Globe: Rami Khouri, Time to cut in on the Mideast dance of death
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Monday July 17 2006, Globe and Mail, Rami G. Khouri, Time to cut in on the Mideast dance of death
Rami G. Khouri is editor-at-large of the Beirut-based Daily Star.
You need to understand the relationship among four pairs of actors to grasp the meaning of the escalating Mideast violence in recent days. The four pairs are: Hamas and Hezbollah; the Palestinian and Lebanese governments; Syria and Iran; Israel and the United States.
Some may depict this latest conflict as a clash between good and evil, while others may like to blame Palestinians and Lebanese who only want to make war against a peace-loving Israel. But the reality is that these four pairs of actors all have roles in the ongoing fighting, just as all played their part in policies that have kept the Middle East tense, angry and violent.
Hezbollah and Hamas emerged in the past decade as the main Arab political forces resisting Israeli occupations in Lebanon and Palestine. They enjoy substantial popular support in their respective countries, while, at the same time, eliciting criticisms for their militant policies that inevitably draw harsh Israeli responses. We see this in Lebanon today as the Lebanese people broadly direct their anger at Israel for its brutal attacks against Lebanese civilian installations, and fault Palestinians, Syria and Iran for perpetually making Lebanon a battleground. They also are questioning Hezbollah's decision to trigger this latest calamity.
It is no coincidence that Israel is now simultaneously bombing and destroying the civilian infrastructure in Palestine and Lebanon, including airports, bridges, roads, power plants, and government offices. It claims to do this in order to stop terror attacks against Israelis. But, in fact, the past four decades have shown that its policies generate exactly the opposite effect: They have given birth, power, credibility and now political incumbency to the Hamas and Hezbollah groups whose raison d'être has been to fight the Israeli occupation of their lands.
The Lebanese and Palestinians have responded to Israel's increasingly savage attacks by creating alternative leaderships to protect them and deliver essential services. With every new Israeli attack, the Lebanese and Palestinian governments lose power and impact, Hamas and Hezbollah garner greater popular support, they expand their military capabilities (mainly longer-range missiles and better improvised explosive devices), and the anti-Israel, anti-U.S. resistance campaign generates widespread support throughout the Middle East and much of the world.
This is linked to the third pair of actors, Syria and Iran, who have carefully positioned themselves as allies, patrons, hosts, financiers, arms suppliers and ideological brothers of Hamas and Hezbollah.
While these two Islamist groups are primarily driven by local resistance to Israel, and are Palestinian and Lebanese in their basic identity, they both play important roles in the foreign policies of Iran and Syria. We now are witnessing a strong convergence: The sovereign state actors, Iran and Syria, are fighting deadly political battles against Israel, the United States and, increasingly, Europe, while Hamas and Hezbollah fight similar battles against the same foes. It makes eminent sense, from the perspective of Tehran and Damascus, to foment greater troubles now for the U.S. and Israel along the Lebanon-Israel border. This is an opportune time to strike because Israel is deeply perplexed about how to handle Hamas's resistance in Palestine, and the U.S. seems unable to offer any policy other than to support Israel's right to defend itself (while withholding the same right from the Lebanese and Palestinians).
The fourth pair of actors, the United States and Israel, find themselves in the bizarre position of repeating policies that have consistently failed for the past 40 years. Israel has this to show for its track record of being tough: It is now surrounded by two robust Islamist resistance movements with greater striking power and popular support; Arab populations around the region are voting increasingly for Islamist political movements, and defiant ideological foes in Tehran and Damascus are not hesitating to use all weapons at their means, however damaging these may be to civilians and sovereignty in Lebanon and Palestine.
The U.S., for its part, is strangely marginal. Its policies have lined it up squarely with Israel. It has sanctioned, and thus cannot even talk to, Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas, and it has pressured and threatened Syria for years without any real success. The superpower is peculiarly powerless in the current crisis.
And what will Israel and the U.S. do when there are no more Arab airports, bridges and power stations to destroy? The futility of such policies should be clear by now, and a diplomatic solution should be sought seriously for the first time. As long as these four pairs of actors persist in their intemperate policies, the consequences will remain grim.
