Blair set to try again with the 'road map' for peace - Newspaper Edition - Times Online: "August 21, 2006 | By Greg Hurst, Political Correspondent
TONY BLAIR has won the agreement of President Bush for another push to revive the Middle East peace process, despite widespread dismay at America’s reluctance to follow through past initiatives.
The Prime Minister, who returns from holiday this week, plans to make the quest for a viable Palestinian state a priority for his remaining period in office and is ready to act as an international progress chaser if talks can be resumed.
Labour sources say that Mr Blair has been frustrated by the failure of President Bush to act on commitments to implement the ‘road map’ for the Middle East peace process.
A senior government source told The Times that Mr Blair had, however, secured a new agreement from President Bush during his visit to Washington last month to support a fresh attempt to revive peace talks.
Mr Blair plans to visit Israel and territory under Palestinian control, either the West Bank or Gaza, to consult leaders on a way forward.
His visit will be watched closely for how he deals with leaders of Hamas, the armed Islamic resistance that won control of the Palestinian parliament in January.
British politicians have always refused to talk to Hamas unless it recognises the state of Israel and renounces violence, but last year the Government admitted it had authorised British diplomats to begin low-level talks with Hamas.
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The spokesman declined to comment on a report in The Observer that Ehud Olmert, Israel’s Prime Minister, had told Lord Levy, Mr Blair’s Middle East envoy, that the time was not right for him to visit and that it was too soon after the war in Lebanon for Israel to talk with the Palestinians.
Blair 'feels betrayed by Bush on Lebanon' ... 22:57pm 19th August 2006
The alliance between George Bush and Tony Blair is in danger after it was revealed that the Prime Minister believes the President has 'let him down badly' over the Middle East crisis.
A senior Downing Street source said that, privately, Mr Blair broadly agrees with John Prescott, who said Mr Bush's record on the issue was 'crap'.
The source said: "We all feel badly let down by Bush. We thought we had persuaded him to take the Israel-Palestine situation seriously, but we were wrong. How can anyone have faith in a man of such low intellect?"
The disclosure comes ahead of a mini recall of Parliament to allow MPs to vent their fury over Mr Blair's handling of Israel's war with Hezbollah and whether the recent terror plot in Britain was affected by his role in the Iraq war.
Excite News: "Israeli raid in Lebanon tests truce | Aug 19, 8:09 AM (ET)| By Nadim Ladki
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Helicopter-borne Israeli commandos raided a Hizbollah bastion on Saturday in what Lebanon called a "naked violation" of the U.N.-backed truce that halted Israel's 34-day war with the Shi'ite Muslim group.
Israel said the operation in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley aimed to disrupt weapons supplies to Hizbollah from Syria and Iran. Both countries deny arming the group.
Lebanese security sources said three Hizbollah guerrillas were killed in a dawn firefight with the Israeli commandos. The Israeli army said it had suffered one dead and two wounded.
"It is a naked violation of the cessation of hostilities declared by the Security Council," Prime Minister Fouad Siniora told reporters.
Siniora said he had protested to visiting U.N. envoys who would take the matter up with Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The truce came into effect on Monday.
Commandos in two vehicles unloaded from helicopters were intercepted on their way to an office of a Hizbollah leader, Sheikh Mohammed Yazbek, in the village of Bodai, the Lebanese sources said. The Israelis withdrew under cover of air strikes.
"Special forces carried out an operation to disrupt terror actions against Israel with an emphasis on the transfer of munitions from Syria and Iran to Hizbollah," Israel's army said. ...
Excite News: "Israeli aircraft attack eastern Lebanon: source | Aug 18, 9:47 PM (ET)
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Israeli aircraft fired several rockets at a target in a Hizbollah stronghold in eastern Lebanon early on Saturday morning, a Lebanese security source said.
It was not immediately clear what the Israeli aircraft were firing at in the village of Bodai.
An Israeli army spokesman said the army was checking the report.
Such an attack would be the first since a U.N. truce ended 34 days of fighting between Israeli forces and Hizbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon. ...
Truce will be Israel's last, Lebanon envoy declares - Yahoo! News: "Sun Aug 13, 8:54 PM ET |
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Lebanon's UN ambassador bitterly slammed Israel's month-long bombardment of his country ahead of a hard-won truce, and vowed that the treaty would be Israel's last with any Middle East country.
"Lebanon will be, I think, the last state to sign a peace treaty with Israel," UN ambassador Nouhad Mahmoud told CNN television's "Late Edition" program, without explaining the remark.
