    Between Victory and Defeat

    By Israel Shamir

    Now we are entering a most crucial period, a forking of destinies, when
    our actions or inactions are liable to determine our future and that of
    our children for many years to come. The hardest fighting in Lebanon is
    playing out right now, as a small Resistance force – 2,000 warriors at
    the beginning of the war, and probably much less now - takes its stand
    against the onslaught of a 30,000-strong fully equipped army, attacking
    in spite of the cease-fire resolution. If they survive, they win.

    The US-drafted and Israel-approved Security Council resolution is
    profoundly unfair: the UN troops will be stationed - not in Galilee to
    protect weak Lebanon from Jewish fury, but in South Lebanon in order to
    protect the strong neighbour. The defender, not the aggressor, will be
    disarmed. This is unfair, but not unfair enough for the Jews: the moment
    the resolution was accepted, the Israeli army swept forward, in order to
    grasp as much territory as possible before the official cease-fire
    deadline. It was a foul trick, going against the spirit of the UN
    resolution, but within its letter: “It is kosher, but stinks”, say the
    Jews about such dishonesty.

    The Israeli government decision was truly Orwellian, if not
    schizophrenic: agree to the cease-fire AND proceed full speed with the
    conquest of South Lebanon. In a clarification given by an IDF Northern
    Command officer, Israel intends to surround South Lebanon and keep
    fighting there AFTER the cease-fire as well, calling it “mopping-up of
    terrorists”. Sayed Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, also pledged to
    fight the invader on the ground, while accepting the cease-fire.

    Thus there is little chance that the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the
    ensuing fighting will be over soon. Today Israel bombed the last road
    connecting Lebanon with its neighbour Syria, and the Lebanese civilians
    lost their last chance to escape. This step combined with a massive
    airborne landing at the Litani is intended to cut off supplies to the
    embattled Lebanese fighters, while Israeli troops are being constantly
    re-supplied by Washington. The US participation in the war is not
    limited to full diplomatic support and military supplies to Israel.
    Endangering their own troops in Iraq, the Pentagon moved its spy
    satellite from its positions above Baghdad to the skies of Lebanon, a
    move which necessitated a massive transfer of US soldiers to Baghdad.

    Moreover, important Jewish American friends of Israel in Washington
    called upon the Israeli government to fight and win, for a
    non-victorious Israel is of no use to the Empire. The Washington Post
    columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote earlier this week: “...[Olmert's]
    search for victory on the cheap has jeopardised not just the Lebanon
    operation but America's confidence in Israel as well.” Max Boot, a
    Council of Foreign Relations fellow, wrote in the Los Angeles Times:
    “Syria is weak and next door. To secure its borders, Israel needs to hit
    the [President Bashar] Assad regime.” American Jews demand war and
    victory. “American Jewry is one Red state [regarding the Jewish wars]”,
    said a once-liberal editor of Tikkun.

    The warlike calls from the JINSA quarter are connected with the first
    Jewish American casualty of the conflict: Joseph Lieberman, a leading
    pro-war Democrat, was defeated in the Connecticut primaries. The seismic
    wave sent by his defeat threatened the bipartisan support base of Israel
    in Congress. President Bush expressed his support of the erstwhile
    Democrat who was totally devoted to Israel and to the war in the Middle
    East. Pro-war forces in the US woke up to the danger and intensified
    their efforts to spread the war to the whole region.

    These forces have many allies in Israel, whose leadership is brooding
    over its military defeat in what was supposed to be a short, brilliant
    campaign, and is looking for a scapegoat. Generals blame the government
    which denied them full freedom of action and mutter about a coup d’état;
    ministers blame the army; intelligence officers implausibly claim they
    knew it would happen. The PM Olmert must go, demanded Ari Shavit, a
    leading columnist of Haaretz turned a born-again neo-fascist, who blamed
    Israeli liberalism for the defeat; while an ad at the masthead of the
    liberal Haaretz newspaper calls out to “Ehud [Olmert] and Amir [Peretz],
    please nuke Iran!”

    This request may still be fulfilled, although blitzkrieg did not work
    out so well in Lebanon. The missiles of Hezbullah presented a
    counter-threat to Israel to be activated in case of Israeli-American
    attack on Iran and Syria. Now, with the threat of missiles removed, and
    after a good rest and rearmament, the Israelis may try to continue with
    their plans to thrash Damascus and Teheran. It was for this purpose that
    they agreed to the cease-fire.

    Cease-fire is a secret weapon of Israel. Whenever the IDF suffers a
    setback, the Jews roll in the secret weapon and gain a time-out, and an
    opportunity to resume fire whenever suitable after rearmament and rest.
    The cease-fire weapon was utilised for first time in 1948, when the UN
    declared it twice, connected with the weapons embargo. Both times the
    nascent Jewish state used it to its full: delivery of weapons to the
    Palestinians was embargoed, while the Jews received fresh supplies of
    weapons from the ostensibly Stalinist, but predominantly Jewish,
    government in Prague. Rearmed and refreshed, the Jews renewed their
    offensive when they were ready, and crushed the Palestinian resistance.
    The cease-fire was unleashed in 1973, when it saved the Jewish state
    from looming defeat, allowed the US administration under Kissinger’s
    guidance to rearm the Israelis, and permitted them to break it whenever
    needed.

    The cease-fire fall-back strategy was built into Israeli war plans since
    the very beginning of the War in Lebanon II. The Jews bombed civilians
    in Lebanon. While the Kana massacre is the most notorious, there were
    dozens of Kanas, as the Deir Yassin massacre in 1948 was only the most
    notorious among many others. The Israeli civilian population suffered as
    well, and the Palestinians of Galilee (“Israeli Arabs”) suffered most,
    because Israeli artillery shelled Lebanon from their shelter-less
    villages, expecting and causing return fire, to the great mirth of
    Jewish nationalists.