Rami G. Khouri is editor-at-large of the Beirut-based Daily Star.
You need to understand the relationship among four pairs of actors to grasp the meaning of the escalating Mideast violence in recent days. The four pairs are: Hamas and Hezbollah; the Palestinian and Lebanese governments; Syria and Iran; Israel and the United States.
Some may depict this latest conflict as a clash between good and evil, while others may like to blame Palestinians and Lebanese who only want to make war against a peace-loving Israel. But the reality is that these four pairs of actors all have roles in the ongoing fighting, just as all played their part in policies that have kept the Middle East tense, angry and violent.
Hezbollah and Hamas emerged in the past decade as the main Arab political forces resisting Israeli occupations in Lebanon and Palestine. They enjoy substantial popular support in their respective countries, while, at the same time, eliciting criticisms for their militant policies that inevitably draw harsh Israeli responses. We see this in Lebanon today as the Lebanese people broadly direct their anger at Israel for its brutal attacks against Lebanese civilian installations, and fault Palestinians, Syria and Iran for perpetually making Lebanon a battleground. They also are questioning Hezbollah's decision to trigger this latest calamity.
It is no coincidence that Israel is now simultaneously bombing and destroying the civilian infrastructure in Palestine and Lebanon, including airports, bridges, roads, power plants, and government offices. It claims to do this in order to stop terror attacks against Israelis. But, in fact, the past four decades have shown that its policies generate exactly the opposite effect: They have given birth, power, credibility and now political incumbency to the Hamas and Hezbollah groups whose raison d'être has been to fight the Israeli occupation of their lands.
The Lebanese and Palestinians have responded to Israel's increasingly savage attacks by creating alternative leaderships to protect them and deliver essential services. With every new Israeli attack, the Lebanese and Palestinian governments lose power and impact, Hamas and Hezbollah garner greater popular support, they expand their military capabilities (mainly longer-range missiles and better improvised explosive devices), and the anti-Israel, anti-U.S. resistance campaign generates widespread support throughout the Middle East and much of the world.
This is linked to the third pair of actors, Syria and Iran, who have carefully positioned themselves as allies, patrons, hosts, financiers, arms suppliers and ideological brothers of Hamas and Hezbollah.
While these two Islamist groups are primarily driven by local resistance to Israel, and are Palestinian and Lebanese in their basic identity, they both play important roles in the foreign policies of Iran and Syria. We now are witnessing a strong convergence: The sovereign state actors, Iran and Syria, are fighting deadly political battles against Israel, the United States and, increasingly, Europe, while Hamas and Hezbollah fight similar battles against the same foes. It makes eminent sense, from the perspective of Tehran and Damascus, to foment greater troubles now for the U.S. and Israel along the Lebanon-Israel border. This is an opportune time to strike because Israel is deeply perplexed about how to handle Hamas's resistance in Palestine, and the U.S. seems unable to offer any policy other than to support Israel's right to defend itself (while withholding the same right from the Lebanese and Palestinians).
The fourth pair of actors, the United States and Israel, find themselves in the bizarre position of repeating policies that have consistently failed for the past 40 years. Israel has this to show for its track record of being tough: It is now surrounded by two robust Islamist resistance movements with greater striking power and popular support; Arab populations around the region are voting increasingly for Islamist political movements, and defiant ideological foes in Tehran and Damascus are not hesitating to use all weapons at their means, however damaging these may be to civilians and sovereignty in Lebanon and Palestine.
The U.S., for its part, is strangely marginal. Its policies have lined it up squarely with Israel. It has sanctioned, and thus cannot even talk to, Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas, and it has pressured and threatened Syria for years without any real success. The superpower is peculiarly powerless in the current crisis.
And what will Israel and the U.S. do when there are no more Arab airports, bridges and power stations to destroy? The futility of such policies should be clear by now, and a diplomatic solution should be sought seriously for the first time. As long as these four pairs of actors persist in their intemperate policies, the consequences will remain grim.
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