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.