    When the world conscience demanded an end to the slaughter of innocents,
    Israel presented an ultimatum via its allied superpower, the US, to wit:
    if you wish us to cease killing, please, do our job for us, disarm the
    resistance, embargo their supply of weapons, re-colonise Lebanon, so
    that when we shall be able to resume the war, Lebanon will fall into our
    hands like ripe fruit.

    Only the Hezballah fighters’ steadfastness and courage moved the French
    to improve upon the Israeli-American draft a bit; though it remained as
    generous as Shylock’s loan agreement. The Security Council reminded me
    of the referee in a short story by Jack London, The Mexican.

    The main character, a lithe Mexican boy, Rivera, is to fight a great
    heavyweight boxer, Danny, a Tyson of his time, for a big prize he needs
    to buy guns for the Revolution. At first, Danny attacks: “It was not a
    fight. It was a slaughter, a massacre. Danny was certainly showing what
    he could do--a splendid exhibition. Such was the certainty of the
    audience that it failed to take notice that the Mexican stayed on his
    feet. It forgot Rivera. It rarely saw him, so closely was he enveloped
    in Danny's man-eating attack. Then an amazing thing happened. Rivera
    stood alone. Danny, the redoubtable Danny, lay on his back. The referee
    circled in between, and Rivera knew that the seconds he counted were
    very slow. All Gringos were against him, even the referee. At "nine" the
    referee gave Rivera a sharp thrust back. It was unfair, but it enabled
    Danny to rise”. And on every occasion, “the referee worked, tearing him
    away so that he could be hit, giving Danny every advantage that an
    unfair referee can give”, continues Jack London. Still, despite this
    advantage, Tyson was beaten. The slim Mexican’s steadfastness and
    devotion allowed him to lick the adversary before the referee and the
    policemen could steal his victory.

    The Lebanese and Palestinians still can achieve victory, despite Israel
    and America’s sheer might. But in real politics we do not have to push
    for victory, we may be satisfied with modus vivendi. More and more
    Israelis are coming to their senses, even the Peace Now movement which
    supported the war from the beginning. The main danger still comes from
    the extreme American Zionists who are ready to fight from their
    recliners until the last Israeli falls. They should be cooled off and
    brought to their senses by their fellow Americans. In Israel, the battle
    intoxication fades, but not fast enough. Destruction of Lebanon is
    unbelievable: Israeli reporters compare it with Berlin ’45.

    Dozens of Israeli and Lebanese fighters and many Israeli and Lebanese
    civilians are dying now because of the Israeli leadership’s attempt to
    gain points. The Israelis die in vain, sent to death by their leaders.

    The Israeli government should not be rewarded for its nastiness. The
    Security Council resolutions on Lebanon call for disarming forces
    unauthorised by the Beirut government. Thus, the Lebanese leadership
    should integrate Hezbollah into their state and army machinery and thus
    undermine the Zionist plot. The Lebanese can take a leaf from the
    experience of 1948, when the Jewish terror organisations (Palmach,
    Haganah, Etzel etc.) were incorporated and integrated into the Israeli
    army. Hezbollah proved its might, its ability to fight the enemy, and to
    keep its cards close to its chest. These qualities should not be
    disregarded.

    This was understood by the Maronite President of Lebanon, Emile Lahoud,
    who answered the usual Zionist complaints from a Western journalist in a
    fashion clearly supportive of Hezbullah: “Hezbollah is the force that
    was able to liberate the land of the south in the year 2000. Our army is
    national, and the resistance is national. You want the national army to
    disarm the national resistance, which is complementary to the army but
    without having the same operation room? No way”.

    But another great achievement of Hezbollah lies in its healing of
    Sunni-Shi’a strife, strife created and nourished by al Qaeda. This murky
    Afghan-based group, founded by the US to fight the Soviets in 1980s was
    in mothballs by 2001, when the US policy makers resurrected it by
    crediting them with the 9/11 attack, athough even today, five years
    later, their involvement is not proven. Whoever attacked the Twin Towers
    and Pentagon (and we do not know who did it) attracted a wave of
    sympathy mixed with adoration among the passionate disenchanted of the
    New World Order from Paris to Teheran, from Moscow to Oklahoma. The
    Masters of Discourse were concerned that this great harvest might be
    appropriated by an able and dangerous (for them) group (not necessarily
    Muslim) and preferred to credit it to their tame al Qaeda. Since then,
    Al Qaeda has proved to be a valuable American tool: they did nothing
    worth mentioning, but beheaded tourists on video and dutifully
    instigated strife between Sunni and Shi’a in Iraq, bombing mosques and
    killing pilgrims. They could attract some good and daring young men on
    the basis of their 9/11 credit – and bring them to perdition.

    The rise of Hezbollah upset this arrangement. Instead of fighting fellow
    Muslims, Hezbollah fights the Judaeo-American Empire. As opposed to al
    Qaeda’s fakery, Hezbollah is the real thing, and they fight a real war,
    never stopping to pose for a TV crew. The young and inspired men keen on
    a good fight for a good cause turned to Nasrallah.

    The deserted stooges of al Qaeda called their followers to fight
    (Hezbollah), but in vain. The strife between Sunnis and Shi’as is
    fading, and the Sunni majority of the Arab world preferred Sayed
    Nasrallah, the Defender of the Underprivileged, to the Shari’a enforcers
    of bin Laden and Zarkawi. The Heathrow Gunpowder Plot is apparently a
    desperate attempt by Al Qaeda’s patrons to refurbish the faded glory of
    their creatures by showing that they are not a completely spent force.
    This good showing by Hezbollah will have serious consequences outside
    Lebanon – it will reunite the Orient against the Empire.