Khaled Diab

Arabs and Israelis have a common way of greeting people and it is to wish them ‘peace’. As advocates of violent solutions chalk up another victory in the Middle East and the international community fails the test again in Lebanon and Gaza, the time has come for Arab and Israeli citizens to join forces in a broad-based regional coalition to work towards salam/shalom… now.

August 2006

Part II – Peace begins at home

Silent world

In a previous article published in July, I blasted the mediocre reaction of the international community to the situation in Lebanon and Gaza and urged the EU to overcome its internal divisions and act decisively – by mobilising its massive collective economic and political clout – to help bring about an end to the crisis.

“I don’t think you can give the international community as a whole, nor the EU, high marks for their performance in this crisis,” assesses Mouin Rabbani, senior Middle East analyst at the International Crisis Group, an independent Brussels-based think-tank.

During its 34-day campaign, Israel levelled much of Lebanon’s infrastructure, destroyed entire villages and urban districts, and caused around a million terrorised Lebanese civilians to take flight in what is likely to be deemed as one of the most pointless conflicts in recent times.

Rather than buckling, the poorly armed Hizbullah has fought, guerrilla-style, ferociously to defend southern Lebanon against an Israeli ground offensive and has fired barrages of mostly antiquated Katyusha and other short-range rockets into northern Israel, causing disruption and fear among the local population.

Lebanon’s gleaming new infrastructure, which was rebuilt following the end of its 15-year civil war in 1990, was reduced to rubble by Israel’s ultra-modern airforce which faced no resistance because Lebanon lacks any form of air cover. More than 1,200 Lebanese and 157 Israelis were killed. In addition, Israel claims to have killed 583 Hizbullah fighters. Explosive remnants of war, such as unexploded cluster munitions, continue to cause casualties.

The conflict has also done little to lift the flagging fortunes of Israel’s embattled premier Ehud Olmert, who enjoyed a short-lived surge in popularity during the thick of the fighting. An official inquiry into the decision to go to war has been launched.

More and more voices are also demanding the resignation of Defence Minister Amir Peretz, who had once been viewed as a dove and many held out hopes that his politics and Moroccan extraction would help build bridges with the Palestinians and other Arabs. According to an opinion poll released by Yedioth Aronoth, 57% want Peretz to resign and 41% want Olmert to go.

Whether or not the lopsided ceasefire brokered by the UN Security Council holds, it will do little to repair the damage – both physical and psychological – caused by the fighting.

Rabbani notes that: “It took the UN Security Council a month to pass a resolution, and even then this resolution failed to issue an unambiguous call for an immediate ceasefire. As was noted by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the credibility of the UN in the Middle East has been further eroded by this crisis.”

Although the final draft of the resolution was a little more balanced than the original one put forward by the Americans and the French, it still placed the burden of blame for the crisis squarely on Hizbullah’s shoulders, and only called on Israel to cease ‘offensive military action’, which will not only enable Israel to resume future attacks as and when it pleases (as was demonstrated by the commando attack on 20 August), it will do little to heal festering wounds and mend bridges.

Fortunately, it did allow the Lebanese army to take up positions in the south of the country. Nevertheless, the foreseen international ‘peace keeping’ force may buy some breathing space but will do little to address the underlying causes of the current flare-up.

Lessons unlearnt

What the Middle East demonstrates over and again, when there are determined foes on both sides, there can be no winners in asymmetric warfare.

If the Israeli government should take home any lessons from the current standoff in Lebanon (as with the previous failed invasions in 1978 and 1982 and Shimon Perez’s bungled ‘Grapes of Wrath’ operation in 1996), it is that there can be no military solution to Israel’s disputes with its neighbours. Israel’s ill-advised military campaign in Lebanon has done nothing to weaken Hizbullah, but has done everything to open old Lebanese wounds and distrust towards Israel. It has also made a cult hero of Hizbullah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah across the Arab world.

The militia group is currently riding high on a wave of popular support in Lebanon – and the wider Arab world – as a terrified and angry population have closed rank behind the plucky underdog. Only months ago, the Hizb, like many militant movements before it, was finding it hard to adapt itself to peacetime and integrate into the Lebanese political sphere. Long gone was the euphoria and gratitude bestowed on the movement on the back of the Israeli pullout from southern Lebanon in 2000 following its 18-year occupation of the so-called ‘security zone’.

But Hizbullah’s irresponsible provocation of the regional superpower is likely to be recalled eventually by the Lebanese public when they assess the ruin of their country. The Hizb’s abduction of the two Israeli soldiers did nothing to lighten the load of Palestinians in Gaza nor did it return Lebanese prisoners languishing in Israeli gaols.

In the broader Arab world, where frustration at collective powerlessness runs deep and articulated itself in a collective paralysis, Hizbullah’s ability to defy Israeli firepower and weather the storm has elicited broad admiration and has even been chalked up as a victory. But how long will it be before those Arab admirers awaken to the bitter reality of the massive costs and the miniscule gains of the Shia militia’s defiance?

Part II – Peace begins at home

From the archives

Crisis in Lebanon and Gaza –

From complete failure to comprehensive solutions

July 2006 – Israel’s massive onslaught against Lebanon – and before that Gaza – reveals a monumental failure on the part of the international community to prevent an avoidable tragedy. Now it is up to the European Union to avoid a replay of 1982 and revive the idea of a comprehensive solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Read on

Getting to the grassroots of the Middle East conflict

By Khaled Diab and Katleen Maes

April 2006 – The new Kadima party’s election victory in Israel looks set to continue the comatose Ariel Sharon’s bid to impose a unilateral solution on the Palestinians. The evacuation of settlements is setting in motion a new and potentially positive dynamic, but continued one-sidedness could cause the situation to slip back into deadlock as usual. Israelis and Palestinians need to recognise that they have no political shepherds to guide them through the valley of the shadow of conflict. Ordinary people must seize the initiative from the political classes who lack the imagination and courage to make peace.

Part I: Getting to the grassroots of the Middle East conflict

Part II: The end of the road for unilateralism?

The EU’s new Palestine dilemma

February 2006 – It may be better for the EU to provide more carrots and fewer sticks for Hamas, writes Khaled Diab. Read on

Dressed to kill –

Under the cloak of Bush’s foreign policy

December 2005 – Jeff Sommers, Khaled Diab and Charles Woolfson expose what lies beneath the cloak of US President George W Bush’s foreign policy. Read on

Time to rethink the EU’s role in the Middle East

January 2005 – If Yasser Arafat’s death is to signify anything more than the symbolic start of a new era, the European Union must radically rethink its role as a mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to persuade the two peoples to work towards a new dawn. Read on

Commission wants closer EU-Israeli ties

January 2005 – The European Commission and the EU’s former envoy to the Middle East have both come out in favour of enhancing economic and political ties with Israel. But critics question the wisdom of extending a policy of good neighbourhood to a country that has done little to make the neighbourhood a safer place to live. Read on

ã2006 K. Diab. Unless otherwise stated, all the content on this website is the copyright of Khaled Diab.