebelere yaptığı işkence resimleri''
diyerek, üzerinde öldürülmüş bir bebek fotoğrafının yer aldığı afişler dağıttı.
Derneğin İstanbul Şube Başkanı Ömer Fuat Günday, slogan atan gruba hitaben bir
konuşma yaptı. Günday, ey zalimler ve onların işbirlikçileri, yaptığınız
zulümlere karşı asla sessiz kalmayacağız. Eli kanlı katiller akıttıkları kanda
boğulacaklardır. Hiç bir zaman zalimlerin yanında olmadık, olmayacağız'' diye
konuştu.
''Zulme karşı direneceğiz'' sloganlar atan grup, Filistin ve Lübnan'da
öldürülenler için dua etti ve gıyabi cenaze namazı kıldı.
Grup, Doç. Dr. Nedim Urhan'ın kıldırdığı gıyabi cenaze namazının ardından
dağıldı. Ancak, küçük bir grup bu arada avlunun bir köşesinde İsrail bayrağı
yaktı.
Eyleme getirilen bir grup küçük çocuk da cami avlusunun bir köşesinde ''Kahrolsun
İsrail'' sloganları attı
Bağcılarda da gösteri düzenlendi
Bu arada, Bağcılar Merkez Camii'ndeki cuma namazından çıkan bir grup da İsrail'i
protesto ederek, Filistin ve Lübnan'da ölenler için gıyabi cenaze namazı kıldı.
Grup, yapılan basın açıklamasının ardından dağıldı. Her üç cami ve çevresinde,
protesto gösterileri nedeniyle geniş güvenlik önlemleri alındı.
İl il diğer gösteriler
Kayseri: CHP, MHP, DYP, BBP, Saadet Partisi, Türk
Eğitim-Sen, Türk Sağlık-Sen, Türk Tarım-Orman-Sen ve bazı sivil toplum
kuruluşlarının temsilcileri, Cumhuriyet meydanında basın açıklaması yaptı.
Basın açıklamasında, ABD ve İsrail'in Büyük Ortadoğu Projesi adı altında
haritaları değiştirmeyi amaçladığı iddia edildi.
''İsrail'in ABD desteğiyle sürdürdüğü katliamlara'' sessiz kalınmaması gerektiği
belirtilen açıklamada, AK Parti iktidarının olumlu dış politika izleyemediği öne
sürüldü.
Van: Hazreti Ömer Camisi avlusunda cuma namazı sonrası
toplanan grup, toplu halde dua etti.Grup, sloganlar eşliğinde Beşyol mevkisine
kadar yürüdü.
Cumhuriyet caddesine gelerek yürüyüşe devam etmek isteyen grup, polisin uyarısı
üzerine dağıldı.
Sivas: İsrail'in Lübnan ve Filistin'e yaptığı
saldırılarda hayatını kaybedenler için cuma namazı çıkışında Tarihi Ulu
Camii'nin bahçesinde gıyabi cenaze namazı kılındı.
Namaza, AK Parti Sivas milletvekili Ömer Kulaksız ve AK Parti İl Başkanı Hakan
Akkaş ile çocukların da aralarında bulunduğu çok sayıda vatandaş katıldı.
İsrail aleyhine slogan atan grup, namazın ardından dağıldı.
Malatya: Memur-Sen Malatya İl Temsilciliğince,
İsrail'in Lübnan ve Filistin saldırılarını kınamak amacıyla imza kampanyası
başlatıldı.
Memur-Sen Malatya İl Temsilcisi Şahin Kayaduman, Malatya Belediyesi önünde
yaptığı açıklamada, Türkiye'nin, İsrail ile olan bütün ilişkilerini kesmesini
talep ettiklerini belirtti.
İsrail'in savaş suçlusu olarak yargılanması gerektiğini ifade eden Kayaduman,
Türkiye çapında toplayacakları milyonlarca imzayı medyanın huzurunda Dışişleri
Bakanlığına teslim edeceklerini kaydetti.
Daha sonra, İsrail'in saldırıları sonucunda zarar gören halkın ihtiyaçlarının
karşılanması için açılan hesap numarasının yazılı olduğu kağıtlar, vatandaşlara
dağıtıldı.
Kampanyanın düzenlendiği alanda, İsrail'in saldırıları sonucunda zarar
görenlerin fotoğraflarının yer aldığı sergi açıldı. Sergi üç gün boyunca açık
kalacak.
Kırıkkale: Saadet Partisi Kırıkkale İl Başkanlığınca
düzenlenen mitinge, sivil toplum örgütleri ve siyasi partiler de destek verdi.
Saadet Partisi İl Başkanı Arif Erdal, İsrail'in yaptığı saldırıların barbarlık,
ırkçılık ve soykırıma dönüştüğünü söyledi.
Afyonkarahisar: Tarihi İmaret Camisinde cuma namazı
sonrası saldırılarda ölenler için gıyabi cenaze namazı kılındı.
Daha sonra vatandaşlar, caminin yanında açılan savaş fotoğrafları sergisini
gezdi.
Bağdat'ta yüz binlerce Şii
İsrail'i lanetledi
BAĞDAT (A.A) 4 Ağustos 2006
Irak'ın başkenti Bağdat'ta, İsrail'in saldırılarını kınamak için yüz binlerce
Şii gösteri yaptı.
Şii lideri Mukteda Sadr tarafından tertip edilen, bölgede şimdiye kadar
yapılan Hizbullah'ın desteklendiği bu en büyük gösteride, İsrail'e ölüm,
Amerika'ya ölüm sloganları atıldı. Bağdat'ın en büyük Şii semti Sadr'da
yapılan gösteri için ülkenin güneyinden Sadr yanlısı Şiiler de başkente akın
etti. Ancak Sadr gösteriye katılmadı.
Hizbullah lideri Şeyh Hasan Nasrallah'a desteğin de ifade edildiği gösteriye
katılanlar, Allah Allah, Nasrallah'a zafer, Mehdi'nin Ordusu ve Hizbullah
birdir şeklinde sloganlar attılar.
Sadr yandaşları gösteri yerine giden yollara Amerikan ve İsrail bayrakları
çizdiler. Böylece göstericiler bayrakları çiğneyerek gösteri yerine gitmiş
oldular. Irak televizyonu, Savunma Bakanlığının gösteriye izin verdiğini duyurdu.
DİĞER GÖSTERİLER
Bu arada, Asya ülkelerinde de İsrail'in saldırını kınayan gösteriler düzenlendi.
Bangladeş'in başkenti Dakka'da cuma namazından sora bin kadar kişi gösteri yaptı.
Gösteride Kahrolsun İsrail, Müslümanları öldürmeye son verin sloganları
atıldı.
Filipinler'de de onlarca protestocu İsrail ve ABD büyükelçilikleri önünde bu
ülkelerin bayraklarını yaktılar.
Endonezya'nın başkenti Cakarta'da da Amerikan büyükelçiliği önünde bin kadar
kişi gösteri yaptı.
İsrail, Lübnan'daki operasyonlarının 23'üncü gününde bu ülkeye bomba yağdırmayı
sürdürürken, Lübnan-Suriye sınırı yakınlarındaki Akkar kentinde biri Osmanlı
dönemine ait iki köprü İsrail bombardımanında yıkıldı.
İsrail uçakları, dün sabah düzenlenen akınlarda Beyrut'un güneyiyle birlikte,
Bekaa Vadisi, Suriye sınırı yakınlarındaki karayolları ve güneydeki Nabatiye
dahil 70 kadar hedefi vurdu. İsrail savaş uçaklarının Lübnan'ın güneyindeki
Tayibe köyünü bombalaması sonucu aynı aileden 3 kişi hayatını kaybetti.
Lübnan'ın güneyinde de İsrail kara birlikleri birçok bölgede Hizbullah
gerillalarıyla çatışmaya girdi, çatışmalarda 4 İsrail askeri öldü, 5'i yaralandı.
Hizbullah da dün İsrail'e roket yağdırmayı sürdürdü. Hizbullah'ın İsrail'e
attığı 160 roket, 8 İsraillinin ölümüne yol açtı.
900 Lübnanlı öldü
Lübnan Başbakanı Fuad Sinyora, 23 gündür devam eden İsrail saldırısında
Lübnan'da 900'den fazla kişinin öldüğünü, 3 bin kişinin yaralandığını ve 1
milyon kişinin yerinden olduğunu söyledi. Sinyora, İslam Konferansı Örgütü (İKÖ)
Yürütme Kurulu'nun İsrail'in Lübnan ve Filistin'deki saldırılarıyla ilgili
Malezya'da yaptığı toplantıya telekonferans aracılığıyla katılarak yaptığı
konuşmada, İsrail'in saldırılarında kayıpların 3'te birini 12 yaşın altındaki
çocukların oluşturduğunu belirtti. Fuad Sinyora, "İsrail'in Lübnan saldırısı
insan hayatına ve altyapı sistemine büyük bedeli olmaktadır. Ülkemizi tamamen
mahvetmiş ve ekonomimizi sarsmıştır" dedi.
ABD Dışişleri Bakanlığı, Dışişleri Bakanı Abdullah
Gül'ün ABD eleştirilerine katılmadıklarını belirtti.
ABD Dışişleri Bakanlığı Sözcüsü Sean McCormack, Dışişleri Bakanı Abdullah Gül'ün
Amerikan Washington Post gazetesinde yayınlanan makalesi ile ilgili gelen
soruları yanıtladı. McCormack, Gül'ün yazısında yer alan, süper güç ABD'nin
niçin Lübnan trajedisini devam etmesine ve insanların acı çekmesine izin verdiği
yolundaki ifadelerin hatırlatılması üzerine, ABD'nin başından beri şiddeti
durdurmak için çaba gösterdiğini savundu.
McCormack, "Bence gerçekler, Birleşik Devletler Hükümeti'nin şiddeti
başlangıçtaki noktaya dönmeyecek şekilde önlemek için işin başından bu yana
devrede olduğunu gösteriyor. Yani bu durumu (Gül'den) daha farklı
değerlendiriyorum" dedi.
YUNAN
GAZETECİDEN GÜL'E ÖVGÜ
Öte yandan McCormack'a Yunan gazeteci Lambros'un soruyu sorarken, Abdullah Gül'ü
"Birinci sınıf centilmen, nazik bir insan ve samimi bir Türk politikacı"
şeklinde nitelendirmesi dikkat çekti.
ABD Dışişleri Sözcüsü, Yunan gazetecinin soruya bu şekilde başlaması üzerine "sanırım
sonrasında büyük bir 'ama' gelecek" demesi salonda gülümsemelere neden oldu.
Sean McCormack, Türkiye'de görev yapan CIA yetkilisi Philip Giraldi'nin basında
yer alan açıklamaları ile ilgili sorulan soruyu da Giraldi'nin açıklamalarını
görmediğini belirterek yanıtsız bıraktı.
