Lebanese death toll hits 1000

Today, I read in the papers that the Lebanese death toll has hit 1000, including some people missing but presumed dead. I do not know the Israeli death toll, but it is much lower. All human beings and all countries have the right to defend themselves if attacked, but Israel has been attacked, and yet has killed many more people than Hizbollah ... something is wrong.

Sabeel, an ecumenical liberation theology center in Palestine, analyzes the root causes of the conflict in Lebanon (http://www.sabeel.org/etemplate.php?id=35).

1. In 1948 over 300,000 Palestinian refugees were forcibly displaced by the Zionists from the north of Palestine into Lebanon and Syria where they have been living in refugee camps ever since. Most of them were driven out of an area that was slated for the Palestinian state according to the 1947 UN Partition Plan. Israel refused to implement UN Resolution 194 calling for their return. The Palestinians engaged in guerilla warfare against Israel insisting on their right of return to their homes and villages.
2. In 1978, Israel invaded Lebanon to destroy the Palestinian Liberation Organization resistance, killing almost 20,000 people, including the Sabra and Shatilla massacre, and destroying much of the country. Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon lasted 22 years in defiance of UN Resolution 425 calling for its withdrawal.
3. In 1984, Hizballah, a Lebanese Shiite organization emerged as a resistance movement to Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon. Hizballah proved more formidable than the Palestinians and managed to drive the Israeli army out of Lebanon in the year 2000.
4. In the 1990s, Israeli forces kidnapped Hizballah leaders including prominent religious figures and carried out exchanges of prisoners with the exception of three, in violation of mutual agreements.
5. It is important to point out that in the Middle East, it is the US and Israel that are occupying other people’s land, and paradoxically, it is they who brand the people they oppress and who resist their occupation as terrorists.

Sabeel outlines what, in their opinion, needs to be done to stop the conflict:

1. Immediate and unconditional ceasefire by all parties.
2. Implementation of all UN resolutions: The Middle East region has endured so much suffering and pain over the last sixty years. The time is now ripe for a comprehensive and lasting peace that will restore hope, and lead to a new Middle East established on justice and dignity for all its peoples. This can only be achieved by implementing ALL UN resolutions pertaining to the conflict without exception. No agreement will hold without first solving the Palestine-Israel conflict conclusively. This opportunity must not be lost.
3. Implementation of UN resolution 1559: Israel insists on the implementation of 1559 while ignoring its own obligations to dozens of UN resolutions since its establishment in 1948. It is hypocritical of Israel to insist on one resolution and totally disregarding others. If the implementation of 1559 in Lebanon helps to bring security to Israel, we believe that the implementation of UN resolutions 242 and 338 as well as others pertinent to the Palestine-Israel conflict will bring peace and security to Palestine, Israel, and the whole region. These include the return of the Golan Heights to Syria, the withdrawal from the Shebba farms, and the withdrawal from all the Occupied Palestinian Territories including East Jerusalem.
4. Exchange of Prisoners: One of the major root causes for the present war is the question of prisoners – Lebanese, Jordanian, Palestinian, and others – whom Israel refuses to free. The international community must find a solution to this humanitarian problem. Without the release of prisoners the conflict will be renewed. The release of the prisoners must be an integral part of the solution.


Finally, I would like to point out something disturbing about the US government's attitude towards the conflict. Condoleeza Rice initially refused to demand a ceasefire, stating that a solution had to address wider issues. She is right, a final solution to the conflict needs to address all the issues involved, but to get there, we first need a ceasefire. By this insistence, she shows that the US is less concerned about human lives than about achieving its ends, and arguably those of Israel. If those ends were good ends, that might be one thing. But those ends include imposing democracy on the Middle East, planting it with the point of a bayonet if necessary. Genuine democracies cannot be planted at gunpoint. Also, the US' uncompromising support for Israel is insane. A Muslim author I read points out that one can find more criticism of Israel's occupation in Israel itself than in the US.