He called the agreement a "crucial" test for all the parties involved.
"Now it is the moment of truth for everyone, and we'll see who will abide by the Security Council resolutions and who will not, so (what) we have this week is very crucial," Mahmoud said.
The diplomat added that the 15,000 Lebanese soldiers to be dispatched to south Lebanon to help keep the peace alongside a similarly-sized international UN force "are not going to use force" to disarm the Hezbollah militia which has been battling Israel.
"Hezbollah will just leave the area as armed elements as I understand it, and the Lebanese army will take over the whole region along with the United Nations forces," he said
Of the UN cessation of hostilities agreement concluded Saturday after weeks of negotiation, he said "that could have happened through negotiation from the very first day, but the Israelis chose the escalation, and chose to have this war against Lebanon to destroy the whole country and to kill more than a thousand people," he said. "That was their choice."
AxisofLogic/ Middle East: "Palestinians reviving one-state idea in desperation | By Marvin Gandall | Aug 12, 2006, 00:45
Another contradiction for Israel to deal with: the collapse of the Palestinian Authority. If it disappears, Israel has the responsibility under international law as the occupying power to administer and support the residents of the West Bank and Gaza . Israel, of course, has brought itself to this point through its refusal to deal with Hamas and its subsequent physical destruction of PA offices and other Palestinian infrastructure, arrest of government ministers, and witholding of transfer payments.
Now Hamas leaders are threatening to make official what already exists on the ground: the formal dissolution of the PA. What logically follows from this is the concept of a single binational state which, according to the WSJ report below, is 'gaining traction among Palestinians of many shades' - including Hamas militants. As the Journal notes, 'the idea of dismantling the PA was once a marginal idea, championed in the 1990s by left-wing intellectuals such as Edward Said, who advocated civil disobedience against Israeli occupation and a campaign for 'one person, one vote'. The model was the antiapartheid protests in South Africa that paved the way for black-majority rule there.'
The irony is that any time interest in a binational state has manifested itself in the occupied territories, it turns Israel into a fierce champion of an 'independent' Palestine because of racially-motivated demographic fears for the Jewish character of the Zionist state. Fatah has exploited these Israeli fears before to encourage it to negotiate around its program for a viable independent Palestinian state. Now Hamas, which is not programatically committed to a two-state solution, but whose trajectory is in that direction, seems to be employing the same tactic to pressure the Israelis into releasing funds to the PA and agreeing to negotiate the terms of its withdrawal. 'Any breakdown in government could thwart Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's plan to withdraw unilaterally from large parts of the West Bank', the report observes.
There is virtually no chance the Israelis would juridicially absorb the Palestinians into their own state, knowing they would immediately be confronted with an enormous Arab-Jewish anti-apartheid campaign along South African lines. That is why they built a wall to retreat behind, threatening to leave the immiserated Palestinians to fend for themselves in an enclosed unguarded prison until they finally capitulate to Israel's terms for a peace settlement. "
Israel, Defeated- by Justin Raimondo: "August 14, 2006 | Round one: Lebanon, 1 – Israel, 0 | by Justin Raimondo
We hear much about "the cycle of violence" in the Middle East, with liberals and conservatives wailing that it needs to be "broken," but never do they say who started this "cycle," or whose brazen coercion and outright viciousness keeps it going. Yet even as the Israelis were approving UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which demands a cease-fire in Israel's war of aggression against Lebanon, the IDF was launching a huge offensive, and within minutes of the Israeli cabinet vote, the bombs were falling on Beirut. Right up until the last moment – 7 a.m., Monday morning – they were killing as many Lebanese as they could. And people wonder why Arabs teach their children to hate the Israelis. The feeling, rest assured, is mutual.
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Take a look at Resolution 1701: it is quite a lengthy document, which goes well beyond the call for a cease-fire and lays the groundwork for a comprehensive solution to the current crisis in the Middle East – one in which Israel gains not an inch. If implemented – and that, of course, is the key – it endorses the seven-point program of the Lebanese government, first put forward at the international conference of July 26. This means a mutual exchange of prisoners – not only the two Israeli soldiers, but the many Lebanese still being held by the Israelis – and the return of the disputed Shebaa Farms enclave to Lebanon. Resolution 1701 also harkens back to the 1989 Taif Agreement, brokered by the Arab League, that put the West's imprimatur on the Syrian "occupation," ending the Lebanese civil war.
