Arabs Press Syria to End Hezbollah Support

[gulfcoastliberal]

SIDON, Lebanon Jul 23, 2006 (AP)— Mideast diplomats were pressing Syria to stop backing Hezbollah as the guerrillas fired more deadly rockets onto Israel's third-largest city Sunday. Israel faced tougher-than-expected ground battles and bombarded targets in southern Lebanon, hitting a convoy of refugees.

Israel's defense minister said his country would accept an international force, preferably NATO, on its border after it drives back or weakens Hezbollah. But his troops described the militants they encountered as a smart, well-organized and ruthless guerrilla force whose fighters do not seem afraid to die.

With Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arriving in Israel on Monday, both the Arabs and Israelis appeared to be trying to set out positions ahead of Washington's first diplomatic mission to the region since the fighting began. The United States backs Israel's refusal to talk about a cease-fire until it completes the military campaign against Hezbollah, but is under increasing pressure to foster a plan to end the growing suffering and destruction in Lebanon.

snip

With Israel and the United States saying a real cease-fire is not possible until Hezbollah is reined in, Arab heavyweights Egypt and Saudi Arabia were pushing Syria to end its support for the guerrillas, Arab diplomats in Cairo said.

A loss of Syria's support would deeply weaken Hezbollah, though its other ally, Iran, gives it a large part of its money and weapons. The two moderate Arab governments were prepared to spend heavily from Egypt's political capital in the region and Saudi Arabia's vast financial reserves to break Damascus from the guerrillas and Iran, the diplomats said.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2227386&page=1

How do the anti-Israeli folks feel about this? Arab countries calling for Hezbollah to cease and desist? Wow.

[Kagemusha]

1. Because they're Sunni countries and Hezbollah's Shia.

And so is the majority of the elected Iraqi government, which is a matter of concern for them.

[xultar]

2. Anti-Israeli....so this is what the whole thing is about. If we don't like

what Israel is doing then we are anti-Israeli.

All I have to say is IRAQ. Remember when we were anti America when we questioned and displayed our disgust with our own fuckin country.

[FloridaPat]

3. Nothing like screwing yourselves. The Muslims are upset at Israel

and the US, but we still get oil to invade their countries, kill their people, and now they're telling one of their own to start acting correctly. What a world.

[Spazito]

4. If I answer, does that make me an "anti-Isreali" folk or does it depend

on what is in my answer?

They are also demanding an immediate cease fire, I am glad they are doing both. At least they are speaking to both sides of this dispute unlike the US who is neither speaking to the other side and is working to STOP an immediate cease-fire.

Again, good on Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

[Tempest]

5. Something you have to remember

Most of the Arab leadership (Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt in particular) do not have the support of the people.

It is only by the good graces of the U.S. that they are in power.

So when you hear that "Arabs" and "Arab diplomats" want Syria and Iran to stop supporting Hezbollah, it's not the Arab people talking.

As a matter of fact, the Arab people overwhelmingly support Hezbollah's fight against Israel.

[movonne]

9. Just like here only 37%( give or take a few points) support our

war..The Saudi population are even more radical than most other Arab countries..

[IndianaGreen]

6. Sunni Arab governments like Saudi Arabia and Egypt?

Both of which are very unpopular with their respective peoples!

The U.S. intervened in Lebanon following Israel’s invasion of Lebanon to provide a buffer between Israeli troops and the besieged population of Beirut. Israel had invaded to once-and-for all rid itself of the threat from Yassir Arafat’s PLO, then occupying south Lebanon and Beirut.

If the Reagan administration had not – unnecessarily – taken sides with Lebanon’s Christians against its Muslim majority, who initially saw the Marines as saviors from the Israeli guns, it is likely the majority of Shia would never have been radicalized. And if Israel had reached out to the Shi’ites of south Lebanon – who hated the PLO almost as much as the Israelis did and largely welcomed the invasion to “cleanse” the region of Palestinians – it might have created a buffer far more effective than any military shield.

But neither of those things happened. Instead, what the Israelis call “Hezbollahstan” took the place of Arafat’s “Fatahland” in south Lebanon and the suicide bomb was invented in Beirut. Two decades later, Lebanese are once more dying under Israeli bombs and an American administration is once more seeing black and white.

The Bush administration’s cynical decision to allow Israel to, as one right-wing commentator put it, “reduce Beirut to a parking lot,” is a policy guaranteed to produce yet another wave of radicalized young Muslims in Lebanon and across the region, creating common-cause between Shi’ite and Sunni radicals at a time when the two are coming to blows in Iraq, thus further undermining U.S. interests and endangering “moderate” Arab regimes.