'Bugün dokunulmayanlar sakın rehavete kapılmasın'
İsrail'e yüklenen Erdoğan, Lübnan'da olanları radikalizmi güçlendiren bir
savaş olarak niteledi ve dünyanın etkisiz tavrına işaret ederek, 'Aynı
tarafsızlık ileride onlara da olabilir' dedi
İPEK YEZDANİ Kuala Lumpur
04 Ağustos 2006
İslam Konferansı Örgütü (İKÖ) Yürütme Kurulu'nun İsrail'in Lübnan ve
Filistin'deki saldırılarıyla ilgili Malezya'da yaptığı toplantıya katılan
Başbakan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, "Bugün dokunulmayanlar, yarın bana dokunulmayacak
rehaveti içine girmesin" dedi.
Başkent Kuala Lumpur'daki toplantının açılışında konuşan Erdoğan, İsrail'in
saldırılarına dünyanın seyirci kalmasıyla ilgili olarak, "Aynı tarafsızlık, aynı
durum onlara da olabilir" ifadesini kullandı. Başbakan Erdoğan, şiddetle barışa
ulaşılamayacağını, ihtilaflarını kan davasına dönüştürenlerin dünyayı kaosa
sürüklediğini belirtti.
Sadece 19 ülkenin hükümet ve devlet başkanları düzeyinde temsil edildiği, Arap
ülkeleri liderlerinden hiçbirinin katılmadığı olağanüstü İKÖ zirvesinde söz alan
Erdoğan, İsrail'in Lübnan'da yaptıklarının hiçbir şekilde meşru kabul
edilemeyeceğini vurguladı. Lübnan'da olanları, "Nefret tohumları eken,
radikalizme götüren bir savaş" şeklinde niteleyen Erdoğan, "Korkunç küresel bir
yangının bizi beklediğini söylemek kehanet olmayacaktır" dedi. Irak'ta güvenlik
sorunu devam ederken, bölgede patlak veren yangının tahammül sınırlarını
zorlamaya başladığını kaydeden Erdoğan, bu yangının medeniyetler çatışması
potansiyeli taşıdığına işaret etti. Erdoğan, Lübnan-İsrail sınırına barış
gücünün konuşlandırılmasıyla ilgili olarak da, "Safi ateşkes sağlandığında,
tarafların kabulü ve uygun siyasi koşullar hazırlandığı takdirde Türkiye olarak
biz de bu istikrar gücüne katkıda bulunmayı değerlendiriyoruz ve buna hazırız"
dedi.
İKÖ bildirisi
Zirvenin sonuç bildirisinde, BM Güvenlik Konseyi'nin acil, koşulsuz ve kapsamlı
ateşkes sağlayarak, sorumluluğunu artık daha fazla ertelemeden yerine getirmesi
istendi. Bildiride, İsrail'in suç teşkil eden saldırılarıyla ilgili BM
soruşturması açılması çağrısında da bulunuldu.
Arap liderler üzdü
Erdoğan, zirveye hiçbir Arap liderin katılmamasını "üzücü" bulurken, İKÖ Genel
Sekreteri İhsanoğlu, "Demek ki Asya ülkeleri Lübnan sorununa Arap ülkelerinden
daha çok önem veriyor" dedi.
US counters Gül's criticism
Saturday, August 5, 2006
Washington does not agree with Gül on Lebanon
ÜMİT ENGİNSOY WASHINGTON - Turkish Daily News
The U.S. State Department rejected criticism by Foreign Minister Abdullah
Gül that Washington had remained inactive in the face of Israel's
disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force in the war in Lebanon.
I guess I would characterize it a little differently, said State
Department spokesman Sean McCormack when asked to comment on Gül's
accusations. I think that the facts show that the United States government
has been deeply involved from very early on in trying to bring about an end to
the violence in such a way that we don't end up right back where we were.
The grave tragedy that has been unfolding before our eyes in Lebanon and
the inability of the international community to bring it to an end after three
weeks of suffering unfortunately raise questions about the United States and
its proud legacy of leadership for freedom and justice, Gül said in an
article published in The Washington Post on Thursday.
İslam ülkeleri
ayakta: İsrail ve ABD'ye öfke
İranlı göstericiler Britanya
elçiliğinin tabelasını söktü. Bağdat'ta Bush ve Blair protesto edildi.
FOTOĞRAF:
AP
Iraklı Şiiler Bağdat'taki gösteride, İsrail ile
destekçisi ABD'ye ateş püskürdü. 'Askeriz, Nasrallah'ın çağrısı için hazırız'
sloganları atıldı. İran, Endonezya, Bangladeş'te de binlerce kişi sokağa döküldü
BAĞDAT - Dünyanın dört yanında dün cuma sonrası Tanzanya'dan Birmanya'ya
halklar, Lübnan'ı bombalayan İsrail'e karşı meydanlara dökülürken en ilgi çekici
gösteri Irak'taydı. Hükümet ortağı radikal Şii lider Mukteda Sadr'ın çağrısıyla
yüz binlerce Şii, Bağdat'a akın edip Lübnan'a destek verdi.
Önceki günden beri Basra ve Kerbela gibi Şii kentlerinden gelip Sadr semtini
hıncahınç dolduranlar, Hizbullah bayrakları ve örgüt lideri Hasan Nasrallah'ın
resimlerini taşıyıp İsrail ve ABD'ye kin kustu. Ortadoğu'da Lübnan'a destek için
yapılan en büyük gösteriye Sadr katılmazken temsilcisi Hazım Araci kalabalığa,
"1 milyonluk gösteri Lübnan direnişine destektir. İsrail 22 günde Lübnan'ı işgal
edemedi. Hizbullah İsrail'i dehşete düşürdü, zira ölümden korkmuyorlar" diye
seslendi. Göstericiler, 'Askeriz, Nasrallah'ın çağrısına hazırız', 'Nasrallah'a
zafer', 'İsrail ve ABD'ye ölüm' sloganı attı. Göstericiler şehadete hazır
olduklarını göstermek için beyaz kefen giydi. ABD Başkanı George W. Bush ve
İsrail Başbakanı Ehud Olmert'i Dracula gibi resmeden afişler taşıyan kalabalık,
ABD ve İsrail bayraklarını yaktı. Savunma Bakanlığı, halkın tepkisini paylaşmak
için gösteriye izin verdi.
Gösteri öncesi ise çatışma yaşandı. Sadr yanlılarına göre, ABD askerleri
Bağdat'a giden göstericilere Mahmudiye'de ateş açıp iki kişiyi öldürdü, 16'sını
yaraladı. ABD ordusu ise açılan ateşe yanıt verildiğini duyurdu.
İran'da Britanya
elçiliğine saldırı
İran'ın başkenti Tahran'da ise bir grup, İsrail'in saldırılarından sorumlu
tuttukları Britanya'nın Tahran Büyükelçiliği'ne saldırdı. Eski sömürge gücü
olmasına atfen 'Yaşlı tilki defol' sloganı atan göstericiler binayı taşa tutup
tabelasını söktü. Endonezya'nın başkenti Cakarta'da binlerce kişi 'cihat'
naralarıyla hükümete 'İsrail'in patronu ABD ile ilişkilerini kes' çağrısı yaptı.
Göstericiler hükümetten Hizbullah ile Hamas saflarında çatışacak savaşçı
göndermesini istedi. Pakistan meclisi, İsrail'i kınayan kararı oybirliğiyle
kabul edip acil ateşkes çağrısı yaparken, Devlet Bakanı Şer Afgan, İsrail'i 'Haçlı
seferi' başlatmakla suçladı.
Mısır'ın başkenti Kahire'deki El Ezher Camii'nde cuma namazında 2 bin kişi, 'Hizbullah'ın
zaferi' için dua ederken, Müslüman Kardeşler, Assiut'ta 130 eylemcinin
tutuklandığını duyurdu. Ürdün'de, İsrail elçiliğine yürümek isteyen 200
protestocuyla polis çatışınca dört kişi yaralandı, 10 kişi tutuklandı. Suriyeli
Hıristiyanlar ise kilise ayinlerinde, Hizbullah'ın direnişini övdü. (Dış
Haberler)
Türkiye'de Yahudi düşmanlığı artıyor
İngiliz The Economist dergisi, Osmanlı'nın 500 yıl önce Yahudilere kucak
açtığını ancak bugün Türkiye'de Yahudi düşmanlığının yükselişte olduğunu ileri
sürdü. Derginin son sayısında, "Türkiye'de Yahudi Karşıtlığı" başlıklı haberde,
Orgeneral Yaşar Büyükanıt'ın Genelkurmay Başkanlığı'na atanması öncesinde bazı
çevrelerin bu atamayı engelleyebilmek için Büyükanıt'ın aslında Yahudi olduğunu
ve Türkiye'yi İsrail'e daha da yakınlaştıracağına dair cep telefonu mesajları
gönderdiğine dikkat çekildi.
The Economist, "Yöneticilerin ülkede Yahudi düşmanlığı olmamasıyla övündüğü
Müslüman bir ülkede, bir generalin yolunun tıkanması için Yahudi olduğunun -ki
bu doğru değil- iddia edilmesi kaygı verici bir işaret" dedi.
Osmanlı'da farklıydı
PEW'in Küresel Eğilimler Araştırması'nda Türkiye'de Yahudilere sempatiyle
baktıklarını söyleyenlerin oranının sadece yüzde 15 olduğunun kaydedildiği
haberde, bu eğilimin, 500 yıl önce İber Yarımadası'ndaki Katolik hükümdarlardan
kaçan Yahudilere kucak açan Osmanlı sultanlarının tavrıyla çeliştiği belirtildi.
Haberde, "Şimdi giderek artan sayıda Yahudi, artık Türkiye'de kendini güvende
hissetmediğini söylüyor. Bazı azınlık liderleri ölüm tehditleri alıyor. El
Kaide'nin 2003'te İstanbul'da 2 sinagogu bombalamasından sonra bu korku daha da
arttı" denildi.
Türkiye'de Yahudi karşıtlığının giderek zemin kazandığının gözlendiğini iddia
eden The Economist, kitapçı tezgâhlarında da Yahudilik karşıtı yayınların
sayısının arttığını ileri sürdü.
Komplo teorileri
Türkiye'de bir taraftan da "tuhaf komplo teorileri" dolaştığını belirten dergi,
Saadet Partisi lideri Recai Kutan'ın 20'den fazla kişinin ölümüne yol açan
kenelerin Türkiye'ye İsrailli kadın dağcılar tarafından getirildiği yolundaki
bir iddianın araştırılmasını istediğini hatırlattı.
