Democratic Palestine : 35 (ص 24)
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- Democratic Palestine : 35 (ص 24)
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Israel that Syria will be bogged down
deeper and deeper in the Lebanese
mud» (AP, August 17th). Levran went
on to threaten that a Syrian victory in
Lebanon could force Israel to rethink
its present «non-intervention» policy.
The same day, Israeli Prime Minister
Shamir declared, «There are red lines.
The red line is the safety of Israel.»
Concurrent Israeli statements made it
clear that a build-up of Syrian forces
in Lebanon was considered a threat
even if they did not move into South
Lebanon, previously considered the
«red line.» This is because they could
be accompanied by Syrian missiles
which might interfere with Israeli air
surveillance of Lebanon. Israel prefers
the present state of tension, so that it
has a free hand in continuing its bomb-
ing of the Palestinian and Lebanese
National Resistance forces. Thus, it is
not the Syrians but the Zionist state
which is the major force in the
destabilization of Lebanon, as seen in
years of aggression and attempts to
prevent national reconciliation by arm-
ing and promoting the Lebanese isola-
tionists, in East Beirut and the South.
The internal Lebanese differences have
been aggravated by the Israeli in-
terference and occupation. An occupied
country is by definition a divided
country.
The kidnapping of Sheikh Obeid by
Israeli commandos in late July was one
more attempt to keep the Lebanese
crisis boiling, by reviving the issue of
the hostages just as the Arab League
committee announced that it had
reached a deadlock. The US and Israel
took this as a pretext for building up
their military forces off the Lebanese
coast, to threaten the nationalist forces
and divert international attention away
from what is going on in Palestine’s
West Bank and Gaza Strip. In the
words of the Israeli defense minister,
Yitzhak Rabin, «We should remember
that bringing Sheikh Obeid to Israel
brought the subject, at least from a
media standpoint, to international at-
tention» (AP, August 23rd). «We have
one good bargaining card,» said Rafael
Eitan, former army chief of staff,
referring to the kidnapping of Obeid.
«If one card is not enough, we have to
go in one night and bring back a few
more cards, and again the next night....
24
New refugees
Lebanon is a box full of cards» (AP,
August 8th).
It is clear that the US administration
has given Israel a free hand in Lebanon.
In this sense, it is the chief conspirator
in the Lebanese tragedy, for ali the
direct Israeli aggression on Lebanon
has been funded and equipped by the
US, in line with its interests in sponsor-
ing attacks on the Palestinian revolu-
tion, the Lebanese nationalist forces
and Syria, in order to maintain its
geostrategic positions in the Middle
East.
KEY TO SOLUTION
After 15 years of war, it is clear that
no single political force or community
in Lebanon is able to gain the upper
hand. At the same time, no external
force has been able to impose its
hegemony. General Aoun’s delusions
about a final showdown have only
brought more dead and wounded, and
more fragmentation and dangers to the
Lebanese people. Aoun’s «war of
liberation» is nothing of the kind; the
liberation war is that being waged in the
South against the Israeli occupiers and
their proxies, not Aoun’s war which is
directed against the Lebanese people.
Each new round of sectarian fighting
has deepened divisions, making na-
tional reconciliation and reunifying
Lebanon all the more difficult. If the
smoke does settle in Lebanon, it will
enly lead to the tragic realization that
the savage warfare of the past months
was for nought.
As of this writing, the Arab League
three-state committee has resumed its
efforts with a meeting of foreign
ministers in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on
September 13th. It is very important
that this committee has been reac-
tivated, but its initiative must be more
clearly articulated and intensive if
results are to be achieved. Certainly,
the members of this committee should
listen to the view of all parties to the
conflict, but they should also evaluate
which positions are correct and which
are wrong.
Lebanon’s dismemberment is not the
result of what Aoun calls the «Syrian
occupation.» It is the result of the
Israeli occupation and the breakdown
of the Lebanese system itself due to the
unworkable confessional system. So the
key to the solution must begin with en-
forcing Israeli withdrawal while enac-
ting a democratic reform of the
Lebanese political system.
But does the Arab committee have
the ability to exert joint pressure on
Israel to force it to withdraw per-
manently from Lebanon? Clearly, it
does not if for no other reason than
that this question is closely connected
to the Arab-Israeli conflict as a whole,
and its core, the Palestinian issue. It is
difficult to imagine peace in Lebanon,
or Palestine, until there is an end to
Israeli aggression. Until then, Lebanon
remains on the brink of disaster. e
Democratic Palestine, October 1989 - هو جزء من
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