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When 1701 endorses the efforts of the Lebanese government "to extend its authority over its territory, through its own legitimate armed forces, such that there will be no weapons without the consent of the Government of Lebanon and no authority other than that of the Government of Lebanon," consider that Hezbollah's political arm has two ministers in this government.
The Lebanese army, furthermore, is urged to take control of southern Lebanon: and, in tandem with this, Hezbollah is to be "disarmed." But who, exactly, is in this army? Lebanon's military recruiters will have a field day, as the ranks of the armed forces swell with Hezbollah fighters. The resolution orders the Israelis out of south Lebanon, and invites Hezbollah back in. ...
Both sides claim victory as Lebanon ceasefire holds - World - Times Online: "By Jenny Booth and agencies, Stephen Farrell in Kiryat Sherona and Times reporters | Video: Times Online TV
The first test of Lebanon's ceasefire came within two hours of the guns falling silent this morning, as Israeli soldiers shot dead a Hezbollah fighter in the war zone south of the Litani River.
Israeli army radio said that the dead Shia militant was among a group of 'armed terrorists' who approached the troops and opened fire."
Excite News - Israel Approves Truce, Continues Barrage: "Aug 13, 12:07 PM (ET) | By RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI
JERUSALEM (AP) - After a stormy debate Sunday, Israel's Cabinet approved a Mideast cease-fire, agreeing to silence the army's guns in less than 24 hours. The Israeli military embarked on a last-minute push to devastate Hezbollah guerrillas, rocketing south Beirut with at least 20 missiles.
The 24-0 vote, with one abstention, came a day after the Lebanese government approved the agreement and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah gave his grudging consent. The truce was to take effect Monday morning.
But questions as to the truce's durability quickly arose Sunday, when the Lebanese Cabinet canceled a critical meeting that was supposed to discuss the deployment of 15,000 troops to southern Lebanon, a key part of the cease-fire deal. Published reports said the Cabinet had been sharply divided over demands that Hezbollah surrender its weapons.
A heated debate erupted during Israel's Cabinet session, with minister Ofir Pines-Paz criticizing the government's decision to order an expanded ground offensive in the days before the cease-fire is to take effect.
Independent Online Edition > World Politics: "Arab League and Lebanon show deep mistrust for ceasefire draft | By David Usborne in New York and Donald Macintyre in Nahariya, Israel | Published: 09 August 2006
The bitter emotions of the Middle East spilled into the normally restrained chamber of the United Nations Security Council last night, as representatives from Lebanon and the Arab League expressed dismay at Israel's ongoing military operations, and voiced their deep distrust of details of a draft ceasefire resolution.
"I'm not quite sure what purpose this meeting served," Dan Gillerman, the Israeli ambassador to the UN, said immediately after a special session of the Security Council, where he found himself verbally battered in a highly unusual back-and-forth with representatives from Qatar and Lebanon. The poisoned atmosphere in the chamber highlighted the difficulties facing diplomats in New York as they battled to save the Security Council's efforts to adopt a ceasefire resolution, drafted jointly by France and the United States, that aims to halt the fighting between Israel and Hizbollah.
Intense, behind-closed-doors negotiations dragged into the night as the US and France struggled to answer Arab concerns about the draft, prepared earlier in the week, which asked for a ceasefire without simultaneously requiring that Israel withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon.
In the open session, the Foreign Minister of Qatar, Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani, warned of "civil war" in Lebanon unless changes to the resolution were made, and repeatedly berated Israel for its actions.
"What is happening will sow the seeds of hatred and extremism in the area and provide a pretext for those who feel the international community is taking sides and lacks fairness," he said. ...
Excite News - Israel Widens Airstrikes Into Lebanon: "Aug 12, 7:21 AM (ET) | By ZEINA KARAM
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Israeli warplanes launched wide-ranging airstrikes and sent commandos into the Hezbollah heartland Saturday while the U.N. raced to begin enforcing its new cease-fire blueprint and stop the fighting. Airstrikes killed at least 15 people in one Lebanese village.
Israel also blasted a highway near Lebanon's last open border crossing to Syria as it kept up its full-scale campaign against Hezbollah militants. Long columns of Israeli tanks, troops and armored personnel carriers streamed over the border.
The U.N. plan approved on Friday night would create a peacekeeping force by combining a beefed-up version of the ineffective U.N. units already in the war zone and 15,000 troops from the Lebanese army. The contingent, which could number around 30,000 soldiers, would stand between Israel and the Hezbollah militia.