İsrail böyle vuruyor... Ölü sayısı 1000'e yaklaştı
Savaş 25. gününe girerken, ölü sayısı 1000'e yaklaştı. Uzaydan çekilen
fotoğraflar, Beyrut'un savaştan önceki ve savaştan sonraki halini gösterdi. 12
Temmuz tarihli Beyrut, başına düşecek bombalardan habersiz... İsrail
bombardımanından sonra, 31 Temmuz tarihli GeoEye fotoğraflarında, Beyrut'un aynı
bölgesi. Yerleşim yerinden eser yok, binalar yerle bir olmuş...
Lübnanlı yetkililer, 25. gününe giren İsrail bombardımanlarında ölenlerin
sayısının 968'e yükseldiğini ve 3 bin 293 kişinin yaralandığını belirttiler.
Lübnan hükümetine bağlı Kurtarma Komisyonu, ölenlerin yüzde 30'u 12
yaşından küçük çocuk olmak üzere 880'inin sivil olduğunu, ayrıca 28 asker ve
jandarmanın 12 temmuzda başlayan İsrail saldırılarında hayatını kaybettiğini
açıkladı.
Lübnan Şii Partisi de, bombardımanda 48 Hizbullah militanıyla Şii
müttefikleri Emel örgütünün 7 militanının öldüğünü bildirdi.
Savaşta ayrıca, 4 BM gözlemcisiyle bir BM Geçici Gücü (Finul) üyesi
hayatını kaybetti.
Lübnan'daki bilançoya hala enkaz altında bulunanların dahil olmadığı
belirtildi.
İsrail ile Hizbullah arasındaki çarpışmalar, 913 bin 760 kişinin de
yerinden olmasına yol açtı. Bunların 220 bini Lübnan topraklarını terk etti. 100
binden fazla yabancı ve çifte vatandaş tahliye edildi.
İSRAİL 70'DEN FAZLA HEDEFİ VURDU
Bu arada, İsrail askeri sözcüsü, İsrail savaş uçakları ve
helikopterlerinin dün gece Lübnan'da 70'ten fazla hedefi vurduklarını bildirdi.
Sözcü, Beyrut'un güneyinde Hizbullahın faaliyet noktaları, büroları ve
silah depoları ile emel örgütünün militan toplama merkezinin hedef alındığını
belirtti.
Bu operasyonlardan önce İsrail uçaklarının sivil halkın bölgeyi terk
etmesini isteyen broşürler attığını belirten askeri sözcü, Hizbullahın Sur
kentinde bir helikopter operasyonunu engellediği açıklamalarıyla ilgili sorular
konusunda yorum yapmaktan kaçındı.
SUR HAREKATINDA 8 YARALI
İsminin açıklanmasını istemeyen bir başka askeri yetkiliyse gün doğumunda
Sur kentine yönelik bir komando harekatında, çok sayıda teröristin etkisiz hale
getirildiğini açıkladı.
Yetkili, operasyon sırasında Hadera bölgesine roket atmak kullanılan füze
fırlatma rampalarının da imha edildiğini belirtti.
İSRAİL'E TEHDİT
Öte yandan, Endonezya'da bu sabah düzenlenen gösteride, 160 kadar kişi bir
askeri geçit düzenleyerek, İsrail'in İngiltere, ABD ve Avustralya'daki
çıkarlarını vurma tehdidinde bulundu.
Endonezya'da kurulu Asya Müslüman Gençlik Hareketi (Amym) üyesi üniformalı
gençler, askeri geçit düzeninde yürürken, liderleri Şuayib Didu, hedeflerinin
kardeşlerini İsrail saldırılarından korumak olduğunu söyledi.
Şuayib Didu, 72'si Endonezyalı, diğerleri 6 Asya ve Güneydoğu Asya
ülkesinden 217 intihar komandosunun İsrail çıkarlarına saldırılar düzenlemek
üzere yurtdışına gittiğini açıklamıştı.
Anti-Israeli wave fed by war in Lebanon, not anti-Semitism
Tuesday, August 8, 2006
www.turkishdailynews.com Authorities dismiss suggestions that anti-Semitism is on the rise in Turkey,
say anti-Israeli wave can be explained by public discontent with the Israeli war
on Lebanon and the Palestinian territories
ANKARA - Turkish Daily News
Turkish authorities are dismissing suggestions that anti-Semitism, a
phenomenon traditionally unfamiliar to Turkish society, has been on the rise,
saying the recent anti-Israel wave is actually public opposition to the ongoing
Israeli offensive in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.
A government source speaking on condition of anonymity rejected the idea
that Turks are becoming anti-Semitic, saying the negative feelings are towards
Israel's policies in the region, not Jews.
Nearly 1,000 people have died in Lebanon since Israel began an offensive
after the abduction of two of its soldiers by Hezbollah militants nearly four
weeks ago. Infrastructure has been destroyed and approximately a million people
have been displaced since the beginning of the war.
Thousands of Turks have taken to the streets to protest Israel across
Turkey and over the past two weeks 215 deputies have resigned from the
284-member Israel caucus to protest Israel's offensive in Lebanon and the
Palestinian territories. The group has 67 remaining members, including the
executive board members.
Atilla Kart, a deputy from the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP)
and one of the more than 200 deputies to have resigned from Parliament's Israel
caucus, said an anti-Semitic core representing not more than 3-5 percent of
society does exist but warned that anti-Semitism could be fanned when such
feelings are manipulated by politicians who want to achieve political goals
or join in with public objection to Israeli policies in the Middle East.
Even if it involves only 3-5 percent of the society, there is
anti-Semitism in Turkish society, said Kart. Now it is circulating in society
as a result of Israeli and U.S. policies.
It is clear for us that the war in the Middle East will not achieve
anything but additional human suffering. On the one hand, Israel's security
obsession, and on the other the ordeals still endured by refugees uprooted from
their homes by force 50 years ago: both are fuelling the fire.
The U.S. tactics of providing Israel with some additional time to finish
off Hezbollah have exacerbated the situation, with Israel employing
sophisticated war machines while Hezbollah retaliates with indiscriminate rocket
attacks on Israeli settlements. The United Nations' prestige has been seriously
hurt and confidence in the ability of the U.N. Security Council to safeguard
global peace and freedom has fallen victim to U.S. solidarity with Israel.
There is frustration all around the world, leading to anger against Israel
and the United States.
The other day I was talking with a friend of mine of ethnic Jewish
background. He was complaining of an increase in anti-Semitism in the country
since the start of the Israeli blitz on Lebanon four weeks ago.You wouldn't
believe it. The other day I heard from of my friends. In Istanbul a mob attacked
a foreigner wearing a cap on his head, assuming that he was a Jew. In fact, the
man was on his way to attend one of the anti-Israeli demonstrations in the
city! he said.
A while later, talking with another friend about this incident, the
veracity of which I cannot vouch for, he reminded me of reports that in Antalya
that some people, obviously angry with the situation in Lebanon, had harassed
Israeli tourists simply because of their nationality.
Recently two journalist colleagues, a few other friends and I were having
dinner with an Israeli diplomat. One of my journalist friends was a man at odds
with the Turkish establishment, the other an American. We thought -- sitting
around one table all together -- what a perfect target we formed for an Islamic
fundamentalist or nationalist idiot.
Do we really have such anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism in Turkey? Or are
we just witnessing increased public anger towards the methods of state terrorism
and undeclared war that Israel has unleashed on Lebanon and the efforts by the
George W. Bush administration of the United States to stall all calls for
a cease-fire, thus providing more time for the Israelis to finish off what they
started?
If people are attacking others just because they are Jews, such acts
clearly cannot be defined as anything other than anti-Semitism. Do we have signs
of that? Unfortunately yes. But the existence of an anti-Semitic minority in
Turkey is nothing new. Are we witnessing an increase in such attacks? There are
some reports that would suggest so, but in view of the war in Lebanon such
individual cases must also be considered to be normal. By and large, excluding
some extremist publications that have always been anti-Semitic anyhow, there has
not been the slightest change in the editorial policies of the mainstream media,
which have traditionally been very sensitive to anti-Semitism.
However, at demonstrations condemning Israel's actions against Lebanon --
actions that have caused an uproar throughout the Muslim world -- placards have
been waved that contained elements of hate culture. There are remarks by some
insane people admiring what the Nazi butchers did to the Jews. We now
understand Hitler better and other such banners, for us, should be sufficient
evidence for our administrators to wake up to a looming threat to the peace and
security of this country.
As regards anti-Americanism, that, for us, is a gross exaggeration. George
W. Bush is definitely the most unpopular American president in Turkey. Is Turkey
the sole country where the current U.S. president is so unpopular? All over the
world Bush enjoys leadership of the list of most unwanted politicians. Certainly
U.S. policies regarding the war in Lebanon have boosted the unpopularity of the
U.S. president here and elsewhere, that's all. No one in Turkey is attacking
anyone just because he/she is a U.S. citizen. Indeed, unlike two years ago --
when there were signs at some shops that Americans were unwelcome -- there is no
apparent anti-Americanism among the Turkish people.
Thus, while we do not subscribe to claims that there is a surge in
anti-Semitism or anti-Americanism in this country, we still believe it is high
time Turkey's politicians see the sentiments of the population and develop
policies to prevent a possible surge in hate culture that may create serious
troubles if permitted to take root here.
If the worst came to the worst, Hezbollah's
sympathizers in the Iraqi Shiite community could turn on US and British troops,
possibly turning failure there into disaster
JONATHAN WRIGHT CAIRO - Reuters
The United States and Britain have taken a big gamble by justifying
Israel's third invasion of Lebanon because an Israeli failure to achieve its
objectives will undermine their own position in the Middle East.
Vulnerable in Iraq and unpopular across the region, the English-speaking
allies run the risk of losing even more friends and influence without much
progress against Arab and Muslim groups and governments which oppose their plans
for the region.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has described the violence in
Lebanon as the birth pangs of a new Middle East and analysts say the Bush
administration saw the conflict between Israel and the Lebanese guerrilla group
Hezbollah as a chance to disarm Hezbollah and punish their allies Syria and
Iran.
In the process, the Israeli offensive would intimidate the Palestinian
group Hamas, which refuses to recognize the Jewish state or abandon armed
struggle to regain lost land.
But Israel has already had to adjust its strategy, playing down
expectations that Hezbollah will unilaterally release the two Israeli soldiers
it captured on July 12 or that the Lebanese government will take the initiative
in disarming Hezbollah.
Israeli officials now say the immediate goal is to inflict as much damage
as possible on Hezbollah before a ceasefire and that destroying all its rockets
will not be possible. It is doubtful Israel can push Hezbollah so far from the
border that its missiles can no longer reach Israel.
SURVIVAL IS SUCCESS
Mainstream commentators even in the United States and Israel have started
to question the likelihood of success in the Lebanese campaign, drawing
parallels with the U.S. and British failure to turn Iraq by military might into
a peaceful bastion of democracy and pro-Western sentiment.
