Countering Zionist propaganda
about Hizbullah and Lebanon
Henry Lowi
July 18, 2006
In the current Israel-Lebanon conflict (in which my relatives' home
in Carmiel has been destroyed, and visiting Lebanese Canadians have
been incinerated in South Lebanon), the propaganda war is key. Here
are some quick points to remember in the propaganda war:
1. Israel says that the Lebanese government is in violation
of UN resolutions that require the Lebanese government to exercise
state sovereignty in southern Lebanon, and disarm the militias.
We ask:
* Since when does Israel comply with UN resolutions?
* Since when does Israel respect state sovereignty?
2. Hizbullah is denounced as a "terrorist" organization
by the army that it defeated.
We ask:
* Since its founding in 1982, how many non-combatant Israeli civilians
has Hizbullah killed?
* In that same period, how many non-combatant Lebanese civilians
have the Israeli forces killed?
3. Hizbullah is accused of having raided into sovereign Israeli
territory and attacked and killed and captured Israeli soldiers
on border patrol.
We ask:
* Since its founding, how many Israeli soldiers has Hizbullah killed
inside Israel?
* How many Israeli soldiers has Hizbullah killed inside Lebanon?
* How many Lebanese, captured by Israel inside Lebanon, is Israel
holding?
4. Hizbullah has weapons that go beyond the traditional guerrilla
arsenal, obviously supplied to it by Syria or Iran or both. At the
same time, the Lebanese state has no air defences to speak of, and
its armed forces play no role in defending the people of Lebanon.
We ask:
* Why shouldn't a guerrilla organization, operating in southern
Lebanon, have weapons, including longer-range rockets? Is Lebanon
not threatened by its southern "neighbour"?
* Aren't the Israeli forces fully armed, in fact, better armed?
5. The idea that, alongside Israel there should be a "demilitarized
Palestinian state" (Geneva Agreement) or a Lebanon armed only
with rifles, is an idea that goes hand-in-hand with domination and
subjugation. In any war, each side seeks to disarm, dominate and
subjugate the other, and each side seeks the weapons that are appropriate
for that purpose.
We ask:
* So, what is Israel's complaint?
* Which states are the suppliers of Israel's arsenal? Who supplies
what?
Israeli Chief of Staff Dan Halutz said that Israel is "changing
the rules of the game" in Lebanon, and warned that "nothing
is safe in Lebanon, as simple as that". But, everyone knows
that what goes around comes around. That is why people are fleeing
Haifa southward or taking cover in fortified rooms. The lives of
Israeli non-combatant civilians are of no concern to Halutz. Nor
are the lives of Israeli soldiers captured in battle. All are victims
of Israeli militarism.
The familiar dance of death, orchestrated by the Israeli militarists
and ethnic cleansers, will continue, with ebbs and flows, with ceasefires
and "peace processes" and open conflagrations, with unimaginable
misery, death and destruction, UNTIL the people of Palestine, Arabs
and Jews, rise up to "change the rules of the game", to
overthrow the Zionist pyromaniacs and poisoners of wells, and to
rebuild the country on a new basis, on a basis that respects democracy
and human rights and good-neighbourly relations.
All anti-war efforts in Israel, and all solidarity efforts abroad,
should be directed to this goal.
Henry Lowi is a Jewish peace activist living in Toronto, Canada.
See also:
What
is Anti-Semitism?
Telling
it Like It Isn't, by Robert Fisk
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