Despite where you stand on the conflict that is unfolding within the Middle East, one thing is universal. The militias of Hamas and Hezbollah must be disbanded and disarmed for the Peace process to ever have a chance of success. No ifs, no buts, no blaming Israel, the US or the international community. The biggest impediment to peace is two non state forces that operate outside the control of their respective governments.
Let's examine the situation by using an example we can all understand....
Australia and New Zealand have been involved in on-going conflicts for the past 50 so years. During this time New Zealand invaded Australia - in response to the Australian Defence Force's inability to defeat N.Z. , the Labor Party raised a militia to fight our invaders. New Zealand withdrew, and we signed a cease fire and peace agreement. The Labor militia, seeing that its powerbase and popularity would wane in times of peace, sought to win popularity by attacking the still hated New Zealanders with frequent rocket barrages and taking their soldiers hostage....
Do you really think New Zealand would stand for this action and maintain its ceasefire and peace agreement? Is this reasonable - do we not hold Australia accountable for a militia operating within its borders and part of its government?
What needs to be done is this - Hamas and Hezbollah need to disband and disarm their militias - Hezbollah is already required to do this by a UN Security Council agreement. Once their militias are disarmed and vigilante activity stopped, the UN and International Community needs to guarantee their security from Israel. The Palestinian and Lebanese Defence Forces need to be enhanced and become to sole actors in Defence in their respective nations.
Only when this is achieved can the peace process get back on track. How can we expect a cease fire to occur when you have non-state militias running around with their own agenda and no accountability to their government? Once the militias are no more, state can negotiate with state - as it should be!
Hamas and Hezbollah are terrorist organisations at the moment - as long as they maintain vigilante militias, they always will be. Both have a responsibility as a political force to ensure they protect and build upon their nations sovereignty, not tear it down.
It should never have been Israel's responsibility to disarm Hamas and Hezbollah - their respective Governments have that responsibility, and if that fails, international groups such as the Arab League and United Nations must step in.
Israel is not obeying the Law of Armed Conflict principle of proportionality in this conflict - something that needs to be addressed. But disarming the militias is far more critical - after all, disproportionate conflict only occurs after vigilante militias force the Israeli government to retalliate.
6 comments:
Prime Minister Howard on 2 ME 20 Jul 2006
"Oh I think Hezbollah has exerted far too much influence in Lebanon. They are his words, let me give you my words. My words are that Hezbollah is the cause of this latest outbreak of violence. Hezbollah is an enemy of the Lebanese people"
Well said!
Very well said. I think people like Antony Loewenstein are going to lash out at you, but yours is the voice of reason, not his.
Thanks Lisa. When you remove the emotion from the debate, it becomes very clear the militias are a key problem with moving forwards. Israel, Palestine and Lebanon all have faults, but nothing can be achieve while vigilante forces are active against Israel.
Israel should withdraw from the Middle East and resettle in Lousiana, where the neighbors are more friendly. Obviously their presence in the Middle East has been reviled by the Arab nations for fifty years and this situation will not change until they leave. They disregarded the results of a free and fair democratic election in Palestine and are about to destroy the democraticly elected government of Lebanon by mercilessly and indiscriminately bombinig Allied civilians.Obviously, bringing democracy to the Middle East has never been on the U S agenda. The Iraqis are beginning to lament the fall of Hussien because even at his worst,he still provided Iraqis with the essentials of life. After four years of aerial bombings, torture, murder and now rape from their U S 'saviours', its no wonder they spurn 'democracy', whatever the definition of that is. I note that the U S government is preparing to destabilise the democratically elected government of Venezuala because the people there turned their backs on the right wing murderous regime which the U S government fostered. Who is going to drive the final nail into 'Democracys' coffin ?
I like your analysis. I worry that media will sieze on your last paragraph and ignore the argument supporting it .. but I agree with the argument.
I'm also comfortable that the liberal democracy of Israel is breaking international law in this instance. I don't think circumstances allowed this in the past, but it needs to be done (defanging Hezbollah and Hamas). I'm glad it isn't the US doing it, and disappointed that Lebanon and Palestine didn't do it.
two sides to every story
according to israel, two israeli soldiers were kidnapped
according to lebanon, two israeli solders were ARRESTED while trespassing
listen to israel and hezbollah is the enemy
listen to lebanon and israel is the enemy
israel gets away with SO much just because people/countries are scared of critizising them. critizise them and you're a nazi/anti-semite, and who in their right mind would want to be classified as a nazi?
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/Gilad_Shalit.html
lots of stories all over the net questioning what israel is doing (in both lebanon and gaza)
Post a Comment