Bret Stephens, editorialist at the conservative Wall Street Journal, said:
"If it (the war) continues as it is, Israel is headed for the greatest military
humiliation in its history."
Aluf Benn, analyst in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, said Olmert was making
a final attempt to show the war as a victory rather than a draw, and the
objective now was to see European troops deploy in a buffer zone along the
border.
But for Hezbollah, which won its legitimacy from fighting the Israeli
occupation of south Lebanon in the 1980s and 1990s, any outcome that allows the
organisation to survive and leaves large sections of the population sympathetic
is a victory.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Wednesday that his army had
entirely destroyed the infrastructure of Hezbollah and disarmed the movement "to
a large degree."
But Hezbollah is also a political and religious movement with deep roots
among Lebanese Shiites, the largest political force in the country's largest
community. It continues to fight and it can easily replace its arsenal.
Unlike the Palestinian guerrillas that Israel fought in south Lebanon in
1978 and again in 1982, Hezbollah fighters come from the hilly villages of the
area and have an incentive to fight to reclaim them from any Israel army of
occupation.
Arab friends embarrassed: The United States, Israel
and Britain are pinning their hopes on an international force to deploy along
the border and help the Lebanese army disarm the guerrillas. But the record for
such forces in Lebanon is not one of any success.
The danger for Washington and London is that a compromise outcome in
Lebanon, after so much death and destruction, will further undermine their
credibility in the Middle East and cast more doubt on the judgment of their
leaders.
They have already embarrassed the few Arab friends they have left -- such
as the conservative rulers of countries such as Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia,
who face popular outrage that their appeals for a ceasefire have failed on deaf
ears.
Their campaign for democracy in the Arab world, in which they invested so
much political capital over two years, has run out of steam and into deep
contradictions.
The United States, which in previous conflicts managed to preserve its
ability to mediate, even as it advanced Israeli interests, has no high-level
contacts with the major players -- Iran, Syria, Hamas, Hezbollah and the Iraqi
insurgents.
"When you just say: '...we're not going to listen to the Syrians,' you're
never going to get anywhere that way," said New York Times commentator Thomas
Friedman.
Even Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, one of the most pro-American
politicians in the region, told Rice last week that she need not come to Beirut
unless she can bring a cease-fire.
If the worst came to the worst, Hezbollah's sympathizers in the Iraqi
Shiite community could turn on U.S. and British troops, possibly turning failure
there into disaster.
SEVGİLİ okuyucularım, adına İsrail denilen küçücük bir ülke var.
Arkasına ABD desteğini almış, vurdukça vuruyor. Nüfusu 7 milyon
dolaylarında. Öbür tarafta ise toplam nüfusu 400 milyonu geçen Arap ve
İslam ülkeleri var. İsrail çepeçevre bunlarla kuşatılmış durumda.
Arap dindaşlarımızın liderlerine bakarsanız hepsi de "amansız ve katıksız
İsrail düşmanı" olduğunu iddia eder!
Bu "düşmanlığa (!)" mollaların İranını da ekleyin.
İslam ülkelerinin çoğuna Allah petrol ihsan etmiştir. Fakat petrol
gelirinin çoğu halkın değil, bugün Türkiyeye şeref verecek olan Suudi Kralı
gibilerin ve sülalesinin ceplerine girer. Onlar da milyarlarca doları
har vurup harman savurur.
Saraylar, haremler, her türlü rezalet onlardadır. Ama onların ağzından
Allah sözcüğü düşmez.
Bunların ordusu, askeri, uçağı, tankı topu yok mudur?Fazlasıyla vardır
da, palavra sıkıp nutuk atmak dışında yürekleri yoktur.
Şu son olaylara bakınız!Nerede İsrailin sınır komşusu Suriye,
Ürdün, Mısır gibi ülkeler? Nerede İran, Cezayir, Tunus, Fas, Suudi Arabistan,
Katar vesaire?
Niçin kıllarını bile kıpırdatmıyorlar?
Bu sorunun yanıtını size açıkça vereyim. Bunların tamamı, İsrail düşmanlığını
iç politika malzemesi olarak sadece kendi insanlarına karşı kullanan,
gerçekte İsrailin kazanmasını isteyen hokkabazlardır.
Allah, din, iman, Müslümanlık gibi kutsal kavramlar bunların sadece
ağzındadır. Bunlar dinimizi bir gösteri ve para kazanma aracı olarak
kullanır. Her türlü düzenbazlık, yolsuzluk, vurgun, kepazelik bunlardadır.
Bir düşünün, karşınızda 7 milyonluk bir ülke... Ve sizi duman
ediyor!
Bu Arap ve Acem ülkeleri palavra sıkmayı bırakıp bir araya gelse,
İsraili tükürükle boğar. Orduları, asker, uçak, top, tank vesaireleri
İsrailden çok daha fazladır.
Bunlar İsrailin üzerine kazma kürekle yürüse, vallahi o küçük ülkeyi
sarsar. Ama yürekleri yoktur.
Artı, o İslam ülkeleri birbirlerinden nefret eder. İsrail bunların pek çok
yöneticisini satın almıştır. İsrail bunlarla kedinin fareyle oynadığı gibi oynar.
Ama ortada büyük ve asla unutulmaması gereken bir gerçek vardır!
Bu Arap ülkelerinin çoğu, emir ve direktifleri ABDden alır. Onlar ABDnin
kucağına düşmüştür. O yüzden İsraile tavır koymaları mümkün olmaz.
* * *
Bazen düşünüyorum, acaba bu Arap ülkelerini Mehmetçiğin ahı mı
tutuyor?
Birinci Dünya Savaşında bunların Türk askerini nasıl arkadan vurduğunu,
İngilizlerle işbirliği yaparak, çil çil İngiliz altınlarına tav olarak kendi
dindaşlarına nasıl ihanet ettiğini hiç unutmadık.
O topraklarda yüz binlerce şehit bıraktık. Bugün o topraklarda Irak,
Suriye, Ürdün, Filistin, Lübnan, İsrail, Mısır, Suudi Arabistan var.
İsrail devletini orada kurduranlar, Türk ordularını arkadan vuran satılık
Araplardır. Bizim dindaşlarımız!
Peygamberimizin mezarının bulunduğu kutsal Medine kentini kuşatıp ele
geçirenler, Mehmetçiği orada aylar boyunca aç ve susuz bırakıp çekirge
ölülerini yemeye mahkûm edenler kimlerdi?İngiliz işbirlikçisi
Araplar!
Medineyi savunan kahraman Fahrettin Paşa o açlık ve susuzluk
ortamında emir yayınlıyordu:
"Asker evlatlarım, çekirge yemek çok güzel. Ben yiyorum, sizler de yiyin.
Sacda döndürüp kızartacaksınız."
Hey gidi günler!
* * *
İşte sizlere bizim "din kardeşlerinden" küçücük bir kesit!
İsrailin "düşmanı" bunlar! Aslında İsrailin başına devlet kuşu konmuş,
piyangodan büyük ikramiye çıkmış.
Böyle köfte, sahte, göstermelik, düzmece düşmanlar, dostlar başına! Allah
herkese böyle düşmanlar nasip etsin. Amin.
Israelis raid Tyre; Rehn says Turkey would be a 'bridge' with Islam
Sunday, August 6, 2006 TYRE - The AP
and Reuters
Israeli commandos raided an apartment building in the southern Lebanese
port city of Tyre on Saturday, battling Hezbollah guerrillas, and warplanes
blasted south Beirut. The fighting across the country killed several Lebanese
and an Israeli soldier.
The Israeli military said it dropped leaflets over the Lebanese city of
Sidon, asking residents to leave their homes and move north. The army said the
dropping of leaflets was a precursor to Israeli attacks on Hezbollah targets in
Lebanon and an attempt to minimize civilian casualties. Sidon is Lebanon's
third-largest city.
After days of desultory diplomacy, Washington has said it was near an
agreement with France on a U.N. cease-fire resolution, possibly by early next
week. But no cessation of fighting was in sight on Saturday.
Given the determination of both Hezbollah and Israel to look victorious
when the conflict finally ends, the worst of the fighting may still lay ahead
with the militant Shiite guerrilla fighters perhaps making good on its threat to
rocket the main Israeli metropolis of Tel Aviv and Israel launching an all-out
ground offensive, pushing northward to the Litani River about 20 miles (30
kilometers) from the border.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch met with Lebanese officials
in Beirut, trying to pave the way for an end to hostilities. He held talks
Friday night with Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora.
On Saturday, he visited Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a prominent Shiite
Muslim who has been negotiating on behalf of Hezbollah in the conflict.
The raid in Tyre was the latest Israeli commando operation deep inside
Lebanese territory aimed at taking out Hezbollah strongpoints even as heavy
fighting raged closer to the border.
Both Israel and Hezbollah claimed victory in the Tyre battle -- with Israel
claiming it was "very successful" in taking out a key guerrilla unit involved in
firing long-range rockets into Israel. Hezbollah claimed it had successfully
repulsed the assault.
The commandos landed from the sea in an orchard before dawn and cut through
a barbed wire fence to advance on the apartment building, sparking a fierce
gunbattle with those inside that lasted several hours.
Later, pools of blood were seen in the orchard, through which the Israelis
evacuated their wounded. A corner apartment in the building was left charred,
with furniture melted from the heat of a rocket that slammed into it. The
building's stairs and pavement outside were stained with blood and littered with
bullets from the fighting.
Turkey a 'bridge' with Islam:
Meanwhile, top EU enlargement official Olli Rehn said that the war in the
Middle East boosts the significance of Turkey's bid to join the European Union
where it could serve as the bloc's "bridge" with Islam.
Rehn told Finnish newspapers in comments published on Saturday that a
moderate and democratic Turkey was of strategic importance to Europe and that if
the country fulfilled entry criteria it must be allowed to join the 25-member
bloc.
"The importance of negotiations with Turkey has increased in light of the
military conflict in Lebanon because Turkey is a moderate Islamic society and
secular democratic state," said Rehn, Enlargement Commissioner at the EU's
executive Commission.
"If it (Turkey) will fulfil membership requirements, it could be even more
stronger bridge between Europe and Islam."
NATO member Turkey started EU entry talks in 2005 but diplomats say it may
join the bloc in 10 years at the earliest, if at all. Public and political
support for further enlargement is weak after 10 mostly ex-communist states
joined in 2004.
Brussels has criticised Ankara for slowing the pace of reforms since talks
began, with Turkey's human rights record and the divided island of Cyprus the
main stumbling blocks.
Rehn made clear, however, that the military conflict in Lebanon which some
say drives support for radical Islamic groups did not mean that moderate and
relatively stable Turkey could join the EU without meeting all entry criteria.
"There is no point for Turkey to think that it would get relief from
requirements because of its size or strategic importance," Rehn said. "It is
essential that both sides take their responsibilities seriously and stick to
commitments."
