Date: Wed, 1 May 1996
From: •••@••.••• (CAROLYN BALLARD)
Subject: Israel/Lebanon
From: SMTP%"•••@••.•••" 1-MAY-1996
To: •••@••.•••
Subj: ISRAELIS ENGINEERED LEBANESE CRISIS - MER Quote of the Week
M I D - E A S T R E A L I T I E S - QUOTE OF THE WEEK
[To receive MER regularly please send a message to
•••@••.••• with the words "Send MER"]
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I S R A E L E N G I N E E R E D L E B A N O N C R I S I S
The American media is so inadequate in covering Middle
Eastern matters -- both by omission and design -- that one has to
turn to foreign reporting not only for reasonable perspective but
even for basic facts. Just compare the INDEPENDENT
TELEVISION NEWS (ITN) for instance with American TV
news. And even when PBS's NEWS HOUR -- more
appropriately it should be nick-named "State Department TV"
uses ITN reports they are never the bold, insightful, graphic
reports but rather they are sanitized for American viewers in
the PBS editing room.
Take for instance the recent fighting in Lebanon. If you believe
American reports Israel attacked (however disproportionately
and massively) because Hizballah had broken the agreements of
1993 and sent a few unaimable rockets into northern Israel.
(Even at the end of this round of fighting, however, not even
one Israeli was killed).
In short, this version of history is simply not true.
The reality, as clearly outlined in a cover article in London's
THE NEW STATESMAN, is that it was Israel that violated the
1993 "understandings" while the Hizballah actually lived up to
them. The "problem" for Peres was that with elections ahead
and in the wake of Hamas terror bombings he felt he had to
show his macho, that the Israeli army was chaffing because of
the "success of Hizbollah's attacks on Israeli military targets
inside occupied south Lebanon" (7 dead and 30 wounded since 1
January), and that the Israelis and the Americans were pissed
that Assad had cut off negotiations (just when Peres needed
them) and refused to attend the Israeli-American "anti-terror"
conference in Sharm-el-Sheik or to condemn Hamas.
Consider the following quotes from THE NEWS STATESMAN cover
article by Graham Usher:
"HIZBOLLAH IS BEING CONSISTENT WITH THE 'RULES' THAT GOVERN THE
WAR IN SOUTH LEBANON...BROKERED BY THE U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE,
WARREN CHRISTOPHER, AFTER OPERATION ACCOUNTABILITY IN 1993..."
and
ISRAEL "ENGINEERED CRISIS TO PUT THE SQUEEZE ON LEBANON AND,
THROUGH IT, SYRIA."
and
"IGNORING THE 1993 RULES WHICH HE DEVISED, CHRISTOPHER LAST
WEEK PUT THE BLAME FOR WHAT HE CALLED 'THE CURRENT ESCALATION'
IN LEBANON SQUARELY ON HIZBOLLAH."
and
ISRAEL "USES AIR RAIDS, FORCED EVACUATION AND CIVIC DESTRUCTION
TO REALIZE ITS OBJECTIVES."
As Usher clearly and persuasively points out it was actually the Israelis who
violated the "rules" of 1993 killing Lebanese civilians on both 30 March
and 8 April and provoking Hizballah's responsive Katusha attacks that then
gave Peres and the Israeli military the excuse they clearly wanted to
massively assault Lebanon.
Israel, of course, has a long and jaded history of manipulating events,
killing civilians, and finding excuses of one kind or another -- the war in
1992 that killed nearly 20,000 Lebanon civilians was in fact started
because the Israelis claimed the PLO had attacked an Israeli diplomat in
London. As it turned out, so said even Maggie Thatcher shortly thereafter,
it was an anti-Arafat anti-PLO group of Palestinians that actually attacked
the Israeli diplomat and the Israelis knew this very well.
Indeed, history is full of similar examples of Israeli duplicity and to use
the bold headline from THE NEW STATESMEN cover, "Israeli Terror".
[Quotes and context from THE NEW STATESMAN, 4/19/96,
cover article by Graham Usher, written and sent to press
before the terrible Israeli attack on Kana.]
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MID-EAST REALITIES
News, Information, & Analysis that
Governments, Interest Groups, and
the Corporate Media Do Not Want
You To Know!
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Posted by Richard K. Moore - •••@••.••• - Wexford, Ireland
Cyberlib: www | ftp --> ftp://ftp.iol.ie/users/rkmoore/cyberlib
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