Washington has proudly pointed to condemnations of Hezbollah by Sunni Arab governments like Saudi Arabia and Egypt as bolstering its cause; in fact, as the carnage continues to unfold on satellite TV and anger mounts on the “Arab street,” those regimes are likely to rue the day they ever uttered those words.

Published on Sunday, July 23, 2006 by CommonDreams.org
Lebanon: Black & White and Dead All Over
by Lawrence Pintak


http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0723-21.htm

[Teaser]

7. stop posting nonsense

you don't know what you're talking about.


Come back when you speak arabic.

[IndianaGreen]

8. Israel Will Create More Terrorists Than It Kills

Published on Sunday, July 23, 2006 by CommonDreams.org

Israel Will Create More Terrorists Than It Kills

by Stephen Zunes

Israel holds thousands of Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners seized within the territory of those nations by Israeli forces. Most of these Arab prisoners have not engaged in terrorism and many are non-combatants. How is Israel's seizure and detention of these people different from Hezbollah's seizure and detention of the two Israeli soldiers? Does Israel's refusal to release its hostages give Lebanon or Palestine, if they were capable of it, the right to engage in a massive bombardment of civilian targets in Israel?

Most of the targets of the Israeli air strikes have nothing to do with Hezbollah, which does not control the Lebanese government and is only a minority party in the Lebanese parliament. Israel has bombed the Beirut International Airport, the main seaport of Juniyah and even the historic lighthouse on the Beirut esplanade, none of which is controlled by Hezbollah. Israel has also bombed bridges, power stations, civilian neighborhoods and villages miles from any Hezbollah militia. And, despite insisting that the Lebanese army take stronger action against the Hezbollah militia, the Israelis have bombed Lebanese army facilities as well.

Close to 200 Lebanese civilians have died in these attacks so far, as well as over a dozen foreigners, including a Canadian family on vacation.

The European Union, consisting of 25 democracies, condemned Hezbollah's seizure of the Israeli soldiers, but also noted that Israel's military retaliation against Lebanon is "grossly disproportionate." The United States is virtually alone in the international community in its defense of the Israeli assault.

Despite President George W. Bush's claim on Monday that the crisis started because Hezbollah decided to "fire hundreds of rockets into Israel from southern Lebanon," Hezbollah did not attack civilian areas in Israel until after Israel began attacking civilian areas in Lebanon last week.

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0723-23.htm

[54anickel]

10. Saudis Ask Bush to Work for Cease-Fire

http://www.normantranscript.com/feeds/apcontent/apstories/apstorysection/D8J22I502.xml.txt/resources_apstoryview

Saudi Arabia asked President Bush on Sunday to intervene in Israel's military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon to stop the mounting deaths, but administration officials said they remain convinced that an immediate cease-fire is not the answer.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said that during an Oval Office meeting with Bush, he gave the president a letter from Saudi King Abdullah asking that Bush help seek an immediate cease-fire in the Middle East conflict.

snip>

Nail al-Jubeir, a Saudi embassy spokesman, said the Saudis would not release the letter or get into other details of the proposal because it was a private communication between Abdullah and Bush. Asked whether the Saudis requested that Bush directly pressure Israeli leaders for a cease-fire, al-Jubeir said they cannot tell the president who to call. But he noted Bush has a unique influence to negotiate with Israel.

"The U.S. has the authority, it has the clout with Israel," he said. "For us to go and talk to the Israelis isn't going to do anything."

Saud said in their meeting, Bush expressed his desire for the violence to stop. But Saudi officials would not say how he responded to their request for an immediate halt to Israel's bombing campaign.

more...

[Andromeda]

11. At this point the moderate Arab countries,

Saudi Arabia and Egypt, are the only ones who can rein in Iran and Syria. Syria is the facilitator working in alliance with Iran who provides Hezbollah with weapons and cash to build up its formidable fighting force.

Hezbollah threatens not only the Israelis but the whole stability in the ME. Saudi Arabia and Egypt have already condemned what Hezbollah is doing, taking Israel's side in this skirmish, not because they love Israel but because they dislike Hezbollah more.

[fujiyama]

13. Wow you really think Saudi Arabia and Egypt are moderate?

We have puppet regimes in place but there are a lot of pissed off Saudis I'd call anything but moderate.

[LivingInTheBubble]

14. Does moderate mean "US approved"

I noticed a RW talking head use the same term in the same way.

[IndianaGreen]

15. "Moderate" means US approved

There is nothing moderate about Saudi Arabia, particularly if you are a woman or LGBT.

[rpannier]

12. Saudi Arabia and Egypt are moderates

Two dictatorial style governments. One is very happy keeping women as third class citizens, the other in it's 25th year of martial law, imposed due to the assassination of Anwar Sadat. When I think moderate, they're not it, unless you mean moderately far right wing.