Erdoğan: Unfair war in Lebanon will have no winner
Friday, August 4, 2006
ANKARA - Turkish Daily News
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan yesterday criticized Israel for a
disproportionate use of force in Lebanon, saying that the war unfolding in the
Middle East can never be considered legitimate.
No justification can show what is happening to be innocent. This war we
are witnessing can never be accepted as legitimate by any means. It cannot be
defended. This is an unfair war that will have no winner, Erdoğan was quoted as
saying at an emergency meeting of the 57-member Organization of the Islamic
Conference (OIC) in Malaysia.
It is a war that sows seeds of hatred and leads to radicalism. It would
not be a prophecy to say that a dreadful global fire, a big disaster, awaits
us, he said.
Erdoğan warned that the war in the Middle East had the potential of leading
to a clash of civilizations and said the world was facing a serious
danger threatening the ideal of peace represented by the United Nations.
If we cannot raise our voice or say something to halt the process or if we
cannot make a claim for peace today under the U.N. roof, it might be too late
tomorrow, Erdoğan said, calling on the OIC and the European Union to do their
share to that effect.
Unfortunately today peace has been subjected to one of the most serious
threats since World War II. Despite the efforts of the U.N. secretary-general,
the Security Council has been weakened due to disagreement among its members,
Erdoğan said, in apparent reference to the U.N. failure to condemn Israel for
the attack on the southern Lebanese town of Qana or the killing of U.N.
observers at Khiam.
Israel's offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon has killed more than 900
people and wounded 3,000, with a third of the casualties children under 12,
Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said in a video message to the conference.
He said a quarter of the population, or 1 million people, had been displaced.
Turkey condemns any sort of terrorism and believes none of the terrorist
acts can be accepted as innocent by any means, Erdoğan said. It is not
possible to attain peace through violence. Those who turn their cause into a
blood case will drag the world into chaos.
He said: This fire must be put out; the delicate balances of the Middle
East will be unable to withstand that tension. The peoples of the Middle East
want peace and justice, adding, As the members of the OIC, we must take all
necessary measures against that dangerous course, stop the flow of blood and
restore peace.
Erdoğan also said all the energy and opportunity must be mobilized in a
move to soothe the pains of the Palestinians and the Lebanese.
The premier, meanwhile, criticized Arab countries' participation in the OIC
meeting at the ministerial level.
Top figures assembled included the leaders of Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia,
Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Pakistan and Turkey. Foreign ministers and
senior officials represented Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Senegal,
the United Arab Emirates and Yemen as well as the Palestinian Liberation
Organization.
First cease-fire, then troop contribution:
Erdoğan said all political and diplomatic efforts needed to be exerted for
urgent and long-lasting peace in the region, calling on OIC member states to
display a common will and strong determination for an immediate cease-fire and
the security of corridors facilitating aid delivery.
The prime minister also touched upon a possible stabilization force for
southern Lebanon.
That force must certainly be under a U.N. mandate, hinge on the consent of
the sides and embrace a diversity that will be sufficient to maintain trust and
confidence, Erdoğan said.
As Turkey, we are ready to contribute to a stabilization force on
condition that a cease-fire is established and acceptable political conditions
are established with the approval of the sides involved, he added.
Erdoğan also said he supported the idea of holding a donor country meeting
in an attempt to contribute to the rebuilding of Lebanon.
A month from hell
Sunday, August 6, 2006
www.turkishdailynews.com Lebanon war, PKK attacks highlight
US-Turkish strategic differences, obscure strategic shared vision document
ÜMİT ENGİNSOY WASHINGTON - Turkish Daily News
Just one month ago, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül and U.S. Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice were smiling into cameras here, unveiling a fresh "shared
vision document" which they said would boost what they called the two nations'
strategic partnership.
Gül was satisfied, as he had seen a very warm reception by the world's only
superpower's top diplomat. The visit's success was clear proof of the strength
of Turkish-U.S. relations, Turkish diplomats boasted.
But in an article published by The Washington Post a few days ago, the same
Gül blasted U.S. policies on the Lebanon conflict, accusing Washington of
remaining silent in the face of a human tragedy at the hands of Israel.
What had changed in a mere month was two key regional developments: The
eruption of a war between Israel and the radical Shiite group Hezbollah in
Lebanon and mounting attacks by the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) on
Turkish forces.
Both phenomena highlighted a strategic divergence between how the U.S. and
Turkish governments view the Middle East.
The U.S. administration, even at a time when it was bogged down in an
undeclared civil war in Iraq and involved in an open-ended nuclear conflict with
Iraq, still saw the Lebanon war as the "birth pangs of a new Middle East," in
Rice's words.
It hoped for a quick Israeli victory that would defang Hezbollah and weaken
the group's real boss, Iran, in the whole Middle East. So it gave a carte
blanche to Israel's full-fledged military offensive inside Lebanon,
which happened to result in major civilian casualties as well, hitting the
Jewish state's standing throughout the world.
U.S. and Israeli hopes for a rapid decapitation of Hezbollah seem not to
have worked. And some in the world tend to argue that what Rice calls the "birth
pangs" may actually be the last gasps of an agonizing Middle East.
Mideast revolution:
But whether the U.S. plan has worked or not, more importantly Washington's
position during the three-week crisis has highlighted again its desire for
revolutionary changes in the region. Under the civilized term "the spreading of
democracy," the United States wants all anti-U.S. regimes of the Middle East to
be toppled and be replaced by friendly governments. And they include Iran,
Syria, and their proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas. If democracy works to that end,
fine. If not, the use of military force also is legitimate, as in the case of
Iraq, under this view. But the problem is that democracy so far has not worked
in the U.S. way, as in the case of Palestine.
In short, the United States, or President George W. Bush's administration,
wants to overthrow the status quo in the Middle East by whatever means possible.
And it does not seem to be deterred by hardships during the process. And Turkey
-- and it includes both Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and
Development Party (AKP) government apparatus and the military-led security
establishment -- wants the continuation of the status quo because it fears that
the only thing a shattered status quo will bring is wars and destruction. Iraq
is just one example, Turkish officials say privately.
Turkey is situated on the edge of the Middle East and has a Kurdish
problem. Ankara is worried it will be among the victims of a Middle East
revolution.
But at the same time the United States still is Turkey's strongest anchor
to the Western world (despite Ankara's efforts to join the European Union).
So Turkey's dilemma is about having to deal with an America which on the
one hand is its closest ally and on the other is the power seeking to provoke a
Middle East revolution, which the Turks fear so much.
Any shared vision left?
On the PKK problem, in the wake of Turkish warnings for military action
inside Iraq, the United States sought to appease the Turks and pledged to do
more against the secessionist terrorists hiding in northern Iraq. It delegated
the assignment to the fledgling Baghdad government and to the Iraqi Kurds -- who
actually would like to say good-bye to Iraq at the first good opportunity.
So far what has happened is vague promises given by the Iraqi Kurds -- who
happen to be top Iraqi officials of Kurdish origin -- to close down a few PKK
offices here and there, and nothing more substantial. Some analysts suggest
that Washington basically is trying to deal with an Iraq on the verge of a
full-fledged civil war between Shiites and Sunnis and does not want to see
Turkey causing additional problems by intervening in northern Iraq.
There are three or four more critical months left this year. If the PKK
keeps or is forced to keep a low profile until the end of October, it will have
to stop terrorist attacks because of the coming winter, anyway. And if this
happens, the problem over the PKK's presence in Iraq will be delayed until next
May. But what then? This is not a solution, just a deferral.
Another matter: The conflict over Iran's nuclear program has not
disappeared simply because people are talking about Lebanon now. It also has
been postponed, temporarily, probably until after U.S. congressional elections
in November. A stronger showdown is likely then.
The past month from hell has shown that the strategic divergence between
the United States and Turkey makes it hard to have an optimistic view for the
relationship's future. So what can the two do to salvage their troubled ties?
Probably not much, because the differences are so rooted. But at least they
can start by abandoning efforts resulting in ineffective papers, like last
month's shared vision document, because they do not share a common vision, says
one Washington analyst.
Lebanon, PKK push vision paper with US into oblivion
The war in Lebanon and mounting attacks by the PKK on
Turkish forces have highlighted, even before the ink is dry on the shared
strategic document, a disparity between how the US and Turkish governments view
the Middle East
ÜMİT ENGİNSOY WASHINGTON - Turkish Daily News
Just one month after smiling into cameras with his U.S. counterpart,
Condoleezza Rice, while unveiling a shared strategic vision document here,
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül last week blasted U.S. policies on the Lebanon
conflict.
What has changed in just a month? The answer lies in two key regional
developments: the eruption of a war between Israel and the radical Shiite group
Hezbollah in Lebanon and mounting attacks by the terrorist Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK) on Turkish forces.
These phenomena have highlighted, even before the ink is dry on the shared
strategic document, a strategic disparity between how the U.S. and Turkish
governments view the Middle East.
The United States, or President George W. Bush's administration, wants to
overthrow the status quo in the Middle East by whatever means possible.
Turkey, however, wants the status quo to continue; it fears that the only
things a change will bring are war and destruction.
On the PKK problem, the United States delegated the assignment to the
fledgling Baghdad government and to the Iraqi Kurds -- who actually would like
to say good-bye to Iraq at the first suitable opportunity.
The past hellish month has shown that the discrepancy between the United
States and Turkey's views makes it hard to have an optimistic outlook on the
relationship's future. What can the two do to salvage their troubled ties?
Probably not much because their differences are so rooted. At least they
can start by abandoning efforts towards papers like last month's -- ineffective
-- document, because they simply do not share a common vision, says one
Washington analyst.
Was the war in Lebanon a
blueprint for Iran? Investigative journalist contends US colluded
in air attacks
By Jim Quilty Daily Star staff Thursday, August 17, 2006
BEIRUT: This week, Seymour Hersh, one of
America's most-respected investigative journalists, published a piece in The New
Yorker asserting that the higher echelons of the White House and Pentagon
colluded with the Israeli military in formulating a plan to attack Lebanon -
well in advance of Hizbullah's 12 July kidnap of two Israeli soldiers.
Vice President Dick Cheney supported
Israeli plans to attack Lebanon, Hersh contends, after Israel's military command
encouraged him to view it both as a blueprint for a massive US air attack upon
Iran and a pre-emptive strike against Hizbullah's capacity to respond to such an
attack by lobbing missiles at Israel.
The major ramifications of Hersh's claims
apply to America and Iran.
Clearly, though, his assertions will have
an impact in Lebanon as well, especially in the difficult days of consensual
government that will follow the Israeli troop withdrawal from the South.
Unlike other high-profile journalists who
take a critical position vis-a-vis American and Israeli policy, Hersh is not a
polemicist. He is recognised, rather, for his network of extremely
well-connected contacts, many of whom feed him information because he protects
their identities.
