Hezbollah

Richard Silverstein is a progressive Jewish blogger who shares my view that American progressives, Jewish or not, should take an active independent role in sorting out the mess others have made of the Middle East.

Oh Condi and George...is it time for a ceasefire yet? Remember Lebanon where the same duo refused a ceasefire in order to allow Israel to "soften up" Hezbollah? Or should Israel continue killing scores or even hundreds more such civilians before you'll get off your goddamn butts and do what you should do to knock heads and make things happen here. Oh the shame of it. Bush fiddles while Gaza burns. George, if you want to redeem your God forsaken presidency after today's ignominious election defeat, you'll gird yourself and do the right thing. Help bring peace between these two self-destructive peoples. Create a legacy.

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Oct.  read more »

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Oct.  read more »

TEL AVIV—In the upcoming weeks, myriad Israeli committees and panels will begin deconstructing  read more »

TEL AVIV—In the upcoming weeks, myriad Israeli committees and panels will begin deconstructing the  read more »

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Aug.  read more »

JERUSALEM, Israel, DATETK?--Fresh from the battlefield in southern Lebanon, disgruntled soldiers fro  read more »

HAIFA—Cpl. Michael Mizrahi’s Merkava tank crew had given up.  read more »

HAIFA—Cpl. Michael Mizrahi’s Merkava tank crew had given up.  read more »

On Sept.  read more »

TEL AVIV—For 16 years, he was Israel’s best friend in Lebanon, a general who commanded a  read more »

TEL AVIV—For 16 years, he was Israel’s best friend in Lebanon, a general who commanded a militia  read more »

JERUSALEM, Israel, Aug.  read more »

JERUSALEM, Israel, Aug.  read more »

TEL AVIV—Where is Hassan Nasrallah?    read more »

TEL AVIV—Where is Hassan Nasrallah?  read more »

As I sit down to write this diary, it’s been 103 degrees in Los Angeles for six days running.&  read more »

As I sit down to write this diary, it’s been 103 degrees in Los Angeles for six days running.  read more »

The government of Israel appears to suffer from the same mental and moral dysfunctions that afflict  read more »

AMMAN, Jordan, Aug.  read more »

With Condoleezza Rice pressing for a cease-fire and a particularly high weekly toll in civilian casualties, we asked Congressman Eliot Engel -- one of the more vocal politicians urging strong support for Israel's actions on "the frontline of terror" -- whether his attitude had evolved at all since the beginning of hostilities.

Here was Engel's emailed reponse to our question:

"I believe there should be a cease-fire but only after it can be guaranteed that Hezbollah will not be able to threaten Israel from South Lebanon. The international forces should be deployed to keep Hezbollah out of Southern Lebanon."

Sounds like a yes, sort of.

--Jason Horowitz

does this constitue an adjustment?

Engel quote: I believe there should be a cease fire but only after it can be guaranteed that Hezbollah will not be able to threaten Israel from South Lebanon. The international forces should be deployed to keep Hezbollah out of Southern Lebanon.

Lebanon’s representative to the United Nations has to find humor where he can these days&mdash  read more »

Bob Herbert had a breathtaking column in the Times today, condemning Israel for going overboard in its (just) retaliation for the Hezbollah strike, and faulting the U.S. for allowing it. "Neither Israel nor the United States can kill enough Muslims to win the struggle against terror," he writes, and says the United States should have been a friend to Israel and told it "the carnage has to cease."

The piece echoes other critiques of Israel-U.S. relations in the last few months: the Walt-Mearsheimer bombshell on the Israel lobby, and Tony Judt's attack in Haaretz on "The Country That Wouldn't Grow Up."

Like many adolescents Israel is convinced - and makes a point of aggressively and repeatedly asserting - that it can do as it wishes, that its actions carry no consequences and that it is immortal.

The shock is that Bob Herbert is now saying something along these lines on the Times Op-Ed page, a place given to Tom Friedman's explanations of all Israel's choices and David Brooks's construction of camouflaged bunkers for fleeing neoconservatives. I admire Herbert's courage and hope he stays on message. Many Americans are confused and disturbed right now, and share his instincts. Herbert has done what a columnist should do, and told them how to think.

TEL AVIV, Israel, July 18—The café shift manager snickered at the suggestion that his business ha  read more »

TEL AVIV, Israel, July 18—The café shift manager snickered at the suggestion that his b  read more »

The war in Lebanon and Israel doesn’t have much to do with Lebanon, and scarcely more to do with I  read more »

The war in Lebanon and Israel doesn’t have much to do with Lebanon, and scarcely more to do wi  read more »

Syria Comment has as usual a clear eye on matters Middle East. Joshua Landis says the Israeli attacks on Lebanon are an effort to

cut Lebanon off from Syria so that Hizbullah will be isolated and unable to resupply itself. This Israel may be able to do. The majority of its targets so far have been aimed at cutting off Lebanon's communications with the outside world.

But Israel will take its cue from the U.S.; there won't be attacks on Syria.

The US is trying to get itself out of the Middle East quagmire, not into it. The US was led down the garden path by Rumsfeld and Cheney once, it will not allow itself to be so easily led by the nose again. This time there is no believing that western bombs will be met by Arabs with flowers or eager democrats. I don't buy the Defense Department's bluster.

In the end it is most likely that Israel will seek a cease fire, and there will be negotiations between the west and the real power, Syria.

Bashar [al-Assad, Syrian President] will have sent his message loud and clear: I am here. I demand respect. Cut out all the silliness about isolation and the blind eye doctor. Syria is an important player. Anyone who wants to do business in the region will have to address me politely and be ready to trade in kind. Syria is not a charitable organization.

The apparently accidental killing by Israeli artillery of a Palestinian family on a Gaza beach yesterday has proved calamitous, resulting in the end of Hamas's truce with Israel.

The incident in some ways parallels another border event of ten years ago that is now in the American courts, in which a humans-right group has sued a fellow at a leading rightwing Washington thinktank, over the deaths of 100 civilian neighbors of Israel ten years ago.  read more »