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OBSERVERS WORRY MIDEAST ESCALATION COULD FLARE INTO WAR
WORLD LEADERS, INCLUDING US STATE DEPT., URGE BOTH ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH TO REFRAIN FROM ESCALATING VIOLENCE 14 July 2006 Israel's attack on Lebanon has escalated, with bombing of Beirut's international airport, the main highway between Beirut and Damascus, at least one power station, several bridges, and a mounting sea blockade. Israel says it holds Lebanon responsible for Hezbollah's abduction of two Israeli soldiers and is acting in self-defense. The US State Department, through Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, has called on all sides to refrain from using disproportionate violence and to scale back attacks, but admits the right of Israel to defend itself. Lebanese officials have criticized Israel's PM Ehud Olmert's assigning blame to Lebanon as a whole for the actions of the radical group Hezbollah, saying neither the Lebanese governmenet nor even Hezbollah's political wing have any influence over the military element of the group. Britain's Guardian newspaper reports "Israel has struck hundreds of targets in Lebanon in recent days, including airports, roads and army bases" and says 73 people have been killed in Lebanon since the bombardments began, mostly civilians. Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on both Hezbollah and Israel's military to avoid targeting civilians. At least 50 civilians were reported killed in airstrikes in and around Beirut yesterday, with 100 more injured. Rocket attacks into Israel have reportedly killed 4 civilians. According to HRW, after Hezbollah threatened to strike Haifa if Beirut were bombed, an unnamed official in the Israeli Defense Force was quoted in Israeli media saying "If they attack Haifa and Hadera, it will constitute a reason to severely damage Lebanese infrastructures, including Hizballah’s 20-storey buildings inside Beirut". There were reports of rocket attacks or missile strikes at Israel's 3rd largest city, Haifa, some 30 kilometers inside Israel, thought to be beyond Hezbollah's range. The strikes were seen as motivating an increase in bombing of targets in Lebanon. Hezbollah initially denied responsibility for the rocket attack into Haifa, and it is still not clear who is responsible, though Hezbollah is naturally considered the most likely party. Today Israeli missiles did destroy the Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut. It is not clear whether the leader of the group, who reportedly spends a lot of time in hiding, was present. HRW also reports "Hizballah forces have launched scores of rockets across the border into northern Israel, killing two civilians and injuring approximately 150". BBC radio reported today an anecdotal encounter with a tour guide in Haifa who expressed aplomb, saying "it's only a small war". This was reported to show that Haifa, while on maximum security alert, is not in a state of panic and that Israelis are not living in a state of war. But across the Middle East and south Asia, fears the crisis could spread are grave. One editorial published in Pakistan suggested there is a serious danger that increasing violence in Afghanistan and Iraq, the unconfirmed announcement of an al-Qaeda cell in Jammu-and-Kashmir, the Mumbai bombing that has killed 179 commuters, Iran's nuclear program and now the two-front Israel-Hamas-Hezbollah conflict, could begin to merge into one broad international crisis. While that nightmare scenario is unlikely, fear of tensions spreading, or of neighboring countries taking sides or supporting one side militarily are real. The West has expressed concern that Syria or Iran could provide aid or equipment to Hamas or Hezbollah to foment an escalation in violence. But the Syrian ambassador to the United Kingdom says his government has urged Hezbollah to cease attacks on civilians, while having no real influence over the organization or its military wing. One former Palestinian minister has told the BBC that Israel is now doing what it accuses Hamas of doing, attacking civilian centers in Gaza and Lebanon in order to achieve a political objective, the release of 3 captured soldiers. The current crisis began when Palestinian militants in Gaza ambushed an Israeli military position and kidnapped one soldier, killing two others. The militants have reportedly attempted to win the release of all Palestinian women and children held in Israeli prisons in exchange for the release of the hostage, Gilad Shalit. Israeli forces have now withdrawn from part of central Gaza, where they were searching for Shalit. The escalation to an assault on Lebanon was spurred by Hezbollah guerrillas kidnapping two Israeli soldiers, killing eight others, in an effort to bargain for release of prisoners in a similar fashion. According to the San Jose Mercury News, a review shows that during the last 3 decades "Israel has released about 7,000 prisoners to secure freedom for 19 Israelis and to get back the bodies of eight others". Yesterday, the United States vetoed a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel for using disproportionate violence in response to the abductions. The resolution had been carefully rewritten to palatable to Israel's allies, but US ambassador John Bolton said it was one-sided and made demands of Israel without demanding real concessions or disarmament from Hamas or Hezbollah. Human Rights Watch reminds in its report yesterday "International humanitarian law requires that armed forces distinguish between combatants and civilians, and between military objects and civilian objects, at all times. It is also forbidden to carry out indiscriminate attacks or attacks that cause damage disproportionate to the anticipated concrete military advantage". A Western reporter in Pakistan describes news coverage of "red sky over Beirut". Media coverage in region features complaints Israel is using extreme over-reaction to kidnapping of its soldiers to inflame tensions. Israel maintains it is simply taking necessary military action to free 3 abducted soldiers, defend its sovereignty. The entire conflict is intensely complicated, however, by the nature of the rhetoric surrounding the word "war". Israel has classified Hezbollah's kidnapping of 2 soldiers as an "act of war" perpretrated by the government of Lebanon. This would, in theory, mean the two nations are now at war. But in fact, within the context of Israeli security, it is intended to explain why overwhelming military action might be justified. Hamas and other Palestinian groups long complained that the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories left all Palestinians living in a "state of war", using this as justification for atrocities committed by those groups against Israeli civilians. And now, as Israel's bombardment of targets in and around Beirut has intensified, the leader of Hezbollah, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, is calling for "open war". According to the Guardian newspaper, "a defiant audiotaped statement by Mr Nasrallah was broadcast on Hizbullah TV. He did not refer to the latest attacks but warned that his group would wage an 'open war' against Israel". Conditions in Gaza, already among the worst in the world, are now deteriorating steadily. Power, water and medicine are in short supply, and civilians are caught in an intensifying crossfire, now largely overshadowed by the conflict with Lebanon, and now largely forgotten that on the day Israel began its incursion into Gaza, Hamas had for the first time signed on to a political document recognizing Israel as a sovereign state. The rhetoric of war is clearly playing a role in escalating tensions, and the Finnish foreign minister has warned the intense bombardment risks provoking Syria to become involved; it had ruled Lebanon through "puppet" governments until withdrawing last year. [s]
BACKGROUND: Amnesty International has published a new report examining the international arms trade, and its findings indicate there is little control on the expanding web of private interests seeking to profit from a proliferation of dangerous weapons. The report also illustrates the ways in which this scattering of dangerous weapons has lead to severe human rights abuses. [Full Story] 'TREE OF LIFE' MAKES USED WEAPONS INTO SIGN OF HOPE In the wake of Mozambique's long civil war, lasting from 1976 to 1992, a group of artists set up the Transforming Arms into Tools project in the nation's capital, Maputo. Sculptors use decomissioned weapons, and parts of weapons to make art, expressing the possibility of finding new ways to secure and advance civil society. [Full Story] |
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