As a piece of journalism, the piece is up
to Hersh's usual standards. Though he balances the, sometimes contradictory,
assertions of several different sources - some named, most not - the gist of his
argument is that Israel planned the July-August attack and shared details with
Bush administration officials in early spring.
The State Department, he continues, saw
the Israeli attack as "a way to strengthen the Lebanese government so that it
could assert its authority over the south of the country ...
"'The White House was more focussed on
stripping Hizbullah of its missiles, because, if there was to be a military
option against Iran's nuclear facilities, it had to get rid of the weapons that
Hizbullah could use in a potential retaliation at Israel.
"'Bush was going after Iran, as part of
the 'Axis of Evil,' and its nuclear sites, and he was interested in going after
Hizbullah as part of his interest in democratization, with Lebanon as one of the
crown jewels of Middle East democracy.'" While the White House didn't reply to
Hersh's enquiries, spokesmen with the National Security Council, the Pentagon
and State Department "denied that they knew of Israel's plan for the air war."
Israeli spokesmen issued similar denials.
Hersh, however, quotes a former senior
intelligence official who says that early in the spring the US Air Force - under
pressure from the White House "to develop a war plan for a decisive strike
against Iran's nuclear facilities - began consulting" with the Israeli Air
Force.
It seems air force planners "went to the
Israelis with some new tactics and said to them, 'Let's concentrate on the
bombing and share what we have on Iran and what you have on Lebanon' -
discussions reached the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld.
"The Israelis told us it would be a cheap
war with many benefits," an anonymous US government source with close ties to
Israel told Hersh. " We'll be able to hunt down and bomb missiles, tunnels, and
bunkers from the air. It would be a demo for Iran."
Hersh wrote the article with an eye to
Iran. His sources express fears that, since the administration is having raw
intelligence channelled directly to the White House, Cheney and his neo-con
cohorts will be able to portray Israel's battle plan in Lebanon as a success,
and thus a green light to launch such an attack on Iran.
For intelligence analysts both claims are
self-evidently untrue: Israel's battle plan failed to dislodge Hizbullah as a
fighting force from South Lebanon; applying this Lebanese template as a model
for success in Iran is an even more problematic assertion.
Hersh's arguments could well have
implications in Lebanon as well.
Two of his sources say Washington knew
the bombing campaign was premised on Israel's belief that, "by targeting
Lebanon's infrastructure, including highways, fuel depots, and even the civilian
runways at Beirut airport, it could persuade Lebanon's large Christian and Sunni
populations to turn against Hizbullah."
These assertions suggest the White House
has been guilty of backing a battle plan intent on stirring up sectarian discord
in Lebanon, even as its secretary of state urged Israel to exercise "restraint"
so as to preserve the government of its "friend" Premier Fouad Siniora.
Whether these assertions are ever
substantiated or not, the message to the Lebanese street - and those who claim
to voice its interests - is likely to be loud and clear: America treats some
friends better than others.
US debates whether World War III is in the offing
Sunday, August 13, 2006 Leading US analysts discuss
whether the globe is heading for another world war, with chaos not subsiding in
Iraq, war already raging in the Middle East and reports abounding over terrorist
plans for attacks
ÜMİT ENGİNSOY WASHINGTON - Turkish Daily News
With a war raging between Israel and the radical Shiite movement Hezbollah
in Lebanon, a de facto civil war under way in Iraq more than three years after
the U.S.-led invasion, conflict over Iran's nuclear program mounting; reports
abounding over terrorist plans for spectacular attacks against transatlantic
aviation and NATO's war in Afghanistan faltering, leading U.S. analysts are
discussing whether all these are indications that the globe is heading for
another world war. Newt Gingrich, a former speaker in the U.S. House of
Representatives and a leading hawk on foreign policy, in mid-July became the
first major analyst to assert that what the world is witnessing is nothing other
than an approaching World War III. Since then, others have been quick to embrace
the terminology.
Two full-blown crises, in Lebanon and Iraq, are merging into a single
emergency. A chain reaction could spread quickly almost anywhere between Cairo
and Bombay, Richard Holbrooke, an assistant secretary of state working on the
Balkan conflicts in the 1990s and later former President Bill Clinton's
ambassador to the United Nations, wrote in an Aug. 10 article in The Washington
Post.
According to Holbrooke, This combination of combustible elements poses the
greatest threat to global stability since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis,
history's only nuclear superpower confrontation.
He called on President George W. Bush's administration to contain the
ongoing violence in the first instance, also urging Washington to engage in
talks with Syria and even Iran.
WATCHING LEBANON
By SEYMOUR M. HERSH THE NEW YORKER
Washingtons interests in Israels war.
Issue of 2006-08-21
Posted 2006-08-14
In the days after Hezbollah crossed from Lebanon into
Israel, on July 12th, to kidnap two soldiers, triggering an Israeli air attack
on Lebanon and a full-scale war, the Bush Administration seemed strangely
passive. Its a moment of clarification, President George W. Bush said at
the G-8 summit, in St. Petersburg, on July 16th. Its now become clear why we
dont have peace in the Middle East. He described the relationship between
Hezbollah and its supporters in Iran and Syria as one of the root causes of
instability, and subsequently said that it was up to those countries to end
the crisis. Two days later, despite calls from several governments for the
United States to take the lead in negotiations to end the fighting, Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice said that a ceasefire should be put off until the
conditions are conducive.
The Bush Administration, however, was closely involved in the planning of
Israels retaliatory attacks. President Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney
were convinced, current and former intelligence and diplomatic officials told
me, that a successful Israeli Air Force bombing campaign against Hezbollahs
heavily fortified underground-missile and command-and-control complexes in
Lebanon could ease Israels security concerns and also serve as a prelude to a
potential American preëmptive attack to destroy Irans nuclear installations,
some of which are also buried deep underground.
Israeli military and intelligence experts I spoke to emphasized that the
countrys immediate security issues were reason enough to confront Hezbollah,
regardless of what the Bush Administration wanted. Shabtai Shavit, a
national-security adviser to the Knesset who headed the Mossad, Israels
foreign-intelligence service, from 1989 to 1996, told me, We do what we think
is best for us, and if it happens to meet Americas requirements, thats just
part of a relationship between two friends. Hezbollah is armed to the teeth
and trained in the most advanced technology of guerrilla warfare. It was just
a matter of time. We had to address it.
Hezbollah is seen by Israelis as a profound threata terrorist
organization, operating on their border, with a military arsenal that, with
help from Iran and Syria, has grown stronger since the Israeli occupation of
southern Lebanon ended, in 2000. Hezbollahs leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah,
has said he does not believe that Israel is a legal state. Israeli
intelligence estimated at the outset of the air war that Hezbollah had roughly
five hundred medium-range Fajr-3 and Fajr-5 rockets and a few dozen long-range
Zelzal rockets; the Zelzals, with a range of about two hundred kilometres,
could reach Tel Aviv. (One rocket hit Haifa the day after the kidnappings.) It
also has more than twelve thousand shorter-range rockets. Since the conflict
began, more than three thousand of these have been fired at Israel.
According to a Middle East expert with knowledge of the current thinking of
both the Israeli and the U.S. governments, Israel had devised a plan for
attacking Hezbollahand shared it with Bush Administration officialswell
before the July 12th kidnappings. Its not that the Israelis had a trap that
Hezbollah walked into, he said, but there was a strong feeling in the White
House that sooner or later the Israelis were going to do it.
The Middle East expert said that the Administration had several reasons for
supporting the Israeli bombing campaign. Within the State Department, it was
seen as a way to strengthen the Lebanese government so that it could assert
its authority over the south of the country, much of which is controlled by
Hezbollah. He went on, The White House was more focussed on stripping
Hezbollah of its missiles, because, if there was to be a military option
against Irans nuclear facilities, it had to get rid of the weapons that
Hezbollah could use in a potential retaliation at Israel. Bush wanted both.
Bush was going after Iran, as part of the Axis of Evil, and its nuclear sites,
and he was interested in going after Hezbollah as part of his interest in
democratization, with Lebanon as one of the crown jewels of Middle East
democracy.
Administration officials denied that they knew of Israels plan for the air
war. The White House did not respond to a detailed list of questions. In
response to a separate request, a National Security Council spokesman said,
Prior to Hezbollahs attack on Israel, the Israeli government gave no
official in Washington any reason to believe that Israel was planning to
attack. Even after the July 12th attack, we did not know what the Israeli
plans were. A Pentagon spokesman said, The United States government remains
committed to a diplomatic solution to the problem of Irans clandestine
nuclear weapons program, and denied the story, as did a State Department
spokesman.
The United States and Israel have shared intelligence and enjoyed close
military coöperation for decades, but early this spring, according to a former
senior intelligence official, high-level planners from the U.S. Air
Forceunder pressure from the White House to develop a war plan for a decisive
strike against Irans nuclear facilitiesbegan consulting with their
counterparts in the Israeli Air Force.
The big question for our Air Force was how to hit a series of hard targets
in Iran successfully, the former senior intelligence official said. Who is
the closest ally of the U.S. Air Force in its planning? Its not Congoits
Israel. Everybody knows that Iranian engineers have been advising Hezbollah on
tunnels and underground gun emplacements. And so the Air Force went to the
Israelis with some new tactics and said to them, Lets concentrate on the
bombing and share what we have on Iran and what you have on Lebanon. The
discussions reached the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld, he said.
The Israelis told us it would be a cheap war with many benefits, a U.S.
government consultant with close ties to Israel said. Why oppose it? Well be
able to hunt down and bomb missiles, tunnels, and bunkers from the air. It
would be a demo for Iran.
A Pentagon consultant said that the Bush White House has been agitating
for some time to find a reason for a preëmptive blow against Hezbollah. He
added, It was our intent to have Hezbollah diminished, and now we have
someone else doing it. (As this article went to press, the United Nations
Security Council passed a ceasefire resolution, although it was unclear if it
would change the situation on the ground.)
According to Richard Armitage, who served as Deputy Secretary of State in
Bushs first termand who, in 2002, said that Hezbollah may be the A team of
terroristsIsraels campaign in Lebanon, which has faced unexpected
difficulties and widespread criticism, may, in the end, serve as a warning to
the White House about Iran. If the most dominant military force in the
regionthe Israel Defense Forcescant pacify a country like Lebanon, with a
population of four million, you should think carefully about taking that
template to Iran, with strategic depth and a population of seventy million,
Armitage said. The only thing that the bombing has achieved so far is to
unite the population against the Israelis."
