So, I assume everyone understands that the war isn’t over? And since the war isn’t over, let’s not talk yet about anyone having ‘won’.
The ‘ceasefire resolution’ was a joke. It was a resolution that was based on Hizbullah surrendering. The only problem is that Hizbullah has no reason to surrender, not having been defeated. But if the war not being over means Hizbullah hasn’t won, that doesn’t mean Israel has won. They hoped to divide Lebanon and failed, and I doubt a phony ‘ceasefire’ while they continue to occupy and slaughter people is going to bring them closer to their political goal. They hoped to destroy Hizbullah and failed. They hoped to demonstrate their might and failed. They want a ‘ceasefire’ based on a Hizbullah surrender, but Hizbullah was ready for a reasonable ceasefire from day one, and is as able to fight in spite of an unreasonable ceasefire now as it was on day one.
What it means is that Israel will be in Lebanon to continue its destruction and killing and to prevent the refugees it has created from going home safely. In the process, they’ll claim Hizbullah is violating the ceasefire. I suppose people some believe them.
Those who do believe them are unlikely to listen to Eqbal Ahmed’s talk from 1982, another talk that could almost have been given today. Eqbal never forgot the link between what the Palestinians were facing and what Israel was doing in Lebanon and elsewhere. He noted the differences between Israel’s intentions towards the two groups: colonial towards the Lebanese, genocidal towards the Palestinians.
Eqbal Ahmed was courageous and did things that one had to respect.
On that subject, did you know that Venezuela has recalled its ambassador to Israel? See the note below from the Stop the Wall Campaign.
OPEN LETTER TO THE BOLIVARIAN REPUBLIC OF VENEZUELA AND PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ
from Stop the Wall Campaign
The Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, the Palestinian grassroots movement against the Wall that ghettoizes our people, would like to thank the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its president, Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, for their principled decision to call back the Venezuelan ambassador from Tel Aviv. This courageous step is valued by all of our people as the model of action we would expect the world to take to protest against the continued war crimes, the Occupation and the colonial apartheid regime Israel represents.
The support for the struggle of the Palestinian and Lebanese people against the Zionist project of ethnic cleansing has been expressed by you on many occasions. The fact that it has been translated this time in concrete action installs gratitude and hope in the people in Palestine and Lebanon. In the Arab world and far beyond, the people are expressing their appreciation for this act of solidarity in their slogans and the placards in their mobilizations.
For more than 58 years the Occupation has continuously violated Human Rights, international conventions and all UN resolutions relating to Arab rights.
Since the creation of Israel, the world nations have passed over hundreds of resolutions demanding that the Occupation respect the rights of the Palestinian people and the people in the other Arab states. Yet, Apartheid Israel has continued its aggressions against the Palestinian people under the excuse of “self-defense” in order to consolidate its grip over Palestine and the region. Israel’s latest war in Lebanon is certainly not the first time the Occupation has expanded its aggression beyond Palestine to other Arab states. The recent and ongoing bombings of Beirut are reminiscent of the destruction of the city and the mass killings of its people in 1982, just like the recent massacre in Qana which has an eerie resemblance to 10 years earlier when over 100 civilian residents of Qana were killed.
While the world is watching, horrified by the war crimes against the Lebanese population, the Occupation continues its policies of expulsion and killings through the wanton bombings and attacks on the Gaza Strip and the accelerated construction of the Apartheid Wall aimed to ghettoize the Palestinians within the West Bank.
Governments all over the world have given out statements but none of them has been willing to take concrete action. This inaction – or complicity – of international diplomacy betrays our people and our calls to exert clear pressure on the Occupation and contradicts the international conventions and treaties these same governments have ratified.
As Palestinian people struggling for our existence against the fourth most powerful army in the world and the last apartheid regime, we need to know that we are not alone. The withdrawal of the Venezuelan ambassador has given us new confidence and hope that the solidarity with our cause is gaining strength until Justice will prevail over Impunity.
However, this move should not remain isolated. It is crucial that the other governments of this world start to listen to the people they are representing and to respect the treaties they have signed. The people in Spain, Chile, Brazil, Costa Rica, South Africa and many other countries have started campaigns to ask for the interruption of diplomatic ties with the Occupation. In many Latin American countries, such as Argentina, Uruguay and Panama, the people in their mass mobilizations have clearly chosen the side of the occupied people denouncing the discourse of equidistance between the colonizer and the colonized, resistance and state terrorism.
We are thus calling upon all governments to follow the example of the Bolivarian Republic to use their diplomatic and economic power until the respect of the full rights of the Palestinian and Lebanese and all other Arab people is ensured.
Words are not enough. As we are continuing to struggle against the definitive ethnic cleansing of Palestine, it is time to act to end Israeli impunity. The current silence and inaction of the world leaders are a form of complicity that will weigh on all of Humanity.
We ask the world to continue to engage in sustained action to isolate Apartheid Israel until our struggle achieves Liberation, Justice and Dignity for our people and the refugees can return to their homes.
End Israeli Colonialism and Racism!
End the massacres in Palestine, Lebanon and all over the Middle East!
Isolate Apartheid Israel! – Free Palestine!
——-
StopTheWall.org – Visit the Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign web site.
Boy are you one sided.
Boy are you one sided. Israel colonial towards Lebanon? What a sham! The only reason Israel has anything to do with Lebanon in military terms is due to the PLO, Hizbollah, katyushas and the bombing of northern Israel.
Of course, this cannot be admitted by the terror apologizers(you) because your whole “Israel is the bad guy” case would crumble.
Go on, keep apologizing and appeasing. Just learn to live under a Middle Ages sharia law, ’cause the Christians in both Lebanon and the West Bank, as well as the Kurds – and others – have learned: it is Islam or death.
Yeah. Good luck with that.