After a month of war, during which Israel committed extensive war crimes, according to Amnesty International, the Bush Administration finally allowed the U.N. Security Council to pass a cease-fire resolution. The U.S. peace movement played a small but important role in suspending the carnage.
But the fragile cease-fire agreement has many holes. U.S.-backed Israeli attacks are still a grave threat:
• Last week the Israeli military launched a failed commando raid in eastern Lebanon. UN General Secretary Kofi Annan said the attack violated the ceasefire agreement. Undeterred, Amir Peretz, the Israeli defense minister, announced his country was preparing for "the next round" of fighting. Italy's foreign minister said his country will not send peacekeepers into Lebanon so long as "the I.D.F. continues to shoot."
• The Israeli government's refusal to lift its air, sea, and land blockade of Lebanon is preventing badly needed relief and reconstruction aid from getting to war-torn areas.
• The Bush administration not only provided arms used by Israel to kill civilians, it goaded Israel into launching the war to remove Hezbollah as a deterrent to a pre-emptive war on Iran, senior government officials told investigative reporter Seymour Hersh.
• In a report released earlier, Amnesty International accused Israel of committing war crimes by deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure in Lebanon. The human rights group criticized Israel for destroying homes, bridges, roads, water treatment plants and fuel tanks.
• The United Nations has revealed that Israel dropped cluster bombs on at least 170 villages and other places in south Lebanon. Many of the cluster bombs failed to explode initially but are now causing further Lebanese casualties.
• Meanwhile, Israel's attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and besieged Gaza Strip have continued. The bombing of Gaza's main power plant and other key infrastructure has caused a humanitarian crisis for more than 1.3 million civilians. The repeated and prolonged closings of the border crossings and the bombing of three bridges into Gaza have greatly compromised access to humanitarian aid and the return of Gaza residents to their homes.
The fact that Israel used U.S.-supplied weapons when it committed its war crimes means we in the U.S. have both the responsibility and leverage to prevent new wars of aggression. We also know that the Bush administration will launch and support wars to prevent diplomatic efforts to resolve crises. If we act now to curtail U.S. support for Israel, we can reduce the chances of another all-out war in the Middle East.
TAKE ACTION
1. Demand that Congress halt arms shipments to Israel and require Israel to fully abide by the cease-fire.
Call the Capitol Hill Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to your Senators' and your Representative's offices.
2. Educate ourselves and others about the conflict.
Invite recently returned members of a peace delegation to Lebanon to speak in your community. Judith LeBlanc, United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) Co-Chair; Medea Benjamin, Global Exchange; and Gael Murphy, CODEPink: Women for Peace (all members of UFPJ's Steering Committee) are available to speak. Call 212-868-5545 for contact information.
3. Shape the debate in the media. Suggestions for what to say are listed below.
• For your local newspapers: Send a letter to the editor and encourage others to do so; try to arrange for an op-ed piece or a guest editorial; if you or someone you know has been personally touched by this crisis, try to get a reporter to do an interview.
• Call into radio talk shows: You can often talk about anything that's on your mind and reach thousands of people.
• If you organize a visit to your member of Congress, invite a reporter to come with you.
4. Ask your group to sign the "Open Letter Re US Policy in the Middle East From People in the United States Who Believe that Only Justice Will Bring Peace."
The letter was drafted by the Steering Committee and Staff of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation in collaboration with UFPJ.
ISSUES TO RAISE IN THE MEDIA
1. Nothing positive was achieved by Israel's war on Lebanon. More than 1,100 Lebanese (overwhelmingly civilians, mostly children) and 160 Israelis died. Whole villages were reduced to rubble, 900,000 Lebanese have been rendered homeless, and Lebanon's infrastructure was devastated. Despite all the destruction, the war did not achieve the release of the captured Israeli soldiers. In fact, it strengthened Hezbollah's political support. The White House's policy of preemptive war hasn't worked in Iraq, nor in Lebanon, and it won't work in Iran.
2. The U.S. should not be supplying weapons for use in war crimes. In July and August, Lebanese and Palestinians civilians by the hundreds were killed by Israel with U.S.-supplied weapons. By using U.S. weapons to kill civilians and destroy civilian infrastructure, Israel is violating the Arms Export Control Act (AECA), which limits the use of U.S. weapons to internal policing and legitimate self-defense. Instead of stopping the flow of weapons as required by law, the United States rushed jet fuel and satellite- and laser-guided bombs to Israel.
3. War on Lebanon has not made Israelis or Americans safer. Nor will new "pre-emptive wars." Sustained security cannot come from policies of military unilateralism nor by denying the legitimate needs and aspirations of others. The Bush administration's disdain for diplomacy and its delivery of weapons used by Israel to engage in war crimes has made the people of the U.S. more vulnerable to terrorist attacks.
4. Only negotiations, not the policy of "might makes right," can address the root causes of conflict. The current dispute did not begin with the capture of three Israeli soldiers. After a 20-year occupation of Lebanon, Israel still holds thousands of Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners and still occupies Lebanon's Shebaa Farms. It has occupied the Palestinian West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem for nearly 40 years. Only meaningful negotiations to end Israel's occupation of Palestinian lands and to implement equal rights for all will bring peace to the region.
5. Congress must call for:
- Israel to immediately lift its air and sea blockade of Lebanon and respect the cease-fire agreement;
- An end to delivery of U.S. weapons to Israel;
- Meaningful, multi-party negotiations to resolve the underlying political disputes based on human rights and international law;
- No war on Iran.
RESOURCES:
- John Kifner, "Human Rights Group Accuses Israel of War Crimes," New York Times, August 24.
- "Secretary General Deeply Concerned About Israelil Violation of Ceasefire on August 19," UN Press Release, August 19.
- Lakhdar Brahimi, "Start Talking to Hezbollah," op-ed, New York Times, August 18.
- Neil MacDonald, "Lebanon calls for US help on blockade," August 23.
- Seymour Hersh, "Watching Lebanon: Washington's Interest in Lebanon's War," The New Yorker.
- Stephen Zunes, "How Washington Goaded Israel"
- Amnesty International, "Israel/Lebanon: Evidence indicates deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure," August 23.
- Silvia Tennenbaum, "Why Doesn't Israel Work For Peace?" Long Island, New York Newsday, August 4.
- Democracy Now!
- American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, "ADC Files for Temporary Protected Status for Citizens of Lebanon and Gaza"
Source: AlZazeera
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