Several current and former officials involved in the Middle East told me that
Israel viewed the soldiers kidnapping as the opportune moment to begin its
planned military campaign against Hezbollah. Hezbollah, like clockwork, was
instigating something small every month or two, the U.S. government
consultant with ties to Israel said. Two weeks earlier, in late June, members
of Hamas, the Palestinian group, had tunnelled under the barrier separating
southern Gaza from Israel and captured an Israeli soldier. Hamas also had
lobbed a series of rockets at Israeli towns near the border with Gaza. In
response, Israel had initiated an extensive bombing campaign and reoccupied
parts of Gaza.
The Pentagon consultant noted that there had also been cross-border
incidents involving Israel and Hezbollah, in both directions, for some time.
Theyve been sniping at each other, he said. Either side could have pointed
to some incident and said We have to go to war with these guysbecause they
were already at war.
David Siegel, the spokesman at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, said that
the Israeli Air Force had not been seeking a reason to attack Hezbollah. We
did not plan the campaign. That decision was forced on us. There were ongoing
alerts that Hezbollah was pressing to go on the attack, Siegel said.
Hezbollah attacks every two or three months, but the kidnapping of the
soldiers raised the stakes.
In interviews, several Israeli academics, journalists, and retired military
and intelligence officers all made one point: they believed that the Israeli
leadership, and not Washington, had decided that it would go to war with
Hezbollah. Opinion polls showed that a broad spectrum of Israelis supported
that choice. The neocons in Washington may be happy, but Israel did not need
to be pushed, because Israel has been wanting to get rid of Hezbollah, Yossi
Melman, a journalist for the newspaper Haaretz,
who has written several books about the Israeli intelligence community, said.
By provoking Israel, Hezbollah provided that opportunity.
We were facing a dilemma, an Israeli official said. Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert had to decide whether to go for a local response, which we always do,
or for a comprehensive responseto really take on Hezbollah once and for all.
Olmert made his decision, the official said, only after a series of Israeli
rescue efforts failed.
The U.S. government consultant with close ties to Israel told me, however,
that, from Israels perspective, the decision to take strong action had become
inevitable weeks earlier, after the Israeli Armys signals intelligence group,
known as Unit 8200, picked up bellicose intercepts in late spring and early
summer, involving Hamas, Hezbollah, and Khaled Meshal, the Hamas leader now
living in Damascus.
One intercept was of a meeting in late May of the Hamas political and
military leadership, with Meshal participating by telephone. Hamas believed
the call from Damascus was scrambled, but Israel had broken the code, the
consultant said. For almost a year before its victory in the Palestinian
elections in January, Hamas had curtailed its terrorist activities. In the
late May intercepted conversation, the consultant told me, the Hamas
leadership said that they got no benefit from it, and were losing standing
among the Palestinian population. The conclusion, he said, was Lets go
back into the terror business and then try and wrestle concessions from the
Israeli government. The consultant told me that the U.S. and Israel agreed
that if the Hamas leadership did so, and if Nasrallah backed them up, there
should be a full-scale response. In the next several weeks, when Hamas began
digging the tunnel into Israel, the consultant said, Unit 8200 picked up
signals intelligence involving Hamas, Syria, and Hezbollah, saying, in
essence, that they wanted Hezbollah to warm up the north. In one intercept,
the consultant said, Nasrallah referred to Olmert and Defense Minister Amir
Peretz as seeming to be weak, in comparison with the former Prime Ministers
Ariel Sharon and Ehud Barak, who had extensive military experience, and said
he thought Israel would respond in a small-scale, local way, as they had in
the past.
Earlier this summer, before the Hezbollah kidnappings, the U.S. government
consultant said, several Israeli officials visited Washington, separately, to
get a green light for the bombing operation and to find out how much the
United States would bear. The consultant added, Israel began with Cheney. It
wanted to be sure that it had his support and the support of his office and
the Middle East desk of the National Security Council. After that,
persuading Bush was never a problem, and Condi Rice was on board, the
consultant said.
The initial plan, as outlined by the Israelis, called for a major bombing
campaign in response to the next Hezbollah provocation, according to the
Middle East expert with knowledge of U.S. and Israeli thinking. Israel
believed that, by targeting Lebanons infrastructure, including highways, fuel
depots, and even the civilian runways at the main Beirut airport, it could
persuade Lebanons large Christian and Sunni populations to turn against
Hezbollah, according to the former senior intelligence official. The airport,
highways, and bridges, among other things, have been hit in the bombing
campaign. The Israeli Air Force had flown almost nine thousand missions as of
last week. (David Siegel, the Israeli spokesman, said that Israel had targeted
only sites connected to Hezbollah; the bombing of bridges and roads was meant
to prevent the transport of weapons.)
The Israeli plan, according to the former senior intelligence official, was
the mirror image of what the United States has been planning for Iran. (The
initial U.S. Air Force proposals for an air attack to destroy Irans nuclear
capacity, which included the option of intense bombing of civilian
infrastructure targets inside Iran, have been resisted by the top leadership
of the Army, the Navy, and the Marine Corps, according to current and former
officials. They argue that the Air Force plan will not work and will
inevitably lead, as in the Israeli war with Hezbollah, to the insertion of
troops on the ground.)
Uzi Arad, who served for more than two decades in the Mossad, told me that
to the best of his knowledge the contacts between the Israeli and U.S.
governments were routine, and that, in all my meetings and conversations with
government officials, never once did I hear anyone refer to prior coördination
with the United States. He was troubled by one issuethe speed with which the
Olmert government went to war. For the life of me, Ive never seen a decision
to go to war taken so speedily, he said. We usually go through long
analyses.
The key military planner was Lieutenant General Dan Halutz, the I.D.F.
chief of staff, who, during a career in the Israeli Air Force, worked on
contingency planning for an air war with Iran. Olmert, a former mayor of
Jerusalem, and Peretz, a former labor leader, could not match his experience
and expertise.
In the early discussions with American officials, I was told by the Middle
East expert and the government consultant, the Israelis repeatedly pointed to
the war in Kosovo as an example of what Israel would try to achieve. The
NATO forces commanded by U.S. Army General
Wesley Clark methodically bombed and strafed not only military targets but
tunnels, bridges, and roads, in Kosovo and elsewhere in Serbia, for
seventy-eight days before forcing Serbian forces to withdraw from Kosovo.
Israel studied the Kosovo war as its role model, the government consultant
said. The Israelis told Condi Rice, You did it in about seventy days, but we
need half of thatthirty-five days.
There are, of course, vast differences between Lebanon and Kosovo. Clark,
who retired from the military in 2000 and unsuccessfully ran as a Democrat for
the Presidency in 2004, took issue with the analogy: If its true that the
Israeli campaign is based on the American approach in Kosovo, then it missed
the point. Ours was to use force to obtain a diplomatic objectiveit was not
about killing people. Clark noted in a 2001 book, Waging Modern War, that
it was the threat of a possible ground invasion as well as the bombing that
forced the Serbs to end the war. He told me, In my experience, air campaigns
have to be backed, ultimately, by the will and capability to finish the job on
the ground.
Kosovo has been cited publicly by Israeli officials and journalists since
the war began. On August 6th, Prime Minister Olmert, responding to European
condemnation of the deaths of Lebanese civilians, said, Where do they get the
right to preach to Israel? European countries attacked Kosovo and killed ten
thousand civilians. Ten thousand! And none of these countries had to suffer
before that from a single rocket. Im not saying it was wrong to intervene in
Kosovo. But please: dont preach to us about the treatment of civilians.
(Human Rights Watch estimated the number of civilians killed in the
NATO bombing to be five hundred; the Yugoslav
government put the number between twelve hundred and five thousand.)
Cheneys office supported the Israeli plan, as did Elliott Abrams, a deputy
national-security adviser, according to several former and current officials.
(A spokesman for the N.S.C. denied that Abrams had done so.) They believed
that Israel should move quickly in its air war against Hezbollah. A former
intelligence officer said, We told Israel, Look, if you guys have to go,
were behind you all the way. But we think it should be sooner rather than
laterthe longer you wait, the less time we have to evaluate and plan for Iran
before Bush gets out of office.
Cheneys point, the former senior intelligence official said, was What if
the Israelis execute their part of this first, and its really successful?
Itd be great. We can learn what to do in Iran by watching what the Israelis
do in Lebanon.
The Pentagon consultant told me that intelligence about Hezbollah and Iran
is being mishandled by the White House the same way intelligence had been
when, in 2002 and early 2003, the Administration was making the case that Iraq
had weapons of mass destruction. The big complaint now in the intelligence
community is that all of the important stuff is being sent directly to the
topat the insistence of the White Houseand not being analyzed at all, or
scarcely, he said. Its an awful policy and violates all of the N.S.A.s
strictures, and if you complain about it youre out, he said. Cheney had a
strong hand in this.
The long-term Administration goal was to help set up a Sunni Arab
coalitionincluding countries like Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egyptthat would
join the United States and Europe to pressure the ruling Shiite mullahs in
Iran. But the thought behind that plan was that Israel would defeat
Hezbollah, not lose to it, the consultant with close ties to Israel said.
Some officials in Cheneys office and at the N.S.C. had become convinced, on
the basis of private talks, that those nations would moderate their public
criticism of Israel and blame Hezbollah for creating the crisis that led to
war. Although they did so at first, they shifted their position in the wake of
public protests in their countries about the Israeli bombing. The White House
was clearly disappointed when, late last month, Prince Saud al-Faisal, the
Saudi foreign minister, came to Washington and, at a meeting with Bush, called
for the President to intervene immediately to end the war. The Washington
Post reported that Washington had hoped to enlist
moderate Arab states in an effort to pressure Syria and Iran to rein in
Hezbollah, but the Saudi move . . . seemed to cloud that initiative.
The surprising strength of Hezbollahs resistance, and its continuing ability
to fire rockets into northern Israel in the face of the constant Israeli
bombing, the Middle East expert told me, is a massive setback for those in
the White House who want to use force in Iran. And those who argue that the
bombing will create internal dissent and revolt in Iran are also set back.
Nonetheless, some officers serving with the Joint Chiefs of Staff remain
deeply concerned that the Administration will have a far more positive
assessment of the air campaign than they should, the former senior
intelligence official said. There is no way that Rumsfeld and Cheney will
draw the right conclusion about this, he said. When the smoke clears,
theyll say it was a success, and theyll draw reinforcement for their plan to
attack Iran.
In the White House, especially in the Vice-Presidents office, many
officials believe that the military campaign against Hezbollah is working and
should be carried forward. At the same time, the government consultant said,
some policymakers in the Administration have concluded that the cost of the
bombing to Lebanese society is too high. They are telling Israel that its
time to wind down the attacks on infrastructure.