Israel's Cabinet meets Sunday to approve the U.N. plan. Lebanese officials signaled that their formal backing could come Saturday.
Israel's army chief, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, said Israel has nearly tripled the number of forces in Lebanon and expects to fight for another week despite the cease-fire deal. He said Israeli forces - apparently about 30,0000 now - would stay in Lebanon until an international force arrives. ...
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | US and France close to ceasefire agreement: "Friday August 11, 2006 | The Guardian | Ewen MacAskill, Oliver Burkeman in New York and Julian Borger in Jerusalem
Russia dramatically intervened in the struggle to reach a UN deal on Lebanon last night, tabling a proposal for a 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire on the grounds the crisis was too desperate to wait on more wrangling between the US and France.
'This diplomatic activity is not being conducted in a quiet academic environment,' Russia's UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin said in New York. 'War is raging in Lebanon, and the humanitarian situation is getting catastrophic.'
He said that his draft resolution had the support of Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, and he hoped it would 'focus minds' and 'energise politicians and diplomats'. Mr Churkin said he wanted a vote on it today.
The unexpected move broke an emerging consensus on the security council, and came amid signs that a compromise hammered out by the US and France during the day yesterday had been rejected by the Lebanese government, which includes representatives of Hizbullah." ...
End This Tragedy Now: "Israel Must Be Made to Respect International Law | By Fouad Siniora | Wednesday, August 9, 2006; Page A17
The writer is prime minister of Lebanon.
BEIRUT
A military solution to Israel's savage war on Lebanon and the Lebanese people is both morally unacceptable and totally unrealistic. We in Lebanon call upon the international community and citizens everywhere to support my country's sovereignty and end this folly now. We also insist that Israel be made to respect international humanitarian law, including the provisions of the Geneva Conventions, which it has repeatedly and willfully violated."
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On July 25, at the international conference for Lebanon in Rome, I proposed a comprehensive seven-point plan to end the war. It was well received by the conference and got the unanimous and full backing of the Lebanese Council of Ministers, in which Hezbollah is represented, as well as of the speaker of parliament and a majority of parliamentary blocs.
The plan, which also received the full support of the 56 member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, included an immediate, unconditional and comprehensive cease-fire and called for:
· The release of Lebanese and Israeli prisoners and detainees through the International Committee of the Red Cross.
· The withdrawal of the Israeli army behind the "blue line."
· A commitment from the U.N. Security Council to place the Shebaa Farms and Kfar Shouba Hills areas under U.N. jurisdiction until border delineation and Lebanese sovereignty over them are fully settled. Further, Israel must surrender all maps of remaining land mines in southern Lebanon to the United Nations.
· Extension of the Lebanese government's authority over its territory through its legitimate armed forces, with no weapons or authority other than that of the Lebanese state, as stipulated in the Taif accord. We have indicated that the Lebanese armed forces are ready and able to deploy in southern Lebanon, alongside the U.N. forces there, the moment Israel pulls back to the international border.
· The supplementing of the U.N. international force operating in southern Lebanon and its enhancement in numbers, equipment, mandate and scope of operation, as needed, to undertake urgent humanitarian and relief work and guarantee stability and security in the south so that those who fled their homes can return.
· Action by the United Nations on the necessary measures to once again put into effect the 1949 armistice agreement signed by Lebanon and Israel and to ensure adherence to its provisions, as well as to explore possible amendments to or development of those provisions as necessary.
· The commitment of the international community to support Lebanon on all levels, including relief, reconstruction and development needs.
Lebanon calls, once again, on the United Nations to bring about an immediate cease-fire to relieve the beleaguered people of Lebanon. Only then can the root causes of this war -- Israeli occupation of Lebanese territories and its perennial threat to Lebanon's security, as well as Lebanon's struggle to regain full sovereignty over all its territory -- be addressed. ...
Independent Online Edition > Robert Fisk: "Robert Fisk: This draft shows who is running America's policy... Israel | Published: 07 August 2006
So the great and the good on the East River laboured at the United Nations Security Council - and brought forth a lemon. You could almost hear the Lebanese groan at this draft resolution, a document of such bias and mendacity that a close Lebanese friend read carefully through it yesterday, cursed and uttered the immortal question: "Don't these bastards learn anything from history?"