Similar divisions are emerging in Israel. David Siegel, the Israeli
spokesman, said that his countrys leadership believed, as of early August,
that the air war had been successful, and had destroyed more than seventy per
cent of Hezbollahs medium- and long-range-missile launching capacity. The
problem is short-range missiles, without launchers, that can be shot from
civilian areas and homes, Siegel told me. The only way to resolve this is
ground operationswhich is why Israel would be forced to expand ground
operations if the latest round of diplomacy doesnt work. Last week, however,
there was evidence that the Israeli government was troubled by the progress of
the war. In an unusual move, Major General Moshe Kaplinsky, Halutzs deputy,
was put in charge of the operation, supplanting Major General Udi Adam. The
worry in Israel is that Nasrallah might escalate the crisis by firing missiles
at Tel Aviv. There is a big debate over how much damage Israel should inflict
to prevent it, the consultant said. If Nasrallah hits Tel Aviv, what should
Israel do? Its goal is to deter more attacks by telling Nasrallah that it will
destroy his country if he doesnt stop, and to remind the Arab world that
Israel can set it back twenty years. Were no longer playing by the same
rules.
A European intelligence officer told me, The Israelis have been caught in
a psychological trap. In earlier years, they had the belief that they could
solve their problems with toughness. But now, with Islamic martyrdom, things
have changed, and they need different answers. How do you scare people who
love martyrdom? The problem with trying to eliminate Hezbollah, the
intelligence officer said, is the groups ties to the Shiite population in
southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, and Beiruts southern suburbs, where it
operates schools, hospitals, a radio station, and various charities.
A high-level American military planner told me, We have a lot of
vulnerability in the region, and weve talked about some of the effects of an
Iranian or Hezbollah attack on the Saudi regime and on the oil
infrastructure. There is special concern inside the Pentagon, he added, about
the oil-producing nations north of the Strait of Hormuz. We have to
anticipate the unintended consequences, he told me. Will we be able to
absorb a barrel of oil at one hundred dollars? There is this almost comical
thinking that you can do it all from the air, even when youre up against an
irregular enemy with a dug-in capability. Youre not going to be successful
unless you have a ground presence, but the political leadership never
considers the worst case. These guys only want to hear the best case.
There is evidence that the Iranians were expecting the war against
Hezbollah. Vali Nasr, an expert on Shiite Muslims and Iran, who is a fellow at
the Council on Foreign Relations and also teaches at the Naval Postgraduate
School, in Monterey, California, said, Every negative American move against
Hezbollah was seen by Iran as part of a larger campaign against it. And Iran
began to prepare for the showdown by supplying more sophisticated weapons to
Hezbollahanti-ship and anti-tank missilesand training its fighters in their
use. And now Hezbollah is testing Irans new weapons. Iran sees the Bush
Administration as trying to marginalize its regional role, so it fomented
trouble.
Nasr, an Iranian-American who recently published a study of the
Sunni-Shiite divide, entitled The Shia Revival, also said that the Iranian
leadership believes that Washingtons ultimate political goal is to get some
international force to act as a bufferto physically separate Syria and
Lebanon in an effort to isolate and disarm Hezbollah, whose main supply route
is through Syria. Military action cannot bring about the desired political
result, Nasr said. The popularity of Irans President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a
virulent critic of Israel, is greatest in his own country. If the U.S. were to
attack Irans nuclear facilities, Nasr said, you may end up turning
Ahmadinejad into another Nasrallahthe rock star of the Arab street.
Donald Rumsfeld, who is one of the Bush Administrations most outspoken, and
powerful, officials, has said very little publicly about the crisis in
Lebanon. His relative quiet, compared to his aggressive visibility in the
run-up to the Iraq war, has prompted a debate in Washington about where he
stands on the issue.
Some current and former intelligence officials who were interviewed for
this article believe that Rumsfeld disagrees with Bush and Cheney about the
American role in the war between Israel and Hezbollah. The U.S. government
consultant with close ties to Israel said that there was a feeling that
Rumsfeld was jaded in his approach to the Israeli war. He added, Air power
and the use of a few Special Forces had worked in Afghanistan, and he tried to
do it again in Iraq. It was the same idea, but it didnt work. He thought that
Hezbollah was too dug in and the Israeli attack plan would not work, and the
last thing he wanted was another war on his shift that would put the American
forces in Iraq in greater jeopardy.
A Western diplomat said that he understood that Rumsfeld did not know all
the intricacies of the war plan. He is angry and worried about his troops in
Iraq, the diplomat said. Rumsfeld served in the White House during the last
year of the war in Vietnam, from which American troops withdrew in 1975, and
he did not want to see something like this having an impact in Iraq.
Rumsfelds concern, the diplomat added, was that an expansion of the war into
Iran could put the American troops in Iraq at greater risk of attacks by
pro-Iranian Shiite militias.
At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on August 3rd, Rumsfeld was
less than enthusiastic about the wars implications for the American troops in
Iraq. Asked whether the Administration was mindful of the wars impact on
Iraq, he testified that, in his meetings with Bush and Condoleezza Rice,
there is a sensitivity to the desire to not have our country or our interests
or our forces put at greater risk as a result of whats taking place between
Israel and Hezbollah. . . . There are a variety of risks that we face in that
region, and its a difficult and delicate situation.
The Pentagon consultant dismissed talk of a split at the top of the
Administration, however, and said simply, Rummy is on the team. Hed love to
see Hezbollah degraded, but he also is a voice for less bombing and more
innovative Israeli ground operations. The former senior intelligence official
similarly depicted Rumsfeld as being delighted that Israel is our stalking
horse.
There are also questions about the status of Condoleezza Rice. Her initial
support for the Israeli air war against Hezbollah has reportedly been tempered
by dismay at the effects of the attacks on Lebanon. The Pentagon consultant
said that in early August she began privately agitating inside the
Administration for permission to begin direct diplomatic talks with Syriaso
far, without much success. Last week, the Times
reported that Rice had directed an Embassy official in Damascus to meet with
the Syrian foreign minister, though the meeting apparently yielded no results.
The Times also reported that Rice viewed herself
as trying to be not only a peacemaker abroad but also a mediator among
contending parties within the Administration. The article pointed to a divide
between career diplomats in the State Department and conservatives in the
government, including Cheney and Abrams, who were pushing for strong
American support for Israel.
The Western diplomat told me his embassy believes that Abrams has emerged
as a key policymaker on Iran, and on the current Hezbollah-Israeli crisis, and
that Rices role has been relatively diminished. Rice did not want to make her
most recent diplomatic trip to the Middle East, the diplomat said. She only
wanted to go if she thought there was a real chance to get a ceasefire.
Bushs strongest supporter in Europe continues to be British Prime Minister
Tony Blair, but many in Blairs own Foreign Office, as a former diplomat said,
believe that he has gone out on a particular limb on thisespecially by
accepting Bushs refusal to seek an immediate and total ceasefire between
Israel and Hezbollah. Blair stands alone on this, the former diplomat said.
He knows hes a lame duck whos on the way out, but he buys itthe Bush
policy. He drinks the White House Kool-Aid as much as anybody in Washington.
The crisis will really start at the end of August, the diplomat added, when
the Iraniansunder a United Nations deadline to stop uranium enrichmentwill
say no.
Even those who continue to support Israels war against Hezbollah agree
that it is failing to achieve one of its main goalsto rally the Lebanese
against Hezbollah. Strategic bombing has been a failed military concept for
ninety years, and yet air forces all over the world keep on doing it, John
Arquilla, a defense analyst at the Naval Postgraduate School, told me.
Arquilla has been campaigning for more than a decade, with growing success, to
change the way America fights terrorism. The warfare of today is not mass on
mass, he said. You have to hunt like a network to defeat a network. Israel
focussed on bombing against Hezbollah, and, when that did not work, it became
more aggressive on the ground. The definition of insanity is continuing to do
the same thing and expecting a different result.
Bush 'helped Israelis attack on Lebanon' Guardian Unlimited, UK -
Aug 13, 2006
The veteran investigative journalist SeymourHersh writes in the
current issue of the New Yorker magazine that Israeli government officials
travelled to the US ...
Report: Lebanon war - prelude to US attack on Iran Ynetnews, Israel - Aug
13, 2006 ... preemptive attack to destroy Irans nuclear installations, some of
which are also buried deep underground, investigative reporter SeymourHersh said in ...
Report: The US Pushed Israeli Plan CBS News, New York - Aug
13, 2006 ... more, CBS News correspondent Joie Chen the idea had been nurtured by
Vice President Cheney, according to investigative journalist and author
SeymourHersh.
Israel, US Planned War Before Crisis: Report Islam Online, Qatar - Aug
13, 2006 ... the support of his office and the Middle East desk of the National
Security Council," a US government consultant with close ties to Israel told
SeymourHersh
Israel's attack on Lebanon was premeditated EgyptElection.com, UK -
Aug 15, 2006 ... for terror. But on Sunday this hypothesis was confirmed by an article
SeymourHersh published in the New Yorker. Israel, his sources
...
Labor veteran: UK 'disgrace' in Mideast United Press International -
Aug 15, 2006 ... The New Yorker journalist SeymourHersh
reported over the weekend that US officials had given a green light to Israel to
act against Lebanese Hezbollah long ...
Truce Holding, Hard Part Still to Come Council on Foreign Relations, New
York - Aug 15, 2006 ... In the new issue of the New Yorker, Seymour
Hersh alleges Washington involved itself in intimate aspects of the war in
south Lebanon, providing broad support
His
comments come ahead of a meeting in Kuala Lumpur Thursday of key members of
the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the world's largest Muslim
grouping, to discuss the escalating Middle East crisis. 
Malaysia
is the current chair of the Saudi Arabia-based OIC, but in his latest stinging
attack on his handpicked successor Abdullah, former prime minister Dr Mahathir
Mohamad has reportedly lambasted its performance in the role. 
The Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) has called on the United Nations
to declare the air strikes on the Lebanese village of Qana, killing about 60,
as a war crime, and asked them to urgently take action for a ceasefire in
Lebanon. 
Başbakan
Malezyadaki zirvede, "Bugün dokunulmayanlar, yarın bana dokunulmayacak
rehaveti içine girmesinler" dedi. 
ABDnin
etkin gazetelerinden Washington Postta yazan Dışişleri Bakanı Abdullah Gül,
Lübnanda yaşanan insanlık trajedisine bir son verilmesini isteyerek, ABDye "artık
liderlik sergile ve savunduğun değerlere sahip çık" çağrısında bulundu.
Sema Emiroğlu
İPEK YEZDANİ Kuala Lumpur
04 Ağustos 2006 
Savaş 25. gününe girerken, ölü sayısı 1000'e yaklaştı. Uzaydan çekilen
fotoğraflar, Beyrut'un savaştan önceki ve savaştan sonraki halini gösterdi. 12
Temmuz tarihli Beyrut, başına düşecek bombalardan habersiz... İsrail
bombardımanından sonra, 31 Temmuz tarihli GeoEye fotoğraflarında, Beyrut'un aynı
bölgesi. Yerleşim yerinden eser yok, binalar yerle bir olmuş...