And there it all was again, the warmed-up peace proposals of Israel's 1982 invasion, full of buffer zones and disarmament and "strict respect by all parties" - a rousing chortle here, no doubt, from Hizbollah members - and the need for Lebanese sovereignty. It didn't even demand the withdrawal of Israeli forces, a point that Walid Moallem, Syria's Foreign Minister - and the man the Americans will eventually have to negotiate with - seized upon with more than alacrity. It was a dead UN resolution without a total Israeli retreat, he said on a strategic trip to Beirut.
A close analysis of the American-French draft - the fingerprints of John Bolton, the US ambassador to the UN, were almost smudging the paragraphs - showed just who is running Washington's Middle East policy: Israel. And one wondered how even Tony Blair would want to associate himself with this nonsense. It made no reference to the obscenely disproportionate violence employed by Israel - just a sleek reference to "hundreds of deaths and injuries on both sides" - and it made only passing reference to Hizbollah's demand that it would only release the two Israeli soldiers it captured on 12 July in return for Lebanese and other Arab prisoners in Israeli jails. ...
The Security Council said it was "mindful of the sensitivity of the issue of prisoners and encouraging the efforts aimed at settling the issue [sic] of the Lebanese prisoners detained in Israel". I bet Hizbollah were impressed by the "mindful" bit, not to mention the "sensitivity" and the soft, slippery word "settle" - an issue which can be "settled" in maybe 20 years' time. Then came the real coup de grâce. A demand for the "total cessation by Hizbollah of all attacks" and the "immediate cessation" by Israel of "all offensive military operations". Bit of a problem there, as Hizbollah spotted at once. They have to lay down their arms.
Had the council demanded an immediate resolution on the future of the Shebaa farms, the Israeli-occupied territory which once belonged to mandate Lebanon - and for whose "liberation" the Hizbollah have fought - the whole fandango might have stood a chance. After all, Shebaa is the only raison d'être that the Hizbollah can produce for continuing their reckless, ruthless, illegal war across the UN blue line in southern Lebanon. But the UN document wished only to see a delineation of Lebanon's borders "including in the Shebaa farms area". There was even a wonderful paragraph - Number 9 for aficionados of UN bumf - which "calls on all parties to co-operate ... with the Security Council". So the Hizbollah are to co-operate, are they, with the austere diplomats of this august and wise body? Isn't that exalting a guerrilla army a little bit more upmarket than it deserves?
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Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | Leader: Lebanon: "Unbalanced progress | Leader | Monday August 7, 2006 | The Guardian
The United States wanted a suspension of fighting and France wanted a ceasefire - but perhaps the best that can be hoped for is a standoff. ...
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Sadly, though, on many issues the Israelis remain as intransigent as Hizbullah may prove, so it is still hard to see a ceasefire sticking. The lack of balance in the draft resolution poses further problems. Israel is called on only to end "offensive military actions", but it claims the whole disproportionate campaign so far has been defensive. The demand for the immediate release of Israeli soldiers, whose capture triggered the war, is not mirrored in respect of Lebanese prisoners held south of the border. Israel's troops will be able to remain inside Lebanon for the immediate future - something Hizbullah is unlikely to accept - while Lebanese grievances, such as the occupation of Shebba Farms, are not addressed. It is unsurprising that Lebanon moved to reject the draft - especially when bombardment, as in Israel, has hardened domestic opinion.
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Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Lebanon rejects UN truce proposal which it claims favours Israel: " Monday August 7, 2006 | The Guardian | Oliver Burkeman in New York and Clancy Chassay in Beirut
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But Nabih Berri, the speaker of the Lebanese parliament, rejected the 6,500-word text thrashed out by Washington and Paris. Mr Berri, who has been negotiating on behalf of Hizbullah, said the draft resolution legitimised Israel's occupation, adding that it would "open the door to never-ending war". Philippe Douste-Blazy, France's foreign minister, said obtaining Lebanese and Arab support for the plan was his government's priority.
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The resolution was the result of concessions on both sides. If the text is passed, Paris will have won on the basic structure: a two-part process, consisting of a halt to violence, followed soon after by a second resolution to approve an international peacekeeping force. Any such force would be led by France. But Washington, which has supported Israel, gained crucial concessions - above all the terminology on "offensive operations" - and the absence of any mention of troop withdrawal.
Lebanese diplomats tried to overturn that yesterday, circulating a proposed amendment calling on Israel to hand over its positions in Lebanon to the Lebanese armed forces. The amendment would also have required Israel to withdraw from the disputed Sheba'a Farms area and hand it to the UN, a key Lebanese demand that goes unmentioned in the US-French text. ...
